Went to Surgical Class Today

Going through the process of surgery with hubby is a pretty neat thing. Now that I have 5 years of life post op behind me, revisiting the process is a pretty neat thing. I attended class with him today, learned some new things, remembered some old things that I forgot (hey it's been a while!) and found out some interesting statistics. I wrote a few notes and so I'm going to share them here with you today.

I always knew about the fluid that they pumped into you before surgery. I gained 11 lbs in the hospital because of it....but I never really thought of "why" they do it. They basically pump you full of extra liquids because they want to make sure that you don't get dehydrated your first few days. It is a preventative measure.

I never experienced it but many people do complain about numbness at one of their surgical sites. (incisions). The numbness can last 6 months to a year. If it lasts more than a year, you'll experience that numbness forever.

As you are recuperating in hospital, check both your temperature and blood pressure if you can if you are experiencing problems to see if there are any signs that your body is experiencing a complication.

One of the biggest causes of weight loss failures are those that drink way too many high sugar and high fat drinks. So put the Tim Hortons Ice Capps and Starbucks drink away. You still should be primarily drink water.

At the 9 month mark is where they offer a class with the social worker because they find that at the 9 month mark is where people start to have "trouble" with their eating and drinking choices again (making bad choices).

If your Optifast is too thick, add ice or water. Freeze to make slushies.

Guelph patients tend to have a quicker recovery turnaround. They "bounce back" after surgery than patients from other surgicial centres. Thought to be attributed to the longer time on full fluids than other surgical centres.

Guelph wants you to take a prenatal vitamin, calcium with vitamin D. They don't want you to worry about your vitamins though for the first few weeks as it's just one thing to have more trouble with. They want you to focus first on fluids and food first so that you can recover and then you can worry about vitamins at the 3 week out mark.

Guelph does not have you do protein shakes.

I really enjoyed the whole talk. One thing that I really really liked was how Kristine the dietician used lots of real life examples of bad choices people make and things that people do erroneously. I liked how she emphasized that it is going to be a life long struggle. The last part of their slide show mentioned that the most important thing is to "keep up the battle" for the rest of your life.

Amen to that.

Dawn