Starving for Surgery- Part 6 of My Weightloss Journey Through Bariatric Surgery

Part 1 - Introduction

Part 2 -The Road to Bariatric Surgery - Full of Potholes

Part 3 -Struggling Through the Pre-Surgery Medical Clearances

Part 4 - Failing the Psychological Exam

Part 5- Pre-Surgery Education Class - The Fattest One in the Room

So there I was almost to the finish line. I had passed all the medical tests. After a rough detour, I had passed the psychological test.

My final task was akin to the Twelve Labors of Hercules. All of them together.

I was required to lose 5% of my body weight by the day of the surgery. Besides mulling the absurd Catch-22 of this last test, as if I could have adhered to a diet strict enough to make me lose 5% of my body weight, I wouldn’t need the damn surgery in the first place, I thought it was a cruel joke. They’re going to weigh me as I’m being wheeled into surgery and if I haven’t lost the appropriate amount of weight, they’re going to throw me off the gurney and send me home?

I should mention, of course, that I had been trying to lose my 5% with minimal success since I signed on for the surgery five months before. Now it was crunch time. I not only had only one month to go before S-Day, the two weeks before surgery required a near-starvation diet that consisted of a decreasing amount of food until the day prior to and the day of surgery, which were clear liquids only.

As I approached this last month, for the first time since I had made my decision, I was questioning whether I was going to succeed. Not only did I dread suffering hunger pangs all the time, but there was another psychological issue hindering my way forward.

I liken it to mourning the death of a loved one. In this case, the loved one was fat, sweet, and calorie-laden foods. I had depended upon them my entire life for comfort, tranquility, joy, contentment, and yes, love. The brownie that I was holding in my hand would be the last one I would ever have in my entire life. It’s not as if I will go “off” the diet in a month or two or three and return to eating my brownies, pasta, ice cream, and cake. Those friends will be gone from my life forever. I could not imagine it. I mourned them. I feared the loss of my comfort foods even more than I dreaded the hunger pangs.

However, my surgeon warned us that our livers were fatty from a lifetime of overeating fatty foods. The two-week pre-surgery diet would drastically reduce the fat on our livers so he would be able to perform the surgery. He was adamant that he would be able to tell at one glance at our livers if we had adhered to the diet, and if the signs were negative, he would stop the surgery. Period. End of story.

I questioned him as to how more than six decades of fatty eating could be reversed in one’s liver from a mere two-week diet of clean eating, but he insisted it could. After everything I had been through to reach this point, I was not going to play chicken with him. I started the diet.

I embarked on this mission with a strategy. I thought if I woke up as late as possible and went to sleep as early as possible, my starvation time would be drastically reduced.

For the first week, I was on my own. We did not have a pre-set menu, but I knew that low-fat protein, naked cooked or raw vegetables ( no salt, butter, or sauces), and a little low-calorie fruit were all the foods I could eat if I had even a chance of losing any weight. No cheating. No sneaking in a few crackers. No carbohydrates, such as a donut or two. No ice cream.

During my “awake” time, I stuck to the diet like glue, but what somewhat saved my huge ass was non-portion control. There was no way I could limit myself to 3 oz. of protein at a meal. I ate enough so that although still always hungry, I managed to make it through. And what do you know? For the first time in forever, I started to lose weight!

The second week was a different story. For four days, I was limited to a high protein shake for breakfast, a high protein shake for lunch, and 3 oz. of lean protein and a cup of naked vegetables for supper. I was allowed a non-fat yogurt, a piece of string cheese, and a few cups of raw vegetables for snacks during the day. For the next two days after that, I was allowed only protein shakes. On the last day before surgery, I was allowed only clear liquids.

I had kept my plans a secret from EVERYONE, except my sister, who lived 1200 miles away, my son, who lived 3000 miles away, and one close friend, who lived in my neighborhood. She is a retired nurse. It takes a lot to ruffle her.

She absolutely panicked when she saw me four days before the surgery. I was pasty white, my face was broken out in a cold sweat, and I was shaking. She wanted to take me to the ER. I insisted that I was doing what I was instructed to do and any variation from it would jeopardize the surgery and the work I had put in to prepare for it. She relented, but she was worried sick about me. To be honest, so was I. At least I was losing weight, which reinforced what I had known all along. If this is what it took for my body to finally lose weight, then I knew with certainty that the surgery was the right decision.

My son arrived from California the day before the surgery. My body had apparently adjusted to its starvation mode, and I was steadier than when my friend saw me.

The next day, he drove me to the hospital.

Next - Bariatric Surgery Finally Arrives - Along with Major Complications

Part 1 - Introduction

Part 2 -The Road to Bariatric Surgery - Full of Potholes

Part 3 -Struggling Through the Pre-Surgery Medical Clearances

Part 4 - Failing the Psychological Exam

Part 5- Pre-Surgery Education Class - The Fattest One in the Room

Next: Surgery Complications