0!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IT'S TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's FINALLY my turn! OMG I'm sooooo excited! I'm going to keep this super short and sweet. I'm all hyped up on adrenaline right now. I just wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone who reads, who comments, and who supports and encourages me! You are all truly amazing and you keep me going when the going gets tough. So make some room on the losers bench...SEE YA ON THE OTHER SIDE!! :D

> 10 hours!

I'm killing time waiting for my tummy to be done for the night- geesh I swear it is never ending!

One of my blog-buddies is having a protein powder giveaway so I wanted to invite you all, even my band-buddies to check her blog out and enter for your chance to win! Even though my doing this is decreasing my chances of winning, lol! See what I do for you all??? jk!

The Vanishing Mom is an awesome blog to follow even if you don't want the protein powder :) She's very knowledgeable and always finds really fun blogs from other people. Sometimes I just don't know how to find cool blogs but she takes the work out of it for me. So this is me paying it forward ;)

Well most of my check list is done. I should go to bed soon, I have to be up at 4am, that's in 6 1/2 hours. But I'm normally not even IN bed until 4am. And now I have those excitement jitters that you get Christmas Eve night where you know you need to go to sleep because the morning will be so wonderful and exciting, but you just can't! That's what I feel like right now. My day has been pretty tiring though- I jumped every time the phone rang, just in case it was a cancellation. I've been in the bathroom non-stop and gone through almost an entire roll of Charmin by myself. I'm still queasy from the pills and lack of food, but otherwise I'm fairly calm. It took FOREVER for this day to get here, and now that it's here, it feels like this has all just flown by. I HATE THAT! LOL! So while I'm killing time I'm putting some movies on my iPod, doing laundry, and catching up on blogs and OH.

I'd appreciate if everyone could maybe say an extra prayer for me- or if you don't pray, GENTLY swing a critter or two for me ;) Night everyone!

...1...(part dos)

Welcome back! Today we're going to be cooking up a delicious soup for the "mushies" stage! This isn't technically clear so we'll need to wait until the "clear liquids" stage is over before enjoying :)


This is my own recipe, it is not inspired by, borrowed from, or copied off of ANYONE else. If you see it elsewhere, they borrowed it from me ;) Well, ok actually it's my mom's, but she's the same as me so for all intents and purposes, it's mine.


Today we'll be making Witch Soup (ok ok, it's Split Pea, but it sounds so much more fun calling it witch soup, right?!)







Stephanie's Witch Soup


Ingredients:


1 tsp. butter or olive oil


1/2 cup chopped onions* (be sure to check out my tip on chopping onions!)


1/2 cup chopped celery


1/2 cup chopped turnip OR potato (I use potato)


1 cup dried split peas


1 to 2 thick slices of ham, cubed (or if you are buying pre-cubed ham, about 1 cup or to taste)


4 cups chicken broth or stock


1/2 tsp marjoram


A dash of minced garlic or garlic powder (I use minced)


A dash of pepper

Directions:

Heat butter or oil in a large pot. Add onions*, celery, potato or turnip, and minced garlic (if you are using powdered, don't add yet) and saute until tender (about 8 -10 minutes).

When tender, add chicken stock/broth, peas, marjoram, powdered garlic (if you're not using minced), and pepper. Now, for the ham- if you are going to be using this soup as a mushy post-op diet soup, then add all your ham in the pot with everything else. If you are post-op or not on a mushy diet, then only add half of your ham to the pot, save the other half to add in after it's done so that you can have some chunks of ham in your soup.

Heat to boiling then turn down and let simmer until peas are tender, which for me is approximately 30 minutes.

CAREFULLY ladle soup into a blender and blend well. You won't want to put it all in the blender at once, just do a few scoops at a time, then dump into a reserved bowl.



Once all soup is blended either add your additional ham if you aren't making this for mushies, or if you don't want chunks of ham, then you're done! You can enjoy now or freeze, like I'm doing.

*HOW TO CHOP ONIONS

If you hate chopping onions and can't stand the tears, follow these simple tips that I use every time an onion is involved in any recipe I make:

*Freeze your onion for about 10 minutes before cutting- this greatly reduces the air born molecules that cling to your nose hairs that make you cry.

*Peel your onion and then chop off the top, not the root part where it's all connected.

*With a very sharp knife, make vertical cuts about every 1/3 or 1/2 inch on the sides of the onion, pushing the knife into the middle of the onion each time. Do this around the entire onion. (PS-this is also how you make the Awesome Blossom!)

*Then take your knife and cut horizontally across the entire base of the onion, at whatever height you want your onion pieces to be. If you want longer onion slices, keep your knife higher up. If you want tiny bits of onion, slice closer to the bottom of the onion.

And that's it! You have perfectly chopped onion pieces with very minimal handling so you shouldn't have any tears! But if you do, wash your hands in warm soapy water and then turn the water as cold as you can get it. Then cup your hands and let them fill with cold water. Bring your face down to your hands and put your nose as close to the cold water as you can without breathing in actual water. Take deep breaths in through your nose and out your mouth. The water molecules will clean your nose hairs of the onion molecules that are making you cry.

***disclaimer- I don't actually have any proof to back up these scientific terms or theories, but it's what works for me!***

I am freezing my soup in 1/2 cup pre-measured portions in zip lock freezer bags. This way I can keep my soup fresh for longer and only unfreeze small portions at a time. Just use a 1/2 cup measuring cup and scoop the soup into a plastic freezer bag.

The best way to freeze these is to lay the filled bags onto a cookie sheet. Put the cookie sheet in your freezer.



Once they are frozen, they will all be flat and you can stack them on top of each other or upright like books :) It saves a lot more space than freezing in Tupperware. then when you're ready to eat them, thaw in warm water and re-heat! I know that post-op I won't be eating a huge bowl of soup in one sitting, so this just reduces waste and keeps things fresh :)

...1...(part uno)

SO THIS IS IT!! The day before my surgery! :D I wanted to post this before anything happens to start my count down over again. But that WILL NOT HAPPEN! (hint hint Karma!)

Today is rough though, I'm not going to lie. I got a whole 4 hours of sleep. I had to wake up at 7am to start taking my bowel cleanse pills. After an hour of those (4 pills every 15 minutes) I tried to lay back down to get in some sleep before they took effect. But for some reason these pills are making me seriously nauseous this time around. Last time they didn't. I feel like I'm fighting to not throw them all up. The "cleanse" part isn't even that bad, honestly. My tummy isn't all crampy and in pain. I just know when I have to excuse myself to the loo and then it just takes care of itself. No effort on my part really. But this nausea...ugh! That is killing me. I'm trying to stay hydrated but I feel water logged, like the water itself is making me sea sick. And obviously I can't take any Pepto, that would be counter productive. Oh well. It's worth it to be ready for surgery tomorrow.

I saved up some stuff to do today so that I'm not sitting around here waiting all day for tomorrow to get here. So I'll be posting a 2nd post today with the results of one of those tasks.

In other news, I got my Click protein samples in the mail yesterday :) yay! I can't wait to try them in a couple weeks. It's too late now, I'm on clear liquids only for a while. I can't even eat my messed up ice cream from last night :/ Oh well.

Alrighty kiddos, I'm going to go eat some SF Popsicles and get going on my list :) See you in a few hours!

...2...

Wait...did I forget 3? NOPE!! It's 2 :) Lemme 'splain.

I had my appointment with Dr. Juarez today. I LOVE him. He is funny, he's super nice, he's extremely smart and more importantly, he treats me like I'm extremely smart. When he was discussing the actual procedure he didn't "dumb down" the medical terms. He talked to me like a colleague, not an ignorant patient who doesn't know what the hell she's doing. I very much appreciate when doctors do that. If I don't understand something, I'll ask, but otherwise just assume that I have done my research on this enough to know what a bouge is. Anyway, I'm VERY impressed. For anyone who says he is old and his hands are shaky...I call bullshit. He may be older, but that means more experienced. I watched his hands closely the entire visit and they were steadier than mine! Also, side note, my blood pressure was low today :/ that's strange seeing as how it's usually high and I am under a lot of stress right now. Oh well. Moving on.

Kristie, the surgeon's schedule coordinator, is just WONDERFUL! I mean...over the top, goes above and beyond, just really gets things done...WONDERFUL! In the face of chaos she totally stepped up, even took time out of her vacation she was supposed to be on, and really fixed the mess that Dr. Husted left behind. Everyone at the Bridges center has been wonderful. I don't think I've met one person there who didn't go a step above and beyond. Well...this isn't including the "nurse" who tried to teach the seminar in Reshma's place. Ugh. But everyone else, specifically Reshma and Kristie have left profound impressions on me.

Today Kristie came in and talked to me for a bit. She apologized for the mess we were in because of Dr. Husted, and then she confirmed everything for me schedule wise. Instead of sending me home with an "I'll call you" she called the operating room right that second to confirm. Also, it turns out that Dr. Juarez wasn't even scheduled to do surgeries this weekend, he was on call. But he agreed to schedule me since he knew what happened w/Dr. Husted. :) That made me feel all warm and fuzzy. So just as Kristie is wrapping up confirmations with me, Dr. Juarez comes in and says "I'm actually going to move you to a different date." And I PANIC- but only on the inside, this was a private panic. He immediately followed with "I'm going to have you scheduled for Thursday instead of Friday." PHEWW! YAY!!! ONE DAY EARLY! So poor Kristie, she had to re-schedule some other stuff to get me in on Thursday, but I am just so thankful that they did that for me. I feel important and not like just another fat person to get done with. I have felt that way with other places and other doctors before and it's not a good feeling.

So anyway...that means I am done with work for the next couple of weeks! Woo hoo! And I'm feeling REALLY good right now. Much better than I've felt in a while.

Now the FUN stuff I wanted to post yesterday but didn't. I've been on a liquid diet for a while now, lol, but I wanted to mix it up with some ice cream. I've been in such an ice cream mood for a while now, and it's HOT, 107 degrees HOT today! So why not?! It's liquid-y :)

I tried an EggFace ice cream FINALLY! :)

For my first attempt, I made Shelly's Caramel Swirl. Please click on the link for the recipe. I don't want to have anyone mistake this for MY recipe, because I didn't adjust or change anything. All the credit goes to Shelly on this one :)

I froze my ice cream maker bowl for 24 hours and it was COLD. It kind of over froze the ice cream I think :/ The ice cream on the bottom of the bowl was so hard I couldn't scoop it out at all. So perhaps I'll try the recommended 12 hours next time. But I did buy that milk frother that EggFace uses, and it does make a HUGE difference in texture and volume. Oh, speaking of volume--this makes like 1 or 2 servings max. For some reason I was expecting a lot more. I have no idea why, lol, but I was shocked to see maybe 2 scoops worth of ice cream in the mixer. Oh well, I guess that makes sense since this is a WLS recipe.

For the protein powder I used All Max/ IsoNatural from my many VitaLady samples....HOLD EVERYTHING!! OMG!!!! I just realized what a TARD I am. Great...after I just spouted off about how intelligent I am up above. You can't hide from the blonde forever. I was looking at the sample bag to tell you the flavor and guess what...I used UNFLAVORED protein powder on accident. It was white, I thought it was vanilla! XD wow Steph. OK well then this may not be the BEST sample for protein ice cream, but honestly it didn't taste horrible, the tiny lick I had off the spatula. Although now I'm excited to try it with an actual flavored protein powder :) But for now I'll wait for this batch to harden up in the freezer and then let you all know how the un-flavored caramel ice cream tastes :) It's been a LOOONNG day and clearly I need to go to bed! :) G'night all!

...4...

Well today was going to be a really fun post, but it turned out that things didn't quite go out the way I was hoping, so I'll try that again tomorrow :) Stay tuned!

Anyway, tomorrow is my consultation with the new surgeon, Dr. Juarez. I'm very excited to meet with him :) I have a list of questions that I want to ask him. Can anyone think of any more than what I have?

My question list is:
*What method do you use to decide common channel length?
*If it's a standard length, how long?
*What size will my stomach be?
*Do you insert j-tubes automatically?
*If you experience any issues, will you change to an open surgery or will you only do half of the surgery?

That's all I've got so far. I'll let you know how it goes. Plus, I'll feel more certain about my new surgery date once I've actually talked to the new surgeon. I also intend to get the office manager to give me a credit for my prescription that I'm going to have to RE-buy because they cancelled on me! It's only fair.

Oh, by the way, Osi is doing better today. Still not back to himself, but better than yesterday. We'll just take it day by day :)

Well that's all for today folks, I was all ramped up for a fun post but it got delayed so I don't really have a ton to talk about today! :) Enjoy your night!

Another ode to someone special~

I just wanted to add how THANKFUL I am for "this guy I live with." He puts up with SO much stress and just takes care of everything. By next week, after I've had my surgery, he will be taking care of my two cats, feeding them, cleaning their cat box, playing with them, making sure ONE of them (*cough* CLEO) doesn't keep peeing everywhere, and making sure the other one (*cough*CHICKEN) stays out of trouble. He will also be taking care of Osi, feeding him by hand daily, trying to see if he'll eat crickets, giving him 2 doses of meds (which requires holding him so that he can't squirm away and then trying to shove a syringe into his mouth that he has clamped shut rather well), and cleaning out his tank daily, giving him clean water and constantly watching the temperature of the tank for three weeks. On top of all of that, I won't be able to help him with it because I'll be all loopy and recovering from surgery for probably the first few days. Not only will I not be able to help, I'll be requiring care of my own. Besides going with me to pre-op appointments, driving me to the hospital the day of my surgery, staying with me all day and all night, then going home to take care of the pets, then coming back to the hospital when they release me, and making sure I have everything I need, he'll be helping me by getting me drinks, vitamins, mushies, running to the store, picking up prescriptions, keeping the house clean, keeping up on dishes, keeping up on laundry, making his own food, just generally being my man-servant. And to add to his long list of to-dos, he has to keep working his full time job through all of this. Geesh, I'm exhausted for him already.

But I am so thankful for him. I don't know what I would do without him! :) So I just wanted to throw this up here so that he knows that I'm not un-aware of all he does/is going to be doing for me. I just want him to know how wonderful and amazing and awesome he is for taking on all these responsibilities when he absolutely didn't have to. <3

...5... (an ode to Osi)

I'm a tad late on this post. But I had a really rough day :( Seems those are in high supply around here lately. This post is not at all about my surgery or food or anything WLS related. It is about my pet who is not doing good right now :( Don't worry if you skip this blog, tomorrow's will be back on topic.

This morning I woke up to by precious baby lizard, Osiris (we call him Osi- sounds like Ozzy), acting completely bonkers. He was walking around his tank like he was drunk, he couldn't walk straight, he kept bumping into things, he kept falling off his branch, he was tilting his head, etc. He had never acted that way before and it freaked me out. He kept falling over like his equilibrium was thrown off. It broke my heart to see him like that. But I didn't know what to do and it's Sunday so vets aren't open. I decided to just watch him for a bit because he was 100% fine yesterday and nothing changed that I knew of. But then he went from running around drunk to lethargic. Not just lethargic but like he was laying down to die. He hung his head, he didn't care where he was laying, just any random place would do, he wasn't alert when I picked him up...I was scared shitless. So we found an emergency exotic pet vet and dashed him over there. I was in tears all day. When my dad called and I explained what was happening he goes "Really Stephanie? You're spending money for a vet for a LIZARD? Is it even worth it? Just go buy a new one." :((!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah, I know that lizards aren't the most popular pet, I know some people find them gross or creepy or think of them as just a rodent, but I don't think that way. I love lizards, I've always been fascinated by them, and I LOVE Osi soooooo much!! He has the best personality!! Did you even know that lizards have personalities? Well they do, and my little man had the BEST! He's only 2 months old and he's a Bearded Dragon (they are the best for personalities). He hugs my fingers, he sleeps in my hand all curled up or sprawled out. He sticks his tongue out, he bobs his head to music, he stares down the cats like "come at me bro!", even though they are like 10 times his size, lol. He's all of 6 grams compared to a 12 lb cat, lol. He is so cute when he chases crickets, he eats them legs first so he makes them watch their death, he's a BAMF. He loves warm baths and falls asleep in my hands when he has them. He takes HUGE poops and then stands proudly next to them with his head held high until I clean them up. He scratches his head with his back legs, like a doggy :) *tear* I just love him so much, he's so cute and he is a constant source of entertainment for us. He is not boring nor does he just lay around all day. Well, until today that is :( he's sick and I don't know what it is. We took him to the vet and there are a number of things we are trying. Some aren't so serious and he should perk right back up if that's the problem...others are as serious as you can get. :( For now we're just following the vet's orders and making him as comfortable and nourished as possible. There's nothing more we can do but sit back and wait to see if the meds we're giving him will make any difference. :( I love my little guy so much and I'm just a mess over the thought of losing him. I've only had him a month but he's already part of our family and even the cats love him (well...they love looking at him, the extent of their love vs their apatite is questionable). So yes Dad, Osi is very much worth it, he is worth every penny and prayer.


Osi sleeping on my hand as I watch tv

Osi chilling in his spa (it's a rock dish with water, but we call it his spa and he looks sooooo cute lounging in it!-- the red is because this is at night when his red light is on to keep him warm)

Osi a few days ago, he was following me around the room from his tank, everywhere I'd go, he'd run to that side of the tank and watch me. :)

I will keep you updated on his condition.