I hate skipping showers. I know some people who can skip on occasion and it's nothing, but I'm not that guy. The night before surgery, I have to wash with something called Hibiclens which is an antimicrobial and antibacterial soap. I'm not allowed to use normal soap, so I'm hoping this isn't weird for me. Thankfully they gave us to packets so I can use it tomorrow morning too before heading to the hospital.

Sent from my iPad

Bottoms Up (Part 2)

It ended up being a whole lot more difficult than I expected to drink that stuff. It has a salty taste that is not masked in any way by the lemony flavor mentioned on the bottle. Several times in the process, I had to hold back the gag reflex so I didn't throw it all up. There was pretty much zero chance I was going to have to restart that.

I got a lot of advice from various people about this stage. I heard from so many people that it was terrible and you can't leave the house...things like that. The bowel prep is designed to clean out your intestines for surgery prep, and the same bottle can also be used for constipation. Needless to say, the stuff did exactly what it was supposed to, although it was actually not nearly as bad as people made it out to be. Perhaps I was an exception to the rule. The surgeon told me that I could have done this step on Saturday or on Sunday and I chose to start mine sooner so I could better enjoy my last day with my kids before surgery day. Along with the prep stage also comes Phase I of the diet. I'll post more on that tomorrow.

Bottoms Up (Part 1)

Last Supper

The last supper felt like an important event in my mind. I'm not sure if other people going through weight loss surgery feel the same way, but it seemed that the last "normal" meal I would eat should be something special. I'm having surgery November 1, so I figured I'd head over to Cheyenne on Halloween and eat at Texas Roadhouse because it is my favorite place to eat. Then when I went to my Lap Band class and was told that I'd need to do a bowel prep two days before surgery. This really changed things because it threw off how we'd planned out the weekend for the kids. There were so many Halloween events scheduled for Friday night, even though sunday is the actual holiday. Then on top of that, we found out some good friends Tony and Raul were going to perform at a coffee shop in Greeley.

We finally came up with a good plan and drove over to Cheyenne last night to Texas Roadhouse. Sandra's parents, my mom and Sandra's sister and her husband joined us for the last meal. I had planned on getting ribs, and to be totally honest, it wasn't the best meal I've ever had. The ribs were really dry so I didn't end up finishing them. What can you do though? Afterwards, the kids went to stay with Sandra's parents for the night and we drove to Greeley to see Tony and Raul. I am SO glad that we did. It was incredible to hear them again and hear some great music...and Raul does some pretty incredible stuff with a looping pedal now. It was totally worth it!

This morning, we drove back to Laramie to take
the kids to the downtown Trick or Treat stuff. The kids looked so cute in their costumes and got lots of candy that they don't really need. I'm sure Sandra will make sure they don't eat too much. :-) Then we decided to grab some dollar menu items from McDonald's and I saw they had the McRib back...so I decided to make that the last meal since I hadn't done the bowel prep yet. The picture above is me eating my last bite of solid food for the next 4-6 weeks. At least I got to finish out with a rib-like food. Here in a few minutes, I am going start the bowel prep, and will post about that tomorrow. I hope you are enjoying the awesome weather we're having at the end of October in Laramie. It's totally not normal.