I have been approved for surgery and have my date set!  Excited and nervous at the same time.  My surgery date is December 22, which is a Tuesday.  Everything is set for work.  I work at an attorney's office as the accountant/office manager.  I'm taking two weeks off.  I'm hoping that's enough time but if it's not I get three more weeks off after the first of the year.  I'm working on getting all of my ducks in a row.  Buying my vitamins, unflavored whey powder, bought a Nutribullet RX (giant machine!) for my smoothies and soups.  It actually heats the soup up!  Technology is wonderful!  I can remember when the first bullet came out.  We bought one and had some really good fruit smoothies. I forgot to mention that they are taking my gall bladder out too because I have gallstones and I've watched "My 500 lb. Life" and have seen them have to go back in and take the gall bladder out and I don't want to have two surgeries.

I go December 1 to talk to my doctor's nurse so she can give me instructions on what to do before surgery.  I go December 7 for a class on eating after surgery.  Then the next day I start my liquid diet. I have to admit that I'm not looking forward to liquids for two weeks.  I know the protein shakes will keep me full but....boring!  I know it's for the best - to shrink my liver and I plan on sticking to it.  I don't want anything to go wrong with the surgery.  I have too much living to do.  My daughter plans on taking me to one of the festivals she goes to.  I'm so excited to have a second chance at life.  I will not squander it or take advantage of my second chance.  I will follow everything the doctor tells me to do.  I love water so getting my daily quantity of water in shouldn't be a problem.  My only vice that I'm still trying to break is my addiction to diet cherry coke.  I love it!  And after surgery I won't be drinking any at all so I'm trying to limit myself to one a day.  I know I can do it.

My other daughter will be home for the entire two weeks I'll be off so after Christmas I plan on going down to where she lives, about an hour and a half away, to spend some time with her so she can take care of me.  She'll be leaving for Florida until April so I have to get as much time in with her as possible.

I have a son also who has two children.  The relationship is strained right now and I don't get to see my grandbabies and have only seen them once in 6 months which has been a big source of stress for me because my grandson, who is 5, and I were so close.  I've been there for him since he was born and love them so much.  Miscommunication and misunderstandings have been the source of the problems.  Hopefully after surgery I'll get to see them more.  I want to do more with them now that I'll be able to.

I've been buying smaller clothes, mostly shirts.  Not too much smaller but I don't want my clothes hanging off of me before I get a chance to buy new ones.  Argh!!  I don't know how this is going to go and how quickly I'm going to lose the weight so it's hard to prepare.  I do own a sewing machine and can take a lot of my clothes in, especially the ones I really like.  I get blood work done on Monday.  I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and I plan to eat as much turkey as I can especially since I can't have Christmas dinner.  One dinner is good enough for me.  Hopefully I'm out of the hospital by Christmas day but if I'm not my family will bring Christmas to me.  I'd like to get a little Christmas tree for my hospital room just to keep me cheery if I'm still there on Christmas day.