Ok so surgery was moved up a day to Feb, 4th. This totally screwed up our plans since my gf hadn't gotten off until Monday and  the car we were borrowing wouldn't be available yet but I HAD to do it or reschedule so I said I would be there. Well then Jan 31st I get a message from my aunt's hospice worker to call my dad. That was all she said which totally confused me but scared me too. So I called my dad and asked him why and he told me my aunt had passed away that mornign. My aunt was 55 and one of my closest aunts. She was my inspiration to go to college and get into social work.  I loved her so much and my family had decided they weren't going to tell me right away cause they didn't want me to postpone surgery. Well the hospice worker took care of that thankfully.

OK so my aunt really wanted me to have surgery so I know she wouldn't want me to cancel or postpone. So I keep my date and my family had a visitation in my aunts town of Columbia, MO on my surgery date and then wait till the next Friday for visitation and funeral in our hometown of Cape Girardeau, MO.
The next day I was out late getting stuff ready for everything and when I got home there was a message from one of the nurses saying that they didn't have my EEG and labs and that since surgery was on Monday that was a problem to call them asap. Ok so it's late Friday evening and they are closed till Monday morning at which time I will already be IN Chicago!!!!! I called the local hospital where I had the tests and thank God the night supervisor was willing to help. She went to records and found my results and faxed  them again so they would be there. God Bless her.

 We weren't sure where we would sleep if we got to hospital too early and were afraid that if we didn't leave early we might get into some weather or something and we didn't want to be late either so we reserved a motel about 30 minutes away from Chicago. So we leave on Sunday night. Got a little bit of a late start but we figure we will be at the motel by 8PM at the latest. Yeah right. We got into a HUGE snow storm. Lightening and wind and hail and snow. The roads got so bad sometimes you couldn't see anything. It was bad bad bad. We finally got to the motel about 10:30. Now I chose THIS hotel because it was close to Chicago & had a hot tub and pool. I figured being able to relax and prepare for the next day would be nice. Well they were closed when we finally got there. But the nice guy at the counter let us slip in so that was nice.
Next morning I get up at 7:30 to call and ask them if my surgery was AT noon or if I had to be there at noon and they were like OMG we have been trying to get ahold of you.  They now wanted to know if I could be there at 10. I said yeah I guess. That meant we had 30 mintues to get ready and get out of there due to the weather and Chicago rush hour traffic too.

So I get there at 10 and by 11 when we were still sitting there doing nothing I asked why they wanted me early??? Well I was told the doc was still working on her 1st patient and stuff. But I did get taken back about 10 minutes later. They weighed me, gave me my %^#$ IV and a heprin shot, which no one had told me I would have to have. I had to pee in a cup and all that jazz. Crystal came back to pre-op and got to stay with me while I waited. Then about 4 hours and 2 bags of fluids later I finally got taken back for surgery. I remember talking to the or people and when the anestesiologist told me she was going to add the "stuff" to my oxygen. I said OK and that was all I remember till I woke up in postop.

The first thing I said before I could even open my eyes was "did she do it"? The nurse said no honey she couldn't and I remember crying. No tears seemed to come out but I was crying. I tried to breathe and concentrate on trying to wake up and I asked for Crystal.

Apparently when the doctor went in with the lap all she could see was massive amounts of scar tissue from my 3 previous hernia repairs and my gall bladder surgery. She tried and tried and cut away some of the tissue but she couldn't ever even see my stomach. She said it was like a jungle of adhesions. While the OR staff took care of me she went out and told Crystal that she couldn't do it. She was so upset she was almost crying and Crystal was crying. They both knew how much this surgery meant to me. Crystal didn't even WANT me to have it but she did support me. 

So I was asking for Crystal and even though there isn't supposed to be anyone in post-op the doc called out to the front and told them to let Crystal come back. She had known that I would be needing to have her with me as I came out of it even more.

So I got into a room pretty quickly or so it seemed. Apparently my recollection of time is off since I was kinda out of it. But I was put into a private room and that was good so Crystal could be right there with me. Later they brought me some liquids, full liquid supper tray. I ate that and since I hadn't really had anything at this point in almost 2 days I was starving. I ate a small bag of cheetos too. I told the nurse Crystal ate them when she came in and was mad.  
I had lots of people in and out of the room checking this and that and then the next morning the doc was back at about 7AM. I talked to her about possibly taking out the scar tissue and she said that it would take between 15-20 hours to just do that alone and then she still wouldn't be able to do WLS cause there would be even more scar tissue from that surgery. She said there are no wls options at all for me ever. 

I told her I needed out of there asap before the new snow storm got there and before the one forcasted for Saint Louis hit too. She said she would put a rush on it.

So about 9 I got my cath out, and one of my iv's. I got dressed and ready to go and just a little later the other IV came out and by 10 I was out the door and getting started on the 6 hour trip home.

I got home late Tuesday night and Friday morning we drove the hour and a half south to my aunts services and spent the whole day there.

So I ended up with 3 large holes and 2 small ones and no sleeve.  My incisions are healing fine. I am sore still but not too bad. I still have magic marker and iodine on me but it is slowly fading. I am supposed to go back this Friday but I am going to email her and ask if I can NOT come and just check in with my local doc if I have any problems. I don't really want to spend the $100 and borrow a car to drive 6 hours just to have her look at my incisions. After the previous 4 surgeries I am really well versed in incisions and these are doing great.

So now I am a tad bit depressed. I have no clothes to speak of since I sold them all on Ebay to get gas money for the previous trips to Chicago and surgery etc. I have all this stuff here that my OH angels sent me to help me and I don't know how to use it now. I am hoping to figure out a way to make a diet plan using it all but I have no idea how at this point. 

My goal is to try to get my car fixed so I can try to find a job. It has to be a sitting position since my knees and feet won't allow me to stand. And I have to find clothes. And I have to figure out how to make the diet and exercise plan that has always failed me, work this time. So many of my hopes and plans revolved around finally being able to have surgery and now I just don't know what to do.

I don't know which way to turn at this point so I am just kinda making it a day at a time.Thank you so much to everyone for your well wishes and care.

I don't know how much I will be on here but If you ever want to find me I am on yahoo all the time. My id there is andara69

So I spent the night at my dad's on the 22nd and when I came home I had a letter waiting in the mailbox with my insurance approval!!

So I called faxed it to the doctor and then emailed the nurse today and she put me down for February 5th!!!

Today I saw the cardiologist and they scheduled my stress-test which is 01/21 and 01/22.......not only is it a 2-day freakin test but I have to have an IV both days. This does NOT make me happy. I called today and the nurse that will give me the IV is out till the 2nd but I am going to ask if she will leave the port in overnight so I only have to go through the needle once. If you know me you know I have a horrible fear of needles. But the sooner I get this done the sooner I get my clearance for surgery.

I go to Chicago to see the surgeon again 01/11 for my final pre-op appointment and to see the anestesiologist and nutritionist. I really hope that somehow the hospital here can squeeze me in sooner for the stress-test so maybe I can get my clearance BEFORE I go to Chicago but who knows.

I also have to have an EKG, chest x-ray and new labs but those are a walk-in thing here in my town at the hospital so I will get them one day soon when Crystal can go with me. (again cause of the needle-phobia).

So I have about 2 weeks before I am going to start a semi-liquid diet and then a week after that (2 before surgery) I will start my 2 weeks of full liquids. Oh boy January is gonna be a fun month. I hope the next month passes as quickly as all the people here say it will so I can get my surgery!!!

Thats it for now!

Aight here is my update and plan of action.

I have to see the cardiologist for clearance on 12/26/2007. That is the last thing I can do until my insurance approval comes in. They say it takes 2-4 weeks for that and it has been a little over a week now. So after the clearance and insurance comes in then I have to have a chest x-ray, EKG and my lab work plus I have to head back to Chicago to see the doc one last time before surgery.

So here is my plan. I am giving myself till the end of the year to get it all together. I am going to FIND my glucose meter and start using it, start taking my meds and I want to get as much organized in my life as possible. The divorce should be final today so THAT will be history and now I can totally focus on making me the best I can be.

January 1 I am going to start a liquid diet or at least as close as possible in hopes that I can get my 2 weeks liquid diet done and be ready for surgery by the middle of January. It IS required by my surgeon so that my liver will shrink which makes it easier for surgery. I am also going to be trying to find a way to get my exercise equipment from the ex's house and I am just going to put it in a storage shed and then go visit it everynight or every other or whatever. My own little mini-gym.

Ok well this might be boring but I know I want to keep a journal of everything I am going through to try to get gastric bypass surgery. I am going to journal and also try to keep pics so there is an album called WLS on my MySpace as well. I have looked at this option for a very long time now but I either didn't have insurance or once I did they wouldn't cover it. After seperating from James I got MO medicaid but it didn't really dawn on me to look into it. Then I moved to IL and a friend told me that medicaid paid for WLS and I got the gears rolling. I am still not getting my hopes totally up because I have been disappointed before but at least things ARE moving forward.

The week of 10/08 through 10/12 I started the process by coming to obesityhelp,  Dana told me about. I started looking for surgeons that would take IL medicaid. There are a very few and most of them are closer to Chicago. Barnes in STL does take it but the waiting list is until 07/2009!!!!!On 10/10/07 I found a doctor who not only takes medicaid but he also could get me in for my consult on 10/31/07. My first reaction was WOW that is quick.

So the week of 10/15 ugh 10/19/2007 I started calling my previous doctors and requesting my records be sent to my new primary care doc and also my surgeon's office. I called both of the doctors that have seen me pretty much the last 23 years, my surgeons office from my previous 3 hernia surgeries and also the chiropracter that I have seen in the past. So far I don't think ANY of them have gotten records to my surgeon but after tomorrow I will start making follow up phone calls to all of them.

Ok I knew I had to have a psych eval done and it is self pay. I was able to get into a local office for this pretty quickly. I had the eval done on 10/23/07 and my daddy loaned me the money for it. It was $300 and I only paid $200 as the psychologist is a friend of a friend and allowed me to make payments. Oh and I passed. : )

Then I knew I was going to have to have a sleep study so I called around to find out not only who would take my insurance but could get me in quickly. I found a place and not only did I have part I on 10/25/07 but I had part II on 10/30/07!! I had to have 2 studies cause they found out I do have sleep apnea. Peachy....

Now today I am calling places about my records and the records from my surgery will be faxed today, from my chiropractor today and the sleep lab is trying to get those in to him by tomorrow. My psych eval is there already.

So we leave at 5AM to go see Dr.. Gilman at 11:15 and then to my dietary consult at 1.