9/6/09 And So It Begins

Sep 05, 2009

Okay, so I figured that it would be best to record all of my information for my benefit, and maybe the benefit of others.

In just nine more days, I will be having gastric bypass surgery. It has been a long road, though I have done everything I could to make it in the least amount of time.

After a preliminary information session that the doctor required you to go before you even set up an appointment with you, I set up my appointment.

4/14/09 – First appointment with Doctor. My mother joined me for this one. We sat in the waiting room for over forty five minutes, and a nurse brought me in and weighed me. 295 pounds. Ugh. So after the weighing, I was brought to a room, met the PA, then went to the next room and met with the doctor. He was very soft spoken and very courteous. It was a short meeting where he told me that after the surgery, I could hit 190 pounds with minimal effort, then hit the goal for my height (145lbs) with increased activities. He told me that I needed to lose at least 10 pounds in order for him to determine that I was serious about the surgery.

I was flabbergasted. I could lose 105 pounds? It would be amazing. In high school, I weighed 270 pounds. It was bad. I’ve always been the fat chick in any group. I’ve never been comfortable in my own body, and he explained that I would lose half of my weight with this surgery. I had to hold back the tears. After the first meeting, I left the office with a progress sheet that had to be completed before surgery would be scheduled.

I needed to complete the following tasks (It’s just easier to make a bulleted list and comment on each thing as I go, so the dates will not be in order):

1. Primary Care Physician’s Examination and Clearance – this had to be done within two weeks before surgery, so this was the last thing on my list. on 9/1/09, my PCP granted me a clearance for surgery. It was as if a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I remembered that he had mentioned in another meeting that he wasn’t an advocate of gastric bypass. He had apparently changed his mind and was proud that I had completed everything that I needed to do.
2. Pre-op Lab Work – done 5/26/09 and 8/29/09 (with an EKG) – Apparently I’m ridiculously anemic. I was put on a steady diet of Pruvate (Iron Pills) that would choke a horse, and Flintstone Vitamins. My ferritin level has drastically improved. YAY vitamins!
3. Psychology Evaluation – 5/9/09 – Met with a psychologist and had to go through an hour discussion with her and had to take a multiple choice test to determine whether or not I could handle the changes that would be happening with my body. She diagnosed me with depression (obviously… I’ve been fat and unhappy since I was eleven) and suggested I see a therapist. She and I now sit down for an hour every month to go through what’s bothering me. Believe it or not, it helps to have someone who is completely indifferent to the things going on in your life.
4. Ultrasound Gallbladder – 5/15/09 – The woman that did this apparently hated me, because I didn’t know that an ultrasound could be painful. The doctor wanted to make sure that I was free of gallstones, because if I was chock full of them, they’d remove it during the surgery.
5. Dietary Evaluation – 5/14/09 – Met with a dietician at the doctor’s office and brought a 2 week list of what I had eaten. Scary… I didn’t eat until 2pm every day and then I would just gorge until about 7 pm because I was so hungry. She put me on a meal plan and met up with me a month later. 6/12/09 – 285 pounds! I was cleared by the dietician.
6. Attend Two General Pre/Post-Op Support Groups – 4/27/09 and 6/22/09 (none in May because of Memorial Day) – I felt like such a jerk. I was initially afraid that I had gone to the wrong building, but my instincts were correct when I decided to follow the obese. It was a horrible thought, I admit, but it’s easy to find the fat one in a crowd. Hell, I’ve always been the fat one in the crowd. I didn’t know what to expect from these evenings. As people entered, I found myself wondering if people saw me as I saw these people. Everyone was drinking water and I was chugging a 32oz Snapple. Probably not the best idea. Everyone was chatting with each other and sharing their experiences with their insurance companies and losing the weight and effects of after surgery… It was hard to pay attention because everyone was friendly and chattered with the people sitting next to them.
7. Attend Dietary/Psychological Pre-Operative Information Session – 5/4/09 – Found out information about the meal plan that I would be experiencing for the first few weeks after surgery. Met the psychologist that I ended up having the Evaluation with five days later.
8. Confirm with insurer – They covered the surgery if all of the progress I was given to work on is completed.
9. Upper GI Series – 5/20/09 – blech. I ended up almost puking. I ended up drinking a bunch of barium and they had me drink alka seltzer ahead of time and told me I couldn’t burp. It was severely uncomfortable and I had trouble swallowing the stuff they gave me. Then they rolled me around like dough on a counter and took a bunch of pictures. One of them they told me that I needed to chug the drink or I’d have to try it again. Needless to say, I sucked that stuff down so I wouldn’t have to force myself to do that again. The Radiologist confirmed that the acid reflux that I suffer through has torn up my esophagus. With the surgery, I wouldn’t have acid reflux anymore, so my esophagus will repair itself. YAY for less pain!

I officially stopped drinking (I was a rare social drinker at most) on August 15th. I quit smoking. I had to also go to an orientation at the hospital and walked around the wing that I would be in for recovery.

I’m ready for a change. Ready, willing, and scared.

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