This Lap band is no damn joke !!!! I have to laugh really hard at individuals that have the audacity to state that those of us that choose to use surgery as a tool to assist in our weight loss goals are taking the EASY way out. Pardon my french but nothing about this shit is easy !

I knew this to begin with long before I made my final decision to have surgery and when I hear folks say that it makes me angry. I am so tired of hearing folks tell people "don't have surgery just go to the gym" or "oh your not THAT BIG you can just diet" and other nonsense of that nature. If things were that easy for many of us to do don't you think we would have already exhausted that option? 

Why would anyone choose to go under the knife if it was as simple as dieting or taking pills or simple exercise realistically it is not that EASY ! It begins with the hard decision of realizing that you can no longer do this on your own and owning up to the fact that you have tried and tried with no or very little success and you need help. It then moves on to trying to find the right help for your individual situation then once you make the decision to have surgery it moves on to the dedication & commitment to the band or for those of you that decided to take the gastric route the dedication to supplements and such.  Those things for sure are not EASY this is lifelong dedication not 6 months on a diet or working with a personal trainer easy. I am busting my ass to get where I want to be so easy way out my foot !!!!

I went to get my second fill on the 13th of june I was a little disappointed because I had only lost 3 lbs in 3 1/2 weeks but the plus side is that I have lost a bunch of inches I have to start using this tape measure to keep tabs on that as well. 

My doctor heard a few of us talking in the waiting area as we were drinking our water and waiting to see if things were ok to go down and he came in and stated to this one lady get over it lol just accept the fact that you can not eat lettuce any more some can you obviously can't we all laughed we then shared that we were not as happy about the numbers but he reassured us and reminded us that this is not a race our weight loss will never be typical and that as long as it is a pound in the minus direction or some inches in the minus direction it is a loss and we should accept it as such.  

My surgeon only put back in .05 cc's but I can feel the difference I am still getting into the habit of chewing, chewing, chewing but as always I am easily reminded with that stuck feeling or having to go spit my food up before continuing my meal. Who knows when I will have this mastered but I am trying. Luckily I have not had any problems with foods that I can not eat besides steak which is hard to get down of course I refuse to try it again and thankfully I was never a steak person because I don't miss it. 

I am going to start working out more I have noticed my clothes not fitting the same and some loss on my huge arms are becoming noticeable so I have to tighten them up before I start to look like the flab monster lol my thighs are coming down and my stomach of course is going down as well so overall I still am so blessed to have been able to have surgery and I definitely don't regret a thing and I'm sure none of you regret it either.

Stay Blessed.

Alicia 

This has been one hell of a week ! See the drama unfold after the updates......

Let me start off by updating days 5 through 12. 

Day 5 - 3/16/07 I cheated in the evening. During the day I had nothing but liquids but for dinner I had 2 of the 4 chicken wings I ordered belly got full and I couldn't finish them.

Day 6 - 3/17/07  I did the liquids during the day but finished the other 2 chicken wings that evening

Day 7 - 3/18/07  which was Sunday I didn't eat anything all day until that evening when I had 3 pieces of corned beef & 2 spoons of mac & cheese {I know I was overdoing it} 

Day 8 - 3/19/07 Monday back on liquids & ate the same as Sunday for dinner.

Day 9 - 3/20/07 Tuesday I Had liquids all day and had some grilled chicken chunks for dinner.

Day 10 - 3/21/07 Wednesday I had liquids all day and had the rest of the chicken for dinner. I finally got my scale which calculates body fat, bone mass etc. I weighed myself and since March 8th the day I got my surgery date and was weighed in the office I have lost 16 lbs even though I was eating light meals in the evenings.TRULY AMAZING !

Day 11 - 3/22/07 Thursday I did liquids all day and night  and was told that I WAS APPROVED FOR SURGERY !!!! It's about damn time.

Day 12 3/23/07 Today I did liquids in the morning for lunch I had a burger without the bun and fries with some apple juice and no dinner.

Now for the drama. I got a call from my surgeons office on wednesday afternoon about 4:30pm I was told that I still needed to have my medical clearance form faxed over. So I'm thinking no problem my pcp knows the deal and is aware of my pending surgery so I called the office to speak with her and asked the nurse if it was possible if I could come in to see her that evening to fill out the paper I told her that I was aware that I didn't have an appointment and would gladly wait until she had seen the patients who had appointments.  

I was then told by the nurse that the doctor would not see me because there is a procedure and that it may take a few days so I explained to her that I had surgery scheduled for this coming monday and needed to have this paper signed in time for surgery. She Took my name, number and my surgery date and relayed the message to the Dr. she called me back and stated the Dr.told her that she would not see me that day or thursday and she does not work friday she also stated that I would have to make an appt to see her. I was then transferred to the front desk to make an appointment I explained to the desk that I needed an appointment ASAP because of pending surgery they in turn transferred me back to the nurse. 

At this point the nurse tries to conference call the front desk and then realizes she wrote that my surgery was in 5 days she then tells me that she does not think that I will be able to see the Dr. or get the form signed in time for surgery. I asked her to speak with the Dr. and ask her if she could call me when she was done with her patients although I didn't really expect a call back. I got on the train ride home praying all the way by the time I walked out of the station walked around the corner and was crossing the street to my house my phone rang.

The doctor stated she did not know what kind of form I was speaking of and I read to her what the heading on the form was after about 5 minutes she stated that I could come in and she would see what form I was referring to. So I head to the hospital and after waiting for her to finish seeing 2 patients and do some paperwork she sat with me and basically argued me down about signing the form she was stating that she did not want to fill out the form because she did not have the tests results I told her that was not an issue because I could fax her the results and by the time she came in the next day they would be in my file or or her desk she then took it to another level stating that the last visit I had with her was in the beginning of february and they would not accept results from then since they were not current 

I pleaded with her to just put whatever information she had in my file on the form and sign it we went back and forth for about 45 minutes finally she gets to the portion on the form which asks is this patient an optimal candidate for surgery this B%#@! scratches a line across the yes & no that wasn't so bad because of the way she did it anyone could easily interpret it for a yes so I didn't stress it too much. Then she made me want to strangle her because she then writes next to the question do not have sufficient information to review.  So I asked her why did she put that I asked her to instead add or put pending fax of positve test results she argued me on that as well so finally I left before I had to catch a case for slapping this chick.

I got home I wrote my coordinator at the surgeons office an email giving her a heads up and letting her know I would be faxing the form in the morning. When I got to work I faxed the form and she emailed me back to state she had received it she also called me once she read it and stated that it was unclear whether or not the doctor had cleared me for surgery and that if she submitted that form the surgeon & anesthesiologist would not accept it or move forward with the surgery so she stated that if the doctor would just reword her statement then it would be ok I gave her the number she said she would call my pcp and get back to me. 

Long story a little shorter both the coordinator and I spoke with the doctor and she did not budge instead she came up with other excuses as to why she would not sign the form she told me that she did not have a problem with writing a letter approving the surgery as long as it stated that shes is approving it pending the positive results from tests that were provided from other physicians I told her to do so then when she spoke to the coordinator she switched the story up and called me back to tell me that she would only write the letter if I would make an appointment to see her and she administer the tests. WHAT THE F@&! IS WRONG WITH THIS CHICK ???

Moving on.... she then proceeds to tell me that she is sorry but she will not send the letter if I can not do the tests with her and that I will just have to reschedule my surgery date. I explained to her it isn't just that simple I have been preparing mentally and physically for this surgery and she knew this 4/5 months ago I have taken time off from work spent money out of my pocket and most of all spent my time to take care of all of these things I have also prepared my job and scheduled time off for recovery etc so to me it isn't just as simple as changing a damn date. 

I then called the coordinator back she then explained to me that the doctor was not pleasant she didn' t really let her talk and did not want to cooperate I agreed and told her that is the same way that she was when I was is her office the previous night. She asked if I had another doctor that I could go to just to get evaluated and have the release form signed. I told her no because this insurance was new and I had not visited any other doctors. She told me that there were a few doctors that their office worked with that accepted my insurance and she would try to see if one of them could see me between friday and monday.

This morning I called her on my way to work to let her know that I was assuming that since she had not called me thursday before she left that she had not found a doctor for me to see. I received a call from her about half hour later and she said that she got a response from one doctor but they did not have any openings to see me by monday the second doctor that she really wanted me to see did not accept Blue Cross Blue Shield. So I then called my cousin that had the same insurance and a friend that also shares the same insurance and I got numbers for doctors they use. I called the first one which my cousin gave me and I spoke with the nurse explained why I needed a visit she said that was fine that the doctor would see me to sign the forms as long as I had all of my bloodwork done and faxed to them WOW I was getting excited then she asked me to hold and came back and asked if I could come in today at 1 I told her that I was at work but if need be I would speak with my manager and leave work early but I asked her what was the earliest they could see me if I could not make it at 1. 

The nurse told me that they have saturday hours but do not take walk ins that day she said the next time they could see me would be monday so I told her to book it just in case and I was still going to try to get there for 1 I then called my coordinator and I asked her if I was still scheduled for monday she told me had I called about 10-15 minutes ago I would have still had the date but they had to submit the surgeons schedule and had to fill my slot so I asked her what the next available date was she stated the following monday and I told her to book it and explained the situation with the new doctor that agreed to see me today and monday. I then asked her to fax over the test results and a medical clearance form to the doctor and gave her the number to call and confirm with and this is my F&#@!* up story. 

So folks as you see since Wednesday I have been going through it and had to cancel my surgery date for Monday March 26th my new surgery date is........ April 2nd 2007 

Stay Blessed