Valerie C.

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Okay, heres the rundown of what has happened in this year.
I told my doc last November that I was ready to begin the road to WLS surgery.  She said okay, then gave me a referral. 
*I called the surgeon and found out the my insurance (CIGNA HMO) requires two doctor monitored weight loss attempts with weigh-ins at least every month.
*I started with Weight Watchers that week.
* Two weeks later I stopped going to the meetings because I just couldn't afford to keep going and I already had the materials and thought I could do it at home.
*I tried to do it at home but wasn't being successful because I was tired of cooking two different meals for myself and my family.
*Decided that exercise would be the best way to go.  Started walking on the treadmill every night until that became a hassle because my baby was getting pissy in the weight room.
*Decided that exercise outside would be good.  That has continued to work out nicely although I still have not gotten the level or frequency of the exercise to where I would like for it to be.
*Decided to try South Beach.  That was a half-assed attempt on my part for sure.  I will be looking into it again though for information on the Glycemic index.
*Started taking Wellbutrin.  This seemed to help my appetite decrease.  That was lovely.
*Stopped taking Wellbutrin for like a week because I just never picked up the refill.
*Attended Dr. Snyders WLS seminar on the 23rd of September. AWESOME STUFF!!
*Made an appt for surgical consult, psych eval, and pulmonary eval on the 25th of September.
*Went for psych eval on Oct 3rd, Surgical Consult on Oct 6th, and Pulmonary Eval on Oct 9th.
*Stopped taking Wellbutrin because I forgot to pick up my prescription.
*Went to my first support group meeting on the 17th on a spur of the moment whim. AMAZING!  I recommend them to everyone.
*Went in for regular psych appt on the 19th and found out that my psych had not done my eval paperwork yet.  While there I got a new prescription for Wellbutrin and some Focalin for Adult ADHD (which explains why I didn't seem to remember to pick up my Wellbutrin the first time LOL).
* I am now in the process of calling over there everyday until it gets done.
*I will be attending the pre-op nutrition class on Oct 26th.

That is the journey thus far.  Let's hope that it stays nice and easy.

The other day, I took my daughter to the dentist and went to get up out of the chair and ended up taking the chair with me.  Yep, my ass got stuck in the chair in front of a packed waiting room of people.  How awesome is that?

So, I went into my psychiatrists office the other day and she informed me that she has yet to type up my psych eval paperwork to send over to the docs.  This is my first roadblock of the surgery journey.  She assured me that it would be done before the end of the week so I am hoping that our authorization expert has it in her hands as of today.
Time to make some phone calls I guess.

Also, I went to my first support group last Tuesday and I loved it.   The people in there were awesome.  I was one of two preops in the room so it was good to hear that I am not alone in my feelings and to hear candidly exactly what I am in for.  They also have a clothing exchange for post ops.  I thought that was totally awesome.

I go for my preop nutrition class this Thursday and I will be getting all of my information and patient manual for surgery.  I am having a harder time that I thought with the prep diet but I am taking it one day at a time.  I have vitually cut out soda and other sweet drinks and have been sticking to water or tea (although I do have backslides like yesterday.  I went soda crazy).  Now I just have to learn about this glycemic index thing and work on that.

My bff loaned me a book called "Weight Loss Surgery for Dummies" so I will be working on reading that this week to see if there is anything I missed.  I like the fact that there is a little cookbook in the back though because I adore cooking and recipes.  Plus it gives a little insight into what I can and will be eating.

Yesterday, I went to McD's with my littlest munchking.  I should have known that the day was going to be interesting when I started the trip by dumping my softdrink all down the left side of my body.

We walked into the play area where AJ proceeded to walk around and check things out.  I sat there, reading a magazine, glancing over every now and again just to make sure she was cool.  The next thing that I know, I see her climbing into the tunnel area of the play place.  I don't think much of it because the kid is a classic chicken when it comes to stuff like that so I figure that she will go up a couple of steps, realize what she's doing is crazy, then back out and find something else to do.  I turn back to reading my magazine without a thought when all of the sudden I hear an urgent MAMA!  MAMA!

I am like WTF?  Where is my kid?  Then I realize...she is as far as she can go into the bowels of the play place.  And, my fat ass has to rescue her.  So, I walk over, jam my nearly 6 foot frame into this tiny tiny hole where I proceed to have to army crawl up a long series of spiraling stairs.  Then, I have to crawl through this tiny tunnel, down another few sets of tunnels, where I finally retrieve my kid.  I had to squash myself into this little car structure at the top to turn around and let some kids past.  While I am sitting knee to chin in this tiny compartment with my kid clinging to my neck for dear life, I cannot help but understand the gravity of how freakin' hilarious this all is and start laughing like some maniacal villian on killing spree.  I get myself back together finally, and realize that it is go time.  Then, in a feat that makes any move in the Kama Sutra look lame, I manage to get out of the car and down the series of tunnels with my 16 month old in hand.

Road block!  The tiny tunnel is too skinny for the two of us to slide through together so I have to plop her on her butt and push her through the tunnel while trying to do this funky one legged no armed crawl through it myself.  I ended up jamming my bare foot onto a bolt and pushing for dear life through the tunnel. 

We get through and on the other side is the daunting gauntlet of the spiraling staircase.  At this point, I am so fucking hot that I feel like I am going to combust and I know that there is no way in hell that I have enough room to turn around to go down the stairs the right way.  I know that I will have to figure out how to get her down the stairs, while I  go down belly down face first on stairs in a spiral.  I set her on her butt and slide her down one stair at a time while holding the walls with my feet so that I don't slide down the stairs on top of her.  She is freaking out by this time but we finally make the bottom of the stairs.  I push her out while I let the rest of me unwind and flop out of the tiny hole of an entrance.

I hopped up and shouted I HAVE RESCUED THE CHILD!  And all of the other parents clapped and laughed.

That is when I realized that I will NEVER AGAIN go anywhere without Zen.  Either that or lose 100 lbs and cut off about a foot of height...

The shit we do for our kids.