hellokitty21

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Oh. My. Gosh!!!! I have had a crazy two days! Yesterday I had an appt with the PA at my surgeon's office, a two hr appoinment with the RD, lab work, an EKG, a chest xray, and a gallbladder sonogram. Today I met with my surgeon for my pre-op visit (where he goes over all of the possible complication, blah), I got my post-op prescriptions (inluding 6 months of actigall, six months of prevacid, and 20 days of lovenox injections) and I made my 1st post-op appointment. Tomorrow afternoon I have my pre-op physical with my PCP and in the morning, the dreaded upper gi endoscopy.

WHEW!!! Just looking at that makes me tired. The only questionable thing was that my bloodwork indicated the prescence of H. pylori antibodies. My surgeon told me that means I have H.pylori and I have to take a Prev-Pac for two weeks after my surgery. However, I have since learned that a positive blood test only indicates that you have had H.pylori (which is very common) at some point, not that you have an active infection. I guess they will biopsy my stomach lining tomorrow during the endoscopy to test for sure. Either way, I am glad that it won't prevent my surgery from happening on Tuesday and that it will be getting treated after surgery.

I can't believe my surgery is only a few days away. My surgeon's office and the hospital have been really awesome about working with my schedule to get things done.=)

I FINALLY got the news today that my surgery is approved! Yay!!! Due to my insurance taking so long however, I had to schedule my surgery for either July 12th or July 26th. Since the 26th is impossible for me to do, July 12th it is--my surgery is exactly a week away! AHHHH!!!!

However, since it IS only a week away, I have a million and one things to do between now and then. I have appointments all day tomorrow and all day Thursday. I also have to have my gallbladder ultrasound and Upper GI series done. So, all and all its going to be a crazy week but I am so happy that everything (hopefully!) will be falling into place for me to have sugery on the 12th. As nervous as I am, I know that this is what I'm supposed to do and what's best for me and for my family. So excited!

Well I made it through the long weekend without cheating on the Opti-fast diet=)  I actually already feel better and I seem to have more energy, and I'm not even that hungry. Those small changes I feel really help me to stay even more motivated to continue to stay the course on my diet. This is day 6 so I am already almost half-way through! I have already started trying to plan out what I will eat while I am on vacation after my surgery. I think my best bet will just be to write out a meal plan and then buy the things I need for it once I get up there. Also, the house we are staying in (we are renting a house) is on a large peice of property so I know that I will have plenty of room to do my walking and sipping. I am going to ask the hospital to give me some compression stockings to wear on the trip. I won't be driving so I think it should be fine.

It was a fun weekend. We played minigolf, went bowling, went and saw Cars 2, went to the park, had a hot dog roast, went and saw the fireworks and did sparklers at home.

I still have not heard from about my insurance approval. I am really hoping it will be today!!!

I talked to my surgeon's insurance coordinator a bit earlier and she said she had to re-fax my information to the insurance company but that the person that she faxed it to said she was going to take it to the medical director today. She said I could hear something today or Tuesday. I was really hoping to find out what was going on today, but I have a feeling it will be at least Tuesday before that happens. It's crazy because it never really crossed my mind that insurance might deny me, because I know I meet all the criteria and have fulfilled all of the pre-op quals. Now, I'm a bit worried there will be a problem.

Today is the second day of my liquid diet. So far I have had a bar and a sugar-free jello. I am going to have to suck it up and have a shake soon. The taste was a bit improved by freezing the shake to slushie like consistency. I was thinking about buying some sugar free syrups to add to the shakes, but I don't want to add the extra calories. My goal is to lost 20 lbs, which is the high side of what is expected you will lose in the two weeks. I went to the grocery store and stocked up on Skinny Water---they had a lot of different flavors in stock this time. I am also having some tummy problems today, but I am it's just from a change of diet and will clear up soon.

I started my two week Optifast diet today. So far I have had the chocolate peanut butter bar which was fine, the chicken soup which was fine (albeit lumpy no matter how much I stirred), and a strawberry shake which was YUCK! I have my next Strawberry shake in the freezer in hopes that will improve the taste. Really though, I'm not that concerned about the taste. I am more concerned about getting my 20-lb weight loss in before my surgery. I am a bit mad that my husband knew I was starting the liquid diet and went out and stocked up on junk food last night. He said he was going to start eating healthier, but so far not so good. I hope that going forward he will be a bit more supportive, but I'm not going to hold my breath!

Last night I had my sleep study. It was fine; I was a bit embarrassed when I got there because the tech was super cute, but he was also super nice and put me totally at ease. I also had a bit of a hard time sleeping with the plastic cannula in my nose, but nothing unbearable.

I still have not heard about my insurance approval. I am still hoping maybe I will hear later today or tomorrow. I am just SO, SO ready to get this over with and to move on with life.

My liquid diet kit is going to be picked up today. My surgeon's office requires two weeks of Opti-fast ( $300, yikes!) before surgery. I am not too concerned about sticking to the liquid diet. The general consensus from the posts I've read on the board is that the first few days of it are difficult but then it gets much easier after that. The only real concern I have is that artificial sweetners cause me to have headaches. 

My family wants to go on vacation on the 23rd of July, which will b a 10 hr car ride nine or ten days after surgery. I am not sure if this is a good idea or not, but I do really want to go and I know my kids would love to go too.

I still haven't heard from my insurance yet. I really, really hope it happens before Friday!

The "package" for my insurance (including 6-month supervised diet notes, nutritional assesment, and psych clearance) was submitted last Thursday so I hope that I will hear something before the 4th of July weekend. I have a huge time crunch with my childcare arrangements so my surgeon's office is letting me start my 2-week diet now to expedite the process. After I get my approval (fingers crossed), I still have several appointments to complete before surgery: Upper GI series, 2-hour nutritonal group meetiing, a gallbladder ultrasound,and pre-op appointment with my surgeon/lab work . Its going to be a busy two weeks trying to get all of my appointments scheduled!

It is amazing to me all of the hoops that must be jumped through to have this surgery. Usually, if a patient medically needs a surgery, your doctor schedules you and your insurance pays for it. It's ridiculous, and in my opinion a bit discriminatory that we have to go through so much just to have surgery!

I am getting somewhat excited, although I don't want to get too excited until I know my insurance approval is complete. It has been a two year process to get here; I'm so, so ready!