Big day of appointments.....

May 06, 2010

Today I had a ton of appointments for my weight loss surgery. I had to be at the hospital at 6:30am.

By 7am I was having my ultrasound of my gallbladder done. Was only about 15 minutes long. I watched the screen and I didn't see anything of concern but yet again I am not an ultrasound tech. The tech didn't mention anything but they typically don't. She said my doctor would have the results by Monday or Tuesday. Wished me luck on my surgery. I was out of there by 7:30am. My next appointment wasn't until 9am.

I walked over to the other building to get registered for the next round of tests. They were tossing a fit because my orders didn't have the date on them. How was I suppose to know that the date needed to be on the orders? She told me I would have to wait until 9am until the surgeon's office opened and have new orders sent over. So I sat in the lobby to wait, went and grabbed a muffin and something to drink while I waited. Then the lady came back over and said never mind we could just use the labels they made to show the date. By 8:30am they told me I could go up for my echocardiogram. Went up for that appointment and that was just an ultrasound of my heart. Was only about 15-20 minutes long. Again I watched the screen and the lady didn't bring up any issues she seen, wished me luck on my surgery. She said my results would be to my surgeon by Monday or Tuesday. By the time I went back down to the lobby it was only like 9am.

My next appointment wasn't until 10am. They told me they were trying to call the pulmonary office but they weren't in yet. So I went and sat and waited again. By 9:30am the lady was in the office so I went down to that appointment. I didn't know what to expect and didn't realize it was a breathing test. Who knew it would be much work to do certain breathing exercises? I had to do a few different ones while breathing into this tube. Then they closed the chamber and I had to do more, and they cut off my oxygen for 2 seconds. That was so odd, I seriously felt like I had quit breathing. She said all looked good and the doctor would review and send over to my surgeon by no later than Wednesday. By 10am I was done with this test and had my nutrition evaluation at 11am.

Thinking I would get lucky and sneak in early! Because by this time I was exhausted! I went to the registration desk and she said she was currently with a patient but would come out to get me when she was ready. So I sat around and waited, and waited and waited. 11am came and still no one came to get me. I called Dominique and talked to him for a bit to catch him up on what was all going on. By 11:15am still no one. I was about to get up and ask if she remembered about my appointment but by 11:30am my buzzer went off and she came out to get me. She apologized for being late, her last appointment ran over. We went over my past and I had to fill out some information. Then we talked about food, nutrition, what to expect after surgery and down the road with surgery. Got a lot of great tips, finally know how to read a food label the right way and understand what foods are good and bad. Like I told her one diet is low calories, the next is low carb, the next is low fat. So I never knew what to go by or what foods to get at times. The main thing I learned is after surgery protein is going to be my friend. The one I need to focus on getting enough of every single day. Learned that atleast for the first year no more drinking out of straws, no more gum, need to find chewable vitamins which I probably will have to do the rest of my life, I didn't realize you had to do chewables but it makes sense, I need to increase my water intake by about 20 more oz a day. I am at roughly 35-40 right now. It was a ton of information but a ton of great information. Hopefully this week I have a chance to sit down and read thru it all as we just skimmed thru the main points at my appointment. I also got information on a support group that meets once a month and also an online support group that I can access anytime. The nutritionist actually helps run the both of them so that will be a great resource. She said to keep in touch and email her whenever I needed something. She gave me some free samples of vitamins and protein shakes to try.

So overall it was a good day of appointments. Learned a lot. Now just praying everything comes back ok to clear me for surgery. I left the hospital by 1:15pm. What a long day! Went home and had to take a cat nap because I had to go into work at 6pm for a few hours.

Two appointments to go!

0 Comments