Ron .
Hi everyone,
First, I would like to say that I have enjoyed reading the blogs from this site.
My name is Ronnie, 35 years old/young, been married for 15 years and have two sons, ages 11 and 8. I'm about to graduate with two bachelor's degrees in December. One is Occupational Safety and Health, the other is Communications with a Broadcasting emphasis. I've been working in radio for the last two years. I'm currently the station manager for the top 40 college station where I attend school, and I do a weekend morning show on a small classic country AM station. Video editing is also a passion of mine and is part of my broadcasting degree, but unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a job doing that just yet.
I've been overweight as long as I can remember. My morbid obesity began after a very bad car accident in 1990. It started when the doctors wired my mouth shut. I really think that something happened to me mentally in those months of liquid only. No, not pureed or any other kind of real substance, I could barely get a shake past all the metal. That went on for about 3 months. Oh yeah, I lost a lot of weight. Before the wreck I weighed in at 240, my weight dropped to 175. Then the wires came out and I had to pry my mouth open. That took about 3 more weeks of agony. After I was able to eat normal again I wasn't able to stop. Even when I was full I had the urge to eat everything I could get my hands on. From December 1990 until January 1992 I ballooned up to 320 lbs. The lowest weight I've seen since is about 280, that was from prescription weight loss medication. It was Phentermine, the PHEN part of the FEN/PHEN diet. I finally had to stop taking it because it caused daily migraines while I taking the medication. I've also tried no-fat, low-fat, no-carb, low-carb, liquid, atkins, south beach, Dr. Phil's Diet Revolution, mini-thins, eating less, several different herbal pills, neither of these diets lost me more than 30 or so pounds. Which would be great for someone who only needs to lose that much weight. I, on the other hand, need to lose about 150 lbs. Whether or not I actually get to that number is anyone's guess, but I'm going to give it a shot.
Having surgery is nerveracking as it is, but WLS makes your mind re-think whether or not your making the right decision. I know in my mind that my relationship to food will change drastically, but I'm still very nervous about it.
Barix called me with my surgery date on 7/26/06. My surgery is scheduled for 8/9/2006. Pretty fast, huh. My case was unique in that I have to start college on 8/21/2006, this fall is my final semester. College starts on 8/16/2006, which is a Wednesday. The first three days of the semester, Wednesday through Friday, are typically very slow days. So I am planning to miss these days. That puts me starting school on Monday,8/21/06, which is only 12 days after surgery. I'm naturally nervous about surgery, then about the type of surgery, then the fact that I have to start school so soon after surgery. I'm praying that everything goes well and I'm fortunate enough to have a fast recovery time.
Here's a little information about the process I went through to get approved. My insurance provider is United Heathcare. I went to see Dr. Hall at the Barix clinic on6/19/06. At that time the doctor discussed the different types of surgery that he performs which were LapBand, Open and Laproscopic RNY. Because most of my excess weight is in and around my stomach area we decided that Open RNY would be the safest way to go. At that time Dr. Hall gave me a once over and thought I may have sleep apnea. I was then scheduled to do a sleep study at LungStar sleeplab in Plano. It sucked. First you have a night camera looking at you the whole time you're sleeping. You also have about 20 wires hooked from your head to your legs. If that wasn't bad enough, the survey the next morning asks if you had a better night sleep than normal. Uh, NO! The second night you get the same wires with the added bonus of the CPAP shoved into your nose and you mouth is held shut with a strap. The same survey with the same question was given again to me. Did you have a better sleep than normal? UH, NO! Well that was it for my end of things as far as clearances go. Barix is out of network for me so my insurance is going to pay 50%. My out of pocket maximum is 2500 and my deductible is 500. At first Barix wanted it up front, but I finally got them to accept payment terms. 300 down and 150 per month. I go in for my pre-op on Monday 7/31/2006.
