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Okay, so this is definately one of the greatest days of my life.  Today I got my approval from my insurance company and scheduled an appointment with Dr. Jones for April 9th!
I would say this is in the top 10 of best things happening in my life.  Of course it's below the birth of my son in October 2004 and wedding to my husband in October 2003, but other than that....

Yesterday I finished my last appointment at PNC and now the waiting game begins.  This was the physical therapy appointment.  She asked how I felt about exercise.  Well, duh!  If I loved exercise, would I weigh 300+ pounds?  Seriously!
I don't know how long to expect to wait to hear from my insurance.  I'm told Health Partners is fast, but I just want to know now!

Well, yesterday I had my dietician and MD appointments.  They went well.  The Dr. had a hard time finding where the incisions had been from my gallbladder (lap) and said I was lucky that I healed with hardly a scar from that or my csection.
The dietician  gave me some good advice and a list of books to check out from the library.  I had been most nervous about the dietician simply because I know that my diet sucks or else I wouldn't have managed to get to this weight.  She really made me feel like I will be able to follow through with the weight loss and learn a new way of eating.  She said that my constant dieting since I was 10 years old is what has lead to me not being able to identify when i am hungry and when I am full except when it is to the extreme.  Very interesting.

My physical therapy appointment was supposed to be today, but this lovely weather forced me to reschedule for March 8th.  Ugh...At least this will give the psych and dietician time to write their reports.

Well much to the amusement of some wild and single friends, my MMPI tests results showed I was "boring".  Of course the psychiatrist said that was good and I am "normal".  It's almost disappointing to be called normal.  LOL  Anyhow, I now go back on Feb 28 & March 1 for the remainder of appointments, then it is up to Health Partners.  I so hope they approve and they should, but there is always that chance....

On Friday I took the MMPI test.  It was interesting to say the least.  I enjoyed the following series of statements:
My mother is a good person.
I love my mother.
I always avoid stepping on sidewalk cracks.
I couldn't help it, I laughed out loud.  I'm sure the other man in the assessment room was thinking I really may be a little wacky!  
The test took me about 40 minutes (I read very quickly) so that left me with quite a bit of time to kill.  Luckily I had brought a good book, but even better they actually have awesome magazines in the waiting room!
I met with Carol Thomas for the nurse consultation.  She was wonderful and I really felt like I could get all of my questions answered completely.  She mentioned that Health Partners is usally pretty quick to respond to the request for surgery, so if I am approved I will most likely be having the surgery in 60 to 90 days.  What?!  It is hard to even believe that I could be on the road to better health that soon.
I go back on Valentine's Day to meet with the psychiatrist to find out if I am indeed normal.  Although, I am beginning to wonder if there was a scheduling error since I am only meeting with the psychologist and not scheduled for the four hour meeting like others have mentioned.  I will call Carol tomorrow to find out.

Well, I finally attended an informational meeting about the Park Nicollet program.  The meeting really confirmed my believe that this is what I need to do to get healthy for myself and my family.  
I called my insurance just to verify that our company doesn't have any exclusions and found that they didn't.  I am unclear if I will have to do a 6 month supervised diet or not.  I go to the dr. on friday, so will cover my bases either way.
My pcp is on a sabatical so I am seeing a different dr.  The receptionist was a bit snippy when I told her I wanted a referral for bariatric surgery.  She wanted to be clear that I probably wouldn't walk out of the office with one in hand since the new dr. needs to review my history etc.  In the end she was really sweet and said that she made me an appointment with a really  nice dr. who is very easy to talk to.  I am going to bring copies of all my paperwork in the hopes that he will want to review it and get me that referral soon:-)

I was really nervous the day of surgery.  We left home at 4:15 am and arrived at 5:00.  I checked in and was taken upstairs for my vitals, blood draw, etc.  Then Russ was allowed to come up with me until they took me back for surgery.  Dr. Jones and several other people stopped in to introduce themselves and talk about the surgery.
I was taken back to the room and the anesthesiologist gave me something to relax me.  He said, "are you starting to feel a little more relaxed?"  I said, "Not really."  The next thing I knew i was waking up in recovery.
Everything went fine in the hospital and I was sent home on Thursday.
Friday I was dehydrated and had to go back in and get an IV.  After that I was feeling great.
I weighed myself today and I am at 298!! Below 300 yippee!