Wakerjane

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O.k. 
Decided to type a bit more.

August 21st was the nutrition class. 
The lovely lady from the waiting room that I mentioned in my previous post was there, and lo & behold, her surgery had been moved to September 10th at 7:30 am too.  That is the exact same day & time as my surgery, she was just having it with the other surgeon in the practice.  So I have a surgery buddy to walk the halls with the day of surgery and in the days after. 

They gave us a massive amount of information on the pre-op and post-op diet.  I learned that I would have to do a 2 week protein diet.
Liquid protein shake for breakfast, protein shake for lunch, 4-6 ounces of lean meat & undefined amount of steamed non-starchy veggies for dinner.  

Now what I type next is just me being honest.  I knew that I would follow the pre-op diet, but I needed to have some kind of "lost weekend" type closure with food.    And boy did I have it.
I said goodbye to all of the foods that have comforted me, but have also made me hate looking at myself. and made me so tired all the time.  From the 21-26 of August, I had steak, ribs, panera bread caramel frappes, pasta, pizza, wings, chinese, doughnuts, cheesecake.  I could probably type longer.  But it was bad, but at the same time good.  I ate like a wild shebeast.  I was even having dreams about being full, and I felt like hell after eating whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted for 5 days straight.  The cost of eating like that is not worth the taste.  I've heard it's normal to do that and I know that I am going to need a support group so that the closure stays closed.   St. Francis has an emotional eating support group and I think I am going to utilize that so that I can fix my head as well as my tummy. 

Well, I really need to head off.  I'll post about the last week tomorrow hopefully. 

Crazy to think, that when I wake up tomorrow it will be 1 week,  1 frakkin WEEK!!!  So excited I just wish I could blink and make it be here already.  Patience is not one of my virtues ;-)

 

Sorry I've been quiet for awhile....so I am going to catch up on some of the things that have happened since I last posted.  I've been meaning to post updates but I've been incredibly busy and been spending way too much time reading the writings of others and doing no writing myself. 

But I remember how much reading others stories helped and inspired me when I was hoping to get approved, so I thought I would try to pay that forward a bit for any surgery hopefuls who might stumble across my page.  

On August 18, I went to St. Francis at 7:30 to have all the pre-op tests done.  While I was waiting for the upper GI test & the chest x-ray, I met a lovely lady in the waiting room that was having surgery Sept 3rd. (more on her in a later post.)  We were both sitting there in our double gowns and she asks me "are you here for the same reason I am"  I said "I am having bariatric surgery, is that why you're here?" she said yep.  So I started telling her about this site and all of the informative people & forums and stories that can be found.  Then I went in for the GI test & the chest xray.  They did the chest xray first, and that wasn't bad.  Then they did the upper GI test and that was worse than I remembered when I had it done last year.   I thought I might vomit on the table, (gross, but true) The tech told me that I had "pretty intestines"  which I guess was nice thing to say, but kinda creepy at the same time.  Hearing "you have pretty intestines" sounds like a sentence in a horror movie and how do you respond to that.  I just said. "Uh, thanks for the compliment". 

Then I went to do the blood tests.  By this time I was so thirsty that my head was starting to hurt.  I waited in another waiting room to be called and there was this woman  in the office who kept complaining loudly about "dealing with these damned doctors and their unreadable handwriting". 
They called me back and wanted a urine sample, I gave them one, they then took about 8-10 vials of my blood and I could still hear that lady in the office complaining about not being able to read doctors orders.  The nurse that withdrew my blood congratulated me on my decision to take control of my weight and she told me about how she had lost 240 pounds.  I assumed that she had the surgery, but she told me that she had done it through diet & exercise, but she didn't toss judgement or criticism my way for the way I've chosen to go.  We were chatting about low carb starbucks drinks when the irate lady in the office screamed "I just can't believe these IDIOTS expect us to read this, it just Pi$$ES me off!"   I asked the nurse if the lady in the office might need some anti-anxiety meds, I mean we were in a hospital.  She said that the woman drives everyone nuts everyday with the complaining.   She taped up my arm and wished me luck and I then waited in the waiting room for the EKG lady to page me.  I waited about 10 minutes, then I was paged and went up one floor to get my ekg done.

  The lady that did my EKG had RNY six years ago (I started to feel like all of this was good juju as far as my weightloss journey goes).  She told me that her daughter had it as well and did successfully, but that I would need to watch out for my sugar because she is six years out and still dumps if she has the wrong type of food.   She finished with me and I had 3 hours to kill unti my appt with the internal meds doc to go over all the results. 

I am more than a little ashamed to admit that I went to Whitecastle's because I didn't want anything breakfast, but I was starving from not having anything to eat for about 18 hours.  After the whitecastles, I didn't feel so hot (go figure), so I went home and laid down, set my alarm for 12:45 so that I would have time to get back to the hospital.  My husband (who works nights) came downstairs and asked me why I was still here, I asked what time it was and he told me 1:13.  I jumped off the couch and broke about 20 traffic laws to get to St. Francis by 1:29. 
I med with the internal med doctor who raised an eyebrow at me and said "Weight loss surgery at 30?"  I said that I'd been battling obesity for 22 years, so yes, weightloss surgery at 30, cause I can't bear another 22 years like this.   He gave me the clearance and told me that everything looked great and I was a good candidate for surgery . I felt so relieved to hear those words because that was the last hurdle to jump. 

I then left there & went to meet Dr. Clark for a re-intro consultation.  I saw him last year, but I didn't know if there would be a reason for him to have to meet with me, but it was good to meet with him again to reaffirm that this is the man I want to do this surgery. 

Well, that's what went down August 18th, in my next post I will update on my nutrition class on Aug 21, but I promise that post won't be as long as this one.

I have finally been approved.  Anthem Blue Access rocks, I will type more later when I have more energy, but this last 24 hours has been heaven!!!

Nancy sent in the paperwork Wednesday!
I called the insurance company today and they said they received it and I should know within 15 business days.  Please, if anyone is reading this, say a prayer for me that I get approved for this.  I will post more next week once I know something.  I am a frickin nervous wreck waiting for an answer.

I am almost done with the prereqs for surgery.

Last Tuesday I had all the preop work done at the hospital.  They drew 7 viles of blood, did all of the ultrasounds, EKG, Upper GI test, chest xray etc.  I am medically cleared for surgery.  The only concern the internal meds doctor had was about my cholesterol and triglycerides which he said were high. I had to do all of this as a requirement to submit to insurance.

Then Saturday I got into a different shrink for my psych consult.  St. Francis was gonna take like 3 weeks to get my info to the docs office.  So I went & paid like 90.00 to go to this new guy.  It took a half hour and I convinced him that I knew full well what I was doing and that I wouldn't go batsh*t crazy once I realized I can no longer enjoy cheesecake or Ben & Jerry's coffee toffee icecream.  Sooo, I am psychologically cleared for surgery.

Today I had a weigh in with my PCP.  I've lost 7.5 pounds in the last month, which was amazing to me because I quit smoking 8 days ago and I thought for sure I would gain.  Going to my family doc is a back-up plan in case my insurance denies me on the 6 month diet plan requirement.  He also prescribed me Phentermine, which is kinda like legal speed....so YAY...that will help me slow down with the caffeine for a sec.

After the PCP appointment, I had an appt with the dietician at the surgical clinic. She advised me of the diet changes after surgery and asked me questions, and told me to start using protein shakes in my diet since I am bad about skipping breakfast. 

So, I am done with every prereq except for the 2nd support group prereq and then Nancy from Dr. Clarks office can send in the paperwork.  I am truly praying that I get this approved.  If any of you out there are reading this.  Please pray for me too, I can use all the prayers I can get. 

Well, I'm gonna call Nancy tomorrow and see if there's any way that I can do an online support group so I don't have to wait for next wednesdays support group before I can send in my info.  I still plan to go to the group next wednesday, I just wanna know already!!!

I will post later this week or early next week once I know more. 

Later!

As of right now, I am still kinda at the beginning of this journey.  I went March 19th for the day long seminar.  It was interesting, but most of the information they gave us was information that I have already read about in my 53,516 hours of research on bariatric surgery.  Yes, I am a total geek.  I just can't stop myself from reading more and more about the people who have had this done, and what insurance company is the best and what people that are my height and my weight feel after getting this done.  
But, I digress, my next steps now are that I have an appointment for all the pre-op medical clearance tests on April 3rd. ( I thought this was funny given that I've not rec'd a yes from my insurance company, but Nancy, the insurance guru at the surgeons, told me I need to have this done before they can even submit the claim.)   Then on April 9th, I have the psych evaluation questionairre thingamajig.  I also have my first dietician consult on the 9th.  Then on the 17, I have my psych consult (I guess to make sure I won't go batsh*t crazy once I realize I can't have my Ben & Jerry's coffee toffee ice cream anymore ;)  Then I am ready to have all of the information sent to my insurance.   This is really exciting.  I feel like I am taking control of my future, and that is a great feeling.