Surgical Consult Yesterday

I went in for my surgical consult yesterday. My HMO contracts with a private surgeon to perform GBS. Having been an HMO rat for so long, I'd forgotten how the other half lives! Plush, spacious office, huge exam rooms, a scale that actually weighs fat people, etc. The staff was quite friendly. It was nice going to a medical facility that didn't look at me like I was a zoo animal. The surgeon wasn't the warmest fellow I'd ever met -- he had kind of a *****ly demeanor -- but after talking with him, I realize he knows his stuff. He cited NIH statistics that state traditional diets fail in 95% of people who start out with a BMI over 40. We had a good conversation. He wants me to lose 10% of my weight prior to surgery, which is reasonable. It looks my next step is to meet with my HMO's Bariatric Coordinator to formulate a plan of action. The only downer is that I left the surgeon's office fatter than I was went I went in! I thought I weighed 500 and it turns out I weigh 525, darn it! (Four months of eating takeout food every meal while our kitchen was being remodeled was probably the culprit). The best part of the whole experience is that unlike my PCP visit the other day, the surgeon did not end the visit by saying he'd pray for me. Kix

Hi Kix, Glad to hear you had a good visit. I have my suregon consult on Halloween. I'm ready to get it over with! I completely agree about the take out. When we first moved here to Hawaii we had to live in the base hotel until housing could be provided and after a month of eating take out and convience store food I couldn't fit into the shorts I wore on the plane!! I tried going to the commissary to buy some food I could cook in the microwave but it all tasted like cardboard..so back to fast food I went. Oh well that's all in the past now we are moving on to "smaller" brighter futures!! Jamie