HELLO To all Nurses! Wow, I'm happy that you are starting school. We'll I had my surgery about 7weeks ago and so far so good. Thank GOD. The drinking water is YUKKY. And trying to find a good Sugar Free drink is challenging. So far, I can drink (dnt like it but its better than the rest) Cyrstal Lite-Classic Orange. I am off work. My surgeon gave me a 15lb restriction and as we all KNOW. We can't do much at a hospital, with that kind of restriction. I had a meeting with my Head Nurse and HR Dept. They advised me that it would be best that I return, when I am CLEARED without restriction. BUMMER! I miss work! All those babies. I'm work in the Labor & Delivery and sometimes I choose to work in the NICU. I work with midwifes and we do alot of NON-Invasive type of things, but every mommy has their own choices. I still get to see babies. They are so cuteeee! So anywho, Now, I'm home, maybe till mid Feb. I hope soon. We'll see. Thanks, Gracie 270/227

Had my first consult with the surgeon today. It was a long day. First I saw the psychiartist who cleared me. Whew....thought maybe they would cart me away instead Then I saw the dietician who went over my diet pre and what is expected post surgery. I will have to start making changes now as I am addicted to Mountain Dew Then I saw the surgeon who said that I am a good candidate for lap RNY. After seeing all these folks individually, all the WLS patients who had appts today had to go to a Q&A session with the surgeon. He expained the surgery to us all, drew pictures, talked about mortality rates, etc. He just was very upfront about everything. He did not try to sugar-coat anything. He even told us to make sure that we had a friend or family member stay with us in the hospital because there is a shortage of nurses and wanted us to be aware of that and that the patients who have family or friends stay with them, tend to get better care. As a nurse myself, I know that this is true. Anyway, I get OT. We were told that everyone who had an appt today with my surgrion could look forward to having surgery around the end of March, beginning of April. I am so very excited to have gotten this far in the journey. We were told to fight! fight! fight! our insurance companies if we needed to. He even told us that the insurance companies would throw paperwork away to keep stalling in hopes that we would give up. He said something really funny, but also sad and makes me mad when I think about it long enough. He said this: INSURANCE COMPANIES WILL TRY HARD AND TRY ANYTHING TO "INSURE" THAT YOU DON'T GET YOUR SURGERY So that is how my first consult went. Next week I go for the mandatory class with the dietician and the nurses who work on the gastric by pass unit at the hospital. Hope I haven't bored anyone and I apologize for the long post. But I had to share my happiness and to validate what a lot of us knew already...that insurance companies will purposely try to screw us out of our surgery if they can. Shame on them!! Thanks everybody. Have a good night. Nancy

I considered working for CDC or something similar. I didn't follow through, though. If you subscribe to the nursing journals, there are usually advertisements and cards you can send for more information.

Cmon RN's, we can do better than this... Post some info about yourself, your WLS adventure, or nursing info. If you come into any RN info, job postings, etc. this would be a great place to share. As I've mentioned before, I'm a nursing student...just started Jan 2005 and ecstatic about the path ahead. Take care, Norma.

I am a RN school nurse in TX and make $31.80 an hour with 16 yrs of school nurse experience. That is strictly days, with holidays and summers off. I could work other job in the summer but don't. I love school nursing and can afford to take off in the summer. I know that nurses in Houston do well, but have checked and would probably make more only because I would not be off for holidays and summer without pay. Good luck, Norma. I would think CA salaries would be a bit better than other parts of the country.