Melanie B.

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OK, well that sucked.

I arrived at Barix at 7:45am for my 8am appointment. There were several people in the lobby area who were either going in for surgery or there for their PATs. No one I recognized from OH however.

So at 8ish I am called in to review my insurance information. I am VERY fortunate that my insurance covers 100% of the entire process less a $25 co-pay which I paid yesterday.

Then off to meet the blood guy. Unevetnful draw of 4-5 tubes of blood. A little pee pee in a cup and off I went to the exam room.

Met Maryann one of the PAT nurses, answered a million questions took my fatty before picture

Then Dr. Marymor walked in and said "so i hear you have questions about me" (I about died of embarrassment since I knew he had read the post I made questioning his Laproscopic surgical experience) But after the initial shock, we had a pretty open conversation about how many he's done etc and I felt at ease again. I am 100% confident that i am in expert hands regardless of how the procedure is performed.

So off now for a chest x-ray - all clear. Wait a few minutes then off to the Ultrasound to check for pesky gallstones. I knew after about 10 minutes something was a miss. I assumed I actually had stones. So I asked the tech - is that my gallbladder and she said "no that's your liver and pancreas) I panicked instanly as i could tell she was very interested in them. Now, I'm no US expert, but i've probablly had 15 of them in my life and I KNOW what an organ looks like, generally a black hole - and what I saw was a large white "streak" about 3 inches long and 1/2 inch wide (on the US screen of course)

After the US I was sent back into the exam room and shortly there after Dr. Marymor appeared again. He said it appears I have a "cyst" on my liver. WTF!! So now everything changes. I am in need of further tests to see exactly what this "cyst" is. I of course did the dreaded google research and quite frankly nothing sounds horribly scary. 

 

A Hepatic Cyst is a thin-walled "bubble" or cavity in the liver that may be empty or contain fluid.

Although there are numerous causes, there are often no symptoms.  The condition is usually picked up when a test is done for other reasons.  Generally, it is a benign problem that does not cause any difficulty and does not affect life expectancy.

Occasionally, Hepatic Cysts may become large or infected.  Treatment depends on the underlying cause.  Most often, no specific treatment is needed.  The most important thing to remember about liver cysts is that they are usually benign.  However, other diseases can sometimes look like liver cysts.  These conditions need to be ruled out.

Usually, liver cysts do not cause any symptoms.

Occasionally, if they become very large, they can cause liver enlargement, abdominal pain, bile duct infection, or obstruction of the bile ducts, causing the cyst itself to become infected.

 

• Many cysts develop for unknown reasons, and some are present at the time of birth.  Some may be the result of abnormalities that occurred during fetal development.
  


• Other causes of Hepatic Cysts include:
  

1. Echinococcosis
   


2. Polycystic Kidney Disease
    


3. Caroli's disease
   


4. Congenital hepatic fibrosis
   


5. Choledochal cysts

 

Diagnosis is usually made when tests are being done for other reasons, allowing many of the cysts to be found by "chance."

If a cyst is suspected, many tests can be done, the easiest being CT scan or ultrasound of the liver.

The most important aspect when dealing with liver cysts is to rule out other diseases.

If necessary, a biopsy is preformed, or a sample of the fluid within the cyst is removed for analysis

 No treatment is usually required. Most liver cysts do not cause any symptoms, and do not affect life expectancy.  The doctor may follow them to make sure that they do not rapidly increase in size.  Other than that, no specific therapy is needed.

If the cysts do cause problems, they can be surgically removed

Treatment also depends on what is causing them.  If a specific disease such as echinococcosis is the underlying cause, then the patient is treated for this and the cysts are carefully, surgically removed to prevent complications.

• If the cysts become infected, they may have to be removed.
  


• Antibiotics may be administered to treat the infection.

 

So anyway, after ALL of that drama, I need to go today for a CAT scan and get to drink some lovely barium to boot.

I also met with the NUT (nutritionist) and leared about what food after GBS will look like (not very appetizing, i promise you)

I MUST loose 10lbs before surgery - Dr. orders.....so I THINK I'm going to buckle down and start an all liquid diet at of August 15th. We'll see how that goes.

Here's my video blog of yesterday. 

Today is the day for my pre admission tests! I have to be at Barix by 8am. I slept really well (9am - 6am) AND.......with the CPAP the entire time! This is a record since I usually only make it about 3-4 hours. MY CPAP now read 115 hours of Therapeutic use. I only need 75 more hours between now and D-day.

I will be bringing my camera with me to record the events and will B-blog later.

Kinda creepy, but this Virtual Me really does look like ME!

 

And this is ME at 149lbs (muahahahahahaha)

 

My eldest son turned 14 yesterday and we went out for a great dinner. It was so much fun and I LOVED the food and drink. It seems each meal is becoming more and more memorable as the end is near.

I have a trip scheduled on 8/14 to head out to Colorado Springs to see clients. for the past 2 years I have dreaded flights since my arse really does not fit in to one of these

and the seatbelt, even extended to it's fullest barely snaps without cutrting off the blood suply to the lower half of my body.

 

 

Yep. you read right - 29 more days until my surgery! I was initialy set for September 8th, but due to some scheduling issues at home the date has been bumped up 2 weeks!

Still not a nervous wreck, but I'm sure that day will come eventually. Perhaps after my PATs on 8/7.

I keep wondering how much weight I will loose and how fast and I found this graph on OH. Very exciting.

ok pardon my bitch and moan post but today is just one of those days that reminds me of what my life will look like if i don't have this surgery and get my weight under control.

First of all, i feel sick all the time. Like sick to my stomach. i have a love hate relationship with food, i love the taste of food, but i hate what it's doing to my body/soul. I have food hangovers on a daily basis now and i know the reasosn i feel like crap today is becasue of what i ate yesterday.

My CPAP experience is turning out to be a disaster. I can't for the life of me sleep with the thing on. I pretty much make it until about 2-3am and then I have to rip it off. Last night i thought I was going to make it (based on comfort level) until i was awoken at 2am with a FREAKING BLOODY NOSE! the mask was full of blood and i was literally choking on my own blood. I ripped the mask off and wung it across the room. I need 180 hours of the mask on or no surgery for me - so I am going to get it done, but it's torture. any suggestions would be truly welcomed.

OK now about the rashes under my boobs! argh. owwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Anyone else experience horrific tightening of their hamstrings when you were a fatty? This seems to be my latest fat induced ailment. I am 39 and walk around like I'm 80. I'm hunched over and every step is an 8 on a pain scale of 1-10.

And then there is my cheery disposition - not. I swear my family would all divorce me if they could.

58 days til surgery seems like a forever to me. I'm 1/2 tempted to try and bump it up, but i will most likely need all that time to get my CPAP hours in.

thanks for listening to my pity party.

I posted a few weeks back that i had to endure the god awful sleep study - and in the end it turned out not only did i have obstructive sleep apnea and need to wear a CPAP everynight - i have severe PERIODIC LIMB MOVEMENT DISORDER - Wtf is that? It's not RLS (which i thought it was) it's more similar to a type of seizure disroder.

But i thought anyone who's never had a sleep study done before or who is interested in seeing what results look like i'd post it here. (not to mention it's a slow day at the office.

 

 

First night test results.

 

 

2nd night test results - wearing CPAP. (is it just me or was the quality of my sleep just as bad with the CPAP??)