Frances S.

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At this very moment, I am feeling great.  A week from now I will be in the hospital recovering from surgery.  That's kind of scary and exciting all at once.  The hospital called this morning to go over health history, and I had my first weigh-in for my pre-op liquid diet this morning.. down nearly ten pounds.  Crazy.

I still need to go grocery shopping for my full liquid diet for after surgery.  I will do that on Saturday.  During the week this week I will work with the boys on putting up the Christmas tree.  Won't be able to do that after surgery.  Aside from that, I'm all set.  And I think I'll walk into the hospital on Monday morning and pretend I'm not nervous.  Put on my game face and have faith.

That's the day.  The day my new life begins. 

The kids have been asking lots of questions.  The little guy asked the other day when I was going to get skinny.  I told him I haven't had my surgery yet, buddy.  And then I had to explain to them that no, I won't be skinny right away after I get out of surgery.  Bless their hearts.  They are sweet boys and I know they will be by my side all along the way.  I know they're nervous about it, especially my oldest.  The thought of his mom having surgery scares the heck out of him.

Time to get ready for real.  Get the ducks in a row at home.  Get my grocery shopping done for my liquid diet.  Monday will be the start of my pre-op liquid diet.  I'm not looking forward to that.  But I will do it day by day to prove to myself I can do anything.  I have the power and control to make the right choices.

Got a call from my PCP this morning.  The administrative assistant had the letter I had been nagging the dr. for and was sending it today.  That only leaves the clearance from the psychologist.  Which may already be there.  I'll call Monday to find out if my chart is complete or not.  Then if they still don't have the psych eval I'll ask the therapist for it on Tuesday when I see him for the follow up.

Also called my insurance again last night.  When I called them the first time I didn't have the "diagnostic codes".  Which just turned out to be the code for morbid obesity. Umm.. yeah.  It's a medical requirement to have a BMI of 40 +, so you'd think morbid obesity would be assumed at that point.  Anyway, I gave them the code for morbid obesity and high cholesterol.  Both were paying codes.  So I know the surgery will be paid as long as I meet their requirements, which are pretty basic.

Starting to feel hopeful...

So, I thought my chart was complete except for the endorsement from the psych eval.  I called last Tuesday to find out my PCP hadn't sent her letter of support, nor my pap results.  Call, call, call, nag, nag, nag.. and they sent the pap results, still no letter.  Followed up with the surgeon's office and she is going to call the psychologist.. though worst case there I meet with him again next Tuesday to go over the results of the bubble-fest test.  It's not that I'm impatient.. I just like a certain level of control.  It's been six weeks since I started this, and I know lots of people wait a lot longer, but the not knowing the timeline is the frustrating part for me.  Hopefully in a week I'll have a complete chart and I'll be able to get my appt to meet with the surgeon.

It has now been almost four weeks since I started this journey.  I have completed four of the six training sessions.  Lab work, chest X-ray, EKG, and physical are done.  PCP should have sent letter of support by now.  Labs are in and the nutritionist called for my consult.  Psych eval is next Wednesday.  Once that comes back it should be the moment of truth and I am hoping the wait time for surgery isn't very long.  I'm not very good with the unknown.. I like to have everything mapped out and in control.  I dont' feel like I have that with this process, but I'm going to have faith and just go with the flow.