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I thought I would try to blog every day that I'm on Optifast so that I can look back on this time and laugh.

So Day 1.

It sucks

The shakes suck

I haven't tried the soup or the bars yet - I get one of each a day

Since I'm not a soup person to begin with, the soup portion of the diet didn't fill me with as much joy as it did others.

I went to the Nutrition class today.  There was so much great information and the nurse came in to talk to us about what we can expect from our stay.

I also had to teach tonight.  I kept the lesson easy - learned how to say the Rosary.  I didn't feel like dealing with these kids tonight.  Otherwise I would have had to kill one or two of them.  I did give a speech about why it's important to bring their books to class and was informed that the two that don't bring them have "lost" them.  These kids are 14 years old and they can't keep track of a book.  That's what I ranted about for 5 minutes.

Day 1 sucks...

I was finally able to get all of my appointments scheduled.  Yay!  But my calendar for the next two weeks looks crazy!

On a happy note, my friend from Texas is going to visit me next weekend.  I've warned him that I'm going to be on a liquid diet and my energy probably won't be to high but he said that he just wants to visit me and that will give him more time to just relax with me.  He said that he'll get to see me at "my worst" right away.  I told him if he wanted to see me like that to come stay with me in the hospital. (I was joking)  He said he would come stay with me in the hospital and help me through the pain if I wanted him there.  I cried.  What a wonderful man I have found!

Three weeks left until the surgery day!  Yay! 

I have spent the better part of the day explaining things to doctors offices and even the hospital.  You'd think they never dealt with a self-pay patient before.  All day I wanted to either start screaming or punch someone!  I have done neither today.  Yet.

Then I get this lovely news.  The man that I have been speaking to since August and was coming to visit this weekend is unable to come.  Again.  That's right I said again.  Every weekend that he's supposed to come, a court date for his son's custody comes up.  Now don't get me wrong, I think it's great he's trying to get custody of his son.  But I would like to see him before my surgery.  Now I don't know when I'll be able to see him, since sitting around my house for the weekend just doesn't seem like a fun time...

Oh well...

Wow do I feel overwhelmed?  I had my appointment with the surgeon on Monday and there was so much information to take in.  I have to go to my primary care doctor for all of my tests so that I can get my insurance company to pay for them.  So there's so much to do before the actual surgery date!

I was able to secure financing for the doctor and hospital and my mother is paying the anesthesiologist as a gift.  So I should feel calmer but I don't.  I think it might be excitement...

I want to take a moment and comment on my mother.  She is the best mother in the world!!  She has been so supportive during this whole process.  She's losing her lunch partner - and dinner too since she likes to eat out a lot.  But she is 100% behind me in all of this.  She plans to be by my side during everything and has gone to every appointment with me.  She's amazing and I couldn't ask for a better mom!

Wow I was beginning to think this day wouldn't come!  When I started this journey back in July 2010, I thought I would have has surgery by now!  Of course I went to the WLS seminar thinking I was going to have a Lap Band done.  But after seeing the information on the VSG, I decided to go back and do some more research!

I researched everything about the Sleeve!  I talked to several doctors (including my own primary care doctor) and they all said that VSG was that way to go.  How could I ignore those recommendations?

What I didn't expect to happen was the nightmare I have run into with insurance!  I am disabled with severe depression and anxiety.  I have BC BS Federal and Medicare Part A (which I never asked for).  Neither insurance company would pre-certify the surgery.  Medicare because they are only for the hospital part and BC BS because they aren't considered primary when you have any kind of hospital stay.  So round and round I went!  I didn't even find this information out before I had all these procedures done to submit the results to insurance to make a strong case for the Sleeve.  Little did I know that it didn't matter what I did, neither was going to pre-certify me.

So that left me in the situation I am in now.  Neither the surgeon nor the hospital want to do an elective surgery on someone that has no pre-certification.  My only option is to self-pay and file with the insurance companies after the surgery.

So today I got my surgery scheduled for December 21st.  This is the best Christmas gift I could ever give to myself.  The one to help me get back my life!