LyndseyLouWho

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I hope OH does something about these spammers joining to advertise things! It's annoying. 

Since my surgeon doesn't require the two week diet pre-op, I decided Tuesday to start it on my own. I have only had liquids since then, and I HAVE LOST 6 POUNDS!  Yep - that's six pounds in 5 days. And the crazy thing is that I haven't had really bad hunger headaches, and I only miss food when I'm out and about - like at Target this morning and I saw the popcorn and pizzas and hotdogs. That was hard, but I resisted. 

9 days! AHHHH - that's single digits! 

In order to remember instructions for the few days pre-op and stuff to avoid for the next couple of weeks, I made lovely signs and hung them up on the wall :)

*edit* http://gallery.me.com/lnhunter















16 days!!!

This morning I had my pre-op admission tests done (EKG, Cardiac X-ray, blood work, etc). It took about two hours to get everything done. Then I had a few hours break. After lunch, I went to my surgeon's office's Pre-Op class where I got all the info about the surgery and life after in great detail along with 4 prescriptions for an anti-nausea drug to take before surgery, a gallbladder medicine, pain pills and pepcid.
 
12 days until my meeting with the surgeon again and 18 days until surgery!

Ohhh, since I'm such a big dork and I've never had surgery before, I took random pictures.
I was intrigued that they gave me a bracelet just for preadmission testing:


And don't even ask me why I took a picture of the xray machine. I've never had to have one before! lol



Quickpost this image to Myspace, Digg, Facebook, and others!

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S ONLY 26 DAYS AWAY!

I was actually offered a surgery date for next Thursday December 10, and I was totally taken aback - like OMG I can have this done in 1 week!?! But I had to pass that up to allow for flights to be scheduled so my parents can come up. And December 28th is perfect because the semester will be over and I won't have to worry about school.

My pre-op testing is next Thursday the 10th and then a pre-op class I have to take is that afternoon as well. Then I will meet with my surgeon on December 22 to sign the consent form, etc., and then on December 28th, it will be the beginning of the rest of my life.

WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!!


EDIT 12/4:
I must say I am really impressed by the speed of GHI HMO getting my approval processed! 1 day turnover! Not too shabby!

I guess I'm more patient than I originally thought. My 6 months of nutrition is almost complete! I had my 5th consult on November 3rd and my last and final required visit is December 1st! I scheduled this appointment 3 or 4 months ago to ensure that I could be seen on day 1 of the month :)  So on December 1st all my paperwork will be submitted to my insurance company and I will be given a (tentative) surgery date!  I'm so excited, but nervous at the same time, because even after I have the surgery date, it's more waiting for the approval to come through - fortunately it's only supposed to take about 3 business days, so I hope that means, I will get a response by the end of the 1st week of December!!!

The shakes I'm on aren't the best tasting. but I've been replacing one meal with the protein shake for the last two weeks or so. I use Isopure and Whey Protein.

I'm hoping to have surgery the week after Christmas - December 28-January 1 but I will accept earlier if I must. I love the idea of having this tool in place before 2010 gets here - I have a feeling next year will be the best year of my life!

My final nutrition consults are scheduled for October 19, November 2, and December 1 then we'll schedule a surge date and submit to GHI for approval, so hopefully I can start the New Year with a smaller stomach! :)

Done! Now I only have 3 more months of nutritional counseling to go before we can submit for approval. I have to admit, so far time's sped by!

My psych eval took almost an hour and a half! We kept going off on random tangents (such as talking about this singing lobster he had in his office) that it took much longer than expected, but he was really nice and it went well.

One more hoop jumped!

My first consultation with the surgeon was today! I really liked Dr. Maffei. He's very down-to-earth and explained everything thoroughly. I found out that my insurance (GHI) does require 6 months of nutritional consultations. Grr. So it looks like my surgery will be in late January.

The consult was the usual weigh-in, height check and blood work. TEN VIALS OF BLOOD! I've never had so much blood taken at one time. Then I had the urea breath test where they make you drink this citrus drink and check for some kind of parasites in the stomach. I also had to breathe in to a machine for 10 minutes (saliva, much?) to see if I had a low, normal or high metabolic rate. Shockingly, it revealed that my metabolic rate is about 11% above normal for a person my height, weight and age. This is good, because it means after the surgery, I should do quite well with the weight loss and after a couple years, as long as I stick to diet and exercise, I shouldn't have a problem with gaining any back.

We decided on gastric bypass because the idea of some foreign body that has to be adjusted creeps me out. I'd rather just be cut.

Aside from the 6 month wait, I have a checklist with about 4 other things to accomplish before a surgery date can be scheduled.

-- Letter of medical necessity from my PCP (DONE)
-- Clearance from a cardiologist/ECG, ECHO, Stress test (DONE)
-- Psych Consult (not covered by my insurance, $210)
-- 2 support groups

Doesn't seem like much at all now that I type it out.
He is not requiring that I see a pulmonologist or have an endocrine consult, so that's two less items I have to worry about.
I do have to lose 5% of my body weight (~12-15 lbs) before surgery so that my liver will be small and easy to manuever around.

Dr. Maffei said that if it was up to him, he'd schedule my surgery as soon as all the clearances are received. Damn insurance protocols lol

I need the rest of the year to fly by just as quickly as the first half has!

My initial surgical consultation is next Friday, Aug. 7! I'm super anxious for it to get here!

I'm pretty sure my insurance (GHI) will require me to do six months of nutritional consultations, but the new semester starts in September, so hopefully that will take my mind off how long this process seems.