TazRN
Holy Crap - Weight Is Flying Off Now
Feb 18, 2008
. Anways, back to my story, tomorrow represents a big day as I see the surgeon one last time before both of my big surgeries - I am having my IVC Filter placed on Wednesday and then the RNY on next Thursday the 28th. The surgeon will go over all of my preop lab work I just had done and it will give me and my wife one last opportunity to ask any questions which we may have. In addition to meeting with my surgeon tomorrow, I also have my nutrition class where I receive my eating BIBLE that tells me everything to do for the next several weeks. Excited is an understatement at this point. 
Will update very soon, this week, after my IVC Filter surgery, Taz
Pre-Surgery Update - Two Weeks To Go
Feb 14, 2008
, plus she also received a sweet treat - chocolate turttles(what I wouldn't give for some, but I did not cheat). In addition to delivering the Valentine's Day goods to my lovely wife, I had all of my preop blood work, chest X-ray, and vascular doppler studies done. The biggest plus is that I am now down to 342 for a total preop weight loss of 25 lbs. ; All of my test went really well and all things look for a go on 2/28/08. The reality of the situation is becoming very surreal at this point. RNY Surgery is two weeks away and my filter placement is next week on Wednesday 2/20/08. Am I a little nervous
? Definitely; I will say this though, my excitement level 
trumps the nervousness any day. At this point, I have no doubt that I am doing the right thing. I have no hesitation or fear what so ever in going forward with the surgery. I feel great mentally, spiritually, and physically right now and this surgery is just going to make those things that much better. Taz
Date Getting Closer
Feb 06, 2008
these days as I wait on my surgery date to get closer(2/28). This diet I have been on since January the 4th is getting old. About the only good thing I can say is that I have lost weight and I am sure my liver has shrunk significantly. Well, today of all days was support group meeting night. This is my secondmeeting that I have attended and it has been very eye opening each time I have gone. It amazes me with all of the people and the stories they tell about what they eat and how much they eat. Many of the people do not follow the rules like they should and they wonder why they aren't losing weight. There are those who are doing what they should and it shows, but more often than not, many people just seem to be off track and doing the wrong things. I almost feel like I have a better support group on the OH web site, the mens forum. It is quite mind boggling why people would go to all this trouble to have the surgery and then they only to end up doing things that sabotage what they are trying to accomplish. Well that is enough for now, I will update again after I have my venous doppler studies on the 14th, along with my preop lab work-up. Be good and think slim thoughts. Taz
Dates Confirmed Today
Jan 24, 2008
I have been approved for surgery without a hitch. Had my consult on Jan. 4th, all paperwork turned in, finally, by the doctor office on Tuesday of this week - 23rd, and I had approval in one day by the insurance company. Who would have thought the doctor office would take three times longer than the insurance company. Doctors office called this morning and I have a surgery date of Feb. 28. It's the earliest opening so I took it. I may get bumped up earlier if someone else backs out (cold feet) . Dam, if I can only put up with this protein diet that long
, my doctor has had me on it since Jan. 4th. I know one thing, my liver ought to be shrunken up quite well. It took a week or so to get the carbs and sugars out of my system, but man, I feel like a new person now. I sleep much better and overall I feel great. For people struggling with the preop thing for only two weeks, feel blessed. Mine will be a total of about 7 weeks, strictly meat for 4 weeks and then 3 weeks of shakes for breakfast/lunch, with meat again at night for my dinner meal. I don't care how you slice it, you can only eat meat so many ways. Unless you put all kinds of crap on it, it gets quite borring. Anyway , ID is my story and I'm sticking to it. Be good, Taz
Approved for Surgery
Jan 23, 2008
WOW WOW WOW. To say I feel elation/joy/happiness/excitement is an understatement. I am on cloud nine. It has been quite the journey so far. I had all of my paperwork (personal doctor notes, sleep study results, cardiac consult, psychological consult) 
submitted and in by January 14. Now mind you, I had my initial consult with the surgeon on January 4th. All of this is quite amazing, to say the least, that it has all come together so quickly - which I was hoping would happen. From reading many people's posts and stories, this is quite unusual. Anyway, I have spoken to the doctor's office and we are now in the process of finding a date for February. I do have to do a nutrition class for 5 hours and I am also having a surgery to have a Greenfield Filter put in place. For those of you who aren't familiar with this filter, it helps prevent problems from blood clots that could break off in your legs and travel to your lungs, heart, or brain - thus killing a person or at the very least causing some very serious medical problems. Being a nurse, I have seen these exact problems I am talking about, thus I welcome a surgery to have this filter placed for my protection. This surgery will occure at least one-two weeks prior to my RNY surgery. I am planning to be out of work for about two weeks, barring any setbacks or complications. I will definitely update with a firm date once I have logisitics worked out with my work and doctor's office.
Tough Day
Jan 13, 2008
Man oh man, I thought I was going to crack 
and go on a sugar/carb binge on Saturday. It took all my mental power to stay focued on the prize. I am on day 10 of my protein diet and there have been days I wanted to pull my hair out.
Going to church 
today seemed to give me some strength and encouragement that I needed to keep on going forward. I know this will be a struggle to keep this up for three more weeks, but I will prevail. I keep telling myself that I will be able to eat regular foods again at some point in time.
Anyway, I just had to get this down on paper today. There is something therapeutic about journaling that helps keep things in perspective. Taz
Cardiology Consult
Jan 11, 2008
about my cardiology consult, but not from what you might think. I knew there wouldn't be anything wrong with my heart, but I was just worried from the fact that the Cardiology doctor might make me do all kinds of testing that might take a few weeks to complete (scheduling) and then another week to get the results and then another week to get those results to my Gastric Bypass doctor. Well I bow down to the God above
. Lo and behold, I show up today, we do a history and physical, basic EKG - the doctor checked all this over and said I had one more thing to do and I was cleared for surgery. He said the dreaded words I knew were coming - TREAD MILL TEST. 
My ASP was ready to shoot him. Can you say DAM and DOUBLE DAM. I really wasn't expecting it, but I said what the hell, I would do anything for surgical clearance. It was a good thing that I had done hospital clinicals with my students today because I was wearing my hospital scrubs - which are practically like wearing workout clothes.As expected, the test went fine, passed with flying colors - no problems. I will tell you, I did not like stripping down to practically nothing - had to take off many clothes for the lead placement so the monitor would read my heart correctly. Also, for those of you who have never done one of these, you just wait. What an experience. They work you out in ten minutes to get your heart rate up to a certain point so that your heart is stressed and as such they can see if you are throwing anything like PVC's or any other kinds of heart abnormalities
that might harm or even kill you. Here is the skinny on how it goes: In order to get your heart where they need it to be, to stress your heart, they take that "Friggin" treadmill and start jacking it up in the air - raising it slowly so your incline goes from being flat, like I like it - I could do this all day, to eventually you might be at a 45-60 degree angle - up in the air, plus you will be walking anywhere from 3.0 mph to 4.0 mph. I told the girl before I started I was having the surgery so that I could eventually tackle challenges like that with no problem. I didn't expect to have to do it in 10 minutes, I was sweatin like a friggin pig 
. I felt like I had done my workout for the day. I had actually planned to go workout tonight when I got home from work, but I did that today at lunchtime with this Treadmill Test.Anyway, enough of that for now. I am happy as a tick on a dog a because I am totally done with everything necessary for me to get the surgery from my doctor. All I am waiting on at this point is word from the INSURANCE NAZI's
. TazWill Power
Jan 06, 2008
. I have been on the protein thing since Friday and man can I tell it. I remember going through this when I tried the Atkins diet. I know this will pass, but it is especially tough when you have to go to a small group get together for church and everything under the sun is present - chips, brownies, cookies, burgers, hotdogs, donuts, pie, soda, baked beans, etc. - I am drooling here as I type the words; My wife has been very supportive and that helped a lot. I finally told some people tonight at my small group that I was going to have the surgery. Many were wondering why I wasn't partaking of all the good foods and to them I looked rather odd, so with that said I just came out and shared with people. The reactions were one of support, not "Oh My God". One guy even told me his brother-in-law had it done and he lost like 180lbs. Anyways, that is all for now. I do want to state I am finding that keeping this blog is very helpful to me
. I helps remind me where I started, how I felt, and what I want to achieve. Hopefully these blogs of my journey will help some other people as well. I remember when I first joined the web site I skulked around a good bit looking at everyone's story and where they were in this battle against the bulge. I still look at other peoples profiles regularly, but I have one or two profiles that I constantly look at for mental support because those two people have come so far from where they were to what they have become now, they are quite the inspiration. God willing, I will hopefully be that person to someone else down the road.Be good and God bless you all. Taz
Word of the Day: Consults and more Consults
Jan 05, 2008
WHAT a DAY, WHAT a DAY !!!! Consults were the topic of the day on Friday. 
My first consultation had me meeting with my bariatric surgeon and I can only say that things went exceptionally well with Dr. Givens. All options were discussed and he fully supports me having the RNY done. He feels I am a very good candidate due to the fact that I have so much preliminary stuff already done (sleep study, lab work ups, regular visits to my primary care physician), not too mention that me being a nurse helps out the overall aspects of the situation. He truly and honestly feels like surgery could come very soon. He has worked with my insurance company before and he basically assured me that there would be no problems getting approved. When I heard that I wanted to do cartwheels I would have looked pretty funny trying to do them, but at that point I didn’t really care. The only thing he wants me to do is get one more cardiology consult because the last one I had was about two years old. At first he wasn’t really going to worry about it, but he asked me my thoughts about and we both felt it would be best – with that said, I have my cardiac consult next Friday, Jan. 11th. Things are going very quick. He has ordered me to start the pre-op diet so I can start shrinking my liver, the more I do this the better off I will be and the easier the surgery will be.
Now for my next consultation, I had to meet with the PSYCHOLOGICAL 
Counselor to determine my mental health and my mental status as it relates to having the surgery. This too was quite an eye opening experience. I personally feel very grounded mentally and don’t see that I will have too many problems, I am not saying it will be easy nor am I trying to be cocky
, but I have a great support system and I feel like being a nurse gives me an extra advantage. To make a long story short, after talking with the counselor, she concurs with what I already knew – I am mentally fit for duty in my endeavor to have an all out war against my obesity and my desire to have gastric bypass surgery. She will definitely sign off on my surgery
. I tell you, we covered everything you can think of (past present and future as it relates to me: overall health – mentally and physically, diet, nutrition, family, support system, sex, grooming, education, finances, etc.; This was a good process, the counselor was telling me how you would not believe the number of people who are ill prepared to go through with this life altering procedure – I personally was not surprised from all the research and studies I have read.
Note to Self - when you go for your psychological consult and practically everyone has to have one, don’t try to bullshi* the Zen master psych counselor. He/She will ask you a question 
three or four different ways to see if your answers are accurate and that the answers you gave corroborate with what you have already said. This is just my word to the wise. You can take it or leave it.
PS – check out my background picture of the Krispy Kreme Crime Scene. Now that I have had to leave this type of food behind 
, it seemed only fitting. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Krispy Kreme donuts, they are one the most delicious mouth-watering hot pastries you will ever taste. I could never eat just one.
Be good and think slim thoughts 
. Will update about cardiac consult next Friday! Taz
Support Group - Eye Opener
Jan 02, 2008
, which is required by the doctors office I am going to. That was quite an experience to hear everyone's story and their advice. To be honest with you, it was a little scary because everyone seemed to have their own opinion on what was best and why you should do this or do that - from food choices preop/postop and even which surgery is better (lap versus RNY). I kept referring my self back to this web site and all of the information that I had already absorded from the wisdom of others, as well as my own vast knowledge of medical information, seeing how I am a registered nurse myself. One thing that was reinforced tonight was the fact that I am making the right choice for myself in having the RNY done. Many people talked about how they had the lap band done and many are not exeriencing the success like others who had the RNY - success is relative to what each individual person feels. I truly got the impression from many of the people that if they had to do it over again, they would choose the RNY. That's my feeling and I am sticking to it. On another note, I have my consultation January the 4th and I also have my psychological evaluation on the same day. I am quite excited
, but I am trying to contain my emotions because I realize much is to be done. Many things are already done like my sleep study and stress test, but I am sure other tests will be needed. Anyways, I will post how the consultations go on Friday. Taz
About Me
Before & After
rollover to see after photo
