One Weak Until My Surgery!

One Weak left!

You guys know that I am a serious spelling and grammar Nazi, so no, I did not misspell that. One weak left.

One weak heart that fears being put to sleep by my team of doctors.
One weak body that has carried too much, for too long.
One weak mind that has given in far too often.

I have seven days left before my surgery and I plan to spend those seven days being:

Strong in mind, remembering my mission and what has brought me here.
Strong in body, swimming daily and getting ready for My Olympics -- my VSG surgery.
Strong in heart, knowing that God is with me and he has a plan for me.

I refuse to give in. I refuse to look to either side for a getaway.

This is my battleground and I am not weak. Not in this lifetime.

What Might Have Been.

I wasn't going to write about this, but I am writing about this. Friday was a day of ups and downs. It started out with Charlie having the day off. Charlie is my 14 year old son who has autism. We went swimming and played in the water and that was a great time and a great workout.

Then we drove up to see Dad at work, which meant that Charlie would get to ride across the Kensington Bridge, which he loves because of the way the bridge makes the tires sound. We went to lunch with Dad and the pizza place that we went to had an item called a Savage Calzone, which is a calzone with no bread. How cool is that? It was awesome, but I only ate a bit and brought the rest home.

On the drive home, I got a call from the surgeon's office that my insurance approved my surgery! YAY! And I asked if they had any cancellations, could I move that surgery up? Yes! They said I could do it next Thursday! YAY!

As soon as I got in the door, I got a call from them that they had not been aware that the cancellation time slot was not to be filled and I was put back to my original date. :( But I was ok with this. I really was. I sort of panicked after I thought I only had six days to surgery.

Just minutes after that call, I got a call from someone who works with The View. Yes, the television program. They offered me the chance to be a guest of The View in New York City! YAY!

God, I love Rosie!!

They are doing a program on VSG and want pre-op participants to question a surgeon as they talk about Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy. I am so passionate about this, because I believe in this surgery.

Being able to be on The View would have been so cool and I accepted their invitation with a surging in my chest. I told my husband, who said he could watch the kids. However, there were two things keeping me from being able to actually do it. Finances and the fact that traveling just five days prior to my surgery would expose me to a lot of bugs. I am laying out a grand for my deductible. That's a chunk of change. Airline tickets were $500 and then there was the cost of a hotel...

But the kicker was the exposure to illness just five days before my surgery. If I got sick, most likely I would be getting ill either days before my surgery or right after it.

Apollo 13: "Jim, that's a lousy time for a fever."

 So I bowed out of The View.

Man, that really hurt. I wanted to fly there, stay in a hotel and be on the freaking View. But you know what? My HEALTH comes first.

So. A lot of ups and downs. It has been a roller coaster ride. I am trying to center myself and go on with life.

But hey! My surgery was approved!

I just wish that this climax to my six month's of hard work was not so anticlimactic. It deserved it's own moment.

Who has my back?

I am very happy to have received the call that my insurance company has approved my surgery! I think that this is the last thing on my list of things to think about, things that I needed to "worry about" over the surgery.

Now my focus is on staying healthy and preparing my house and my mind for the surgery. I am taking a friend's advice and plan to get my nose into a book that will keep me from trolling negative surgery stories and worrying my way into "worst case scenarios". There will be ups. There will be downs, but this is for me and I am grabbing it with both hands.

I believe that God has got this for me. I don't have to worry. February 4th is my day.

My timeline

Instead of just focusing on my date of surgery, I am breaking up the time by looking at the upcoming important dates on my calender.

Here is a list of my upcoming dates:

January 7th, swimming with special Olympics as "in the water" coach. Cancelled due to back injury

January 8th meeting with sleep doctor to get CPAP machine functioning optionally DONE

January 10th Stop taking the calcium with vitamin K (causes clotting problems) DONE

January 12th Final weigh in for submission insurance DONE


January 13th Pre-Op Fasting Blood Work & History/Physical! DONE

January 14th Bariatric Support Group meeting at hospital DONE

January 21st Special Olympics Swim Coaching DONE

February 4th VSG Surgery

12 Weeks to VSG

I think the last time that I counted weeks toward surgery I was at eighteen weeks away. Last week I was surprise to find myself at thirteen weeks.

And I stepped on the scale this afternoon and I am up two more pounds. Gosh, I am having a terrible time with this. 274 pounds today.

I can say that, other than when I was on prescription diet pills, this is the longest that I have ever lasted journalling every day. 97 days so far on My Fitness Pal. But I am so hungry all the time.

I can't imagine making it another DAY, let alone another WEEK, let alone TWELVE weeks.

Help!

I am going to jump over to Superherofitnesstv on youtube and do her kick ass chair workout. That should help me feel better.

UPDATE: DID it and don't I feel better already? Team LaShae!

By the way, I am newly in love with Hot Mess Princess! Check out her blog!

Surgery Date!

HI everyone!

I see that there are new readers, I would sure love it if anyone would introduce themselves. I would love to link to your blogs or site.

Anyway, today I got the call that they have scheduled my surgery tentatively for February 18th. I am going for my endoscopy next Friday and barring any problems with that, I should be fine. I also have to have clearance from the nutritional person and the psychiatrist.

So I am on my way. I am excited --- and a bit scared. I am wondering if I am doing the right thing, but on the whole, I am ready. Ok, maybe almost ready.

I am glad that I have time to get my head set. My son's fifteenth birthday is on February 21st and I want to be on my feet for that, or at least able to sit in a chair. Charlie has autism and birthdays are really important to him. I plan to get things ready so that my husband can do all of the birthday stuff and I can just kick back and be a guest.