Getting Excited! & Some info about baby utensils

It is now 28 days until my VSG surgery. I got a call this morning from the doctor's office and they went over everything that they have and what they still need from me. They needed my endoscopy study and they wanted me to do an online anesthesia orientation, which I completed yesterday.



I called my GI surgeon and had them fax my endoscopy to the doctor and I received the rest of my instructions:

• They asked me to move my history/physical and pre-op bloodwork up, seeing as though my surgery was moved up by three weeks. I have now scheduled that for next Tuesday.
• I am to stop taking NSAIDS (which I stopped after my endoscopy, when the GI doc said to never take them again).
• I am to stop taking any vitamins which contain Vitamin K, which can change the body's clotting process.

So, that really pumped me up. I did forget to ask if I meet with the doctor before the surgery for an appointment, but I am 99% sure that I don't see her again until I am wearing the paper gown.

So, 28 days.

Next week is a busy one with my last insurance mandated weigh in on Tuesday, then my pre-op workup on Tuesday and my last bariatric support group meeting before surgery on Wednesday.

Busy is good. Keeps my mind off of things.

I was scheduled to have a tooth cleaning on January 28th, but I have decided to cancel that. I have that mitral valve prolapse and there is an ever-so-slight risk of endocarditis with a dental cleaning and they used to pre-medicate with antibiotics prior to appointments. They no longer pre-medicate and I am just jumpy enough not to want to have even a slight risk of a heart infection.

It's getting close, peeps!!

By the way, I did buy myself a tiny set of flatware. I did not want to eat, post-op, off of plastic baby spoons and forks. Especially since the forks tend to be spork-ish.

So I bought this set online. It really does slow me down. I have been eating with it every day and also using the smaller bowls and plates that I purchased and it does, indeed, slow me down and make me take smaller bites.

Now, when I look at typical forks, I think, man, that looks like a shovel!

Guess who passed her psychological evaluation - Part 1

psych evaluation part 2

Consult, EKG & Chest X-Ray -- DONE.

A-OK

Today was my appointment with the surgeon. I am six weeks into the five month long insurance diet (twenty weeks). That leaves 14 weeks yet to come.

I went in and was weighed. Since it was my pre-poop weight, I was 272. That was a little disappointing, but they said not to worry, since it all helps the insurance process.

We talked about my reasons for surgery and I was told how things would go from here, what supplements they require and such. I was given orders for four tests, an EKG, a chest x-ray, a physiological exam and an endoscopy. I was also given orders to see a nutritionist at month four of the diet.

My endoscopy is scheduled for Halloween, which is eleven days from now, and I took the other orders down and got the ekg, which literally took two minutes, and the chest x-ray, which took a little longer.

I STILL have not gotten the hint to my brain that on days when I am out I have to take a lunch with me. I was STARVING by the end of the appointments and wanted to swim, so I stopped out to a Sheetz station and got a plain turkey and cheese sandwich, a packet of mustard and a banana and ate that in the car. I took most of the bread off, leaving just the meat, cheese and mustard.

I am glad that I ate before I swam. I did a good thirty minutes of laps in the pool and got home just in time for the kids. Tomorrow I am waiting here in the morning for the dishwasher repair guy, so I will try to get some housework done. Then I will swim.

I think I would like to get one of those cute bento boxes and use that for my snacks when I am out. I think I would like that.

The doctor was pleased that I had already done the sleep study and some of the other things. I would say things are progressing nicely. If I can just keep the diverticulitis from flaring during this time before surgery, I will be a happy camper.

Sleep Study - Part II completed.

Yawn! I am tired from last night's sleep study. I did the titration study, which is required if they find out that you have sleep apnea, which I do. I was told that my initial study diagnosed 44 episodes of stopping breathing in an hour. Apnea is diagnosed as moderate if you have more than 14.

So here is the photo of me wired up and ready to put on the mask. I didn't photograph the mask. They used two. The first one was a nose only mask, but not the one that goes into the nose. This one is more like the little nose cup that they use at the dentist office for nitrous.

Halfway through the night, the technician changed my mask to a mouth and nose covering mask. This was because I was beginning to cough from the air drying out my throat. I slept MUCH better after that.

It did take me about two hours to fall asleep though. If I was able to read my book until I was tired, I think I would have dropped off sooner, but they wanted me in the bed, room darkened at ten and I wasn't tired yet.

So, today I am home and now I am off to go wash the glue out of my hair. Hot water and Dawn Dishwashing liquid (diluted). I wish I could go back to bed, but I have a repairman coming at nine.

Decision Making Process & Sleep Study

I have been all over the map since I started the five month insurance mandated diet, which is required prior to weight loss surgery.

At first I thought I would be able to just whip right through it. Not so. I am weighing in today, after the first month or so of dieting and it has not been easy. I don't know if I have lost any weight, because the scales are just all over the place.

I have quit the diet twice and then climbed back up on that bad horse again. It has been hard. I have logged daily and tried to exercise, but many times I have fallen short.

Here are a few of my downfalls:

1. Vanilla Oreos and Black Coffee
2. Nutella and Peanut Butter  - I ONLY crave peanut butter when I am dieting.
3. Reese Cups
4. Popeye's Chicken
5. McDonald's Egg McMuffin (no meat or muffin)

Other than these, I am doing ok.

Well, I am pretty stressed.

I had a sleep study. It was fairly awful. The bed and pills were hard and the cords connecting me to the machine were so short that I could not turn over. The room got hot and I had a terrible time sleeping.

However, I was diagnosed with apnea, having stopped breathing 44 times in an hour of sleep. So I guess it's the CPAP for me. That also means that I no longer have to stick to 40 as the minimum BMI that I can have to still have the surgery. I can go as low as 35 and still qualify. That means I can lose more weight on my own.

This gives me the ability to really give the remaining four months of dieting a full shot and see what I am capable of doing and whether I would relapse or not.

I also started seeing a therapist. I want to get past some childhood issues. Lots of abuse in our household as a kid. My parents are both dead, so I can't confront them, but my father sexually abused me as a kindergartner. I am finding that this is at the core of a lot of body-related and anxiety issues for me. My brothers and sisters completely don't believe me, but another family member was also abused by him and she and I have been able to talk about it.

So I am not just imagining it.

I have a lot of work to do. I even have a self-hypnosis disk to try that, because, well, what if it worked? I want to try everything that I can before I go under the knife.

The Wheel Is Turning

Old Mill, Oil on canvas, 2008 Janet Bowser

I called the Bariatric Center, even though I had some nightmares last night about doing so. Mentally, I am still scared. But I called and my surgical consult is October 20th. I was afraid she was going to schedule it for the 13th of October. I am still that superstitious.

I start my weigh ins on Thursday with my primary care doc. That will go for five months. I will have the following tests done:

1. Blood work
2. sleep study
3. Upper Endoscopy
4. Possible Upper Barium test
5. Stress Test
6. EKG

And probably more. Each time to different doctors. I did find out that the in-home sleep test is frowned upon, as it introduces too many variables into the test and many people who might have apnea are not diagnosed as such.

So there we are. The wheel has begun to turn.

PS. The reason I was so scared is that I was reading about a person who had their staple line leak. Very scary. I know this is a risk. I asked if my surgeon oversews or buttresses the line and she told me that she does. So that makes me feel better, but I am still that person who is going to worry.