information extravaganza!

Today was the day.  It started out a bit rocky.  My appointment was at 11:00am to see the nurse for 20 minutes and then the doctor for 20 minutes.

So I got there on time and gave them my insurance info...and the lady said "if you look to the left you can choose your packet of information".  So it had a privacy notice and a medicare information flyer and... a health care directive to fill out.  whoa...talk about bringing in some reality quick!

So as I sat there and pondered my mortality...I saw a few people come and go...and the clock ticked on...and on...and on.... so at 11:45 they finally called me in.  I might have been more upset but I had just left my office where we were running about 40 minutes behind too.  Did I mention last night was a full moon??

So the nurse took me in.  We did all the official measurements.  My BMI came out to 41.  This means that I don't have to mess with a lot of other tests and things to show the insurance company that I am a good candidate for this surgery. YAY!  They double checked my insurance and Harvard Pilgrim does not require any special hoops to jump through other than the normal procedures for coverage.  DOUBLE YAY!!

They went over my health history with me.  They asked if I'd had a scope before. say what?! "no".  Ok, well Dr Trieu does a scope before any gastric surgery.  They put you to sleep and go down your throat with a scope to check out your stomach.  He wants to be sure there are no little surprises down there, you know, like ulcers and nasty bacteria growing before he sets out to do major surgery.  Ok.  That makes sense.  They tell me I need to see the dietitian 3x. Once a month.  And they tell me they'll have the office call me to schedule the psych eval.  This is mostly to make sure that if I was emotionally compromised they could work out any problem with meds ahead of time.  She said in 8 years they've only had two people who no longer qualified after the psych eval.."it's mostly just a pain because it takes about 2 and a half hours"...whoa...really??  I didn't know I could feel that much about food...lol...but I guess they cover all bases.

So then I get a binder (yeah, really) that has information in it.  Holy Cow does it! ;)  It also contains my "homework" that I need to start.  This includes sheets for my food log.  1.)Whatever goes in your mouth gets written down.  2.) eat 3 meals a day. 3.) 30 minutes/meal...slow down . no distractions.  no t.v. pay attention to what you eat. 4.) chew- you need to chew each bite to the consistency of applesauce before swallowing. 5.) no soda/ NO bubbles.

Not a lot of surprises there.  I asked the question we all wanted to know.  Yes, the pre-surgery diet is for two weeks fluids only.  (Jay thinks he will need to work a lot of hours that two weeks.)  Seriously, this is what I think will be the hardest part, but I'm hoping it will be so close to reality at that point I will be excited and not focus on starving...

They also gave me a calender of when all the support groups meet for the next few months.  I just need to pick 3 to go to.  I can show up to any of them.

So... timeline?  They said it takes 4- 6 months.  4 months means I can hopefully be looking at a date in September!  They told me they don't want to speed anything up quicker than 4 months anyway.  Everyone who walks through the door thinks they are ready for this yesterday.  But they have to make sure that physically and emotionally they are not going to make us worse.  Do no harm really seems to mean something there.  So they took my picture to be able to look back at it. ;)

Now, Dr Trieu came in.  Yeah, that was all with the nurse.  He went back over the med history.  Asked again about my prior surgeries and double checked that I'm not a smoker.  He was very nice.  Younger than I was expecting for some reason.  He checked my lungs and stomach. He talked to me about options and agreed that I was a great candidate for the sleeve. ;)

Talked to me about eating being as much emotional as physical, and asked me if I had questions about the actual surgery.  I really didn't have much.  Mentioned that my blood pressure dropped pretty significantly in prior surgeries and asked him if that bothered him.  He said no it was so many years ago he felt I should be fine. Good thing they gave me that advanced directive, huh?

So... still with me??  Now I started looking through the binder.  There's a lot of info here, but you know I went right to the sample menus, right??  ;)

Phase 1: at the hospital and for two weeks after leaving:

Breakfast:  1/2 cup decaffeinated tea
                  1/2 cup low sodium broth

Lunch:         1/2 cup flavored water
                    1/2 cup sugar free jello

Dinner:         1/2 cup low sodium broth
                    1/2 cup sugar free jello


yep...that's it.  Phase 1.  I better freakin lose some weight!!  ;)

I'll go into more phases next time...I think that's really enough to think about for now. Guess what?  It's real now!!  We're on our way!  Thanks for staying with me!

~ Mikki