My one week anniversary! Woohoo! I'll never forget March 23rd. That day didn't come off without a hitch. I travelled from a Northeastern point of PA to Smithtown, LI, NY. Mapquest and GPS speaking , it's a 2hr 30min drive. In reality, it's about a 3-4 hour trip and I don't know what I was thinking. I had to make sure that our 5 children were secured in school and daycare before we headed out. 3 of my children were dropped off at a neighbor's house at 6:45 am. They don't normally wake up until 7. My 2 babies were safe and secure at daycare by 7. They had no idea why they were so tired, bless their hearts. No one knew about my surgery, except my hubby and 2 of my friends. Everyone thought I was at court as a witness for a medical case.... I've even had to write down my stories on my iphone calendar to keep track of what I told who. I've worked so hard at keeping my secret because I come from a long line of judgemental family members and a circle of friends who like to talk. I don't like to be the object of anyones stories. Besides, this is for me, not for them.
My appointment was set for 10:30 arrival with an 11:30 scheduled surgery. HA! Have you ever driven into NYC on a Monday morning during rush hour??? Needless to say, I got there late, cursing my head off the whole way, hitting traffic in place I NEVER hit traffic in the entire 6 months I was going for consults and tests and appointments and procedures and appointments... you get the picture. Poor planning on my part. What I should have done was left the night before, spent the night at my parents house in Brooklyn and drove from there. The problem was that I needed a driver for the ride home, and there was no one to watch my children but my DH. I couldn't ask anyone to take the kids earlier than 6:45, because it would have been asking for too much. I did what I had to do!
I got to ambulatory surgery at nearly 11 and I was all freaked out that they would turn me away. Dr. Nick even had one of the nurses call me at 8:30 to find out if I could come in earlier because he was running early. DAMN! I could have gone in earlier. They were so nice in ambulatory. They took me in and did all the pre-op stuff they were supposed to do. I saw nurses and techs and support group leaders and nutritionists and the nurse anethesist and anethesiologist.
Hi, everyone!
Just a quick update.
I did my upper GI this week. That sucked! That barium stuff was really nasty and I was real close to throwing it all up, but I hung in. I hope never to do that again, but I keep telling myself that it will all be worth it in the end. I got my report from my psych consult... apparantly I'm not crazy :drum:.
This week is the last of all my evals... it's going to be busy. I have my stress echo on Wednesday afternoon, sleep study on Wednesday night and EGD on Thursday morning and then I'm all done with the consults and tests and scans and x-rays! Yay!!! So far, thank God, I'm healthy, except that I was just diagnosed with Diabetes last week and have been put on oral hypoglycemics for now. :thumbup:. Oh, well. At least I caught it now. My A1cs have been abnormal and we have been monitoring it. Unfortunately, despite my change in lifestyle, it was still elevated. It just gives me more motivation to take better care of myself :thumbup:.
I finally got my medical letter from my pcp. Wow! That may have been the most difficult task of all! She was so apprehensive about writing the letter and she's never had a patient opting to do any kind of WLS, so I've pretty much had to coach her thru the entire process. I even had to advise her on the medical consult letter. It was frazzling! Thankfully, the girls at my bariatric center have been able to coach ME thru the entire process. I don't know if it was because she was unsure of the process and needed guidance, or if she felt as if she was committing some kind of fraud, or if she is just old school and felt I could do it the old fashioned way. In any event, that's out of the way!
My biggest fear now is getting the insurance approval! My BMI had never gotten to 40, even at my highest. I'm down to 36 or 37 now and I am afraid of losing any more and not getting approved. My center has assured me that they have not been denied yet, but there is always a first time! I'm trying to be positive, but I've always been a pessimist so it's stressing me.
My next visit with the nutritionist is March 5, where I will be receiving further instructions and begin my pre-op diet. I'm so nervous. I hope I can get thru this diet. I'm gonna have to. I can tell everyone that I am doing a cleansing diet for the Lenten season. What great timing! It's so hard to keep this secret. The lies are just piling on top of each other and I'm losing track of everything I'm telling people. I think one of my friends is on to me because her hairdresser is actually one of the medical assistants at my dr's office. My friend keeps quizzing me when I go out of town or do something out of the ordinary. Maybe its my paranoia!
