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About this blog

My WLS path

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An introduction of sorts

My journey into WLS-land officially began in December of 2012. It's hard to write this without 15 paragraphs of backstory, but maybe that will fill in with time.   I was told that I would probably not be on any fast track to getting to into surgery. I hadn't been to the doctor in about 3 years & my diabetes and blood pressure had since been running out of control. Still, when they said it would probably be 4-6 months before I'd be up for the surgery I thought to myself that I could handle that. Besides, from the basic outline of the Lahey pre-req's.. it almost seemed like a minimum amount of 3 months would be needed to get everything out of the way regardless. I took this all very seriously & immediately rolled up my sleeves & got to work.   I record every single piece of food that goes into my mouth on the Daily Plate/Livestrong.com. I alternate a bit with my exercise, but try to get in an hour walk @ 3mph & now I'm adding in some basic bodyweight training at home. I'm recording my blood sugar daily. I'm keeping my calories under 1500 (without feeling deprived or hungry). I joined a group on Livestrong that challenges you to "lose 100 lbs in one year" with weekly weigh in's. I was also tracking my exercise on a fitness page with some kindred spirits (to a degree) but when I got it off my chest that WLS was in my future.. I kinda regretted it. I still look there for inspiration, but no more posts.   My progress seems to have paid off some. When I last saw my bariatric nurse I had lost 29lbs since 12/20 & the next day I got a call with a surgery date of 4/1. Immediately after the call was a "oh S**t" moment that lasted a good half hour. I'm not scared of the surgery.. I think I'm more scared of this being taken away from me now more than anything.
Andi

Andi

2
 

As Genesis sings, "That's all"

Just as I thought it was going alright, I found out I'm wrong when I thought I was right, always the same, its just a shame, that's all   As I was on my merry way to do my hospital preadmissions the phone rang. Insurance decided to throw a curve ball 3 weeks prior to surgery. Now they want 6 months of documented medical weight loss, which wouldn't be so bad if my insurance wasn't going to be up before then. My insurance is linked to unemployment, which I am not most likely not going to have for June +. I can't apply for state insurance, because I already have insurance.. I'm just stuck.   Get a new job? Yes I know, and then expect that I can take a couple weeks off once I have insurance there? That's probably another year, and then get told that I have to dance through 10+ doctor appointments again. I've noted to myself several times during this that I wouldn't have been able to do all these appointments with my previous places of employment.   Still, I get to drive out to Burlington tomorrow to meet with a surgeon to discuss a surgery that he'll probably never do & see a nutritionist to discuss a post op diet that I probably won't be need to be following. Still, the was the last of my requirements.. so I'm going to see that through. Maybe it will help some time in the future.   In the meanwhile, I'm going to try my best to keep on the wagon best I can. I'm very goal oriented, but it requires outside checkpoints. I'm just going to work on what I can & hope that I don't become "weak" like before.
Andi

Andi

1
 

.. game on?

Well, I thought my last entry would be it.. or it for a long time. I spent a couple days mourning what I thought was the end of the road (or major speed bump). It was a little bitter on Monday as I tried not to think about that being the day that my 2 week countdown (and liquid diet) would have started. Then Wednesday I receive a letter from my insurance.. now saying that my surgery date (which I was positive was gone) was now approved for April 1st-April 3rd. It's been a bit of a roller coaster. I left a message for my nurse and felt disappointed that they had received a copy faxed & no one had followed up with me. I was expecting to get a call & have them basically in the same boat.. getting ready to look at June appointments (which again puts a BIG kink in my insurance situation).   I started the morning with a nice surprise. My A1C had gone from a 9 in November to 4.1 or something crazy when tested last week. I'm hoping that my physical tomorrow is on the happier side. My nurse called me back from the bariatric dept & asked if I was still up for this. I said yes, but had that sad feeling of bad news to come. When the dept called me back to discuss my surgery date.. somehow they were able to squeeze in my original date of April 1st! I didn't really think it would be possible. I had missed almost a week of the 2 week mandatory liquid diet & when I received the original bad news about my surgery date getting kicked to the curb, I had been on my way to do the various blood tests and all that. The nurse advised that if I started the liquid diet tomorrow, we could be game on!   So, I rushed out and picked up a few boxes of the New Direction shakes. I am still on the cautious side about getting my emotions too high up. Tuesday I'm going to get my blood work done & I'm just going to hope for the best, but still hang on to some doubts.. just to try to avoid a complete emotional crash if this falls apart again.   Till then.. lots of finger crossing and breath holding
Andi

Andi

1
 

Post Op info class

Tonight I had an appointment at Lahey, well I thought I had 2, but it turned out into being a class with a few other ladies there. It hosted by the other bariatric nurse & nutritionist (we get assigned a team, but I've met the other "team" during these group meetings). It was an overall good presentation with some good to know info. It started off with the nurse giving an us an idea what to expect on the day of surgery & how to best prepare. The 2nd portion was the nutritionist going over our after surgery diet & supplements.   I thought that I already knew quite a bit from reading other folk's posts, but I did learn some things tonight: No driving for 1 week after the surgery
Prior to the surgery, no vitamins for 2 weeks & no pain medications other than Tylenol
Breathing exercises 40-50 times day (to help prevent pneumonia)
No gas-x strips required, they'll provide some if needed (after I just ordered some, of course)
Prilosec for 1 month & Actigall (gallstone prevention) for 6 months
Bye Bye steak & pork for about 3 months. Also raw veggies other than lettuce & tomatoes
If a food gets stuck, DO NOT TAKE A SIP of something to try to fix it (get up and walk around instead)
Being full is not going to be experienced the same way. Hiccups, burps or a runny nose could be the signal
  I had been growing a little concerned seeing people posting about dealing with their insurance companies & with approval/denial forms. It seems Lahey took care of all that, and if an issue does/did come up they try to resolve it. Pretty nice   Overall, feeling pretty good. Next week has a total of 7 appointments for me (groan) but I think some of them will just kinda slide into one another (hospital admissions to the nurse examination, etc) so it shouldn't be too too bad. The reality of all this is starting to lurk back into the picture, but I'm not freaking out again (yet).
Andi

Andi

3
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