How did it go?? Did you talk to Dr. Mitchell?? Who is your consultant at SWLC?? I have kim and I am unsure about her... Fill me in girl!!! When is your date??? Mine is November 30th!!

I am literally sitting here waiting for him to call!!! thanks for responding I was so excited to see someone with the same surgeon and clininc.... I have Kim too, and it has been a week or so, whenever I call she does not answer and I work in nursing so my hours are crazy, we always miss each others calls.

Was November 30th the soonest you could get in?

How did it go??? There were dates sooner than the 30th but that is what worked best with my husbands work schedule. You have to be there a business day b4 surgery so if your scheduled for monday surgery you have to be at the clinic for pre-op tests on Friday then stay in a hotel for the weekend. that is another reason why we picked the 30th. it is a wednesday!!!

I find Kim really hard to get a hold of and takes forever to respond to my emails or voice messages. that is the only thing that worries me about going through with this. Am I paying $16000 for that kind of service???

I sat for two hours! I received an email this morning 8:35am from Kim stating that Dr. Mitchell was available today and tomorrow for a phone consultation today and tomorrow between 5-6 pm MST. I returned her email with confirmation for today and left her a vm to her extension and sat and waited to hear from her or DR. Mitchell. No thing happened. I left her another message this evening..... I am disappointed. I looked back to see when I filled out my patient questionnaire and it was 3 weeks ago.

I had a friend who had her surgery in Miss. 2 years ago and has been such a great support to me. I would love to go to Miss., but driving to Vancouver is just easier and then I could afford for both my husband and I to go together! I just found out 2 days ago that they were offering in Vancouver, Their website does not show that information at all.

I will let you know as soon as I get my consultation.

I am financing the surgery, my friend received almost 4500.00 back at tax time, I guess AHS will pay 1200.00 toward it and the rest is medical expenses. I need to get more information from her about it.

I am so eager to get this ball rolling.... It was hard to make the decision to finally have surgery, invest a lot of money, make arrangements with work for both my husband and I, I was hoping for better response time from Kim..... it should be faster to make this easier!!!

I will keep in touch and thanks for your response!

BOO!! I am a self payer as well, Maybe something came up with Dr. Mitchell. I hope you get it all under control. I know you are in Alberta but are you close enough to Calgary to see him at his office??

I hope this all works out for you today!!!! <3

That head game you describe in your blog is what I call 'the internal monologue' and I have to say its nearly quiet these days. Not only was it a promise to be perfect, then it was, ok I ate whatever, so now I have to do this exercise or not eat the rest of the day. I'm sure you know what I mean. It was constant and I guess, for me, it was there for 20 years! (I'm 48)

Anyway I still hear some of it once in a while but probably 98% less! And when that voice says "You shouldnt have eaten that, or its bad that you didnt go for a walk" the next voice says calm down, you are at a normal BMI now and you dont wake up obese tomorrow because a few normal but not-so-good choices!

I LOVE being a normal weight about as much as I love the almost quiet internal monologue! Good luck...be persistent! I also self payed and it was the best money I ever spent!!

Thank you guys for your support and encouragement.... it means the world to me right now!!!!

Don't be discouraged. You'll get there. You've made such a huge leap to make the decision to change the rest of your life!! It will happen; you will make it happen. Keep us posted!!!

Hey, I have the same doctor and clinic and I am scheduled for October 17. Good luck with your surgery and keep us posted. I'll let you know how my surgery goes. Vancouver will be nice at this time of year.

As to the internal dialogue, I've been having a similar one for 30 years, and I can tell you it gets me down. Thanks to Xavier for letting me know, that there is hope that this "internal monologue" can go away! I look forward to that most of all.