Hi Everyone

I saw the WLS surgeon and his staff for the first time on June 17th 2015. They all seemed to be very nice and attentive. I was the only patient there which was good as my scooter took up most of their narrow hallway. There was no way I was able to get it into the examining room so after they weighed me I had to wall across the narrow hallway to the room. Adrienne asked me for all my paper work which I had to fill out from their online site. She took the names of all my meds and my medical story. She told me I had to follow a six month supervised diet and get a whole bunch of tests done before they could even send in the paper work for approval. The Dr came in and explained the surgery to me (which I already knew about because of all the research and the reading of Alex's sleeve surgery book.) gave me his blue book that explained everything and said I would have to see the NUT and that Adrienne would schedule that for me. I told him about Nutrisystem and the hernia and other medical problems I had. He told me to stay with Nutrisystem for this first month and to keep a food diary. He wanted a Catscan of the lower part of the body to see where the hernia is and he would see me again July 22nd. I did see the NUT on June 29th. Why I have no idea, as what she had to say to me was exactly what I had read in the blue book. So as far as I am concerned it was a wasted 3 1/2 hours of my time.

On July 22nd I was weighed in again by Adrienne. I had lost 10 pounds. Again I was the only patient there. I asked her to look into why I was being charged $250.00 for the NUT when I was under the impression she was part of the Dr's staff. She said she would. I also gave her all the copies of the NS bills for the food I had gotten from them over the last year. Also gave her the Catscan results. The Dr came in and was happy I had lost the 10 pounds, looked at the food diary and said I should get off of NS. I told him I had at least another month's worth of food I still had to use up as I was not about to throw away that money. He said don't order any more and try to eat protein first then vegs, then fruits and carbs last. He told me I had an umbilical hernia and a porcelain gallbladder. He would take out the gallbladder if and when I had the WLS. As for the hernia he wants to leave it in as he said it could come back again if he removed it. He would rather wait until I have lost weight to take it out. Besides he thinks that taking out three things might be too much time in surgery for me. I am a bit concerned as the hernia I believe is located in the area directly above my belly button which is one of the locations for an incision. I will need to discuss this with him in more detail when I see him again Aug 24th. He told me I only had 4 more visits with him as the first visit counts toward the 6 months supervised diet. That also sounded odd to me and will have to discuss that with him a well.

I will post again after the 3rd visit on Aug 24th. Have a Happy and Healthy life till then.