PJ384

Hello
  Iam going to be 57 in December and I just didn't see that I was ever going to be able to lose the weight I needed to just by dieting and problems with my knees limited my exercise options so I decided I needed to take a more derastic approach to getting the weight off so I would be able to remain active and enough whats left of my life my biggest fear is becoming unable to walk and problems with my legs knees and feet were getting worse and they are all weight related so its just time to be done with this weight problem I have had since my late teens I started gaining weight after my Dad was killed in a car wreck when I was 17 and it has just never gotten better I have had limited short term success on many diet plans but nothing that worked long term for me or I would not be here now.So I went online and found the TMC weight loss center and began the long journey to getting my insurance to approve me for this surgery first up was letters from my doctors that was the easy part they wrote wonderful letters fully supporting my surgery and giving very good reasons why I should be approved my knee surgeon saying I was going to have to have knee replacement surgery in the near future and I would be able to put it off longer if I lost the weight and that even when I did have to have it done having lost the weight would greatly improve my recovery and increase my mobility after surgery and my primary care wrote that my extreme high blood pressure is barely contained by my medicationand Iam on 320 mil Diovan now plus LD aspirin and that getting the weight off would no doubt lower my blood pressure and greatly reduce my chance of a heart attack or stroke as well as the possibility of developing diabetes as it runs in my family in the later years.
Next came the pre op mental evaluation with the inhouse pyschcologist she was great we just sat and talked for about an hour about what all I had done to lose weight in my lifetime and what bad eating habits I had such a snacking when bored tired or lonely and why I was at the point I felt this was the right thing for me at this stage of my life.At the end of the time she smiled and said I think your a great candidate for this surgery and I will write my report for your file reccomending your for the surgery.
Next Came the pre approval weight loss which was in my case join weight watchers for 6 months or go to 8 weeks of nutritional counseling with the inhouse nutritionist andso I did look into the weight watchers thing but found the nearest meeting place was still a hundred miles from where I lived so I decided I may as well do the 8 week thing which was just a little further for me but it was only once a week for 2 months as apposed to once a week for 6 months this was a total waste of time and gas as far as Iam concerned I would show up sit in the waiting room for 10 to 15 minutes go back and see her for about 5 to 10 minutes and she said nothing much to me she would just ask how my week was and was I drinking enough water and was I swimming for my exercise plan and she would make a note of what I said and I was outta there I was really expecting it would be more nutritionally informative but anyway .
Next came the wait for them to submit the paperwork to my insurance and I know my insurance people they are fast and johnny on the spot with approvals usually within an hour well it was more like 10 days before I got anything back and that was only after numerous phone calls to the Dr.s office and getting the run around ie the girl who I needed to talk to was out of the office due to family problems and apparently nobody else knows how to use the fax machine finally I called my insurance directly and was told it was currently in review well about an hour after I hung up with my insurance people the Dr.s office called to say I had been approved.
Next came the pre op class to tell me what to expect before during and after surgery this class was 3 hours long and consisted of several work sheets and step by step information on what I would need to do prior to surgery ie. the protien shakes to shrink my liver as much as possible and what I would need to pay out of my own pocket as my insurance covers only 80% of the surgery so in my case it would be 680.00 plus whatever the a anesthesiologist charges and the doctors cost as well so Iam expecting a total between 1000.00 and 1200.00 dollars in out of pocket costs.and the after surgery diet from the liquid diet to follow for 2 weeks after surgery to the soft and mushy food for the next 3 to 4 weeks then gradually adding back normal foods as I can tolerate them learning to chew my food throughly before swallowing something I will really have to work on as I tend to east fast due to childhood issues and learning to not drink while eating and to wait 30 minutes after eating to drink due to it flushing the food throught the pocket and shorting the sense of fullness I would feel and possibly making me want to eat more or to eat again.
And now here I sit waiting for the surgery which will be august 31st if all goes well with my blood work I will have on the 26th of August and we will see how it goes from there.