Pinky Green

Sorry for the double post.

Finally scheduled for surgery September 26 with Dr. Yu in Houston. Start my 2 week pre-op diet Wednesday. I am past ready for this. I have been ready for several weeks. Now things will start to be fast. I have my pre-op exam on Sept 19th.

Well, they needed a letter of medical necessity and a medical release from my PCP and she sent it as one letter and they only counted it as the release.

My insurance approved me and I'm waiting for them to schedule my pre-op appointment and my surgery!!

Now I'm anxiously waiting for them to schedule me. How long does it usually take to get the surgery after you are approved. My doctor has a 2 week pre-op diet so I assume it will be at least 2 weeks from now but since I haven't gotten the call to be scheduled I'm not sure when that will start.

I like the Carbmaster - just wish they would make the Mixed Berry in Carbmaster. Kroger has a good Lite Yogurt also that is 80 calories but not low carb and I love the Mixed Berry - usually get the Carbmaster and then get a few Kroger Lite Mixed Berry also.

Whatever your doctor gives you, try the Zicam also. It really does seem to work for me. I have a long history of having colds progress into bronchitis. I have had 2 colds that didn't go to bronchitis and none that did go since I discovered that Zicam seems to work.

Oh and my nutritionist suggested when you are in puree stage you could add some pureed meat or meat baby food to some soup to make it a little more filling and help you get your protein.

You could add some unflavored protein powder to the yogurt to get a little more protein and make it a little more filling.

I finished up all the insurance and the doctor's requirements - psych evaluation, cardiac evaluation, PCP recommendation and clearance, NUT and nutrition class, endoscopy and colonoscopy and they have submitted me to insurance (CIGNA). Hope I get approved quickly and can do my 2 week pre-op diet and get my surgery in mid-September. Hope to have it then so that I'm on solid food by Thanksgiving.

Almond milk only has one gram of protein per serving.

I finished the 3 weight loss management classes in 3 months, the Nutrition class, the cardiac clearance, the psych evalution, all the bloodwork and got a recommendation and clearance letter from my PCP. Now I just have to do the Endoscopy and the Colonoscopy. I am doing that tomorrow and the paperwork on my procedure says that it takes 10 business days to get the results from them. Question - is the endoscopy and colonoscopy required by the insurance usually or is it a requirement of the surgeon so he knows what's going on there before the surgery? In other words, am I ready for them to submit to insurance for my approval or will I have to wait for the Endoscopy/Colonoscopy to get insurance approval? I have Cigna if that makes a difference.

I finished the 3 weight loss management classes in 3 months, the Nutrition class, the cardiac clearance, the psych evalution, all the bloodwork and got a recommendation and clearance letter from my PCP. Now I just have to do the Endoscopy and the Colonoscopy. I am doing that tomorrow and the paperwork on my procedure says that it takes 10 business days to get the results from them. Question - is the endoscopy and colonoscopy required by the insurance usually or is it a requirement of the surgeon so he knows what's going on there before the surgery? In other words, am I ready for them to submit to insurance for my approval or will I have to wait for the Endoscopy/Colonoscopy to get insurance approval? I have Cigna if that makes a difference.

You misread, she was turned down in 2008. She had her surgery this past March.

You misread, she was turned down in 2008. She had her surgery this past March.

A cake pop is a piece of cake on a stick - like a Popsicle. It's kind of a new thing I think. I hadn't heard of it until a few months ago.

Maybe, we didn't split it for them or bring an extra salad but we did bring an extra plate and silverware. The owner felt that justified the plate charge - but our's was just $2.00.

"a couple of pieces of lunch meat rolled up" = lots of sodium usually

I used to work at a restaurant that charged a "plate fee" when someone split a meal. All the waitresses hated it. It pretty much guaranteed that we didn't get a tip. You really should have tipped the waitress. Most likely they didn't get any of the split fee . And if we didn't charge it and the manager found out we would have been fired. Not only that most of the times waitresses are paid minimum wage for tipped employees, which is much less than tipped employees. When the I was working tables the minimum wage was $5.25 but the minimum wage for tipped employees was $2.01.

I found out last night I had bedbugs..I went to the store and got bedbug spray, new sheets and laundry detergent since I was out. I put the new sheets on the bed and washed the old sheets and this morning I sprayed and inspected and sprayed some more. I live in Texas and I'm used to roaches. And they are bad enough but these things bite without provocation.

What exactly is a PICC line and TPN?

It's bad enough that I have sleep apnea and now I have this stress too. And I have knee problems that make doing all the exterminating and cleaning myself is difficult. I told my boyfriend that if I can't get rid of the problem myself I will have to call an exterminator.

I weighted 242 pounds and lost down to 175... and then gained it back in less than 6 months. Stress I guess. I noticed that it was getting harder and harder to walk and then my knee started to hurt all of a sudden. Really bad. I went to a doctor someone recommended. He did a CAT scan and said it was a bone bruise and it would get better. I went the next month and he still said the same thing even though it wasn't getting better. Finally I asked him to give me something for pain and he gave me a prescription for darvocet for one month. My friends said he wasn't doing anything for me and I should go to another doctor. I went to another doctor who acted like I was some kind of drug addict for changing doctors. But he gave me another prescription for darvocet. A few days later I forgot to take the darvocet and went to work and couldn't get up from my chair to go to the bathroom. I called my doctor and he was on vacation. I went to his backup doctor who actually diagnosed my arthritis but gave me arthritis medicine, how about that, a brace and a steroid shot. He told me if I didn't lose weight I would need knee replacement surgery in 5 years. Now, I had a doctor recommend WLS for me years before. But that was when most of the people you heard about getting WLS were over 300 lbs and I only weighed about 220. But now smaller people were getting it and I was facing a choice of knee replacement surgery or WLS. And then the wife of a friend of mine had gastric bypass surgery and lost 170 pounds. My friend kept at me to get it before it was too late. Then in April of last year, I met my beautiful new granddaughter Desiray. And I want to take her to the park and the beach - museums and festivals. Bike riding and swimming. And I want to move to Central America when I retire and be another grandma doing zip lines in Costa Rica with my granddaughter. Plus, the process has gotten me diagnosed with Type II Diabetes, sleep Apnea and something called Hypertension-Related Heart Disease, without Heart Failure

See, I don't see having chocolate as a bad thing.. but for me it's not any kind of trigger food. I like to get a big bar of 70% Cacoa Chocolate and put it in the freezer and eat one small square a day and savor it. Dark chocolate is really good for you, not so much sugar and full of antioxidants. As long as you don't go crazy with it, I say eat a little chocolate.

I was a diet coke addict. I switched to tea first, then I bought both decaf and regular tea for while and had half cafeinated and half decaf. Then I went to straight decaf. No headaches at all.