Getting a sleeve done... start to finish

[DelawareWoman 37]

Hi. I'm Sherry.. 41 single mom of a 20 year old, high functioning autistic son with a myriad of health issues.. I work 2 jobs.. about 70 hours a week now that Christmas is over and my second job settled down and there isn't another trial at my day job until July. Needless to say I don't focus on me much. I don't have time but I'm making time now. I had to have female surgery back in October and in doing so hit my out of pocket max (except for $300) until the end of the fiscal year April 30. I found out my insurance covers bariatric surgery and with my max met, it would be covered 100% so here I am. I've always been a little chunky. 12 -14 in high school. 219 pounds when I found out I was pregnant at 20. 235 when I gave birth. I managed to stay in the low 200's until I hit my 30's and I got put on seroquel for my bipolar. I then ... blossomed??? up to 315 pounds. Everything became hard... sitting in the movies with my mom and she'd tell me.. not in a whisper either.. to quit breathing so hard.. are you ok? I started back to weight watchers several times.. I went to the gym.. I did diet bets. (I love them). I did MyFitnessPal. I would lose a little weight.. burn out.. and gain it back. I got back up to 297 this time when I stated weight watchers AGAIN. I lost down to 280 then had my surgery and now it hasn't moved in 2 months. I am currently 276.8 nekkid on my home scale. The Dr. scale has me at 282.8 with shoes and my apple watch on. I went in for my consult 12/10/18 on my son's 20th birthday. Since then it's been a whirlwind. They scheduled all my appointments that day. Cardiologist, pulmonologist, nutritionist, endoscopy, and psych. So far I've been cleared at psychiatry.. how that happened I have no idea since I'm a fruitcake. My bipolar is stable and I had good reasons. 30 minute appointment cleared. NEXT! I went to my second pulmonology appointment today. I was told my lung function is good but I have to have a sleep study done to rule out or treat apnea. It can be done at home. They will call me in a week to pick up the machine. I was worried about that one. I work 5 nights a week at the store and didn't know how I would get a night off. My next appointment is Nutrition on Thursday .. then next week (Monday) I have my second nutrition appointment, cardiology on Tuesday and my endoscopy on Thursday. I'm curious about the endoscopy... my son has eosinophilic esophagitis. Im curious to see how my scope compares to his.

[AngieD3 5]

Thank you for sharing your story, I don’t have children or two jobs but you are an absolute inspiration good luck on your weight-loss. 😊

[DelawareWoman 37]

Thank you. I am just starting out but I can’t wait to see how it goes. Best of luck to you on your journey also. :)

[DelawareWoman 37]

Yesterday was my first nutrition appointment. I got info on what's coming up, a calorie and Protein goal until surgery, and info about baritastic which I had downloaded but not tried to use yet. Yesterday I logged all my food. I met my calorie goal but not my protein goal. I should have had a Premier Protein shake. I'll have one today. I have some in the fridge here at work but not sure if they are expired or not. I'll have to look at that. If they are, I'll pick some up at bjs this weekend. I go back to nutrition on Monday to meet with Fran. (I had Amy yesterday) and she said to talk to Fran about what CHRIAS told me about not losing weight. Amy said that is really strange. I told Amy that to keep my weight where it was I'm eating cheeseburgers and fries. Its not what I usually eat but I'm usually on a diet. LOL For like the last 25 years I've been on a diet.. not that it's gotten me anywhere. Today I'm doing the best I can with my protein. At lunch time I will have had 890 calories and 57 grams of protein. That's not bad on a 1600 calorie diet. Not sure what I will have for dinner. I know I still need to add a shake and that will get me the protein I need for the day.. but I'll be under calories if I stop there. I need to start planning better.

[DelawareWoman 37]

I went back to my second nutrition appointment yesterday and asked a bunch of questions. I was told I can lose weight which is opposite of what the front desk at my drs office told me. So I will start working on that but not in excess. I was also told that she feels I should have a 4th appointment as I didn't gain much from my first appointment. crap. So I'll have to schedule that. I went to cardiology today and was told my ekg looked good.. slightly elevated blood pressure (I just started bp meds) and I told him of my fathers heart history. Now I have to go for an echocardiogram and a stress test. For crying out loud .. so what I thought would be my one and only cardiology appointment is now the first of 4. My next appointment is endoscopy on Thursday. I swear if they find something wrong I'm cancelling this whole thing. I'm getting really frustrated. I like to think, aside from being fat and slightly elevated blood pressure (144/88 today) that I'm healthy. My father (450 pounds, COPD, bovine heart valve, smoking, drinking, factor 5, diabetes, etc.. ) is not. I'm trying not to be him. I'm down from 315 nekkid to 274 (277.6 clothed at the drs) .. if they keep making me wait and lose weight I'm worried I won't be approved. I was 282.8 at my first appointment. They had my height wrong at my initial appointment and I think it might finally be fixed but I don't want it to look like I gained weight either if my bmi is reported wrong. I'm really getting nervous with all these additional hoops.. am I really not in good health or do I just have people being overly cautious. I still need to set up my sleep study, too.

[DelawareWoman 37]

It's been a busy week. I had my endoscopy yesterday and waiting to hear results on that.. the hardest part of the endoscopy was drinking this really thick solution they give you to numb your throat. They say swish and swallow.. I drink it down and TRY to swish.. NOTHING! There was no swishing that was gonna happen.. so I look at them and they see me start to gag and tell me swallow fast. I did then they take me back.. an hour later I wake up and am singing along to the country music they have on and there's a real cute nurse.. If only I had already lost weight and didn't look a hot mess! Man he was cute.. probably too young anyway. He couldn't have been more than 38. I've got a good 5 years on him and no time to date. Oh well. LOL I enjoyed my day off and lounging in bed half asleep and not having to work for a change. Back to it today and working both jobs til midnight. I hope the weather this weekend isn't going to be as bad as they say it is. I work 1-930 Sat and Sun and I don't have groceries to take into work for lunch/dinner. Next week I hit the ground running again. I have to leave my day job at 4 to get to the sleep study place to pick up the machine before job 2. I hope it's not hard to set up. Tuesday I have to get up early. My son has his med check at the psychiatrist. Wednesday I turn in the machine before work then work both jobs. Thursday I have a quiet day and Friday I have the echo before work then work the second job. The following week isnt too bad. The only dr appointment I have is the stress test. It will almost be like a vacation! Then I have 2 appointments the following week and 3 the week after.. then maybe I'll have some news! Fingers crossed.

[Frustr8 7,886]

Sending hopeful prayers to Heaven on your behalf👼🙏. You really are having to run,to get this all done, but I believe the end results will be in your favor. Do you have a potential date for your surgery yet? Please continue to update us, okay?

[DelawareWoman 37]

I haven't heard back from the doctor yet on my endoscopy results but I logged into my bariatric app and read the discharge notes on the endoscopy. Apparently I have GERD. I didn't know that. I wonder what that will do to my surgery or if I have a hernia like my friend does and that is why my throat makes funny noises sometimes or food gets stuck. I never thought much of it. ON the positive side, the nurse at the desk said that I don't have to maintain my weight and that I should be losing so I'm ok there. My scale read 269.8 today! Of course that was in all my glory and not dressed at the drs but still, it was the first time I've seen that number in a long time. I hope I'm still there tomorrow. We will see.

I have to leave work early tonight to go to the sleep study center to pick up the machine for the at home sleep study. I got up twice in the middle of the night last night due to female issues. I hope I can sleep through the night tonight so I don't have to do that and get an inaccurate reading.

[Frustr8 7,886]

If you have GERD they may advise you to switch to bypass, sleeve will not cute that, in fact it usually makes it worse.
Foot getting stuck could mean you have an esophageal stricture or the valve between your esophagus and stomach is a little wookey, might be another strike against a sleeve. But your doctor will know more of your particular case than I do. Not a doctor, not a nurse. just another bariatric journeyer on her own trek.

[DelawareWoman 37]

So the sleep study was done.. that was annoying. I haven't gotten the results back yet but hopefully soon. I think I did it wrong the first night and put it on backwards. I also got annoyed in my sleep and disconnected the pulse oximeter. Echocardiogram was done 1/25/19. On Saturday, 1/26, I got a call from Chrias surgicenter. They set a date for my surgery. 3/12/19. I have to have an xray done still and they said to do my bloodwork right away. So tomorrow I'll do that, Wednesday I have my appointment for surgery clearance with my pcp. Thursday I have the stress test and the chest xray. And I thought this week was going to be a quiet week. LOL. Then next week I only have the cardiologist. Hopefully I'll get clearance then from him. The following week I have my (hopefully) last pre-surgery nutrition on Monday. Thursday 2/14 I have to check in with Chrias. Friday I have my normal psych appointment. I wonder what he'll say about meds. I was talking with a coworker and she said rather than jump right in to the liquids on 2/26 maybe I should ease into it ahead of time. I think starting 2/20 I am going to switch my dinner meal to a shake and stop soda 2/14

[DelawareWoman 37]

I called Chrias today. Yesterday I went and did my stress test and chest xray and a mammogram (not sleeve related but my primary wanted it) and the cardiologist upped my BP meds and said see you in 6 months, so I guess that means I'm cleared. I have to go in for a bp check with my primary next week. I think, aside from nutrition which I go see on 2/11, I am all cleared and ready for insurance submission. Chrias cancelled my 2/14 appointment and set me for a preop on 2/20. I go see my psych for my med review on 2/15. I told him about everything last time I talked to him. I hope he's ready to deal with my crazy after the surgery. I'm so excited.. everything is lining up. Just over a month to go.

[DelawareWoman 37]

I had my last nutrition appointment yesterday. I’m doing my best not to keep bothering Rica. She was waiting on one clearance from pulmonology and my last nutrition to submit. She called about 11 this morning. I’ve been submitted to insurance!! This is real people. I have my preop appointment on 2/20. Surgery exactly 4 weeks from today. She said it can take up to 4 weeks to get an answer. I told her my only worry is that at the initial appointment they measured me in shoes and my BMI looks like it went up even though my weight went down. I was 282.8 and I’m now 273.4. Nutrition gave me some more papers to read about the food stages and said to get bariatric Vitamins with Iron and that I should be on Vitamin D because mine is so low (level is 9) She said once I get my Vitamin d up I should feel a lot better. So now I wait. 2 weeks. May as well be two months. I’m not good with patience. Fingers crossed guys.

[DelawareWoman 37]

Surgery was approved!!! Everything is all set. They said I might be off work 2-4 weeks. We will see. I told my day job April 1st I would be back. I hope they don't keep me too much past that. I got my food for my 2 week diet and paid all my copays. I need to get the rest of my stuff for my liquid diet after surgery. Im not sure I'll get my puree's yet. I think Ill wait for that.. maybe some of the marinara for ricotta bake. I started my robard diet on Tuesday and I will just say that is the nastiest stuff ever. I literally gag on it. I got permission to do premier for half of my supplements. I'll do one -2 premier a day and Bone Broth as a supplement