Written in Stone

I just got the call from Dr. Yarbrough's Office!! I'm no longer in pencil, I'm in pen! I am for sure getting my surgery Monday! I have $2700 left to pay, and I've got that, so I'm good.

I have a pre-op today at 3:15pm, then my surgery is 6AM Monday morning.

I am so excited that my blood pressure is through the roof. My head feels like it's going to explode, along with my heart, and I'm actually getting a headache from the rush. OMG OMG OMG OMG.

So I probably won't post again till after the surgery, unless something weird happens before then.

Wish me luck!!

Current weight: 249lbs.
Time to surgery: 5 days!

Rolling along

Well, there's been alot since the last time I blogged here. I've been busy, life full of stuff to do and all that.

I was tasked to lose 10 lbs before I could get my surgery. I've been trying to do that for the last 3 months. It's surprising how hard something can be if you put your mind to it. heh. I purposely weighted myself down for my first weigh-in so I figured that my subsequent weigh-ins would be easier. But no. I ended up going up 5 lbs. Which I lost later, but then went back up 2 and down several more. To the point where my last weigh in I was back to the original weight that I'd been before. I've been weighing on my Wii too, to try to keep track. I was able to get down to 6-8lbs left by normal dieting.

Well, for the last 2 weeks'ish I've been on SlimFast to try to lose the last 6lbs of the 10 that I was supposed to lose. So far it's working. I've lost about 5 lbs according to the Wii. I'm afraid to go in and weigh in officially though, because it never says what I think it should.

I've now been through my 3 nutrition classes. I didn't learn much that I didn't already know. I got some good recommendations about protein shake stuff, one was pretty good. It kinda tastes like pudding, only thinner. I also found out about this liquid calcium supplement that was pretty good too.


I'm truly hoping that when I get home from work today, I'll be down another 2 lbs. I messed up a little Saturday, and went to Home Town Buffet. I didn't eat ANYTHING else that day though, except a piece of cheese. So I didn't think it would impact me much. It didn't really, I didn't gain anything from it, but I stalled my losses too.

Wish me luck that I've lost another pound or two. I'm STARVING right now. heh.

Current weight: 249 lbs.
Time to WLS approval: As soon as I lose the rest of my 10 lbs. I think.

Second Nutritionist Visit

Went to see the dietitian again today. She said I'm doing ok. I've only got 5 more pounds to lose to be on track. So I should be ok.

She set me up with one more appointment with her, then I have to take a class in June. Gosh this is really dragging out. I was hoping to have my surgery in June... not a stupid class. At this rate, I'll do the class and then there won't be an open surgery date till Ju-fricken-ly. I'm never going to lose the 75 lbs I needed to lose in time to get the reconstruction on my boobs. If it rolls into next year it'll be another $5000 that I just don't have. This sucks.

I hate life today.

Oh, on a slightly more positive note. I had my first sleep apnea appointment today too, and the doctor is sure I have sleep apnea. She scheduled me for a sleep-over test and gave me a sleeping pill to take so that I can for sure sleep that night.

She said that I have a small jaw which makes the air hole narrow. Also, that even if I lose weight, I may still have some amount of sleep apnea.

And how is this good news you ask? Well, if I wear the CPAP thing and it helps me sleep good without loosing oxygen during the night then I'll be more alert and energetic during the day. This is a big thing for me because I'm always tired and have a hard time being motivated for anything.

Basically, even without the whole surgery thing, half my weight issues are my lack of energy to get up an do stuff, and if I'm not tired then my work, my sleep, my daily activities, my hanging out with my kids...etc... will all get better with the CPAP machine. So life will be much less stressful.


Current weight: 255
Time to WLS approval: 1 month + 2.5 weeks

Pending Changes

Only a few more days to my next appointment. I've been reading more blogs from fellow bandsters. I'll put the links up soon. I'll try to get them up before my actual banding, but there are alot of them and I've been short on time recently.

I've decided I'm going to modify this page a little, I'm going to put a link to the first page of this blog, that way its easy to start from the beginning. I've found that is a problem when I go to others' blogs, they don't always make it easy to start from the beginning. Really that's where I want to start though. I'll definitely have to make that a priority on mine. I also want to put up a column just for pictures, maybe I'll even start a new flickr page and make it auto update so I only have to put the photos in one place.

So I got my sleep study set up, it's on the 14th. The same date as my next bariatric center appointment. They told me that this isn't the actual sleeping appointment, just an assessment appointment. Also, I found out that I need to go see a counselor. I need to remember to make that appointment today so I can get it done. I don't want to be lacking when in comes to approval time.

Well, that's all for today.

Current weight: 256 lbs.
Time to WLS approval: 1 month 3 weeks

Sleep Study

I got a reminder call today from my bariatric center that I need to do my sleep study. I've been putting this off because I don't like the idea of trying to sleep with all those wires attached to me. Ick. I have a hard enough time sleeping as it is without adding that complication to it. I'm going to call at lunch today and make an appointment.

The sad thing is, is I'm pretty sure I made this appointment already and I just forgot about it. I'm hoping that's not the case though, because sometimes doctor's offices and other places will blacklist you if you miss appointments. And I don't want to be blacklisted. lol.

Well, that's all for now. Once I have my sleep apnea thing, I'll come in here and blog again. Till then.... TTFN (Ta Ta For now!)

Current weight: 257lbs.
Time to WLS approval: 2 mos.

Nutritionist-Part 2

Wow. I thought I had already posted on my trip to the nutritionist, but apparently I forgot.

I went to see the nutritionist as part of my required "making sure she'll comply" appointments. I also saw the psychologist (or maybe psychiatrist??) to talk about my history and the reasons why I'm overweight. I think I did pretty good at that one.

BUT

Then they weighed me in. I experienced complete shock. I thought I'd been doing well at loosing weight. After all, I'd set up my first appointment expressly to give myself some easy to lose weight. So on this appointment, I should have lost some good weight. Nope. Not me. I GAINED weight. Gained. Yep, that's right you heard it. I gained 5 lbs.

5 pounds is not that big a deal normally, but I only have another month to lose the first 10 they asked me to lose. So now, I have a month to lose a total of 15 pounds. FIFTEEN.

Hrrumpf.

Current weight: 262 (I think... I'll check my paperwork and fix this later)
Time to WLS approval: 2.5 months

Dr. Yarbrough

So I had my first visit with Dr. Yarbrough today. He is so nice! It was a longer appointment than I was expecting.

There were three people with concurring appointments. We had to go through a mini-class on what to expect from the surgery and more detailed info on how it works. After that, I had to talk to a finance person who basically told me that I had to have all my surgery money up front.

This wouldn't be a big deal except that my out of pocket through my insurance is like over $4500 bucks. Do you have that kind of money laying around??? I sure don't. I think I may be able to come up with most of it, and I asked my sister to see if she'd fit the extra $2500 that I can't come up with, in exchange for a repayment of $200/mo. and an extra payment at the end.

Hopefully that works out. She said yes, but she tends to be a bit flighty sometimes.

So anyway, my next appointment with them is in March. And the earliest I'll get my surgery, if everything works out, will be in May sometime. So maybe if I'm really lucky it'll be end of May.

I need to lose 75 lbs before I can get my reconstruction on my chest. So, if I get it in May I'll be hard pressed to lose that much before the end of the year.


We had to go through another
Current weight: 258 lbs
Current BMI: >44
Time to WLS approval: 4 months :(

Awesome Quote~

I just loved this quote from this site:
http://www.weightlossdaily.org/

(This is the specific article)

The whole article is awesome, but this quote kinda sums up the lapband and, really, any WLS. So check it out!!

"Surgery is not the magic pill we have all been waiting for. You will not wake up thin. You must be willing to meet the band half way. You will lose weight at a different pace than your friends. You must change your behavior for this to work. It is a tool-and nothing more. An electric mixer is easier than mixing by hand but you still have to follow the recipe for the cake to taste good."

Dr. Monitored Diet

For my insurance I need to have a 6 months, doctor supervised diet plan.
I went to my PCP yesterday, because he's fastest. He gave me this:

For 10 days, keep track of what you eat and average the calories.
At the end of 10 days, subtract 200 calories from your average and stick to that.
Continue for 2 weeks at that reduced calorie level, and continue to lower by 200 calories every 2 weeks after (till my 6 months is up).

Oh, and exercise.

Sounds like a good plan, I think.
I still have to be at >40 bmi at the end to qualify for surgery, but since this diet plan is so slow, I think that will happen ok.