Just under 2 days left till surgery!

According to my app I have 1 day 12 hours until I check in for surgery. Glad I'm the first surgery of the day and will be lucky enough to have two surgeons. Just hoping the new rooms are available so I get my own room and Nick will be able to stay with me. I'm glad I will have both my husband and my mom there when I go in for surgery and come out. I think this is why I'm not nervous. Although I'm sure that will change on Tuesday night. 

Tomorrow morning I will begin my clear liquid diet. Should be fun with my back still bothering me and having to make the journey to Spokane (Poor Nick I'm sure i'll be extra moody). Just glad its only a few hours. Talked Nick into taking our truck it has heated seats which are nice on my back and its also a lot easier to get into then our Hyundai.

Checked this morning and I'm now down to about 241.5 not too bad for practically being on bed rest for over a week. And of course all of the medicine changes I have had to make that cause weight gain themselves.

Probably wont update my blog/Facebook for a few days depending on how I feel after surgery. But Nick will be posting on Facebook updates to my surgery. And if you requested a call or text he will be doing theses as well.

~G-Ann

6 more days till surgery!

Hard to believe I'm just six days away from surgery! Still waiting for the nervousness to kick in. Over all feeling really excited.

I've had a lot of back problems over the last few years. Of course it had to go out on me one more time before surgery. It went out last Thursday so today marks a week. Feeling better today. Hopefully tomorrow it will be good enough for me to be able to sit up. As I have to work a few hrs tomorrow. And have three days of work left till surgery.

I've also made it through a week of my liquid protein diet. It wasn't to bad once I switched back to chocolate premier protein shakes. I have to drink six to meet calories but at least it doesn't taste gross. It is hard being around the smell of Nicks food. The other day he had pizza and last night he cooked a pork loin which you could smell through out the house. But after getting on the scale this morning not having either of theses foods was worth the weight lose.

I'm now about 98 pounds from my goal. This makes me curious what my low will actually end up at and just how long will it take me to get there. The nutrionist said because I've had the weight on since a child it may be hard. But only time will tell.

I'll be excited once I can start exercising again. Was really enjoying walking two miles a day though it may be awhile before I will be able to walk the dogs again as they pull me too much.

~G-Ann

Day 1 liquid Pre-opt Protein liquid diet.

I made it through day 1 with no problem. I didn't feel hungry, as the water and protein shakes kept me full. I have to say Vanilla & Cookies and Creme are not the flavors for me. I've decided to switch back to my Chocolate Premier Protein until I can find something else. The reason I switched is I would like to have some other flavors I can drink so I am not always drinking the chocolate I'm sure if I stayed on just the premier for 2 weeks I would become sick of it quickly. 

Thanks to a friend from work I got a new app on my phone "Run Keeper" I'm loving this app it keeps track of how far you walk (jog, run, cycling and others). It helped me to learn that I have been walking just over a mile a day. Not much for some but a lot more then I was doing before. I tend to go for a walk just after work by myself after siting all day my back become pretty sore and aches and the walk helps a lot. I also go for another walk after dinner with Nick. Sometimes we don't make it very far, this is Nicks walk so I tell him that we can turn around anytime he needs to. But yesterday we made it mile. Felt good to walk two miles in one day.

Due to the up coming surgery I'm having to change my meds around quite a bit have had to complete stop taking anything in the NSAID family. Also if on the BC pill it has to be stopped 3 weeks prior to prevent clots. After the surgery you're not supposed to get pregnant for 16-24 months. Once the surgery is done BC pills no longer work as you develop absorption problems. So I have now been switched to Depo. The problem with this is it can cause weight gain. Hopefully this does not work against me after surgery, but if it does there are other options available. Because I can no longer take anything in the NSAID family this means no more Aleve, Ibuprofen or Advil. So for now on I can only take Tylenol. The reason I was given is the NSAIDS can stick to your stomach walls then causing ulcers, when your stomach becomes the size mine will be after surgery there is a greater risk.

~G-Ann

Got my surgery date!

Just got off the phone with the scheduler. I have to go in on Friday for my pre-opt I will met with the Diatican and the Nurse to go over any questions I have. We will also go over my pre-opt diet, and current medicine I am on. My surgery is scheduled for 5:00 am on May 18th. So excited to finally have my date now just have to get everything scheduled with work. I will be out of work for about 3 weeks but may be less depending on how my 2 week post-op is.

~G-Ann

Almost there!

Well Gallbladder ultra sound came back normal so I am good to go for surgery now. Spoke to my case worker yesterday, she said a scheduler will contact me next week to setup my surgery, pre-op and post-op appointments. With this information I would guess I have about another 3 weeks at the very least until surgery. After the pre-op I will more then likely be placed on a liquid protein diet for two weeks prior to surgery.

~G-Ann

Gallbladder Ultra Sound

Well just finished the last test Dr. Spitz required, this should mean I will be scheduling my surgery soon, as long as the results come back okay. Sounds like it will take about 2 days for the results. Worst part of the pre-opt process has been all the waiting, not to mention having to harass everyone to insure the paper work gets to the right people.

I think once I have my date a lot of the stress, and anxiety I have been feeling will start to get a little better. Though I am sure waiting till surgery will be even worse.

~G-Ann

Gastric Bypass Pre-Opt so far.

Starting in October of 2010 I began looking into getting gastric bypass. I started with going to my primary doctor and requesting a referral, he agreed that it was something I should look into at this time my weight was at 285. I was able to check with my insurance and find out that Bariatric Surgery, Program at Rockwood Clinic (http://www.rockwoodclinic.com/services/weight_loss_surgery_center) was the approved clinic for Aetna Insurance so requested my referral be sent there. They later contacted me to schedule my orientation where you're in a large group you receive paper work on the different weight lost surgeries and get to ask any questions you have for the Doctor/Case worker. At first my husband and I thought it just wasn't for me. It then took about a month of waiting for the Doctor and case worker to review my file and schedule my first appointment. By the time we went to my first appointment we had become more set on me having the surgery. After talking to Dr. Spitz it became more clear that gastric bypass was what I wanted to do. With on going back problems that cause me to be laid up on the couch for weeks to months and on going diabetes getting the weight off and keeping it off would help.

I was then contacted by my case working in December and given details on what the pre-requirements for my insurance to cover the surgery were. Due to having diabetes, back problems, and PCOS I was able to qualify for just 3 months of  pre-requirements. I had to have a Psych eval, 3 months 1-1 with a diatican, 3 months 1-1 with my primary care documenting my eating and exercise. I quit drinking pop in November 2010 Thanksgiving weekend. After meeting Dr. Spitz for the first time. I finished my last 1-1 with my diatican and PCP the end of March. Putting my weight now down to 250. Once my Case worker received the paper work it was then submitted to Aetna to approve. It was sent in on a Friday (April 1st) and by the following Monday (April 4th) the approval was received. I have been told this is fast for Aetna when I asked my case worker a week before she had said they were taking 2 weeks to approve.

Once your insurance comes back with the approval they then start the next steps to insure you are ready for surgery. Depending on your health, and the requirements of your Doctors you may have different Bariatric Pre-Screening Orders. For me they required an
*EKG
*Bypass Labs: CBC, CMP, Lipid Panel, Folate, Ferritin, B12, TIBC/Iron, Vitamin D (OH25), TSH, and HgbA1c (due to having type 2 diabetes).
*Chest X-ray

I was then notified on April 12 2011, that after reviewing the screening results Dr. Spitz has approved me but would like me to get one last test a gallbladder ultra sound. Currently I am scheduled to have this on April 20th and should be receiving my surgery date shortly after.

~G-Ann

Why Blog?

Why am I starting a blog? I honestly don't know. I guess I have hopes it'll allow me to work through my own thoughts so that I can finally have some quiet time from the voices in my head. :)