Chrysallis

I met with Dr. Khayat on June 6. He is leaving Kaiser, which is too bad because I really liked him, so my remaining appointments will be with Dr. Kim. I have pre-op on June 28 and surgery on July 11. One thing Dr. Khayat said that has discouraged me a bit is that he thinks lower BMI patients have greater success with bypass than sleeve. After my options class my BMI is down to 35 and he thinks people with under 40 tend to struggle more with regain from sleeve. I can't find anything to back this up. I'm going to talk to Dr. Kim about it more at pre-op. They said I could change my mind about what precedure to get up until the morning of surgery. I really don't feel good about getting bypass but I want to have the biggest chance of keeping the weight off that I can. He said he thinks the reason this counterintuitive situation occurs is that lower BMI patients tend to be more sweet eaters than quantity eaters. I don't know that this is true for me so for now I am sticking with the plan of sleeve surgery. They did say that if you have any regain at your pre-op appt they will cancel surgery. That is my biggest goal right now. I'd like to go in a couple pounds under my surgical consultation weight to give myself some wiggle room. I am focused on not gaining weight, getting all my Protein supplements, Vitamins, liquid tylenol and everything set up so I am ready to go. I requested to be on cancellation list since I could go in tomorrow if they called me. I also am working on getting the house organized, drivers for my kids activities for the two weeks I can't drive, a place for them to stay while my hubby and I are at West LA (we are far enough away that they will pay for a hotel for hubby and mileage to the surgery), the foods for me and some pre-prepped items for the family for post surgery. I am also working on setting up a West Ventura County support group to meet at the Oxnard offices on Gonzales. If anyone here is interested in participating in that let me know!

Update: On Wednesday I called about getting in an Options class because I had waited the week and had not heard from anyone. I left a message and got a call back and got scheduled in the Friday morning class that starts today! So my fear of not getting in these classes for a month or two has not come to pass. I hope everything keeps moving this smoothly. I set up my appt for PCP to seek referral in early Jan Earliest appt avail was Jan 30 I got my referral on Jan 30 and waited about a week to get a call from Health Ed then called them myself Got scheduled for 2/22 Orientation Called a week later to ask about my class and got in the class starting March 2. Last class will be on May 18! I am hoping I can get my surgery late June. (crossing fingers!)

I just went to the Orientation class at Woodland Hills and I am waiting (impatiently) for them to call to schedule my Options class. I am barely at the 40 BMI threshold but she told me I can go ahead and start on my 10%...even if that takes me under 40 for the start of Options...she better be right! The timeline she gave was that we would start Options in 2-5 weeks. Do 12 weeks of classes. Consult with surgeon 1- 2 weeks after classes and surgery date 6-8 weeks after classes. That should be surgery some time this summer. Hopefully sooner rahter than later! I'm anxious to get going!! I also had a hard time finding information on the timelines. Hopefully this helps someone out there. I'm 5'10" and would like to lose about 130 pounds. When they calculate "excess weight" what weight do they use for ideal weight? I would love to weigh around 150 but I don't know how realistic that expectation is. I lost a lot of weight about the last 7 years ago and gained it all back so I think the PCP was not going to tell me to go try another diet...that's all I ever do is try diets!