JayinMA

According to my primary care I'm anemic with no signs of vitamin or iron deficiency. I don't exactly know what that means but she did tell me there was no need for supplementation... I really don't know at this point, i've had a barrage of medical terms thrown at me today. Hopefully all will go well at the appointment tomorrow and I'll be one day away from surgery. If they have to reschedule again, I'm fairly certain I'm giving up. But we're not thinking about that now, we're all positive and smiles.

Well okay. I called the surgeon and my primary care dr. Dr. Robinson called me back and told me that I needed to be checked by my primary care doctor and he needs to hear from her by tomorrow that it's ok to preform the surgery. So... right now it's not 100% for the 12th, but I think it will be. the palpitations would soon stop after having an apple (one of the two I'm allowed per day) but would quickly return. Based on that a friend who is a nurse suggested having something with a little more sugar in it, which would help give me some energy and help make more blood (I'm anemic so I have low blood as it is) The appointment is tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. so I should know then, and if my primary care won't clear me you'll hear on the news about a crazed hungry man causing a riot, and I'll try to say hi to you all when i'm on court tv. If she does clear me, all systems are go for thursday.

i think onederland is when your weight is in the 100's... I think...

Thanks ladies! I don't feel nervous or anything, it's weird, going into surgery and I don't feel nervous at all, today when they told me I had to have more bloodwork done I wanted to cry, I know it's completely irrational but that little needle just scares the hell out of me. And it's over in five minutes but still... I think if it keeps happening (hasn't happened in an hour) i'll call Jennifer tomorrow. I'm ridiculously tired today, maybe that's contributing to it all. Hopefully a good night's sleep will get it all under control. Oh and you know it could be acid, I stepped outside the bounds of the pre-op diet, nothing major, just substituted something and that could definitely be it! That makes me feel better! I look forward to seeing you at the support group soon, that is if you can make it.

singin who is your surgeon? I went for pre-op tests again today (apparently you have to redo them if you're going to a different hospital) and I lost another 5 lbs. So that's exciting. I have a question though. For the last three day i have been getting odd heart flutters and was wondering if that happened to anyone else? I'm almost afraid to mention it to anyone at the hospital in case it delays the surgery more than it has been.

I never had an endoscopy, so maybe you won't either!

Well it got moved again, this time to the 12th. Jennifer told me Dr. Robinson wants Dr. Munn around because of the haital hernia, I don't necessarily understand the reasoning, but he's the surgeon, so a week from tomorrow. Good enough for me. Tonight for dinner instead of having 4 oz of chicken I had two cups of home made chicken Soup. I don't think it was too bad, just some broth, bullion cubes, chicken, celery, carrots and some Pasta. Not exactly on the diet, but not so bad it could undo anything, and it gave me the "different" taste I was looking for. And I would NEVER leave you all for some other group, you guys are stuck with me. I just hope that I'll be able to come to the feb. one. I'll only be 5 days out from there. I'd be taking the commuter rail then red to green line, hopefully I'll feel up to taking it, so I can go. I felt bad last time that the whole meeting seemed focused on Pre-op and the post-op people didn't seem to get much except to answer questions, which I appreciate, but it's (I assume) a support group for everyone. So hopefully the next meeting will have a mix of the two. I'm really looking forward to that private room!

My surgery was postponed. It was supposed to be today but the snow storm kept the surgeon out of town for longer than he anticipated, so I have a new date of feb 11th.

I spoke to jennifer and it looks like it will be rescheduled for feb. 11th, at faulkner. So if I remember correctly, that means private room, right? And whining is officially over. I complained, I was upset over it, and you know how much it helped? not at all. So why waste that kind of energy being upset over something that's out of my hands. I'll just keep losing weight on this pre-op diet, and that's the goal to lose weight, so what difference does it make if it's with the band or on this diet? I can do it for another week if that's what it takes. Work is being really accommodating about the time off. I'm going to go in tomorrow and friday and then just tack two days onto the date I was supposed to go back. So this whole thing has been just a speed bump, not a stop sign. But thanks for letting me whine!

I'm sticking to the diet until I get my reschedule date. I was hoping he did surgeries on wednesdays and thursdays since most of my appointments with him have been on tuesdays I thought that was his schedule. I didn't talk to jennifer today, I got a call from someone else who told me it was cancelled. I left a message for jennifer after that so hopefully she'll call me tomorrow. And if I don't hear from her by noon I'll probably call again. Waiting until tuesday wouldn't be too bad, I could do that. Anything beyond that would be really aggravating. I do want the pizza, but that's not the right decision and it won't make me feel better. It's just me wanting to eat my emotions. Not a good decision. So I'll just stick to this. I've done it for 20 days, I can do another 4.. .maybe more.

I'm not sure. I'm definitely not going to work tomorrow. I'll wait until I hear from Jennifer to see when it's rescheduled. If it's rescheduled for thurs/fri (I'm really hoping... maybe if I offer to have it done at brigham or faulkner it'll give me a sooner date) then I'll just keep the same days off. If not... I don't know. I want to order a pizza. I won't, but I really want to.

Well.... my surgery was canceled. Dr. Robinson is somewhere else and can't get back because of the snow. I'm beside myself, I'm waiting for Jennifer to call and let me know when the rescheduled date is, but in all honesty, I'm not sure I can take this pre-op diet any more. Not sure what to do about the time I took off of work, or really anything. Please forgive my whining.

I will try my best to be there!

Dr. Robinson told me to lose 40 and so far I've lost about 20, and I'm going in wednesday to be banded. So I just think he wants you to lose weight, not necessarily hit the target

I go in on wednesday (feb 4). I had my final pre-op appointment with Dr. Robinson on the 27th and he just kind of slid into the conversation that I had a sliding haital hernia that he was going to repair. I don't know about that man sometimes. Don't get me wrong I think he's a very competent surgeon and I feel completely comfortable with him doing the procedure, but I usually feel like he has no idea who I am until 15 mins into the appointment. And the appointments last generally about 20-25 mins. Oh well, open me up, fix what needs fixing, band me, and send me on my way. As a sidenote (or was what I posted above the sidenote and this the original point? I don't know) This pre-op diet hasn't been bad especially when compared to how some other people say they're starving, I certainly have never felt that way, but these last few days I have no energy at all. I could go to sleep right now, and I Just might. But tomorrow is my last day at work, I took off the from feb 3 - feb 18 (for those who don't know, people at work think there's something really medically wrong with me, so I took off 2 weeks)

Hey all I'm getting banded on wednesday and this weekend I'm going to be shopping for my post-op needs, Just wondering if you've done your shopping, what have you picked up? Right now I have liquid tylenol, gas-x strips, chewable vitamins, heating pad, and lip balm...

Great to hear you're doing well Jean! When you went in did you have to do your insurance co-pay at the time of admission? That is, if you have a co-pay

Good luck jean! Thanks for the info on the pre-op, I had mine this morning, they took blood asked me some questions, gave me some soap to use 3 days before and sent me on my way! I'm sure everything will go great for you!

You can do it, I promise, I'm on day 9 of mine!

Thanks so much!

Does anyone remember their pre-op test? I have to go in tuesday for my pre-op stuff, meet with the anesthesiologist and Dr. Robinson, and I was wondering that would consist of? Do I have to be naked? I require 24 hours notice for prep time if I need to get naked...

that's a good suggestion, I got paperwork that said not to bring valuables, but I might consider bringing this. I want to bring my cell phone too, cause I can't live without it.

A sleep study isn't a pass fail thing, trust me if It was, I would have failed. Like you, I wasn't comfortable at all with all the wires on me and knowing someone was watching me. But I think most people have to have one, just for insurance reasons. I would recommend you not sleep a lot the night before the study so you're tired when you go in, I had my sleep study new year's day night. So the night before (new year's eve) I was up late and slept late the day of the study as a result. So when I got there at 9 p.m. I wasn't tired at all, and then lights out at 10... so I laid in the bed and slept for about 45 mins at a time, with about an hour in between my small naps. It wasn't a great experience for me, but with all that said it still wasn't horrible.

my insurance website has a list of options to click on once you sign in and there is a link that says "authorizations and approvals" so I just clicked there to see. good luck i'm sending good thoughts your way!

at my first appointment they had me sit at a computer and answer some questions about my food habits, weight, and history (how long have you been overweight etc.) Then they sat me in a room and gave me a brochure to look over until the doctor came in. When he came in we talked and he asked me which procedure I wanted done, bypass or band. He told me how much weight he wanted me to lose before surgery, then he had me pull my shirt up and take my shoes and socks off. He checked my ankles to see if they were swollen (they weren't) and then had me lay back and pressed along my abdomen. Then he told me to lose 10lbs and come back in 4 weeks, and told me to have an upper GI done, a sleep study, psych eval, and nutritionist, and I went out to his secretary to make those appointments. Then i was on my way!