As I mentioned a few times before life is a little crazy right now and I haven’t been able to make it on here very often, but I have been writing these posts in my head for over a month so I thought I would steal a moment to write my thoughts down. I am going to break the story up into a few different parts just to make things easier to read.
November 20th was my first year anniversary and the differences a year has made have been completely unbelievable.
I started the pre-op diet on Nov 10th 2009 at 275 pounds and a BMI of 45.8. I had started researching the surgery after gaining 45 pounds in a year and hitting my high of 275 in 2008. I questioned my choice several times. Picked a surgeon. Questioned my choice again. Struggled several months trying to figure out what I needed for documentation from the surgeon’s office. I changed primary doctors since I knew mine would rather give me drugs then approve surgery (which I wasn’t willing to do). I decide to try and treat my insulin resistance and PCOS one more time (which normally results in weight loss) as part of my documentation. I was losing weight but dang it was hard. I didn’t feel good. I hated that my surgeon wasn’t helping me through the process and hated that my new primary doc seemed only see me as an obese person trying to have weight loss surgery instead of a patient with a variety of needs and concerns. I questioned my choice over and over again.
I was losing the battle and didn’t know what I was going to do. I decided to try a new surgeon and my life changed that day. Dr. K’s seminar told me nothing new about the surgery than I already knew, but I like him right off the bat. He didn’t try to act all high and mighty and solely in charge like the other surgeon. He wanted to help and partner with us to make the right decisions. After the seminar we met one on one and I gave him a brief overview of what I had done the last year with the other surgeon. How I thought I had months of documentation left to do, but didn’t know really what I was doing. How I couldn’t seem to get straight answers from the other surgeon. How I was discouraged, but determined to get this done. He stopped me immediately and said I had to do nothing more. The insurance I had didn’t require all that the other office said it did and what was left his office could quickly arrange. He said we can have this done in a few weeks and not worry about a thing. I cried and he held my hand. I knew then that I was at the right place and that even if we did hit a hurdle things were going to work out.
Since I was so prepared I was quickly fast tracked for surgery. Straight to the table as someone said. The psych review, the endoscopy, the pre-op tests all happened within a few weeks. Less than two months later and a day after my 31st birthday I was in surgery. When I woke up after surgery I have to say that I questioned my choice again, but it was the last time I ever had a doubt.
