Meet the Surgeon

I've been meaning to get to this post for a week now. So sorry for the delay.

Last Wednesday was major. I finally got to meet my surgeon. It seems like I've been waiting an eternity. It had only been since September 9th - - but man does that seem so long ago! I've had countless meetings with other departments - the nurse, the doctor, the dietitian, the psychologist. All of whom had to grant their approval for me to get to this moment.

My morning started with a fasting ultrasound of my gall bladder. It is a standard thing with all potential bariatric surgery patients to make sure the gall bladder is working condition. Mine, unfortunately, had some stones - so it will be removed while they're in there doing my Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy. Two for the price of one.

My mom joined me for my next 2 appointments - the meeting with the nurse was first. We checked my weight and my vitals. I was down a total of 44 pounds since my first appointment. My vitals were good. We went over the gall bladder results and determined mine would be removed. My nurse Dorothy had hers removed 13 years ago, and said I wouldn't even miss it =) We watched a video that was going to give me a better idea of what to expect leading up to, and immediately after surgery. I was given the cleansing requirements for the day before surgery. The instructions say to take a 1 hour - you read that correctly - - a ONE HOUR shower and then I have a pack of wipes I have to use in a certain sequence to insure I'm all shined up. I know it's worth it to stave off infection - - but it's a little intense!

After meeting with Dorothy I finally got to meet my surgeon. Dr. Thomas Jones. I adored him immediately. He's a fairly soft-spoken man. But he's also a straight shooter. I appreciate that. He pulled no punches advising that my success post-surgery is pretty much completely up to me. I'm going to get out of it what I put into it. I'm going to need to work out to be successful. I'm going to need to stick to the eating plan to get the results I want. I'm in charge of my future. But I do have a couple of things going for me now. I'm young. I had to clarify when he was talking about how it was good to have the surgery when you're young - with so much time left to enjoy the outcome. He chortled a bit when I asked "am I young?". Then he did also say I have great body-type for this surgery. I told him I thought this was possibly the first time I'd ever been told I had the perfect body type for anything!! It works in my favor that I have - as my mom pointed out to Dr. Jones - the "Blaha body". Blaha is my mom's maiden name - and the ladies tend to be built with a healthy posterior and thighs, while being somewhat smaller around the rib cage. The site of my surgery is between my under-boob and FUPA - so the fact that that area is smaller (relatively speaking) bodes well for me.

Because of my weight - because even though I am going for weight loss surgery, I'm still on the heavy side - Dr. Jones wants to insure he has the right team in place to make sure I'm as safe as possible. The date that all of the stars aline is April 18, 2016. My surgery time is 9:40am. It should last about 2 hours. Assuming all goes well, I will spend 2 nights in the hospital.

I've been asked to do 21 days of a liquid diet. That will start the day after Easter.

This Friday - April 11th - I meet with my dietitian to go over my pre and post surgery diet. I'm sure I'll have some interesting updates after that meeting. 

It's getting real. It's getting close. The nerves and the excitement are fighting to rule right now.