More Doctor Visits to Clear

I spent this past Thursday in McAllen seeing doctors all day. The first doctor was a cardiologist. He did an EKG and has ordered an Echo-cardiogram (which I'm having done tomorrow)and a chest x-ray(which I did that day). He told me that I had to weigh the risk with the benefits of the surgery and said if it was him, he would have the surgery. He is just waiting on the results of the Echo before he clears me. The next doctor was the pulmonologist. He had me breath into a machine to check my lung functions. He said all was good, but he wanted me to do a sleep apnea study (which I'm doing tomorrow night)before he clears me. The final doctor was the psycologist, he said it sounded like I knew what I was doing and for the right reasons and he had already faxed my doctor and cleared me. When we went back to Dr. Camacho's office (surgeon) they said they had heard from everyone and what they were all waiting on. They gave me an order for a gallbladder scan(which I can have done here in Harlingen) and then the only other test is a biopsy of my stomach which I will get done right after the 1st of the year. It has to be done at Rio Grande Regional Hospital as an out patient and my sister will have to take me to that one since they put you to sleep for it. As I said in the last entry I see the dietitian on the 10th for her final visit. And the heart doctor I won't get the results from the Echo until the 11th since he will be out of town. I go on Dec. 28th for the results of the sleep study. Well that is all for now. Thanks for all your support.

I've Done IT!!!!

Hi everyone, I went back to the dietitian yesterday. I was surprised that I lost another 11 pounds. That is a total of 35 pounds so far. I went to visit my friend Laynie last weekend and was afraid that maybe I might have done something wrong. I didn't really eat off the diet, I just didn't get everything in and didn't know if that would show up when I weighed. The dietitian gave me the after surgery diet so I have a month to go over it, I will see her again on the 10th of January. The big surprise was that she told me to go over and talk with Linda at the Doctors office to see if they could start scheduling me to see all the other doctors that I have to get clearance with before the surgery. Linda was able to schedule me with three doctors on Dec. 13th. I will see the cardiologist, pulmonologist and the psycologist. I start at 10 am and see the last one at 2:30pm. Linda said to come back to the office after the last doctor and she would see about scheduling for the next round. I will post again after seeing the doctors on Thursday. I need to go over all the papers that Claudia(dietitian) gave me. I know that I have to learn to eat some foods that I don't like, cream of wheat, cream of rice or malt o meal. I think that was the only thing that really caught my eye right away. If I don't want to get sick I will following everything and I don't want to get sick, so I will learn to eat what I don't like. The portions will be much smaller than I'm used too, even smaller than what I am allowed now. Wish me luck. As I've said before I have a fantastic support group behind me cheering me on.

1st Month is a SUCCESS!

Hi to all, the first month of dieting is over. I lost 10 lbs more. I have lost a total of 24 lbs so far. I have two more visits with the dietitian. My next visit will be Dec. 7th. The way it is going I should lose another 10 lbs. by then. Claudia was very pleased as how I kept my journal writing every thing that I ate down. I am proud to say that I was able to attend a birthday party and not eat any of the pizza or birthday cupcakes. I do need to get more exercise. I do a little bit of walking and chair exercises. The bathroom scale that I bought has not been giving me true readings and so I am going to send it back, maybe I can get a different one in exchange. We (Claudia, Judi, and I) talked about Thanksgiving and what I will be able to eat. I won't miss out on much. I can't have both mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, but can do the mashed and about a half cup of stuffing or a roll. I have been making sacrifics and will continue to do so. I have the best support group a person could ask for.

The first month is almost up

Just thought I would try my hand on putting a before picture on this site. I only have one more week before going to see the dietitian. I bought a scale and the first time I weighed I had lost about 5 lbs. Then I took the scale over to the Food Pantry so my friends could see it and I must have jiggles it because now it is saying that I have gained and I don't see how. I have followed the diet to a tee, have done some exercising with a DVD and a little walking. I'm not going to weigh myself again until I see the dietitian on Nov. 5th. If the picture shows up it was taken on Wed. Oct. 24, 2007 by my friend Jody in Blume Hall at the church.

Visit to the Dietitian

Hi to all, thanks for all your comments.
I went to the dietitian this morning. It was an interesting visit. First off Medicare has changed some of their policies. Anyone wanting the gastric bypass surgery and wanting Medicare to pay for it must be on a 3 month supervised diet. Apparently people were having it and really not ready to follow their new life changes. But that is not me, I am going through with this with a possitive attitude. It means that I will not be able to have the surgery until after the first of the year, but that's okay. In talking with the dietitian it is really just the diabetic diet than I am following but lower calories, I'm on 1600 calories a day, but reading the sample menus it seems like a lot of food. I have even been checking my blood sugar readings more often this last week and they have been the best readings for a while, not that they were ever really high. I ask Claudia to weigh me to see what I had lost because I've been dieting since I went in last week. I LOST 13 LBS. I know that a lot of that is water, but I figures maybe I had lost about 5 lbs. I thought her scale was wrong so when Judi and I left I went next door to the doctors office and asked if they would weigh me so I could compare readings. They were the same! I am hoping that after my visit in December which will be the third visit that they will go ahead and schedule all the other doctors that I have to see so the surgery can be scheduled early in January. I need to start exercising, walking. George and I went to Wal Mart yesterday and I finally found a pair of walking shoes that fit and that I can tie, so I'm gonna start out slow here on our street and work myself up and go to the mall to walk, I'm also gonna check out some chair exercise tapes that the church used last year. I'm gonna have someone take my picture soon so I can post it as a before picture. I appreciate everyone's good thoughts and support.

1st Doctor visit

Well here I am making my first entry. I went to see the doctor that hopefully will do my gastric bypass surgery. He was very nice. I would say that he is around 35-40 yrs old. Now with the visit.
After having to have my primary doctor fax up the letter that they were suppose to do last week, because this doctor would not see me without having the letter I finally got to see Dr. Camacho. First off he went over most of the stuff that was covered in the seminar and then said that he would suggest I have the bypass and not the lapband. I said that I was wanting the bypass anyway. He also said that he does his surgeries laprascopictly. He also wants to set me up with their cardiologist, pulmonologist, physicaritrist, and dietician, plus there is a whole battery of other tests that have to be run. BUT FIRST I have to lose 30 lbs. I am high risk to begin with and it is in my best interest to lose it first. I figured I would have to before he even said it. I have an appointment for Oct. 5th to see the dietician for their diet, but until then I am going to follow the diabetic diet that I should have been doing better. I'm hoping that they will weigh me when I go next Friday and that I will have lost.
My sister Judi went with me today and is going to be with me through this whole thing. I have a lot of support between family and my church family. I feel very blessed to have all this support. I will hopefully keep this up to date after my appointments.