The surgery is scheduled!

Went to see the doctor today and hopefully to get the surgery scheduled. Well, it happened.

I was to see Carla (dietitian) this coming Tuesday but since she was there she came over and talked to me and signed off on the surgery. I lost another 3 pounds and it gives me an official loss of 38 pounds.

Dr. Camacho wants to put in a filter this coming Monday (21st) to aid in preventing blood clots going to my lungs, since my BMI is so high it is a precautionary measure. I'm all for anything that can save my life. The bypass surgery will then be on the following Monday(28th). I don't have any times yet. I have to go to McAllen tomorrow to get the orders and go pre-register at the hospital for Monday's procedure and they said that I should be able to register for the surgery too. I don't know how long I will be laid up, the filter is threaded up through the groin and Judi said I probably won't be able to drive for a couple of days, that is one question I need to ask them tomorrow at the doctors office. I am working on my grocery list so I can get all the food that I will be allowed to eat after the surgery. George will be able to go grocery shopping if I need it and he follows a list really well.

As soon as I have times I will let everyone know.

A lot has happened!

A lot has been happening since my last post.
Jen's boyfriend, now fiance, sent her to Texas to spend Christmas with us. We had a great time with her and hated to put her back on the plane to go home. She called us on New Year's Eve with the exciting news that Dan proposed to her and now there are wedding bells in the air. We are so excited.

I've been to so many doctors. I went to the pulmonologist and he ordered a sleep apnea test, which I'm glad to say that I don't have, but he said my oxygen level fell for about 6minutes while I was sleeping and that worried him. He said that he wanted me to sleep with oxygen to help with the oxygen level while sleeping. I now have an oxygen machine in the livingroom and seven little portable bottles that I can take with me if I think I will need it. Also a sign posted on the door for NO SMOKING OXYGEN IN USE. I called Scott right away to warn him, he is the only one that comes over that still smokes. That doctor has given his OK for the surgery.

The heart doctor ordered an echo cardiogram, that was fine and I saw him today and he has also given his OK for the surgery. He did change my diabetes prescription from the Avandia I was on to something else. The Avandia has been the news about causing heart problems and this new one hasn't had any bad side effects, and he gave me another drug that helps ease stress on the heart which can happen in surgeries.

So I have been given the go ahead by all the doctors. I was to see the dietitian today but they called and moved my appointment until the 22nd of January. I called the doctor that will be doing the surgery to see if I could see him next week and get the results from the EGD/Biopsy that I had this past Tuesday. Fortunately they didn't have to do the biopsy. I have already lost the 30 pounds that he wanted me to lose, in fact I've lost 40 pounds. I have an appointment with him for the 17th of January and should know more then but wanted everyone to know what was going on.

I am hoping that maybe we can schedule the surgery for the 29th. As soon as it is scheduled I will let every know.
Thank you all for your prayers and continued support.

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.