Originally published March 1, 2009
Get on with it already.
October/November of last year was when I reallllly started digging in to the whole bariatric surgery stuff. First part of November I had made up my mind. It was something I wanted… needed to do. Did more reading, started getting hooked up with a surgeon, started jumping through all sorts of hoops. I went to my first meeting expecting that I would be under the knife before Christmas.
Then a wall was sort of put up.
Insurance requires six months of medically supervised weight loss as a pre-qualification. I would have been fine, but since I was only visiting my doctor every other month or so, the surgeon didn’t think they’d take that and tacked another three months on to the time-table.
So I slowed things up a bit. Met with the dietician just before Thanksgiving and started changing a lot of things. For example, by the time you read this I’ll have not had a sip of pop in four months. I rarely drink anything with meals any more. Even though that is not a medical requirement yet… it’s a habit I needed to form. And yea, I’m making much better choices in general when eating.
So fast-forward to early February. I’ve made it through all the hoops (not including the six-months thing) and just have my final evaluation with the Psychologist… he says I’m good to go and to give him a week or two to get the paperwork to my surgeon.
Kewl.
So on the 13th day I’m feeling a bit antsy and call the surgeon’s office. No paperwork yet. So I shoot an email to the psychologist… couple days go by… nothing. Leave a phone message. Nothing. Call the surgeon’s office again, anything they can do? No, course not. They have me in a holding pattern till they get his paperwork, and that’s that. Call his office again… nothing. Call again the next day and leave another message. We’re at three weeks and two days… and I get an email. He apologizes and should have it in the next couple days (well, either last Friday or tomorrow/Monday).
Ok… which I’m hoping by… Wednesday…? I hear from the nurse for what I expect to be the sign-off and hopefully even scheduling of my surgery.
I was really hoping for early March… now I’ll settle for by the end of March. I want to be to the point where I am up and running (well, probably walking) and biking and paintballing by early May. I want to be have an active spring and summer. I want to take my niece and nephew to the park. I want to take my other nieces to the park. I want to go out camping and hike for miles and miles.
I want to do stuff this year.
I’m already feeling the difference from what I lost. I’m nearly to the weight I was four or so years ago, and even that is a good thing. But now I know it’s not good enough.
So yea… I am friggen’ ready for this.
