Busy day today! More hurdles cleared!

I met my surgeon today and made it through another couple of steps prior to surgery. I didn’t get my date yet, but everything went well. I believe I get my surgery date when i see the surgeon next on July 18th. I could have gotten the date this Friday, but the appointment didn’t fit my schedule, so I have to wait until the surgeon is back from vacation.

The appointment consisted of getting a quick physical workup from a nurse, weight (-52 lb by their scales), height (down an inch from what I thought I was, I’m shrinking!), BP/pulse, etc.

Then a surgical resident came in and we reviewed my letter of intent (the program requires that you write a letter to the surgeon explaining your motivation, history, understanding of the process and post-surgery life, etc.), my health history, etc. We talked about which surgery I would like (I officially opted for the VSG today). I was a good candidate for either VSG or RnY, and chose based on the reduced changes to the plumbing and simpler VSG surgery. I am counting on my own post-surgery ability to lose the extra weight to make up for the statistical lower amount of weight lost by VSG patients.

Then the surgeon came in and talked with my wife and I. With the pre-surgery success I have had, everything was very positive and they believe I will be an excellent candidate ad will follow the post-surgery life well. I asked about postponing the surgery based on my success, to see if I could hack it on my own. They were open to that (it was completely up to me), but suggested that because of the very low percentages of people who succeed at losing as much as I need to, that having the surgery statistically is much more likely to be successful. They also brought up some hormonal changes that happen in the surgery that help more than is generally known/talked about. In the end, I decided to continue toward the surgery, but I was very happy with the way the conversation went.

After that, the Insurance Specialist came in and verified that my insurance approvals were in order. Following that, the nurse who coordinates the program came in and took me to her office to schedule my next appointments. She was very pleased with my progress (which I attribute in a large part to her; she ran the initial information session where the switch flipped, and I have only been following the plan she lad out for us: 1500 calories, log everything, exercise more, eat lots of protein.) She found an opening today for the medical clearance appointment, so I got that taken care of today as well.

I am now fully cleared for the surgery and will get my date scheduled on July 18th!! Very exciting day. I wanted to go through it in detail to share with those in the early stages of the process as those already post-surgery have been so helpful to me.

Rob