I went in for my last pre surgery appointment today. It started with a weight and BP check, where they recorded me as down 74 pounds since the orientation class on April 15.

Then I had about 45 minutes with a surgical resident and a med-student, where we talked about the surgery, confirmed my history and understanding of what I am getting myself into. They were both very happy with my progress and were very positive about my chances for success. They took me through the official surgical consent form, where we had the no flowery talk real discussion about the potential complications and death. I was very pleased with how that discussion went, and signed the consent form.

They went through a risk assessment based on history, weight, etc. and I ended up as medium risk for blood clots due to my post history, so I will have a post surgery injection to prevent clots.

Forms done, the surgeon then came in and we had another good discussion, covering most of the same stuff. He has an excellent bedside manner, and I feel very comfortable with him. During the resident talk, the resident was telling me how good of a surgeon Dr. Carlin is. He told me that they have a practice laparoscopic simulator, and that Dr. Carlin can do some of the things in seconds that the resident takes minutes to do. He seemed really impressed with Dr. Carlin's dexterity, which seemed sincere. So I've got that going for me, which is nice.

Next came the nurse for the actual scheduling. I was not sure how quickly to expect the surgery, and have a golf weekend scheduled for mid September, so I was hoping for late September. I wasn't sure what I was going to do if they offered me late august. Luckily for me, the earliest date was September 20ish, so delaying a week wasn't a big deal.

My date is officially September 30!!

This means my pre-op liquid diet will begin the day after my wife's birthday, so we can still have a nice birthday meal.

After that, there was some paperwork for a long term study that my surgeon participates in, and then a final meeting with Wanda, the program coordinator. She led the orientation meeting and is a large part of my success thus far, as she was so direct and informative, but laid out a clear plan for me to follow. I was very happy to let her know how important and helpful she has been in my journey, and that seemed to have an impact on her. Wanda is also the one who pointed me here, which is another huge help to me.

I was out of there in about three hours, and now have two more months to keep driving for healthy weight loss success!

Rob