Goodwitch
3-8-06 Our WLS journey begins:
I saw my nurse practioner this morning. She is going to send my referal to Dr. Salameh. My doctor,the one she works with, is the one who does all the pre op and post op metabolic testing for Dr. Salameh. I am glad of that since I know her. I have been seeing her for about 5 years. I hope that is in my favor for approval. She has already documented my weight loss efforts over this past 5 years. Walter,my DH, is having this done also. His doctor sent his referal last month. I know this is a long process. We are looking forward to sharing it with you all. Will update when we get our first appointment.
3-14-06
I went to my first support group meeting at UMC last night. I did not get to stay for the whole meeting since I had to be at work at 1900. I met Joyce and Arlies. They are so nice. I am looking forward to sharing my WLS journey with them all. Walter did not get to go but will next time.
3-15-06
Caryl(my NP) called me today to ask me questions about my past weight loss efforts. She said she is finishing up the paper work for my referal to Dr. Salameh's office. I hope to hear something from them soon.
3-20-06
I talked to Lori at Dr. Salameh's office. They have not recieved my referal yet. I am trying to be patient.
3-30-06
I heard from Dr. Salameh's office today. Walter has his first appt. on April 17th. They just got my referal from my pcp today. The nurse is out of the office until April 12th. It will be then before I know when my first appt. is. So we do have a little progress. I find myself being less anxious since they have my referal. I know this will take a long time.
4-12-06
Walter got his appointment in the mail today. He sees Dr. Salameh for the first time on 4/18/06.
4-13-06
I got my appointment in the mail today. I see Dr. Salameh for the first time on May 2nd. We have already read the required pamplet. I got it off UMC Intranet a couple of months ago. We are ready to begin.
4-17-06
Walter called Dr.Salameh's office to ask a question about being npo tonight for his appointment tomorrow. He was told they had to change his appointment because Dr. Salameh will be out of the office tomorrow. They first changed it to May 8th but then said that since my appointment is May 2nd he could come for his appointment after me. We are so glad,because we wanted our appointments at the same time from the start,though I was excited about one of us getting started. I guess this is the first of many delays and waiting games.
4-27-06
I am changing my profile to incluce Walter. Since we are doing this together, I want my profile to reflect both of us. His BMI is 63 before surgery. We are excited about our appointment on May 2nd.
5-2-06
We had our first appointment with Dr. Salameh today. It went very well. Walter has actually lost 20 pounds since he saw his doctor in Feb. His BMI is 60 now. He told me he can do my RNY laproscopic. Walter will have to have an open RNY. Walter will also have to have a sleep study. We had our blood test done. We also got our pulmonary function test and blood gases done today. That is one hurdle over with. We were told it usually takes 3-4 months for the process before surgery is scheduled. We will see. We are now waiting to hear when our appointments for psych,metabolic,nutrition and sleep study will be. I made me an appointment with my cardiologist because I do not want this atrial flutter I have off and on to delay my WLS. I feel very good about our dicision to do this.
05-08-06
Lori called today and said the sleep study has to be done at night. She faxed them our schedule so they can schedule it for our day off. We have already had to change our appt with the metabolic clinic because it was scheduled on a day we are working. So much for giving them our schedule. That is ok though,we knew we were in for a lot of ups and downs when we started this. The secretary from the metabolic clinic is supposed to call us back with another appt. It's good that we caught it though. The nutriionist will not be in the clinic that day and we would had to return for a second visit any way.
5-11-06
We have our appt. with the metabolic clinic at JMM on 6-08-06. We are now waiting on our appt. for the sleep study and psych eval. What a tangled web we weave.
5-21-06
Just returned from Columbus. In the mail I found an appointment for our psych eval. The appt. is on May 31 at 0900. It says to expect to be there for 3 hours. We have to work that night. I am going to call in the morning to see if we can get to appt. changed to an off day.
6-2-06
We did get our appt. with psych changed. We will go on June 21th. The only appt. we are waiting on is Walter's sleep study. I will tell Lori about it if we see her at the support group meeting on the 13th. We have not heard anything about it.
6-8-06
We went to JMM for our medical eval. Everything went well. I have to have clearence from my cardiologist because of the atrial flutter. I have an appointment with him on the 30th. Walter has lost another 5 lbs. I have stayed the same. We go for our psych eval on the 21th. Getting closer.
6-12-06
Walter called today to get his sleep study appointment. October 11th!!!! Can not believe that. I am likely to have WLS before he does. We hope that they call with a cancelation.
6-16-06
Lori called today from Dr. Salameh's office. Walter stil can not get sleep study til Oct. Walter has an appt. with a pulmonologist at Baptist Hospital on Thursday June 22nd. His sleep study will be done there next month. We appreciate Lori getting this done sooner for us.
6-21-06
We had our psych eval today. It went fine. Daniel was so nice. He said we finished in record time. 2 hours for 2 people. I think we are officially known now as "The husband and wife". Lori called me this afternoon and told me the insurance company notified her that I need to have a sleep study also. I called the sleep lab at MBMC and they will see me tomorrow with Walter. Great timing!!!
6-22-06
We saw Dr. Barry Whites(no relation to the sexy singer)today. He is the pulmonologist at MBMC. He talked to us about 20 minutes. He was very supportive of RNY gastric bypass surgery. We are going to have our sleep study on July 24th. I will see my cardiologist on June 30th and after our sleep study we will be ready for approval. Can't wait.
6-30-06
Saw Dr. Paine,cardiologist, today. He wants to do another ablation to stop the atrial flutter. Says it should do it this time. He says it will not keep me from having my WLS. He wants to do the ablation before the WLS so anesthesia will not have to deal with the flutter if it happens during surgery. It is scheduled for August 22nd. It will delay me getting approved but I knew going into this delays will happen.
7-11-06
Caren from Dr. Payne's office called today and they want to do the EP study and ablation next Tues. the 18th. I called Alberta and she said I could have the time off. I am glad to get it done earlier so Walter and I can be approved at the same time. Albation on the 18th and Sleep study on the 24th. Time is coming near.
7-11-06
We went to the support group meeting tonight. Lori told us the insurance company wants us to do a doctor supervised weight loss program. I think for 3 months. She is going to check with Emmy and ask her if we can start it from the first time we saw Dr. Salameh on May 2nd. I think we will have to start from now. This will delay us for 3 more months. I hope they will approve us if we lose weight. Walter is afraid they may not appove it if we loose. We will see when we hear from Lori. More hurdles and hoops to jump through. The plot thickens.................................
7-14-06
Had my pre-0p for my Ablation today. I can not wait til this is over so I can continue with my WLS plan.
8-3-06
Had my ablation on 7-18-06. I was in there 8 hours. It took a lot out of me. It took awhile for me to get over it. I feel better now that I know what is going on. I was still haveing episodes after the ablation. come to find out I have a-fib. I am now on meds for that. I am on coumadin. I will have to be on it for the rest of my life. I just hope it does not affect my surgery. My cardiologist says he thinks I will do good. We had our sleep study. Walter is on bi-pap. I am on c-pap. It takes getting used to. Walter is done with test. I have to see Dr. Paine on 9-1-06 and hopefuly he will sent the letter I need to get cleared. The WLS journery continues...........
8-30-06
It's been a while since I posted. Got a call from Lori Monday. We have to do a 3 Month Doctor supervised diet. Insurance requirement. It will be every Thursday from 12 to 1.(in the middle of our sleep time. Something I am not too happy about. No one is ever kind to night shift people. They do not take in consideration that it is like them getting up at midnight and getting dressed and going out for one hour and then having to come back and try to get another 2 hour nap before going to work. Enough of my high horse.
It is going to cost us $30.00 each per week. According to Lori,we get big book! SO WHAT!!!!!! We would pay twice as much just to get an 0800 meeting time. We are caught between a rock and a hard place. Insurance is going to pay for the surgery. We have no choice and they know it. Well here we go jumping our hurdles!!! I still have to get Dr. Payne to send a letter giving his blessings. That will be a goat roping. That office is so un-organized!! More later........
09-08-06
We started our 12 week-doctor supervised weight loss program yesterday. our insurance company is requiring us to follow a 1200/day calorie diet for the 12 weeks. The nutritionist that teaches the class is very nice. I think we will enjoy it and benefit from it. We have already started it and so far so good. We weigh in every thursday. Until later...............
10-26-06
We now have been doing the "doctor supervised weight loss/nutrition program" for 8 weeks. Walter has lost 78 pounds(since Feb.). I have lost 31 pounds. We are doing the LEARN program through the Obesity Clinic at UMC. We really like the program. We go every Thursday from 12-1. It cost us 60 dollars a week. Actually we are thinking about NOT having the surgery. We really would love to change our ways and lose weight and keep it off. Will post more later.............
12-07-06
We finished our 3 month doctor supervised weight loss/nutrition class. Walter has lost 103 pounds since Feb(60 since class started Sept 7th) and I have lost 47 pounds since Sept. 7th. We saw the doctor today and we hare not going to have the surgery. She is still going to submit all the information to the insurance company just in case we decide to have the WLS at a later date. Will continue to lurk and post sometimes. Until later................
01-21-07
We are still counting calories. We are eating more than the 1200 that the insurance company wanted us to do. The nutritionist we were seeing said that 1200 was really not enough especially for Walter. I am eating between 1200 and 1500 per day and Walter is doing 1600-2000 per day. We have lost some every week except for 1 week each and we stayed the same. We are eating what we want but counting the calories and most important of all ..... we write down every bite we put in our mouth. Walter is still not excerising. On the days I work,I take 6 flights of stairs several times and walk as much as I can. I park as far away I can and still be on campus. On my off days I walk 45 minutes. I started out at first taking the elevator to 4th floor and walking the last flight now I go from basement to 5th floor on the stairs. I have lost weight before,more than this. I have never felt this good. We follow alot of the advise of Dr. Oz. We eat healthy drink alot of water. That book YOU ON A DIET is very good. We have eaten out several times, drank what we want and are still losing weight. I really feel it has been a lifestyle change. To date Walter has lost 120 pounds and I have lost 60 pounds. Will keep in touch. more later....................
03-08-07
It has been six months now that we have been doing the LEARN program. Walter has lost 136 pounds(in 11 months) and I have lost 75 pounds in the past 6 months. We are developing new and exciting habits. I walk, take stairs, and work in my yard alot. Walter's doctor took him off 1 of his bp meds and 1 of his cholesterol meds. I hope to come off some of mine in the near future. We are doing great and feel better than ever. More later...............................