hockeyhottie
Pre-Op Weight 242
Surgeons Goal Weight 140
My Personal Goal 130
Lowest weight 126
Current weight as of 9/1/07 144
My Measurements:
Pre Op 7/1/04
Neck 15"
Right bicep 15"
Left bicep 16"
Right wrist 7"
Left wrist 7.5"
Right thigh 27"
Left thigh 27"
Right calf 19"
Left calf 20"
Left ankle 11"
Right ankle 11"
Hips 50"
Waist 45"
Under bust 39"
Bust 49"
Measurements 1 year post-op:
Neck 12"
Right bicep 10.5"
Right wrist 6"
Left bicep 10.5"
Left wrist 6"
Bust 36"
Under bust 31.5"
Waist 27"
Hips 34"
Right Thigh 18"
Right Calf 14"
Right Ankle 8.5"
Left Thigh 17.5"
Left Calf 14"
Left Ankle 8.25"
Read this on someone else's profile. It really spoke to me about life so I decided to include in my profile too.
Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end.
There will be no more sunrises, days, hours or minutes.
All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else.
Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.
It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.
Your grudges, resentments, frustrations, and jealousies will finally disappear.
So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do lists will all expire.
The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.
It won't matter where you came from, or on what side of the tracks you lived.
It won't matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.
Your gender, skin color, ethnicity will be irrelevant.
So what will matter?
How will the value of your days be measured?
What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built;
Not what you got, but what you gave.
What will matter is not your success, but your significance.
What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.
What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage and sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.
What will matter is not your competence, but your character.
What will matter are not how many people you knew,
But how many will feel a lasting loss when you're gone.
What will matter are not your memories,
But the memories of those who loved you.
What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.
Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident.
It's not a matter of circumstance but of choice.
Choose to live a life that matters.
5/17/2004 Medical history is complete and letter to insurance company for surgery approval has been sent. Blood work complete. Psych evaluation is June 4th. Onward and upward!
6/1/04 Received my approval for surgery from my insurance company! YAHOO!
6/4/2004 Psych evaluation with CORI psychologist Dr. Altier complete. It was short and sweet--in and out in 45 minutes. No paper and pencil test. He told me I passed and would call my patient care coordinator, Amber, and leave her a verbal confirmation that I passed my evaluation. I will follow up on Monday to make sure Amber got his message and hope that I am able to make my appointment for my consult.
6/8/04 Spoke with Amber @ CORI--Dr. S reviews all psych evaluations before patients can schedule consult. Amber told me probably the end of June. Consult is 3-4 hours and is always on Wednesdays,so I have a couple of weeks to wait. Looks like surgery will most likely be sometime in the middle of July. Told my Mom and sister that I am having the surgery, they are a little scared but supportive. My sister is plannng to come in to town,(she lives in NJ) for my surgery and stay with me for the first week while I recover. My Mom works for the school district so she is off for the summer and can also help out. Life is good!
(at least familywise)
6/16/2004 Called Amber and guess what? She's not there anymore! Apparently she and two other PCC's left and things are in a bit of chaos. After three phone calls, on two different days, my new PCC, Terri, called. She does not have my file and did not know where it was and she was going to be gone until Monday! ARGH! She had no idea whether the psych evaluation had been received or not but told me to call back Monday and she should have an answer for me. I went to a CORI support meeting tonight in St Clair Shores. I met Jules there. There was suppose to be someone from the office there but they never showed. I did find out however that the Clinton Twp office is closing. Perhaps that explains the sudden departure of three employees.Told my Dad and brothers about having surgery. My brothers were surprised but supportive. I was really scared to tell my Dad. Not because I thought he wouldn't be supportive but I also work for him. I thought he might not be too happy that I was taking off time in the summer. (He plays golf alot! lol) Our office is just the two of us so that would mean he would have to cover the office himself or hire someone to do my job PT. Well, all my fears were unfounded as he was super supportive and said that he would do whatever was necessary for me to have the surgery. Isn't that awesome! My son was so cute when I told him he said, "Mom, I'm SO happy for you!" Then he wanted to know all about the surgery and what I coul eat, etc. He still can't believe that I can never eat a candy bar again! lol
6/20/2004
I'm updating with fantastic news! I have my surgery date! July 15, 2004. I can't believe that in less than 30 days I will be on the losing side! Here is how getting my date transpires:
Thursday, June 17, I was lamenting the fact that I would have to wait until Monday to get my consult date. I had stuck in my mind that I wanted my consult done on June 30th and my surgery July 15th. I was so afraid that I would miss the consult date this month with the delay in things.
Late Thursday afternoon I got a call from CORI. It was Mary, the head of the PCC. She was calling because of what I had posted about CORI being sold and the Clinton Twp office being closed. WHOA! I was a little taken aback. Mary just wanted to let me know that CORI was not being sold, that in fact CORI was a expanding, growing company. I told her that although I had heard that they were being sold, it was not my belief at anytime that CORI was going out of business or anything like that. She also told me that closing the Clinton Twp location was a difficult but prudent business decision. It was felt that having patient files handled in one location, while consults were being handled in other locations, was causing some problems with timely scheduling and the like. For the good of the patients and business as a whole it was decided to close the Clinton Twp office and move all files to the Warren office. She apologized for the delay this might cause me but promised to locate my file and give me call to see where I was in the process. I was appreciative of her call and hoped that I might hear from her on Friday.
Friday I left my office about 4:00 PM, still had not heard from Mary. I happen to live very close to the Warren office so I decided I would pop by to see if I could schedule my consult. My thought was, well it can't hurt. I heard many on the boards talk about "the squeaky wheel getting the grease", so figured I'd try my luck.
The office was quiet and empty when I arrived. I waited a few minutes before a receptionist returned to her desk and I asked her if Mary was in. At that same moment, my phone began to ring. I ignored it as the receptionist asked my name. When I told her, she looked surprised and said "I think she's trying to call you right now!" I grabbed my phone, which was still ringing and sure enough CORI's phone number was on my caller ID. Before I could answer the call ended, and I saw that the receptionist had left the front desk area. Within moments, I was shaking hands with Mary. She told me she was just calling me to schedule my consult on June 30th! I was elated that I finally had my consult date, the next step to accomplishing my goal. She then told me that I would be scheduled for surgery at my consult and surgery would be very soon after that. I thanked her and told her that Iwas looking for surgery in mid July rather than right after the 4th.
She asked the scheduler when was the next week available for surgery. The week of July 19th. I was a little disappointed but decided that the 22nd would be fine however if there was a cancellation on the 15th, would they give me a call. The scheduler called out to Mary that the 15th would be ok and they would pencil me in! HOORAY! I was elated and Mary said she was so happy to start her weekend on a positive note. I thanked her profusely. Everything is falling into place and I am SO grateful. I cannot wait to be on the losing side!
July 1, 2004 Met with Dr S. yesterday. The best way to describe him is that he is very real. It's all systems go for my surgery on the 15th. Harper should be calling me after the holiday to tell me my surgery time and when I will need to come in for my pre-op tests. A couple of of good things that Dr S told me yesterday about the surgery; NG tube and catheter are removed before I go to recovery and drain tube will most likely be removed before I go home, YAH! Amy at the CORI Warren office told me that the surgery costs 30K but most of that is the hospital ($17,500) Dr. S cost is 6000. Then there are costs for the surgeon assistant. She has not dealt with my insurance before so she did not have all of my out of pocket cost figured out. She is contacting my insurance company today so she can let me know what I will need to pay. I also am stopping by my Gram's today to tell her about the surgery. She is the only person I haven't told yet. She is 87 and worries like crazy so I wanted to wait until I knew everything was set. I think she will be happy for me but I know she is going to worry too much.
7/2/2004 Went to my Gram's last night after work to tell her about the surgery. She was very surprised but very happy and NOT WORRIED or so she said. I feel so much better now that she knows. She was the final person I wanted to tell before I have my surgery. I SO ready for this!
7/7/04 I can't believe that next Thursday I will be on the other side. I haven't had the nerves set in yet, but I'm sure they will on Tuesday or Wednesday. My sister is coming in on Tuesday afternoon from New Jersey and will be staying with me while I recover for about a week or so. Mom will probably spend the night on Wednesday as we have to be at Harper early. My pre-op testing is on Friday afternoon at Harper. No big deal--chest xray, EKG and bloodwork.
I have such a fun packed week-end planned! Friday evening I am heading up to Jeni Allen's for a Bar-B-Que with Jules and Karen.
TONS of people from the board are coming and I am so excited to meet them all. They are such great people--the best! This is such an unexpected to bonus to having the surgery--meeting all these wonderful people. I don't think I've had this much fun since high school! LOL. On Saturday a bunch of us WLS folks are going to breakfast and to the Royal Oak Art Fair, then to Tommy's for Karaoke that night. Sunday we have our support group meeting--we have someone coming from a Low-Carb store with samples for us to check out and order if we wish. Monday is my "Last Supper". I am meeting up with WLS friends at the Mongolian Bar-B-Que for my last dinner before surgery. (Tuesday I start full liquids, Wed. clear liquids) Should be a BLAST~!
7/15/04 It's D-Day! I leave for the hospital in a couple of hours. I'm not nervous, I know this is the best decision I could make to move closer to my goal...to live a normal life. I am writing a letter to my son, Dakota this morning, just in case. He's only 13 and I know he would like something from me if God has other plans for my life. I have dreaded doing it because I know I will become emotional and I have been able to keep a positive attitude. I am a firm believer that attitude has everythin to do with recovery. Again, I feel so fortunate to have found this board and all its wonderful people. Can't wait to come back here and join them as an official "loser". See you all on the lighter side.
