Friday was my 2nd meeting, but first I weighed in with Jennifer the Nurse. I had gained 2-3 lbs or so since last month, but easily done over the holidays. I was actually surprised it wasn't higher.
So Nurse Jennifer was pretty awesome. I really like her. She's 5 years post-op (RNY). She asked me at one point what's my proof in the pudding. I didn't get what she was asking, so she rephrased in plain English: "What will really make you happy, Jamie?" My reply was, "To get off all those meds." Then she said, "Yes, but what will really make you happy?" I replied: "To lose weight." She said, "Have you lost weight before?", to which I replied, "Yes, many times over..." Jennifer: "Then what will REALLY make you happy?", and my reply: "To keep it off." And she says, "Then that's what we'll work on and and I can help you get there."
That was the best conversation I've had in a long time and deep down inside it made my heart do little backflips of joy.
On to my Dr. Gatmaitan meeting. It was a little strange to me that he showed me texts from his former patients on his iPhone -- before and after pics, but neat nonetheless. We decided on doing the sleeve. He did say he expects me to lose a little weight before my surgery or maintain, but definitely for the scale NOT going up each month. I had a long list of questions to ask him. He did say I can expect to gain a lot of energy after surgery and sleep better, too. My pre-op diet is a week on clear liquids, then the poop cleaner outter (official name is "bowel prep") the day before (I should take off work this day!!). He said he writes the return to work note for 3 weeks after surgery, but depending on how I'm feeling and how convincing I can be, it could be just 2 weeks. I am thinking I'm going to go for the 3 weeks for sure. I'll have the leave and plus week 3 will be covered 75% pay via STD, so I wouldn't have to use much leave during that 3rd week to supplement. He is going to order a sleep study for me, so I will likely have a CPAP in the next few months. Not looking forward to all the appointments that will require, but I know in the end I will probably be sleeping better and waking up more refreshed.
On to Dietician Ashton. She was pleased that I kept a food journal for 7-10 days. I admitted that I didn't walk once and that was one of my goals. She didn't seem too annoyed. I also sucked at decreasing my soda intake because I realized I drank more than I thought I did. For next month, my goals are to keep a food journal daily, cut soda out COMPLETELY (I said I would once I ran out of my 8 cans or so I have left in my fridge), walk 20-30 minutes 3 days a week, and decrease fried foods to twice a week. I won't be able to eat fried foods after surgery (well, for at least a year or more) so I have to get out of the habit!!
I have a ton of tests that I have to get done or will get done prior to surgery -- some of them will be scheduled soon, for example, on 1/29 I have an endoscopy where they will put me under and put a scope down my throat to look around and make sure I don't have an ulcer or any weird stuff going on. Rich has to go with me that day to drive me home. The other tests that are coming are a GI series, a chest image/x-ray, and a complete blood panel. I also have to get my pap smear done and eventually have a psych eval!
Next Nutritionist appointment is on Monday, 10 February. Can't believe it'll be #3 and half way done! I think Alisha mentioned that her sister's surgery date got tentatively scheduled when she went to her 4th appointment. I did ask Nurse Jennifer about when surgery will be "tentatively scheduled" and she didn't really give me a straight answer but said it wouldn't be months waiting after my last nutritionist appointment.
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