'Twas the Night Before Snip Day...

Where are we now you ask?  Why, we are T-Minus less than 10 hours before surgery!  About seven months ago I made a decision to have gastric bypass surgery.  Being someone over 400 lbs I realized that while having lap band surgery would work, and I would lose about 100-125 lbs, it is nowhere near enough to bring me down to a weight that I am comfortable with.  So, after consulting with my surgeon, Dr. Jonathan Wallace of The Kane Center, I decided to have gastric bypass surgery instead.

What have I done to prepare for the surgery?  Well, I went through an insurance battle from hell with my company's insurance (they don't cover any kind of bariatric surgery at all).  I thought this would never happen, but my partner ended up getting hired on with his company and they had United Health Care.  Once I sent in the application for surgery I was expecting all kinds of drama like with my company's insurance.  Is that what happened?  Nope, not at all.  I was approved for gastric bypass surgery in five days.  The nurse from UHC called me personally to tell me on December 23rd.  It was one of the best Christmas presents I have ever received.

For the last two weeks I have been on this meal replacement plan diet thing.  OMFG let me just tell you, it completely sucked.  The chocolate protein powder was "tolerable" but the vanilla was completely inedible. For those going through Bariatric Advantage for their meal replacement plan, AVOID THE VANILLA at all costs. Aside from these shakes (3-5 times per day) I was also able to eat things like chicken, beef, vegetable broth, certain fruits, sugar free Jell-O, sugar free popsicles, etc.  The idea behind the diet is so you can shrink your liver (and remove the fat around your liver) as much as possible to increase your chances of having laparoscopic surgery.  

Did it work in my case?  I have no idea - I won't know until the surgeon makes his first cut tomorrow and puts the camera in there to look around.  I will say...I lost over 25 lbs in the last two weeks on this diet :).  WOOHOO!  At least it's a start.  So, while still not Principle Resident of 4-9-1 street, I still have a long way to go.

The time is rapidly approaching for me to get to bed, but before I do I want to say how I feel right now.  All in all, I am not really nervous about tomorrow.  I mean sure, I have never had surgery before so anything involving me being cut open is scary and makes me nervous.  I am told that I will have a breathing tube down my throat when I get up, as well as two "drains" put in that will remain in for 8 days (GROSS - sorry Adam Q_Q).  Still, even with that, I am not too terrified.  The only thing that scares me is due to a conversation I had with my surgeon on Thursday.  He told me that even though I lost a bunch of weight over the last two weeks, he isn't sure I will be able to have the surgery laparoscopically.  That's a huge bummer because, 1) I don't want this huge 8-10 inch cut on my stomach, and 2) I worked REALLY hard for this and as much as he tells me the healing won't be any longer with it, I don't really believe him lol :P

Oh, and on a side note, someone from work made me sick on Thursday of last week and I have been fighting a cold since then.  Right now I am congested to the moon, but feel ok overall.  I talked to one of the surgeons this morning and he said that everything should be fine and I should come in anyway.  The anesthesiologist will review me tomorrow (and my congestion) and decide if surgery is a go or a slight postpone for a few days.  I am hoping it's a go.

4:30 AM comes early folks.  G'night :-D!