Day #347 MORE Surgery Updates!

As I was driving into work on Thursday I got a call from my bariatric coordinator saying they could do my h. Pylori test done right that moment! So I called into work saying I would be late and got it taken care of. I'm negative! I love my surgeon and my bariatric coordinator but the front desk person in his office does not like me at all. Sometimes she just looks away from me and ignores me when I ask her questions she doesn't know the answers to. I guess it's a trade off I am willing to put up with in exchange for an amazing surgeon.

All that is left is to submit to my insurance and see if they approve me. I'm going to submit my fmla request this week and then I just wait until the second week of January to start my two weeks of preop shakes and low fat meals to shrink my liver. I'm so excited!

Day #344 Realizations & Surgery Updates

Recently one of my patients had his probation officer visit him, and was telling him about how he came clean after being a drug abuser for 27 years. One of the things that struck me was him describing drug abuse. He said that drug abusers are constantly looking for that same feeling that they had the first few times they did their drug of choice. Each time after that it doesn't feel as good, and eventually it just makes you feel bad. That's exactly how I feel about food. The first bite is so good, and then each bite after that tastes a little bit less awesome, until eventually eating it just makes me feel bad. He told my patient that he doesn't ever drink beer, because when he does he would always make the bad decision to do his drug. That made me so sad because I can never abstain from eating food! I need to eat it to survive! Having surgery is going to be such an awesome tool for me because I will get that "makes you feel bad" feeling much quicker.

Speaking of surgery, I have major updates for you! I went to weigh in with the nutritionist today and I was so close my goal weight that he said he would sign me off. It doesn't hurt that he's one of my buddies from work :-p Then I went to my bariatric coordinator and she is going to try and help me do my H. Pylori breath test on a non-Monday (the only days they offer them) because I work every Monday. She also asked me when I want to have surgery so I told her sometime towards the end of January and we looked at the calendar and decided on January 23rd! It's not an official date yet, but hopefully it will be soon :-)  I also went to the pre-op class today and picked up an FMLA application from HR so i'm so close! I'm so excited!!!

Day #340 Back on track and feeling better :-)

Since my last meltdown post I had a week and a half off of work in ICU. I've worked a few shifts in PACU but those are not very stressful. I feel refreshed and ready to go back to ICU tomorrow. I took (dis) advantage of the time off to eat like crap and gained. I hadn't gained or lost anything up until the Saturday after Thanksgiving, but then I got a little out of control.  My highest weight was 220. This was a huge wake up call since I have a weigh in with the nutritionist coming up and I'm supposed to weigh 210 lbs! Yikes! I'm back on the wagon and already down to 217.2. I also did 7.5 miles of walking/jogging/biking today with one of my best friends who was in town and even though i'm tired, it felt awesome. I've even started tracking on myfitnesspal.com!