Woohoo!

I received a letter in the mail today from the surgeons office with a date for a consultation to determine is the doctor believes me to be a good candidate for the surgery. If she does then her office will start the insurance pre-approval process. Once insurance pre-approval is confirmed a surgery date is set.

I am so excited to have received this letter today. I have been working so hard since February to get the appointment with the surgeon and now I have it, Sept. 4, 2009. It all seems to be finally becoming a real possibility. Now if I could just fast forward to that date.

One More Appointment

I saw my behaviorist this afternoon. The first thing, of course, is to weigh in. I lost another 5 pounds for a total of 33 pounds lost so far. If you are interested, there is a weight loss tracker at the bottom of this blog that I update each time I weigh in.

Next, we discussed how things went over the past month and I let her know how amazing the rephrasing of my thoughts and speech with positive words has been. Mostly, I recognized that when I thought or said that I can't have something I was actually making a decision to abdicate. I was making a choice even though I felt I had no choice. Now, when I hear me say, "I can't", I stop and think about what is the decision that I am really making and is it something that will help me reach my goals. Amazingly, this has really helped me to feel better about the weight loss process.

I have one more session with her on Aug. 5th, and she said that after that she can't see any reason not to let me proceed on to surgery! Yippee!

Ida asked a question in the comments of my last post about whether or not the Mirapex that I am taking is still working for me. It is, but I do have occasional break through spasms and ticks that require an extra dose from time to time. If it becomes more frequent then I will be put on a higher dose. Thank you for asking!

Sleep Study Results

I saw the sleep specialist today to get the results of the sleep study that was done over a month ago. I was told that I slept a little under 6 hours. I awoke an average of 33 times per hour and that meant that I slept for less than 2 minutes at a time! (No wonder I fall asleep at the computer.) I knew that I awoke frequently, but I had no idea that it was that often.

He told me that the usual reasons that they see for that frequency of awakening is either sleep apnea or limb movement. I was taking Mirapex to control my RLS (Restless Leg Syndrome) so I knew it wasn't that and he confirmed that my limb movement was normal during sleep. He said that I don't have sleep apnea, so that wasn't the reason for me to keep waking up.

He concluded that the cause was discomfort, probably from pain. Well, duh! I told everyone that without a sleep study. It only cost approx. $3500 for them to determine what I already knew.

My next appointment is tomorrow afternoon with the behaviorist. If she says that I am ready to move on then, I think my next step will be to meet with the surgeon to start the insurance approval process and then ultimately get a date for surgery. Let's all keep our fingers crossed, unless you are knitting.

The Cardiologist

Yesterday, I had my cardiology appointment. I was finally told that what showed up while I was in the sleep study was that I occasionally have a few extra heart beats. The doctor said that this is not all that abnormal, and that the only reason that I was referred to him is that I am up for major surgery so they are being overly cautious.

An EKG was performed in the office and he said it was completely normal. Of course, he listened to my chest sounds and said that my heart and lungs sounded perfectly normal. The final test was an echo cardiogram. The technician said that she didn't see anything abnormal or worrisome. (She was a lap band patient, so we had lots to talk about while she performed the test!)

I was told that I will receive a letter within a few weeks that will either tell me the doctors final determination, and sign off on my weight loss surgery, or it will give me an appointment for follow up if after reviewing the echo cardiogram, he feels that there is something that needs more attention. After all that I was told, I feel confident that I will be able to proceed without further delay. What a relief!

My next appointment is on Monday, July 13th, to finally hear all the results of the sleep study and see if I need to be treated for sleep apnea. On Tuesday, July 14th, I will see the behaviorist to determine if she thinks I need more counseling or if she will sign off on my weight loss surgery. Keep your fingers crossed!