My WLS Journey
Well things are certainly moving pretty quickly now. I did my consultation with Dr. McCarty September 8th and took care of the bloodwork, EKG, and chest XRay. The WLS Center weighed me at 444 pounds, while the admitting office came up with 420. I suspect the 420 is correct. I've been joking all day that I lost 24 pounds in one day and I haven't even had the surgery yet!
I have a consultation with Dr. Hamilton's office on Tuesday, September 9th and will go in for my EGD the next day.
If all goes well with the testing I will go in Friday, September 12, 2003 for Lap RNY Gastric Bypass.
Update: Well the first thing that came back was my EKG which showed me in Atrial Fibrillation. After going all the way downtown for my consult with Dr. Hamilton and driving all the way home to Grand Prairie, I had to drive all the way back for another EKG. I had to park in Lot 2 because all the others were full. Lot 2 is extremely far away from the EKG center and I had to walk the whole way. That's gonna show up great on my EKG... Actually I didn't mind the exercise all that much although I was huffing and puffing and all sweaty once I got to the EKG lab. Dennis is the EKG tech there and he's had a gastric bypass too. He works really hard to get accurate readings so you'll be safe in surgery and that there won't be any complications. I was in tachycardia and arythmia but no longer in A Fib.
The next day I went to Dr. Hamilton's office for the EGD. It turns out they don't do them at his office so it was off across town to another medical facility decorated in pale mauve. The EGD went well but Dr. Hamilton couldn't get the lab results back as fast as he was hoping so he told me to reschedule surgery.
In the meantime, Dr. McCarty reviewed my 2nd EKG and approved me for surgery. Then they got the lab results back on the bloodwork...
I have an adrenal tumor which runs in my family and have to go get it checked out before I can be cleared for surgery. Dr. McCarty posted a response to the website that I probably didn't have one but that they wanted to make sure before operating. He and Dr. Kuhn are very experienced in oncology and laproscopic tumor removal. I'm not worried about the pheochromacytoma being malignant, just that it is one more hoop to jump through before I can get on with my WLS and living my life.
I am going in to see Dr. Otto on Monday, September 15, 2003 and we'll see what happens from there.
I attended my pre-op nutrition class on September 11th and learned a couple of things. My weight watchers info coupled with my foodservice and foodscience background gave me a bit of an edge in the class. I was already prepared for everything we talked about and I did get a lot of good information and some free samples so the class was well worth it.
I went to the Baylor Buddies meeting that night and it was nice to hear all the people sympathize with my situation. It was also very motivational to hear all the good things that have happened to folks since WLS.
I am trying to stay positive about things and look forward to getting rid of this tumor and getting on with my journey.
Update: Dr. Otto was great. I'm going to switch to him as my PCP once the billing is all done for my RNY. He asked all the right questions and spent a lot of time with me. He confirmed my suspicions that the AFib was artifact and that I have an irregular heartbeat. Rather than skipping beats in his office, I had "a few extra heartbeats thrown in there." We did 2 EKGs and he said it looked fine for surgery. We also talked about colon cancer since my Dad had it and I'm at increased risk. Dr. Hamilton had also mentioned it so I'll get scoped out sometime in the future.
Dr. Hamilton called on Tuesday after reviewing the lab results. While my metaephrine levels were elevated, they were consistant with someone of my size. He cleared me for surgery.
I called the WLS Center and actually got ahold of Sherri. She rescheduled me for 9/26 in the afternoon but said they had been having a lot of cancellations and asked if I'd be interested in moving up. I said YES and started posting on the BB site.
Christy called me 9/17 and said I was now on for 945AM. I confirmed that my pre-admit was still valid and that I didn't need to redo my labwork.
I have a theory that the docs schedule you based on your medical condition, using BMI as a primary indicator. What I mean by that is that the higher your BMI, the more at risk you are, and the faster they try to get you into surgery.
I have no proof of this but I've been able to get in a lot faster than some other people and my BMI is 70. I guess that it could also have to do with the fact that I keep close tabs on my procedure and the "hoops" I have to jump through. When they say jump, I jump. I'm looking forward to surgery and am not afraid of anything.
the saga continues
-Surgery September 26, 2003-
05/22/03 Attended Baylor WLS Seminar
06/12/03 Insurance Letter Submitted to UHC
06/25/03 Approved by UHC
07/22/03 Got "the call" from Dawn
09/08/03 Consult with Dr. McCarty
09/08/03 Bloodwork, EKG, Chest XRay
09/09/03 Consult with Dr. Hamilton for my EGD
09/10/03 EGD with Dr. Hamilton
09/11/03 Nutrition Class with Carrie
09/15/03 Consulatation with Dr. Otto for a possible pheochromacytoma
09/16/03 Cleared by Hamilton and Otto for surgery
09/26/03 WLS with Dr. McCarty at 945AM
Links
...and the human adventure continues...