Brian in S FL

I have been in preparation for gastric bypass now for almost 3 years,
which is when I was given a recommendation for surgery due to morbid
obesity (man, that one hurt, I wasn’t expecting those words). I had
started and had to postpone due to losing my insurance because I was
laid off from my job. Once laid off, I was out of work for 10
months, but then landed a job at a hospital (interesting, huh?). I
had to work for at least 1 year in order to qualify for a medical
leave, in which I did and then started at it again in June 2005, but
was not able to schedule anything until August 2005. So in August I
met with the Dietician twice and the Surgeon. I started my
psychology (psychiatric evaluations) appointments in September and
also ended up doing a Sleep study (which now I have Sleep Apnea). In
October, I attended my informational session and had another
psychology appointment (this is when I did my MMPI). In November, I
met with the surgeon again, had a 3rd and 4th appointment with the
psychologist, this is when she went over my results of the MMPI. Her
greatest concern about me having the surgery was the results showed I
had issues with authority figures, therefore she felt I may not
listen to what the doctors direct me to do. I totally disagree
(LOL). I also met with my primary doctor who gave me a
recommendation for the surgery. Also had to have a Upper Right
Quadrant Ultrasound done, which was ok, but later they found a spot
on my kidney. At first they thought it might be cancer, but the
ultrasound technician could not figure out what it was, so I had to
go to a specialist. The specialist went over the X-rays and felt I
was too young and the spot was too little to worry about, but said we
would keep an eye on it and he would later talk with my surgeon
regarding it (I later found out it was a Hiacital Hernia). So then
due to my GERD, the surgeon felt it was necessary for me to have an
Endoscopy, which I also did in November. That was not fun at all,
the doctor there found that I might have Barritt’s Syndrome (this is
caused by Acid Reflux) and he wanted me to come back right before my
surgery to have another Endoscopy done, so I scheduled one (when I
went in for the 2nd one though, the doctor changed his mind, so I
didn’t have to have it, Thank God!). Now, my friend was going
through this with me at the same time. Usually you are able to
schedule your surgery about two weeks after your MMPI is
finished/posted with the doctor, but it took approximately 8 weeks
for the psychologist to type it up and call me with my
recommendations. She recommended that I join a Weight Loss Surgery
Support Group, meet with my regular psychiatrist to get a
recommendation, start an exercise program, stop smoking, stop
drinking pop and meet with the Dietician a few more times to go over
eating habits. So I met with the Dietician again in December and
January in person, on the phone and via email, met with my
psychiatrist (who has been aware of my journey for weight loss
surgery for years now) who gave me a recommendation, I started a kick-
boxing class through my job, I stopped smoking, and I minimized my
pop/soda intake. The only thing I didn’t do was joined the Weight
Loss Surgery support group due to getting the wrong information about
meeting times. So on January 23rd, 2006, I finally received the call
I had been waiting for, insurance approved my surgery and they were
calling to schedule my surgery. They scheduled me for February 20th,
but they switched my surgeon due to my surgeon being booked out too
far. I really didn’t think anything of it, I was excited that they
finally got everything together and I was to FINALLY have the
surgery. So on February 7th, I met with the Pre-Op Nurse to go over
the procedure, at that time she also gave me body wash that I had to
use for the few days before my surgery, paperwork on what I could and
could not take (food, medicine, etc.) and what I would need to do to
prepare for surgery the few days before hand and what I would need
after surgery as well. I had my final Pre-Op scheduled for February
13th, but on February 12th, I ended up in the hospital with an asthma
attack (due to allergies). I received a call on Monday, February 13th
from the Pre-Op nurse who told me that my surgery had been
cancelled. I immediately freaked out. She told me that my primary
doctor and the bariatric psychologist felt I had not fulfilled my
recommendations prior to surgery, therefore it was not going to
happen. I had to leave work that day because I was so upset. My
primary doctor called me later and told me that the surgery was not
cancelled, it was only postponed due to not fulfilling my
recommendations. I told her that I had fulfilled them all except the
Weight Loss Surgery Support Group, and that was only because I did
not have the meeting times, they only met once a month and my surgery
was only scheduled out by 1 month. My doctor said they were going to
wait three months to do the surgery. I could go back to the surgery
clinic in two months after I had done all my recommendations and
reschedule my surgery. She also felt that the surgery center was too
new and there were too many holes in the process that the center put
me through, therefore she did not want to risk my life. I told her I
understood the reasoning for the postponement, I just didn’t
understand why it had to be 3 months. She told me that was the
surgeon’s decision, not hers. The surgeon also said that I now needed
to lose 10 pounds before surgery can be scheduled again and meet with
the bariatric psychologist more. Now, being that the surgeon they set
me up with was not the original one, I have now set up an appointment
with MY surgeon to go over everything that has happened and see what
his recommendation will be, as the other surgeon has never even met
me. I am so very disappointed in everything I have had to go through,
yet I see people every day just breeze on through, have the surgery
like it is nothing. I feel as if they are purposely pushing this
surgery out on me and I am not sure why. It is so frustrating, but I
keep going every day in hopes that I will finally get to have the
surgery and finally be healthy. Has anyone else gone through this?

SPONSORED LINKS
Obesity surgery Obesity surgery center Obesity surgery specialist

Visit your group "obesitysurgerysupportgroup" on the web.

———————————

tera41975 wrote: