abruchis
"All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another." ~ Anatole France
Howdy, My names Aaron, and this will be my journal.
I'm 42 years old, yet still immature (hopefully in all the right ways)
A former Hippy-Deadhead, now a working stiff father and Grandfather (hopefully still hip). I've thought of myself as fat all of my life, although I was shocked to find pictures of myself from around 11 or so where I was actually thin, funny what a fat head can do to you isn't it?
Most men on my fathers side have been large, and my older brother had a bypass 3 years ago, that was very successful.
My wife convinced me that the operation was too extreme, due to here being a nurse, and always seeing worst cases that were admitted to her floor. But my brothers success, helped us to realize that of course mostly what she saw were complications, because none of the successes needed to go to the hospital!\
D'oh!
Anyway, after my father died, i spend 3 months on a couch in a emotional coma eating fast food and snacks/ice cream. And yet I was still surprised that i had gained over 40 pounds in 3 months, must be some sort of record! And my new highest weight was 489.
Ahh something to be proud of.
Well I had been working towards WLS for awhile, but the 3 month check out from the world made my insurance required psych evaluator put me on a 4 month wait to make sure I was well enough to deal with the realities of weight loss surgery.
That combined with being lost in the Emory bariatrics program made it almost a year until I had my surgery.
That said, I think the wait was worth it, because I decided not to go with the Emory system, yes, the surgeons are good, and I'm sure the care would have been fine. But the poor communication and no clearly set plan or help in arranging all the details with insurance and hospital tests etc just made me realize that sometimes, a program can be TO big. So i found a amazing surgeon, with a truly outstanding and caring staff, and was so much happier with the change.
I compare it to going from a huge hospital to a small town doctor almost someplace out of "All creatures great and Small".
Anyway, I had the right surgeon, and finally had my surgery (after a joyride of misshaps, of which I will blog about) on 11/8/06.
I'm now one week out, and can actually drink more than a sip at a time.. wooo hoo!
So anyway, I guess thats my story.
