Hello folks,

My first post here...

Going for surgery on October 17th so I thought I would help those of you who are booked for later with some info.

I just had my medical consult yesterday in Richmond. The Doctor was an internist, great guy and very friendly and patiently answered all of my silly questions.

I think his name was Dr. Yeung or something?? Definately started with a "Y."

Basically, its a doctor's check up. He will review your files which have been sent to him about your progress. He'll ask you lifestyle questions and talk about family history, heart or respiratory conditions, and anything that may make surgery more challenging.
He will also check your blood pressure, and look at all the medications you are on, or have taken in the last 6 months.

You will then lay on a bed, and he will check your heart, lungs, and check to see if there's any sign of edema by checking your ankles for swelling. Its a very short visit, 30 mins or so, but completely unrushed.

I drive back over into Richmond tomorrow for a 2nd to last pre-surgery meeting with the Dietician, see Dr. Sampath for the last time before surgery on Monday, and later next week have a consultation with the Anesthesiologist.

Thus, the next 7 days will be very busy, as I start my pre-surgery liquid diet on Sunday.

I recommend that you try your liquid diet in advance of the official start date. I experimented with it this week. It gave me time to try different flavours of the meal replacement drinks, gauge how hungry I got, and how to space my meals out. It also told me how tired I got and thus, when the best time to exercise would be.

By the way, those of you who will be on liquid diets, DO NOT buy ensure or glucerna (if you are diabetic) from Safeway. Their price is higher than anyone elses by at least a couple of dollars. I have found London Drugs to be more reasonable, although Safeway carries the Weider brand of protein powder (1 gram of carbs per serving) which I really like.

You can also pick up a shaker bottle from Star-Frit from London Drugs for less than 5 bucks.
This is great for protein shakes.

For those of you who are on CPAP for sleep apnea...like me...my sister is a nurse and told me to bring my machine to the hospital during my stay for sleep, and to ensure I let everyone at the hospital know about it.

Also...remember when you are in a post-op state you probably will be busy easing into your diet, and your life. As a result, I contacted the dietician, the internist, as well as the psychiatrist and booked my post-op appointments already.

I will be back here regularly to keep you all informed of my experiences in order to help those who are steps behind me, so they know what to expect during this process.

As a 30 year old male, I haven't met a lot of people who have had surgery in my demographic either, so hopefully this is a unique perspective.

I have researched the CRAP out of this stuff up at SFU library, going through medical journals, etc. so hopefully I can pass some of that knowledge along.

And please ask any questions you may have!

Thanks! yes it is coming fast
20 days Wow!

Hoping you have an uneventful surgery and an easy recovery!

That is so exciting for you, OMG!!!!!
Please stay in touch and let me know how it goes.
God speed for your recovery. :)
Kelly

Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!!  You won't believe how fast these last few weeks will fly by!!!!  I'm at 20 days away now and can hardly believe it's here!!!!!!!!!!!  You should be getting a call for your pre-op stuff shortly, I got mine a few weeks ago and went in today for everything.  You'll also be getting a call from Mark at the PAL line to do an assessment.

Thanks for writing.
Do you know if the wait lists are long to see them?
Kell