Surgery date 12/6..Hurrah
Hello all, I am 57, been overweight all my adult life and I am so happy and relieved to know that on 12/6 I will have a new birthday and receive one of the best presents in the world, a new chance at life. I am a true prisoner of my body. I am morbidly obese, have many co-morbidities, 2 horrible, painful, hard to walk anymore, knees and legs. I am ready! I looked into this surgery in 2001. Did not have family support and let it go. Finally after try WW, joining a gym, having a personal trainer, and really trying to loose weight for one whole year, I failed again. My husband, age 58, lost 40 lbs and he has a flat 6-pack ab, and great muscle definition, he is buff, but not me. This demonstrated to my family that the WLS had to be done and so I went back and saw the surgeon. This was in June and here it is almost surgery time. I went to the surgeon prepared, I had my PCP do lots of the preop tests, had an endoscope and colonoscopy, blood tests, EKG. My surgeon, Dr.Faillo of Springfield, Massachusetts is wonderful, very good at educating the patient and family memebers. He has spent two separate hours with us at office visits. His bedside manner is excellent. His staff is another big plus. Cheryl does all the insurance submitting and knows her stuff. I decided to go to Mercy Hospital in Springfield and was referred to the Mercy Hospital Comprehensive Weight Loss Group. They are all fantastic professionals that make the process understandable and easy. The support groups are small and really give you access to explore the surgery and aspects of the journey. Kind of like this place, ObesiyHelp.com. By showing up pro-active, informed, and with much of the work already done, my wait has been shorter than most. I am going to try a 2 week liquid diet starting on Monday. I will deal with Thanksgiving as best I can. I want to prepare a "operational theater" that is easy for the surgeon to do his thing. I wish us all good luck and good loosing on the other side.
Monica