My surgery date is ..........................

July 11, 2006!!!!!!!!!! Dr Li was wonderful. She would have scheduled it earlier but she is off 2 weeks next month for vacation and a conference. She says if anything opens up she will call me right away. All of my paperwork was in order-- I gave Paula a cashiers check today and all i have to do is complete my sleep study on Tuesday and get a chest exray. Her only concern was the fact that i had a tummy tuck and my abs are so tight. She wants me to continue to lose weight so she can have as much room as possible to move around. I have already lost 7 pounds since may 1 when i went to the nutrition class. I am trying real hard to cut out fruit juices now- if i do this i will lose more. I also am going to exercise more- Right now its 3 days a week -- i may need to increase to 5. i went for a 45 minute bike ride today while my daughter was in her karate class. I usually just sit there while she is in there working out. But today i decided to put my bike in the back of the truck and ride!!!! Now i just sit and wait to see if some one cancels -- if not it wont be so bad because i have more time to prepare -- Besides six weeks is not a long time to wait when i have been waiting 40 years. Tina

Hi Tina Bike riding is one of my favorite things to do now and I even take my bike on vacations with me. Only thing my hubby can still do since his back surgeries last year (he had two) Karen Duncan

Congratulations! Dr. Li and team at Sinai are wonderful! This is a great time of year to ween yourself off of fruit juices... If you like melons they are low-cal and full of water filling you up. I too love bicyling and I spin as well. It's quite addictive... Best wishes, Lisa

Thanks for the tip lisa-- I will try that. TIna

Tina, how long did you have to wait to get the initial first appt? And from the first appt until now?

I first called Sinai the last week of April-- Once Karen Got all of my paperwork they gave me to Paula who scheduled all my initial appointments. I took the nutrition class on May 1-- She scheduled me to see Dr. Lee on May 24th and again thepre surgery nutrution was scheduled for May 31-- but some one cancelled and i was able to see her as well yesterday!!!! From May 1st to May 23rd I had already gotten a leter from my pcp-- did all my labs-- gotten a ekg and echocardiogram and gottne my psych clearance. She was able to give me a date right away. I am taking my sleep study on tuesday and my chest exray next week. Things went pretty fast for me because I am self pay and I did a lot of work BEFORE I saw the dr. I got with some of the staff and they told me what to expect and i did not WAIT for the dr to tell me what to do-- I took the initiative and did it. My whole process has been exactly about 1 month to today. TINA