Wow...you gals are doing GREAT!!  I keep telling myself to up my work outs some so it is easier for me.  Unfortunetly the nurse called with a setback today but I'm trying to deal with it, not using food..  I guess they have to go through the approval process all over again because its a new Dr.  They found this out last Friday but Dr. Howell's nurse didn't wor****il today so that's when I found out.  I now, after many tears and phone calls, am going to have to write a $5000 check to (hold) my July 24th date and if the approval doesn't come in by the date of my pre-op July 18th I have to pay the remainder of the $18,000 before my appt. out of pocket.  This is if I want to keep my July 24th date, if I don't I can give it up and get an appt. in September or later once my approval goes through again.  My husband has been wonderful and said if need be he will take out a loan so I can keep the date.  I called Medica to see if they could just send the Dr.'s office a fax saying I would be approved they just need to send in the paperwork but he said no, even though I WILL be approved they need the paperwork from Dr. Howell's office first.  He did say if they put urgent on it they will ru**** through for me.  He was surprised that the Dr.'s office required this, he asked if they were a center of excellence and I said yes, he then said they should know its covered under my policy.  It's frustrating because I've done everything I can now I just have to sit back and hope they put a rush on it so I don't have to fork out the $18,000 ahead of time.  It would be sooooo nice to just have to worry about the upcoming surgery but I keep having these blocks thrown up to me.  My stomach is awful and I have just felt sick with worry lately.  I realize there has to be rules but I truly feel like I have been run through the wringer with this whole process.  From day one when you go to the first part and they tell you don't worry about the insurance comp., we work with them, all we were suppose to have to do is sit back and concentrate on the surgery.  I have made more calls to my insurance than ever, I think I might be on their X-mas card list...lol  I think I will lose it if one person tells me this was the easy way out.  I have had such a struggle that I almost threw in the towel a few times, more with disgust over the process and how I felt I was being treated than by the actual surgery.  I feel strongly that Dr. Howell is a good person, surgeon and that's what keeps me strong...that and having you guys to lean on...Thanks for letting me vent and cross your fingers that stuff gets where it's suppose to and I don't have to donate a kidney or something...lol Danni

hey danni: im too new to have ANY wisdom but i wish id been more serious about getting a few pounds off before surgery (i didn't). i had put on 10 pounds (10!) since last summer. Now that I am 8 days post op I've lost 10 lbs! yay, but I keep thinking if I'd gotten off my lazy azz I'd have been ahead of the game. weird thing though:  tried to walk preop, would get half a mile and the lower back would hurt - bad.  this week, i can walk 1 1/2 miles at a time-easily. hubby claims it is because i am eating better. i have no clue. you are going to do so well, you have done so much research! keep keeping us posted, judi

Robin led the way this month.  Judi was up next and is now home and doing well.  Lori would have just had her surgery yesterday and hopefully is doing well also.  Now, if I can pick your brains.. With the VERY recent surgery fresh in your mind is there anything you would have changed the 3 weeks before your surgery?  I'm just wondering if there is something I should or could be doing to make an easier transition.  I do know that I want to write letters to my daughters in case something would happen to me during surgery, my youngest is 2 and it's hard to know that if I died she wouldn't even remember me.  NOT that anything is going to happen with my AWESOME Dr.   I just like to cover all the bases.  I think I'm going to have us take a family picture too, we haven't done that since...um, ever..lol  Most of the pics in our albums are without me since I'm the only one that thinks to take them..thats why I still have a question mark for a face on here..hahaa 

So, anything you can think of that you wish you would have done or maybe something you did do or bought to make your recovery easier??  Thanks

wow...I'm soooo lucky I "met" you.  This post came at a perfect time as I was able to send it to my best friend(she lives in Hallock, way too far away :(  to give her some kind of idea as to what I will be going through.  I will also be able to have things on hand now.  It seems soooo real now that I know I have a date and I have read your "journal".  This is very helpful to me as I like to be as prepared as I can be.  I have never heard of a glycerine swab??  I can only imagine with a name like that how tasty they are..lol  I'm guessing a person isn't thinking much of food with everything going on after surgery.  I'm very glad about the catheter...I HATE catheters, hmmm... not that there are probably many people out there that "like" them...hahaha  I'm really getting psyched now and I still have 22 days, I have a feeling time will go pretty fast though.... I hope you have a fast recovery and things just keep getting better and better!!  I'll keep you in my prayers... Danni

hey there kiddo, and you have a date! in july! yay!! i like doc howell. he chit chats more with me than his nurse but he is straight on.  good job keeping that hubby in place! im glad you don't have to stress about the vagotomy. things work out don't they? here is the deal: surgery day:  no water, no ice, they have glycerine swabs you can coat your mouth with and you can use chapstick. one nurse brought me a frozen glycerine swab.  keep hitting the morphine pump, you won't care. 1 day after:  very small amount of water allowed, no food but i didn't care. lots of morphine. 2 days after: more water and sugar free candy. still limited the amount of water. my hubby liked the sugar free candy and he kept eating the good flavors so i made him go to the pharmacy and buy more! it helped 3 days after: liquid diet. not a big deal i was seriously not hungry. all the water you want. (tomato soup, cream of wheat, cream of chicken soup, sf choc pudding).  4 days after: they take away the morphine but give you darvon. works just as well and no iv pole anymore! still the liquid diet. no catheter - that i remember. apparently part of the surgery is a memory blocking drug which works. i remember being in the surgical room chatting with the people there then nothing.

DO NOT HESITATE TO PUSH YOUR MORPHINE PUMP. i was always advised to stay ahead of the pain and i did. getting in and out of bed wasn't great joy the first two days but wasn't awful. the pump is time monitored it won't let you od.  if i woke up and my tummy twitched i hit it. pain was not awful but I STAYED ON DRUGS.

when they switched me to darvon it is every 4 hours i think. i asked for it every 4 hours even tho i didn't hurt yet cause i didn't want to hurt!  (one nurse told me no as it is a narcotic and my pain level was 0. I know I won't be addicted to prescription drugs and I wanted to stay ahead of the darn pain so she went off duty at 11:00 and i got my pills at 11:15 lol) she was being a good nurse. i seriously worried that i was overdoing the pain drugs and being a wimp and they often commented that i wasn't using that much morphine. doc howell did tell me that fatter people's tummies don't have as much muscle (most of my fat is in my tummy) so that maybe my pain wasn't as bad as my husband's was the year before.

my surgery was tuesday morning by friday night, saturday, moving was easier and getting in and out of bed was easier.

i wished i'd had the tongs, i am now an acrobat but didn't have em.

you will do great! sorry for the long answer again.  99.9% of the nurses were wonderful, if you get a young gal named Paula, she is the best tell her i said hi! (all the surgery rooms are singles -very nice)

judi eta: yes, tres puree for the 1st week home, with protein drinks, sf yogurt, popsicles, look at the list. i've had one so far, i added margerine and salt and butter and had to focus on 1 bite per minute ugh