My surgery team is wonderful

I have basically completed all my pre-op clearances except for attending this month's support group meeting, so my next step is applying to my insurance company with the hope of having my surgery in March. I've been really excited about finally getting to this point, but something major has come up that has been causing me a lot of angst about when I was going to have my surgery. My mom, who lives 1200 miles away from me in Arkansas, was diagnosed with a potentially terminal illness at Christmas. I've been racking my brains since then, trying to figure how I was going to be sure to visit Mom (which can't happen until March at the earliest unless it's an emergency) and get the surgery. I had all kinds of worries: should I get the surgery first and then hope I'm well enough to travel? If I put the surgery off, would my clearances be any good? The stress of trying to figure all this out -- and worrying about my mom just in general -- was horrible. When I saw my surgery team on Monday, they were AMAZING. When I told them about how I was struggling with this, their first thoughts were for me to deal with the situation with Mom and worry about the surgery later. They said they would take care of any clearance issues when they came up, but that my first priority needed to be Mom's situation. They pointed out that it was important for the success of my surgery that I be at peace with what was going on with her beforehand. They didn't want to be responsible for my not being able to see her if I needed to because I was still healing, nor did they want me trying to expend energy trying to take care of her at the same time I should be taking care of myself. I am just blown away that they were so "human" about this (as one of my friends said.) It was clear that their first priority was making sure I was truly ready and comfortable with my surgery -- even that means I have to wait until other stuff is taking care of. I guess I am so used to a lot of doctors who just want to get you done and out the door that I am truly amazed that they are being TRULY supportive for my whole life situation, not just my weight issues. So, high fives to my doctor, Dr. Fares, and his bariatric manager, John Bock. They are absolutely fabulous!

Jaq, So sorry to hear about your mom. Let us in the support group, here and at St. Francis, know if you need anything. I'm here in Ewing for you. RobinNJ

Thank you, Robin. My mom is on a drug called Glivac that is supposed to be extremely effective for her kind of leukemia and she is tolerating it well, which is a good sign. She's still having problems with heart and kidney failure, but I'm begiinning to think that those things may be more related to her advanced diabetes than the leukemia, so we're still concerned. I appreciate any prayers or good thoughts offered up for her well-being.