Pre-op appointment done

Today is 12 days until surgery and I had my pre-op appointment. It's coming up fast now! It consisted of going through the 30+ pages of consent forms I signed and initialed with the doctor to discuss all the awful things that could happen, but probably won't if I'm lucky. We discussed the order of my procedures: 1) starting out on my back he'll do all my lipo - chin, sides, inner thighs, knees, belly - to harvest for my rear, 2) thigh lift, 3) front of body lift, 4) roll me onto my front to complete back of body lift and fat transfer to rear. He clarified I will be laying in a foam hole (long piece of foam with a hole cut out in the shape of my butt) for at least 2 weeks to allow the fat transfer time and room to "take". Good times.

He did say that WLS patients have a 20% greater chance of complications versus non-WLS patients, with VSG patients fairing the best followed by RNY then DS. He pointed at impaired nutrient and micro-nutrient absorption as the probable reason.

After I asked a bunch more questions, he wrote out a ton of prescriptions (Percocet, Valium, Lovenox shots, Demerol shots for at the recovery center, scopolamine patches for nausea, omeprazole to prevent ulcers, antibiotics, colace). Then they measured me for the compression garment. I was given a Medium and a Large and they said they'd work out which is best after surgery. The gal that picked the garment for me asked me to lift up my dress to see my shape (I'm getting less self-conscious about showing my flab now that it's headed for the medical waste trash heap). She said, wow you're going to have a great outcome. That made me feel good considering she's likely seen a lot of flab! I totally don't care if she was just humoring me.

Then I was off to fill the prescriptions at the pharmacy in his building as they are used to his prescriptions and carry everything where other pharmacies might not. Anyway $560 later... (and the pharmacist thought my co-pays were really reasonable. He said he'd seen a lot worse. Small favors I guess)

So at 3:50 I began the drive home. Ugh 3 hours and 58 miles later, I rolled into my driveway. LA traffic is the pits. I really don't look forward to doing that frequently over the next month.

Glad that you got through the appointment without hand cramps! I feel your pain with driving in heavy traffic to and from appointments. I live in DC and depending on how long my afternoon appointments last it can take hours to get home.

I can't remember, are you having your breasts done this surgery? I will be closely following your progress since my surgery is the 18th.

Breasts and arms will be the second surgery in the fall sometime... this one is 12 hours on it's own and that's his limit.

Did he prescribe you anything other than the scopolamine patches for nausea? I got Zofran and it was absolutely required beyond my time in the hospital. Especially when you're also on Narcotics that can cause additional nausea.

He didn't. Hmmm.

I got zofran too - after the surgery because the painkillers in the hospital made me nauseous. I ended up not taking the opiate painkiller once I was home because even the zofran wouldn't keep the nausea away completely. I did take some NSAIDS instead for a bit in place of the opiates (at the ok of my WLS Doctor).

Nasty drive, but you are ready! I ate high protein (even more than usual) before and after PS at the urging of my surgeon. I healed really fast and he attributed that to the protein. He said a lot of people just don't understand what high protein means. So track on MFP (or comparable) and have lots of easy to prepare protein sources available. And obviously keep taking your vitamins.

The fat transfer stuff sounds a bit difficult (to me), but you are going to be gorgeous (even more than you already are!

Thank you, Liz!!