Two weeks from today!!!

Two weeks from this very moment I will be banded!! My surgeon doesn't require a pre op diet (except for the day before) but I decided I would try it any way. It wasn't difficult at all to do today because I was too busy to even think about food. We had 15 teachers and 5 assistants out today...apparently the 10 day fall break just wasn't enough for them. I'm not hatin'...if it weren't for the fact that I am going to burn up 7 sick days for the pre op appointments, surgery, and post op appointment then I would have been tempted to call in sick too.

I told my kiddos today that in 2 weeks I would be out for a week. They asked why and I told them I was having some surgery...then quickly went into the expectations of them while I was gone. I did that because they needed to hear my expectations, but even more so, I didn't want to give them time to ask me any questions.

I have only told one person at work about getting banded. I told another teacher who is getting banded the week after me. We started this process about the same time. She told me last week that she is having a different procedure than me...she is getting the band with plication. I told I was shocked that our insurance covered that since it was relatively new. She proceeded to tell me that our insurance didn't cover it, her surgeon was doing the plication part free of charge. Sounds fishy?? Yeah it did to me too. Come to find out he is doing it for free...not out of the goodness of his heart, but because he is involved in a study on the procedure. Guess how many of these he has done??? Only 1!!! I am scared for her, but it's her decision and I will support her just as she supports me.

As I blogstalked reasearched about the band I frequently went to the very beginning of people's blogs. I wanted to know what everyone else had to do get approved, as well as what I could expect on the big day and immediately after. So just so you know, if I follow you and you started blogging before your surgery, chances are pretty good that I took the time to read your journey the whole way through (stalk much??? umm, yeah I do).

So I decided just in case there is some other stalker researcher out there who is looking for the same thing I would tell you what I had to do pre approval:

• Information seminar
• Nutrition education class
• Butt load of blood work (I thought for sure I would need a transfusion when they were done)
• Letter of recommendation from my PCP
• Attend a support group meeting
• Nutrition assessment with Dietitian
• Six month medical weight loss program (I actually didn't have to do anything for this since I had monthly documented evidence of doctor visits...he always mentioned nutrition/diet in his notes because I was on a low sodium diet for malignant hypertension)
• 5 year weight history (my surgeon was afraid that this would get me a denial since 3 years ago I was not considered obese...but he was confident we could appeal it based on my health conditions)
• Psychological evaluation
• Cardiac clearance from my Cardiologist (this didn't require much because I had a stress test as well as an arteriogram within the last year)
• Sleep study (which led to a lovely CPAP machine)
• Endoscopy (I have Barrett's esophagus and my surgeon won't do the band on people with Barrett's if they have dysplasia...thank goodness I didn't)
• Pap smear (wtf??? I don't want the surgeon any where near that end. My surgeon didn't require this, but my PCP wouldn't give me clearance without it since it had been 5 years)

Whew!!! By the end of that I felt like I had been poked, prodded, invaded, and a little violated...but hopefully, it will all be worth it.