A couple more updates to report. Saw my primary care. She was very pleased that I had lost 7 lbs while in CA. I'm trying to keep that going, I would love to have lost 15 lbs or more before the surgery.
Also had my psych consult. I was kind of worried about it beforehand. Turns out I had nothing to fear. She asked me a lot of questions like 'Do you think you overeat?' (yes) 'Do you think you have problems with portion control' (yes). And lots of other questions about what/when I eat stuff. Also questions about depression/suicidal thoughts, etc. At the end, she said that she thought I would do well with the surgery and wished me luck. It was about 20-25 minutes altogether so not bad at all.
Today I went back to the pulmonary specialist. I went through a series of breathing tests with the respiratory tech, then saw the NP. She went over the results of both the breathing tests and the sleep study. It turns out I do have sleep apnea but it was mild. She said they would only treat it if I had other issues such as cardiac problems or if I have upcoming surgery. Since of course I am anticipating upcoming surgery, she looked specifically at the results where I was lying on my back, and said that those looked fine and I wouldn't need pre-surgical treatment. Yay for that.
Then we talked about the results of my chest CT from back in June. The larger mass is still stable, but the smaller mass in my right upper lobe has increased in size. Looking back at the two prior CT's (in 2008 and 2010) the mass has increased at each study. The pulmonologist is out of the office until Monday but she is going to review the results with him and see what he wants to do. She thinks he'll want another biopsy though. I explained that they had tried to biopsy this smaller mass via bronchoscopy when I had the mediastinotomy for the big mass biopsy, but they couldn't visualize it, and she told me that there have been new techniques developed for bronchoscopy in the intervening years. So perhaps they would be successful now. Still, I'm pretty upset about the thought of a potential delay in getting clearance for surgery. About the lung mass itself, I'm actually not that worried. It's been there at least 9 years that I know of, so the chance of it being something malignant is pretty remote, that's not the nature of cancer, to be so slow growing.
23 August 2011
22 August 2011
All Psyched Out
Had my psych consult today. I was slightly worried about it ahead of time but it turned out I was worried for nothing. The psychiatrist seemed very nice and personable and mainly asked me a bunch of questions about my eating habits, any
18 August 2011
Back to Business
I was away for a couple of months visiting family but I'm now back home and resuming pursuit of my goals. I did lose about 5 lbs during my time away which is something I guess.
Earlier this week, I had my first appointment with the nutritionist, which is required as part of my surgeon's process. I guess these used to be individual meetings but they just changed them to be in a group setting. Small groups, I should say. There were about 7 other patients there. I thought the information presented would be very helpful for people not having bariatric surgery or at least not having the duodenal switch surgery. However, while I wait, I can certainly incorporate the helpful eating habits being discussed.
I will have another meeting with her just prior to my surgery, and that meeting will also include one of the nurses who will talk about what to expect in the hospital and immediately postop, etc.
I also attended my first monthly support group meeting earlier this week. The topic was plastic surgery after weight loss which was still interesting to me even though it will be quite a while before I can even think of that. More importantly, it gave me a chance to meet some new people, and especially those who have also had the DS surgery. I did meet some really fantastic people and it was great to see how good they looked. It definitely gives me hope and inspiration for the future.
Last night I had my sleep study. I'm sure glad that's over. I was really tired from staying up late a couple days in a row and thought I would have no problem drifting right off. I'm sure that I would have, if only I had not been attached to a gazillion wires all over my body and had two nasal cannulas as well, so it felt like my nose was completely stopped up. The technician had to come in to fix wires multiple times during the night and once apparently I removed a bunch of the facial wires and took out the nasal cannulas. I must have done it deliberately because I slightly woke up afterwards and realized nothing was on my face. Then another time he had to fix one of the left wires that got pulled off when I rolled over. The saving grace was that the bed was very comfy, I could go back there now and sleep some more, without the wires this time! Although of course the technician didn't give me any results, he also didn't need to come in and attach one of the cpap machines, so either I don't have sleep apnea or it was mild enough that it didn't qualify for their protocol [which would have required him to wake me up to put the machine on me]. I will have the results when I see the pulmonologist next week.
Earlier this week, I had my first appointment with the nutritionist, which is required as part of my surgeon's process. I guess these used to be individual meetings but they just changed them to be in a group setting. Small groups, I should say. There were about 7 other patients there. I thought the information presented would be very helpful for people not having bariatric surgery or at least not having the duodenal switch surgery. However, while I wait, I can certainly incorporate the helpful eating habits being discussed.
I will have another meeting with her just prior to my surgery, and that meeting will also include one of the nurses who will talk about what to expect in the hospital and immediately postop, etc.
I also attended my first monthly support group meeting earlier this week. The topic was plastic surgery after weight loss which was still interesting to me even though it will be quite a while before I can even think of that. More importantly, it gave me a chance to meet some new people, and especially those who have also had the DS surgery. I did meet some really fantastic people and it was great to see how good they looked. It definitely gives me hope and inspiration for the future.
Last night I had my sleep study. I'm sure glad that's over. I was really tired from staying up late a couple days in a row and thought I would have no problem drifting right off. I'm sure that I would have, if only I had not been attached to a gazillion wires all over my body and had two nasal cannulas as well, so it felt like my nose was completely stopped up. The technician had to come in to fix wires multiple times during the night and once apparently I removed a bunch of the facial wires and took out the nasal cannulas. I must have done it deliberately because I slightly woke up afterwards and realized nothing was on my face. Then another time he had to fix one of the left wires that got pulled off when I rolled over. The saving grace was that the bed was very comfy, I could go back there now and sleep some more, without the wires this time! Although of course the technician didn't give me any results, he also didn't need to come in and attach one of the cpap machines, so either I don't have sleep apnea or it was mild enough that it didn't qualify for their protocol [which would have required him to wake me up to put the machine on me]. I will have the results when I see the pulmonologist next week.
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Preop