By now, you’ve probably read all about how I decided to pursue bariatric surgery, and WHY I chose it. Today, I want to start walking everyone through the checklist and journey I have to follow prior to surgery. It’s a very long process (typically 3 – 6 months) with many, many medical visits between the start and the surgery. As a reminder, I started this journey towards the end of January, and do not have a surgery date yet. Below, you will see the checklist. The bolded items are the ones I’m going to discuss today. I’ve also finished my nutrition seminar, but I’ll talk about that in my next post. Here we go!
Informational Seminar
This whole journey started on January 25 when I stumbled upon some information about this program on Facebook, through an ad by one of our local hospitals. I clicked over to their website and saw that they had information seminars, both in person and online. Curiosity got the best of me, so I watched the information seminar that night online. It was a video featuring the local surgeons and was about 20 – 25 minutes long. In this video, they introduce you to bariatric surgery. They discuss the two procedures they do (sleeve and gastric bypass), the medical issues associated with obesity, and success rates for surgery vs diet and exercise alone. After finishing the seminar, I was invited to fill out a form with my health information and weight loss attempts. After submitting that, I received an email confirmation, and a note that I would receive a follow up call in about 2 business days.
History and Physical Appointment
I spoke to the office on Wednesday, January 29, and booked my next step appointments: my history and physical, as well as my nutrition seminar. My physical was booked for the very next day, January 30! At this appointment, I met with a Physician Assistant (PA) who basically went over my medical history with me: medications, health problems, etc. Jerry went with me to this appointment and it was my first time ever at their office and in this hospital, except for when I was BORN lol (we have 4 local hospitals and I’ve gone to another one for my own pregnancies). I was very impressed. They have their own department / wing within in the hospital and it’s very modern and nice. At the start of the appointment, they also took my starting weight on a big scale and I was reminded of My 600 Pound Life – ha! Also, all of the chairs and even the beds in each appointment room are big and wide, which is nice, since I’m sure many of their patients are very, very large. The PA also gave me a lot of paperwork, a checklist, and a stool sample kit. She talked to me about my next steps and went over the checklist with me. Overall, it was a quick and easy appointment, though my heart rate was very high (in the 130s) which concerned her. I told her I was just very nervous, and had taken my migraine meds earlier too. Still, she insisted that I follow up with my doctor ASAP.
Bloodwork
Before leaving my appointment, a nurse took my blood for a few things they test: TSH and Hemoglobin A1C. The TSH test looks at your thyroid, and mine came back normal. The A1C is a glucose test that looks for diabetes. If your A1C is above 8, you have to get it lower than that prior to surgery. Luckily, mine was only 5.2.
PCP Referral
Next, I needed a referral and health clearance from my primary care physician. I was very nervous to broach the subject of weight loss surgery with her, as I didn’t know how she’d feel about it, so I sent her an email to ask what she thought, and whether she’d give me a referral. Luckily, she was in support of it, so I made an appointment for February 3. While there, she had to fill in a form which we went over together. She had to document my previous weight loss attempts, and also medically clear me for the surgery, which she did. She was positive about the surgery and felt that it was a good option for me. I also had an EKG to look at my heart rate. It was slightly elevated (low 100s), but she wanted to see it get down to 90 or lower, as she believed that would be much better for surgery. She started me on a new prescription for that, and I’ve been seeing my heart rate lower a bit already. Phew! She would be faxing my referral to the surgeons. Around this time, I also chose my surgeon from the practice of 3 surgeons. I ended up going with the surgeon who had the most experience and was considered the bariatric specialist.
Stool Sample
At the end of my first appointment with the PA, she gave me a stool sample kit, as mentioned. She just told me to get it done sometime soon and drop it off at a lab. This was sooo embarrassing and gross, and I did it within the first week after my appointment just to get it over with. They’re testing for a bacterium called H. Pylori, which causes ulcers. Luckily, mine was negative.
… and I will leave it here for now! These were the first steps I had to take before really diving into the process. I had my nutrition seminar next week, and am now logging my food for the dietitian. I have a sleep consult this week, and my first one-on-one nutrition visit in the books for March. Next week, I’ll talk about the nutrition seminar and sleep consult!
Any questions for me about the process so far? I’d be happy to answer!
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