By now, you’ve probably read all about how I decided to pursue bariatric surgery, and WHY I chose it. Today, I am continuing to walk everyone through the checklist of things I have to complete prior to booking my surgery. It’s a very long process (typically 3 – 6 months) with many, many medical visits between the time you start the process and the actual surgery. I’ve completed all of the items you see checked off below so far, and am SO CLOSE to being done!
The last time I updated you on my checklist was back in May and I have since checked off two more items! These are the bolded items that I’m going to be talking about today: the ultrasound and my in-lab sleep study. I will also give an update on the rest of the list.
Ultrasound
I had my abdominal ultrasound at the hospital on June 26th. It took about 10-15 minutes, and ended up being quite a bit more uncomfortable than the ultrasounds I am accustomed to: pregnancy ones. From my understanding, they do an ultrasound prior to surgery to check your organs and primarily your gallbladder. They check for gallstones to see if you need your gallbladder removed which they will often do at the same time as your surgery. Anyway, this ultrasound was kind of weird. She had me go on back, then each side, and for some reason, she kept having me hold my breath and then release it. I haven’t spoken to the doctor yet about the results, but I did see them via my online chart. It looks as though it was “unremarkable” in all areas, except for a “small left renal cyst with a thin septation.” I did look this up and it appears to be pretty common and non-problematic. I assume there were no concerns though since they haven’t called.
Sleep Study
Sleep studies are done prior to surgery to determine if you have sleep apnea. The surgeons need to know if you do or not because they want you to have a CPAP machine during the surgery if you do have it. Lucky for me, I had a double whammy with my sleep study experience… ugh.
I did an at-home sleep study in February, but the results were inconclusive, so I had to go back for an in-lab sleep study instead. Hooray! This was initially scheduled for March, and then that got canceled because of COVID. I was finally able to go in for this on July 8th! It was an interesting experience.
I had to arrive at the office at 7:40 pm. I had already changed into my pajamas, so I literally just brought my purse, hairbrush, toothbrush, and book with me. I’d been to the office before for my initial consultation. One half is just like a normal doctor’s office, and the other side is like a hotel with sleep study rooms and bathrooms. I had to call when I arrived, and the sleep tech asked me some questions pertaining to COVID, then she let me in. The first thing she did was check my temperature with some kind of gun that she didn’t even have to touch me with; she just held it near my forehead.
After that, she showed me to my room and my bathroom. I had to share the bathroom since there were going to be 4 patients and only 3 bathrooms… boo!
She let me get settled in for a bit, gave me some general information about the TV, how the study would work, etc, and then she came back in to get me all hooked up. Oh Lord, this was a lot. Wires attached to my chest, leg, and hair (GLUED into my hair, mind you), a cannula and something else up my nose, and then a finger monitor. I had most of these during my home study, but not quite as extensive. Yikes. It took maybe 30 minutes to get hooked up, then she asked me what time I’d like to go to bed, and that she’d be back.
I messed around on the Roku TV for a bit, but couldn’t settle on anything to watch, so I busted out my book instead. I Facetimed Caleb and Jerry to show them my room, then I read for about a half or so. Around 10, she came in to hook everything up and turn off my lights. I was told there would be a camera and microphone in my room all night, so that was interesting. When she got back to her office, she spoke to me through the mic, and had me do a couple of little things like move my legs. She also told me that if I didn’t end up on my back at all during the night, she’d call me again via the mic and instruct me to get onto my back. After that, it was good night.
This was for sure the most uncomfortable night of sleep ever. I could not get comfortable and had a hell of a time falling asleep.
At 6 am, she came to my room to wake me up and get me all unhooked. She said I did well and she didn’t even have to direct me to roll onto my back, so yay for that. I probably got only a couple of hours of sleep, but hopefully it gave them all the data they needed.
After that, I headed home and tried to squeeze in a little more sleep, then it was time to get up and get ready for work.
I have my follow up appointment via tele-medicine at the end of the month with the sleep clinic doctor, and we will go from there.
Nutrition Visits
These are still in progress and are the bane of my existence.
I had my 4th tele-visit with my dietician on June 18th. She was glad to see that I had been logging my food more consistently in the app, and that I had increased my vegetable intake, but she was still not thrilled. I had lost about 2 pounds, but she said that I should have lost more. Sigh. Okay. She was incredibly discouraging again, and I emailed her after our session to tell her that I had been proud of myself and that I was feeling discouraged after our visit. I asked her if there was a time frame for when I would need to lose the weight I had gained during the whole pandemic / stress eating nonsense, and she said there was no set time frame. That made me feel a bit better at least, because I was panicking that I was going to have to lose 10-15 pounds in like… a month or something.
I will have my 5th tele-visit with her next week and I hope, AGAIN, that this will be the last.
Current Status
I’ve pretty much completed my checklist, except for a couple of small loose ends that need to be tied up! I’ve completed all the appointments and testing I needed, and it was honestly quite a huge endeavor that felt like it would never end. I feel so happy to finally have crossed off almost everything!
After I have my sleep study follow up where we just go over the results, the final thing I need is to be “cleared” by my dietitian. Once she clears me, I will finally meet with the surgeon and set a date. I am so, so close, and know that it’s really just the nutrition aspect holding me back now. I have to lose around 10-13 pounds still, until I’m back at my “starting weight” from January when I started the program and had my first weigh in and consult. Many people have gained weight during the pandemic, including me. I also started a new medication in February. The bariatric office discovered I have a high heart rate, so my primary care doctor prescribed me something for that. I attribute the stress eating and the new meds for the weight gain. I am definitely disappointed in myself, but trying to give myself some grace and understanding, since my dietitian isn’t at all. I don’t know if she won’t clear me until I lose it all, or if she will clear me once she is just happy enough to see that I am progressing. Cross your fingers for the latter; I am really hoping my next one with her is the last one, but we will see!
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