First Appt with Surgeon

Yesterday was my first consult with the bariatric surgeon. I'm still reeling a bit.

I am a candidate for the surgery. In fact, it could be done as soon as four months from now, which freaks me out a bit since I didn't expect anything until early or mid-2012. If I find that I feel things are moving too fast for me to be comfortable, I will drag my feet a bit. There's no way I'm going to go through this feeling like it's being rushed.

The appointment left me emotionally raw. Having my weight issue discussed so clinically is rough. Clinical discussions tend to not have the harsh edges buffered. The doc and his staff were not mean or anything. In fact, they were very nice, but it's still hard to hear some
things, even if I already know them.

In the next month or so, I have many appointments. Off the top of my head...there's a nutritionist, physiologist, psychologist, internal medicine. Plus, I have to go to 12 weeks of group
therapy sessions for pre-op patients.

Because I'm having this procedure done through my employer (I work for a major health care organization) and the company self-insures the employees, there are a lot of hoops that I don't have to jump through to get my health insurance to pay. No physician supervised diet and no
1 year waiting period, to name a couple.

My medical problems are nearly all managed without medication at the moment. So, the only medical condition that could hold things up if it gets out of control is my thyroid. I'm in the midst of adjusting my dose, which can take several months. Once I find a dose and have multiple months of blood work showing correct and stable TSH levels, I'll be good on that front.

I left the appointment with the surgeon feeling like it was a success. However, as the day went on, I realized how worn out it made me feel. They gave me this large binder of info to read through and to add papers to from all my appointments. When I got home, I just set it
aside. I haven't made myself look at it yet. I think I need a couple days to emotionally recuperate before I dive into the info.