Just frgured it out. countdown of 80 days

So I just was doing the scheduling for work when I decided  to figure out how many days I have till I start my diet program for the doctor. Its weird I have made up my mind to have the surgery because I cant do anything any more for then a few minutes with out getting winded, back, knee, and feet hurting. I cant afford to have it done in the real world so I have to try and have the Veterans VA Hospital help me out and have it do thru them hopefully. They offer it to Vets like my self but there are several hoops that have to be jumped thru first . My VA PCP has got the ball rolling and a Bariatric doctor from the VA called me last week and talked to be very fast about it and set up a appointment for me to start the Diet program that the VA offers which is called MOVE!. The appointment is 80 days away on Nov 21st 2014 in Columbia MO. I think that they set it up that far away is due to the fact that you must be tobacco free for 3 months prior to being placed in the MOVE! program, So Aug 21st 2014 was that Tobacco free start date, I had stopped smoking years ago but being a farm boy that I am I did not stop chewing  . So here I sit waiting for all this to happen and I cant even start the program officially. The doctor that call me said something to the effect that he was going to present my case to the bariatric Board in Oct 2014 for review for the surgery, but I don't see how he can if I don't do any of the requirements prior to the review board meeting.

The doctor that  called me the other day stated that they don't do the surgery here in Missouri but that they contact it out to the VA Hospital in Chicago IL. After reviewing there Bariatric surgery requirements I have found that I will have at least 6 weeks of the MOVE! program. So that puts me into Dec 2014 the last few weeks of the year. Which would be fine as long as I can get a set date so I can schedule my Vacation around the surgery, ( not letting work know I am having the surgery), I only work 10 days a month and have 10 days of sick time and vacation time so I should be covered there.

So to make a long story short I am going crazy here WIATING

So

80 days before start MOVE!

???? days before the post op diet

???? days before surgery

Ah, the waiting.  That was the hardest part for me.  I felt like I'd done ALL THE RESEARCH and just wanted to get on with implementing all of my knowledge!  

But you can use the time wisely.  Things I did to prepare involved getting used to eating fewer calories - I swapped out two meals a day for shakes starting 2-3 months prior to surgery.  I found an awesome therapist and started seeing her once a week.  I did the aforementioned research - I felt like I knew everything by the time I got to surgery.  I don't, of course, but I definitely felt that way!  I looked into exercise options and formed a plan for what I wanted to do post-op, looked into gyms and stuff like that.  I enjoyed looking at menus and recipe blogs to figure out what post-op eating would look like.  I'm sure you can think of other stuff too.  

My pre-op period ended up going by pretty swiftly with all the preparations.   I decided to have surgery a year ago today, in fact, and was on the operating table in March 2014.