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Still no issues. I'm down 75 pounds(20 of that is pre-op loss).  I've gone from a 54 to a 46 inch waist.  After quitting smoking this was truly the best decision I've ever made. 

Seriously.  Shortly after leaving the PACU, I walked 3 miles. Beating my surgeon's best post-op walker by a quarter of a mile. I'm four days post-op. I've had very little pain. Getting the water in is much more manageable than I could have ever imagined. I have had no gas pains or nausea what so ever. I'm able to sleep on either side. I'm more bored than anything.  I think my only complaint would be the skunk who seems to have set up home at the bottom of my esophagus.  Every now and again I get that pungent whiff and can only imagine that I have those cartoon like fumes escaping my mouth.  If that's all that bothers me, I'll go with it! 

Come on 11:45... I'm ready to get this show on the road.  Time seems to slow down once you walk through the front doors of a hospital.  It's gotta be some kinda of time lord magic going on.   At least I'm being entertained by the ghetto fabulous family next to me.  There is no need to have so many family members with you that they're spillimg out into the hallway. They've set up a hair salon too.  There are tumble weaves blowing out in the hall. Smh!

Can it just be tomorrow already? My surgery is scheduled for 11.45 ugh, so much for getting in there early.  I don't know what was worse: the 8ish months of the process, the month and a half waiting on an approval, the two weeks of a liquid diet, or wandering around the house checking and triple checking that things are done.  I think it's the checking on stupid shit. I've literally checked about 5 times to make sure I have dog food, mind you I just bought a 50lb bag at Costco this weekend. I think it's the lack of focus due to the lack of food of late. I've paid my bills. All my porn and adult pictures are in a folder marked "Delete at my Death"(my friend has instructions on what to do if I croak). Advanced directive done. Bag packed... I'm not nervous or even excited. I just want to done with the waiting.  The only bonus to having a later surgery is that the valet will be open and I won't have to deal with the underground parking.  I'm 'bout to pass out, see y'all on the flip side. 

     I can't tell you how excited I am to be nearing the nearing the end of this process.  I've never had to be so patient in all my life.  I've been told by many on here that it takes about eight to nine months(if you have the 6 month requirement) to get through the process.  I started in early February with orientation and my surgery is set for the 18th.  You all were right and I should have believed you! I'm getting to be old hat at this abdominal surgery thing, after having 3 in 2012, I'm not nervous in the least.  I pretty excited to tell the truth. Not excited about the surgery just excited that it's supposed to be laproscopic.  All the others were open. The appendectomy started as lap but had to be converted once the surgeon discovered that it had ruptured...  

     On another note, why has everyone become so thin skinned of late?  Seriously, grow a set and grow up. You asked for it and you got it. If you can't handle it or don't like what you heard then don't ask for opinions.  We're all given the option to approve or delete responses to our posts. If you're so put off by a response to your post, delete it and move on.  

     Someone posted that being obese like being gay is a choice.  I'm both.  I would have to agree that for most of us one can argue that our choices lead us to be obese. If being gay is a choice, being straight is a choice as well.  If that's the case, then I'd like you to choose to be gay and act on it for a year. (Yeah I know, it's ridiculous, and so is your position so go thump your bible elsewhere).

     One other thing. If you log on to the main page and look at the list of "latest Blog Posts" and the majority are from you, you obviously need professional help and want attention you're not getting in real life.  Try spending the hours you sit on this site everyday "blogging" about everything from how Slimfast will work better for you than surgery, or being gassy, or not writing down what you ate yesterday, or coffee, or yogurt, and try being a productive member of society.  Just remember: less is more, unless we're talking about getting laid or how big our penises are. 

Yeah that's right I blocked you! Maybe I'm a bastard, but I'm really tired of these people(only a few really) who post every hour on the hour, looking for responses to their pity party.  No one cares that you used brown sugar in your decaf coffee by mistake instead of Equal and now you have to beat yourself up for the rest of the day even though your don't drink coffee all that often, but it did taste so good.  Suck it up and grow a set. it's fucking coffee and no one cares. This process is hard and long(mmmm hard and long) and you're just a month in.  When I open the page and see that 6 of the latest entries are from the same person and are literally minutes apart I could scream.  It's like a one word text message.  My rant's over, we'll now return to your regularly scheduled programming. 

I last called my patient navigator on August 8th(one month to the day after completing EVERYTHING).  As per usual, I get her voice-mail. I left a message again asking for a callback to let me know if the internal review was finished and what the next steps are.  As of last Friday, I had still not received a call back from her.  I called Friday afternoon again to have someone track her down.  Long story short she wasn't in the office but the young lady who answered the phone looked up my chart and told me the internal review was over and everything was sent to the scheduler on August first for submission to the insurance company and said she'd leave a message for her(the scheduler) to call me by COB.   Anyway 5p.m. came and went and I still didn't get a call.  I was all geared up this morning, after brooding all weekend, to call the office and lay everyone out for the lack of responsiveness and follow-through.  To my surprise, the scheduler called me this morning before I could make the call.  I had been approved!   The next available date is September 11th.  I declined.   That week is the Star Spangled Spectacular here in Baltimore.  My neighbourhood is smack dab in the center of all the activity as it's home to Fort McHenry. For those who don't know it's the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Baltimore which inspired Francis Scott Key to pen the poem(Defense of Fort McHenry) that would later become our National Anthem.  Check out Starspangled200.com for more info.  The concert and fireworks will be aired nation wide on your local PBS station.  At any rate, my neighborhood(Locust Point) is a pennisula and all ingress and egress points will be barricaded and only open to local traffic.  Seriously, it's gonna be a traffic nightmare and parking clusterfuck down here.  I thought it better to delay it a week to the 18th.  I have a prep centre work up and a workshop on the 2nd and a pre-op with the surgeon on the 10th.  My three week, three and six months post-op appointments are scheduled too!   Why am I not excited? 

...but there comes a point when that shit goes right out the window.  As of today, I am officially one month post nutritionist classes.  When I last, first, and only time I spoke with my Patient Navigator to make sure she has everything(three weeks ago--mind you I fist called her near the middle of JUNE as directed by the surgeon and weekly after that until I had the front desk staff find her for me) she said she was going to be putting together my chart and submitting it for an internal review.  Once that happens and I get the green light from the review panel, my request for surgery is sent to the insurance company for approval.  I can't imagine it taking two weeks to do an in-house review but I gave them that time before I called to find out if everything was good or not.  I left a message Monday then again Wednesday, and one yesterday before COB on the PN's voice mail as she never seems to answer the phone.  I totally get that they'er a busy practice, but I don't think a callback within 24 hours is too much to ask.  Just an acknowledgement of my call with an "I don't know and can I get back to you" would suffice. I'm not one to call 20 times a day, maybe calling three times this week was a bit of overkill, but I'm truly nonplussed based on past attempts to get a response from her.  I've still yet to get a call back.  Am I overreacting? Is this common with Patient Navigators in other programs?  I don't really want to complain too much because I may get buried a little deeper by her.  I'm half tempted to ask for my chart and take my business to a bariatric program at one of the many other local hospitals. 

I check in here a couple of times a week to read your success stories and questions and concerns. Lately though, I've seen a lot of this X number of appointments with the nutritionist and I'll get my date.  That confuses me.  I know all programs are different, but when you get right down to it the insurance companies want to see pretty much the same things: 6 months(sometimes 3, lucky bastards) with the nutritionist, psych evaluation, cardiac clearance, sleep studies, EGD, blood work...   My 6th appointment with the nutritionist was July the 8th. Once she submitted everything to the office so it could be added to my chart,  everything was sent to an internal review(that is happening this week). I have know idea and wasn't told how long that process is, I understand the surgeons and PAs in the program look at everything to make sure all the bases are covered. Once that's approved the Patient Navigator submits the request to your insurance company and the real wait begins.  If someone out there is reading this and they're automatically approved by their insurance company as soon as they complete their 6 months, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE let me know 'cause I'll drop mine and buy from your company.   I have a feeling that this is not the case and they'll have to wait for approvals like everyone else. Could they be confusing being approved for surgery with receiving notice from their insurance that their plan does cover bariatric surgery and the requirements that need to be completed prior to surgery?   Seriously, I read someone's blog that stated "4 more visits with the NUT and I'll get scheduled for surgery".  To me that says the program submitted to the insurance company and got approval before they finished everything.  How is that even possible unless they're self pay?  In two months, there's no way in hell all the "standard" tests could be done and still be accurate once the 6 months are up.  Maybe this is how it works now and I'm just in a super stringent, cover all bases, patient centered, realistic program, instead of one that blows smoke. 

Tonight, old man, you did it! 

You did it! You did it!

You said that you would do it,

and indeed you did.

I thought that you would rue it; I doubted you'd do it.

But now I must admit it that succeed you did.

I gave up the cigs.  I love food, but I think I love cigarettes more.  I know I had to quit and I've been half-assed trying for the past few months. Look I was a two pack a day guy and got down to a pack lasting three days.  That pretty impressive an accomplishment in three short months.  Long story short, I got some crazy summer flu  last week and was down for the count for a few days.  Not having smoked while sick, I figured now was as good a time as any to stop--and my brand going up 2bucks to over 7 a pack helped too.  My problem now is finding something to do with my hands. If I did that it would be rubbed raw(I knew you were going straight to the gutter, I just happened to be there waiting for you). Anyway, I've taken to attacking Swedish Fish. My trip to Costco didn't help with that. I really was only looking for gum but that yellow box of deliciousness jumped right off the shelf and into my cart along with the Trident. I find that when I'm really craving a ciggy, I go straight for a bag of fish. I've given up one habit for another. Once they're gone, I shan't buy more and I'll stick with the gum. I hope to hell this insurance approval comes through quickly I have a big ole 5 pound jug o Whey Isolate staring at me.  Premiere Protein is on sale this cycle too, in Maryland anyway.  I can't stomach it. I find the Optimum Nutrition powder is palatable in Chocolate.  That's on sale at Costco too, 50 dollars...