Corbin Y.

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Well, this is it, on my last day, 6 hours before surgery.  I have endured my two days on liquid.  

A lot of people have been wonderful with support.  My wife, I can tell, is very nervous and stressed, and is making me nervous.  

Trying to stay upbeat, got the will signed tonight, and our babysitter went out to make copies.

Reporting in at 6:00 am there, just hope that I won't be sick - I've been feeling a cold coming the last two days, but my surgeon cleared me for surgery.

The ironic thing is that he was more focused on talking to my wife, who may be his client!  The article he wrote for OH may be the beginning of a book for him, and a possible national forum that she may be spearheading.  I hope it works out for the obth of them.

Tried to spend extra time with my daughter - very nervous - doing this for her, and want to be able to see her grow up.  

Think we have all our ducks in a row and all arrangements ready for this.  Now just have to concentrate on doing well, healing, exercising post surgery, and drinking fluids.  Any gods or goddesses out there, or anyone, who wants to send positive energy my way, this is the time.  When we went to Mexico, I got an artifact to rub for good luck and good health for my family.  It is coming with me tomorrow.

Writing this with one more full day to go.  I've been on all liquid diet today, and honestly, it hasn't been too bad.  I had some beef broth, chicken broth, some sugar free jello, a couple of Bai5s, a couple of sugar free ice pops, and water, and so I am holding up well.  

Today was the day of death and taxes.  In the early afternoon, went to the accountant, Jerry, to take care of my taxes and Belle's taxes.  Tonight, I spent my time on my will.  Hence, death and taxes.  Never fun to think about your own mortality, and I certainly hope none of the provisions in this will need to be exercised.

I'm scaed, but excited.  over 99% of the people who do this surgery do fine.  I am hoping I am not the exception to the rule.

Haven't written for a while due to traveling to Florida, hanging out with Denis Rodman (he was on my JetBlue flight!), and then the severe amount of catching up to do when I returned.

I now have finished ordering all the vitamins I will need post surgery for the first month or so.  Andria let me take over a cabinet in our second bathroom to house all the bottles.  I have gotten all my tests done pre-surgery, and will be meeting with Dr. Roslin next week to go over results and get the presurgery 411.  A lot of my tests and data still needs to be sent over to Roslin's office, so I need to nudge everyone next week.

Now going down to one meal a day, and two replacements.  I have plateaued at 355, and need to try to jumpstart he weight loss again.  Got a new protein powder and meal replacement bar that should help.  Working on eating slower, and enjoying each bite - 25 chews before swallowing is a challenge, and forces you to eat smaller bites.

Overall, I am positive and determined to get this surgery done right.

     Spent the day getting ready to go to Florida.  10 days there, then two weeks before surgery.  Found myself doing what I should not, saying goodbye to a food - pizza.  Had two slices with toppings, from the good pizza place right near me, and devoured the bread as well.  Other than that, I did ok today.  Going to Florida, there will be no good pizza, and when I get back, with two weeks to go, I will be on two liquid meals a day before going all liquid.  Gotta lose the weight so I can reduce the liver, and give my surgeon room to poke around in there.

Breakfast:

Tuna Fish with Mayo, Mustard, and Relish
1 lo carb thin
Lots of fresh spinach

Lunch

2 slices pizza - artichoke and ham

Dinner

1 lo carb shake
1 banana

Later

1 protein bar

Exercise - just walking, packing, and doing laundry

Ugh!  First day I can qualify I cheated - had a iece of pizza this afternoon, and the bread was hot and fresh, so after scraping off all the cheese, I continued to consume the bread.  Argh!  

Part of the stress of today was the sleepless night I had because of my new fershluggin sleep apnea machine.  It woke me up at 1 am, my nose freezing, air hitting my face, and I ended up back to the couch and eventually recliner, but it took me 3 1/2 hours to fall back asleep.  Complained to the supplier, they had a support person come in today, who could see the mask was the wrong size for me, and the machine, that is supposed to warm the water slightly, was not doing it's job.  A replacement will hopefully come tomorrow so I can take it on my trip to Florida Monday!

Breakfast:  

Cheese
Locarb wrap
Orange

Lunch
 

Shrimp in peanut sauce
Brown rice
Strawberries

Mid snack

Pizza slice
 

Dinner

fruit shake
banana

     The latest , today I took a stress test.  I passed with flying colors, because I guess, I am used to being very stressed!  

The latest is that now the surgical coordinator wants me to talk to the new LIJewish coordinator to plead my case that this surgery should not cost me 30K.  I am so frustrated that this would not have been a problem if I had done the surgery back in January!  

Breakfast:  Tuna Fish, Spinach, Lo carb wrap

Lunch: Saag Panir, 1/2 cup rice

Snack: pepperoni pizza slice (cheese only)

Dinner: Protein Shake

               Blueberries (8 oz)

                hot dog, lo carb wrap

               3/4 oz cheese stick

No swimming today - stress test walking instead

     Haven't written in a few days.  Went to my primary, and I was getting my preop checkup and bloodwork, when I got a call from my surgical coordinator.  Turns out that the doctors at Lenox Hill have all gone off network for AETNA effective Feb. 1st.  If I had known this, I would have had the ds surgery sooner.  I have been eligible since December.  She told me on Friday that I would have to pay a higher deductible, but that they would waive the patient share of the doctor's fees, which coes to around $30,000.  I can live with that.  Tuesday;s call was to tell me that now that they are part of LI Jewish, a new administrator is not allowing them to waive those fees.  Suddenly this surgery could cost me 32,000.  I really cannot afford that.  Needless to say, my blood pressure skyrocketed.  When I went home, I stress ate, although I did so with lo carb items, such as peanut butter on a low carb wrap, and cheese with carrots. Told my wife about my stress eating, and I got nothing but criticism.  Thankfully, I held back from the temptation to overeat after her criticism.  It would be nice to feel like I have a little support going forward!

Breakfast

Yogurt, Uncle Sams, Blueberries

Lunch

Gyro Meat, Avocado, Orange

Mid Day Snack

Fiber Bar

Pizza (cheese only)

Dinner

Chaat Papri (lentils)

Fiber Bar

Exercise - 25 minutes swimming

Went to the Support Group at Lennox Hill.  We had a large group there tonight, over 40 people.  Hearing how many people had significant weight loss was inspiring!  The guest, so to speak, was a gastric bypass patient who is 12 1/2 years out.  That was impressive!  She has tried many things over the years, but the thing that works for her is when she went all vegan - raw.  A hard way to go, but it is working for her.  Tried some of her samples of whnat she makes - pretty tasty - little scared about the amount of prep needed.

Well, I found out that my surgeon officially went out of network effective Feb. 1st.  If I had known that, i would have pushed for surgery sooner - that mistake could cost me as much as $10,000.  I'm going to see if the surgery place will make arrangements to help me out, but I can see this will be one more battle I will have to take on!

Breakfast:

6" Subway whole wheat sub with egg whites, bacon, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, pickle, mozzarella cheese, and mayo

1 orange

Mid morning snack

lo carb wrap with 2 slices cheese

Lunch

1/4 chicken, 3 pieces of baby back ribs, no sauce

8 oz cooked veg (broccoli, cauliflower, carrot)

1 small apple

Dinner

Fruit Shake
1/2 pear

When establishing myself as a DS patient, I needed to prove comorbidities.  Even though I had a sleep study done 11 years ago to prove I had sleep apnea, I went through it again so that htis comorbidity would count.  The good news, is that the recommended pressure for me is the same it was 12 years ago.  They are going to order a new machine for me, and there are better masks that should work to help me with the sleep apnea.  I know I need to do something about hte sleep apnea, because my sleep patterns are out of control.

I made my introductions on the Lennox Hill Bariatric Support group.  One person and I are talking, and she mentioned that AETNA now considers my doctor to be out of network.  I will need to follow up tomorrow to see if this is going to cause a problem.

Breakfast

Yogurt
Blueberries
Melon
Uncle Sam Cereal

Lunch

turkey breast
Spinach
Apple

Dinner

Protein Shake
blackberries
2 oz drinkable yogurt

Exercise - 25 minutes swimming!

     Today, I figured out how to blog on this site.  Why was I having such difficulty finding out about how to blog?  Apparently, I was running an old version of the site that did not give blog options.  Why was I running an old option?  Because I first opened an account with OH over 12 years ago.  There were entries written in '02 when I was trying to determine if my insurance would cover surgery.  I seriously looked at surgery again 5 years ago.  The surgeons in NoVa where I was living only did the pouch at the time.   I had a lot of questions about the pouch, and decided to pass after going through with four of the six steps needed for surgery with Kaiser Permanente.  Now I am on AETNA, and was approved for DS/ Gastric Sleeve surgery last week.  Now I am busy trying to get together the last tests and scans needed before surgery.  I now live in NYC, and am going to have Dr. Roslin do the surgery - one of the cutting edge (pun intended!) doctors out there for this procedure.  More history as I continue to blog.

As for today, it was a lost day for work.  My daughter, Maia, was down with a fever and upper ear infection, as well as throwing up in our bed at 6am.  That is a much quicker way than surgery to make me lose my appetite!