prancing_nougat

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I went to the GP on Monday, and I definitely do have some issues going on with sleep apnea. My doctor is sending me for more tests (the overnight sleep study) and I'll possibly be put on a BPAP machine. I don't know if the further testing will affect my surgery dates or not.

I also don't mind if my dates are affected all that much because I won't be able to get surgery around the end of January/begining of February because I have a new niece coming along then, and my parents will be going up to Ottawa at that time. Since I probably won't even be able to wipe my butt after surgery without taking out more life insurance, I'll be needing to get back into the nice confines of the parental womb, so to speak, and I'll be needing to spend a bit of time at my parent's place.  I won't mind if my surgery is in the spring.  My poor Mom and Dad.

I forgot to add an entry about my doctor's report so I'm ripping off my own entry on the NB board from October 24th:

I did see someone coming out of the doctor's office who did blind me with their beauty, but I"m not sure if it was AnitaLynn or not. I was the sweaty thing fighting with the registration form in the corner. Man, it was hot in that waiting room. I hope that I didn't look too rabid. :-D

Dr. Savoie seems to be a very nice man, He trained with Dr. Picard Marceau in Ste Foy, QC, which is who Dr. Beausoleil trained with. He said that he is working with Dr. Beausoleil in order to offer between all of the different types of bariatric surgery. Dr. Savoie does lap-band, vertical sleeve gastrectomy, and duodenal switch (Scartears, you were right in saying that he did VSG. :-) ), and Dr. Beausoleil will continue doing the lap-band and RNY.
Dr. Savoie is only doing lap-band laparoscopically right now, which is totally understandable as he wants to do them open for the first while until he is more comfortable with doing them laparascopically. As he said to me "What really is the difference between one 6-7" scar compared to 6-7 1" scars. For the duodenal switch, he suggests 3 months off from work, as he said that I'll feel tired and weak for a while, and it's better to rest. I'm not sure what he gives for time off for the lap-band procedure. I also forgot to aks him how long of a hospital stay it is for the procedures as well.

He asked me about my eating habits, how much I eat, how often do I eat fast-food, how much pop I drink, what co-morbitites I have (more about that in the next paragraph),  what previous weight-loss things have I tried, and how much had I lost on them. We talked about what procedure would be best for me. He takes his time, and explains everything, but you have to ask him questions too.  He also asked how long I've been overweight, and I told him "Since birth - I was 9 lbs!"

I have to go for a sleep-apnea test, so that will hinge on when I can get the surgery. If I can get the testing done right away, I can get operated on around Xmas time, but knowing the waiting time that we have for specialists, I think that I may get operated on in the New Year. :-D
If I didn't have to get the sleep apnea test done, my next step would be to get the hospital testing done and the appointment with the dietician, and then after that the surgery time. After care for surgery is a visit to Dr Savoie every 3 months for the first year,  every 6 months for the 2nd year, and then once every year after that.

I thanked him for coming to NB, and he said that he knew that there was a great need for another WLS here. He said that he knew for sure that Dr. Beausoleil was happy that he came. :-D He also knew about obesityhelp.com, which was cool. I showed him my "Weight Loss Surgery for Dummies" book, and he really liked that as he looked at the explanations for all the types of surgeries and he said that they were right on the target..

I also told him that I wasn't going to cry or hug him yet, as it still hadn't sunk it that I was finally going to get the treatment for a disease that I had all of my life. I'm still numb about it.

I went to see my GP, and I got the wonderful news that my BP was 188/111. Teehee! Do ya think it was a wee bit too high? No, nothing like that! He put me on Enalapril, which causes coughing, but it hasn't been too bad yet. I'm amazed at how much better I feel. I used to be dizzy, clammy, and tired all of the time. Now I only look to crawl into bed once in a while instead of every 5 minutes. We'll see in a month's time whether the meds are affecting my BP or not.

I also had my sleep apena test done. It was interesting being hooked up all the thingies and dohickies, but I mananged to fall asleep anyway.  I brought the machine back to the hospital last Monday, so they told me that I'll probably get my results within a month's time. That's not a bad wait at all. Sometimes living in SJ has its avantages.

Sometimes...

Thanks to the support of my pals on the NB forum, I found out about a surgeon who is opening up a clinic in Bathurst. I got my wonderful GP to send a req. out to the new doctor, and lo and behold one week later, I got a phone call for a consult session on October 23rd.

Who'd a thought that a mere 4 months ago, I was worried to even mention WLS to my GP because I thought that he would think that I wasn't worthy enough to have it, or that I didn't need it. But after seeing me for 2 years on a supervised diet, he realized that I needed a bit more help than what plain dieting could afford.

I can't believe it's all happening. Now I'm the one that's going to need the pep-talks because I'll have my second thoughts coming around too. I just have to keep telling myself that these are all normal, and that everyone goes through them.

On second thought, I've decided to wait for the ol' Medicare system to either let me down, or to let me through. :) Self-pay just wasn't in the cards, because the more I thought about it, the more I would have been stressed by the thoughts of going through all payment and interest crap, because there would be no way that I would have paid them off in a couple of years. I think it's best if I just be patient, and wait it out as much as I can. I just hope that my health doesn't get any worse while I go through the waiting period.

I did ask my doctor yesterday if he could send a req to the ne doctor that opened up a clinic in Bathurst. I don't know what will come out of it, but we'll just see.

I am approved by NB Medicare, but when I called Dr. Beausoleil's office, Nathalie told me that there would be 5 year wait. I was expecting that so I wasn't shocked at all. Reading up on the process in NB on the forum was a good thing as it informed me about what I up against. It's pretty hard for one surgeon to get through a list of hundreds of waiting patients in a little amount of time as he is only one person.

I wasn't going to let one set-back get me down, as there are other choices out there - you just have to find them, and be ready to go into debt to get them.

So after talking to people, and researching different methods, I think that I've decided on the VSG method with Dr. Alceves. I hope that this is right choice, but we'll soon find out. After I get my financing in order, I'm going to make a date for October or November of this year. I don't want to put off my life any longer.