Sarah B.

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Not that I'm looking for a gold star or anything. I'm just ridiculously excited about having ordered my vites and a few protein samples in preparation for surgery. Things are starting to feel awfully real around here! 

Since I'm feeling like a vita-virgin, I followed Vitalady's starter list. I have never been more excited to order a more boring delivery. I mean, really...It's a good thing I'm easily amused. I'm looking forward to sitting down with all my vites and loading up my first trays. Granted, I probably won't be able to actually take half of the stuff I ordered for a few weeks, but I want to be prepared. Could I be any more nerdy?

What a day today has been!

I originally received a letter about two weeks ago from my insurance company saying that after their initial review of the surgery request from my doctor they required more information. Since then I had heard nothing, so I gathered my courage and called the insurance company this morning to check on the status of that review. Well, low and behold, my surgery was officially approved! 


Then, I ever so innocently called the surgery scheduler for my doctor and left her a lovely, marginally pathetic, message about hoping to schedule a date as soon as possible. By the afternoon she hadn't called back, so I decided to try once more and I got ahold of her directly with that second call. She informed me that just this morning, right after she listened to my message, they had a cancellation. Dr. G asked if she had anyone to fill the spot with and she thought of me. After a few tenuous moments while she double checked that everything was still available regarding that date, and indeed it was! I GOT MY SURGERY DATE! 

Now...here's the best part...my date is in two weeks! This is exceptional because the wait for a surgery date at Abington is usually several months. My surgery date is November 4th. So: two week freak, here I am! Omg, omg, omg! I am so excited--as evidenced by my excessive use of animated emoticons. Is it too early to pack my bag? lol

Over the past few weeks all my free thought time has been spent mulling over surgery. As someone who has been overweight since the age of 8 and morbidly obsese since the age of 16, I've been thinking of WLS for the past 8 years. There have been a few factors that recently motivated me to finally seek out information about surgery:

1) My uncle is having a DS, his surgery is scheduled in Nov. :) My mother is one of 12 children, so I have a LOT of aunts and uncles...and, yes, just about everyone related to me by blood, on both sides of my family, is heavy. I've seen the yo-yo diet experience from my own attempts, but also from the more or less successful long-term battles of family memembers. Everyone ultimately gains their weight back. Matter of fact, after a lifetime of fasting for dramatic weight loss, my mom wants to have her DS surgery done next year. :)

2) I am presently 29 and will be turning 30 on my next birthday in February (funny how math works, eh?). It suddenly dawned on me that I had to do this now. I've spent my entire 20's gradually gaining weight. I can't bear the thought of another decade of diet & regain. So, what am I waiting for?! Is it a turning-30-freak-out? I don't want to be 39, turning 40, and look back kicking myself for not having done surgery now! 

3) My babies. I have 14 month old twin boys. They are a joy--even when they scream bloody murder everytime I leave to use the bathroom. ;) In my mind, I have all sorts of ideas about museums and zoos and aquarium trips. As they get older, I want to take them on all sorts of local field trips but I know, right now, I barely have the energy to take them down to the swing set in our apartment complex. It's not fair to them. Who wants to be the kid in school growing up with the really fat parents? I want to be healthy enough to run around with my grandkids someday. There's too much fun and adventure and a world of possiblity in the future to live for.

So on that note...I wrote a poem. I will prefice this by stating that I DO NOT write poetry, therefore I have no idea whether this is any good. But hey, my mommy told me it was. ;) I wrote this while reflecting on what my reasons for wanting surgery and what my post-op expectations are:

I may never like my arms.

 

But I’ll no longer hit the doorframes.

 

I may never be a size 12, 10, 8.

 

But I will run with my kids in the park.

 

We will go to the zoo on warm sunny days.

 

We will swim in pools, oceans, lakes.

 

We will search through fields for the best pumpkin,

 

…Easter egg…Christmas tree.

 

Their memories will be of the days we spent

 

…out living life…doing interesting things.

 

They would have loved me, no matter what

 

But now…

 

I will love how I felt.

I just wanted to introduce myself. I've been obsesively lurking the forum here for a few weeks since I began the inital pre-op steps. You have such a wonderful, supportive community here! It's really impressive how genuine and giving people on the board seem to be overall.

A bit about myself: My name is Sarah and I live in the suburban Philadelphia area. DH and I will be celebrating our 4th wedding anniversary in October. We have a set of twin boys who are 14 months old.

I've been gathering a lot of information about what to expect before/after surgery and what challenges may lie ahead. Because of the babies, it's difficult for me to attend the in-person support group meetings. This forum seems to be a type of extended support group. :) I'm going through Dr. Bonnani's program at Abington, though my surgeon will be Dr. Antanavicius. The DH and I are both looking to have DS, though I told him I get to go first. ;) We've both been heavy since childhood, and I've actually been contemplating WLS for the past 8 years. I finally took that big step of getting myself involved with a surgical program. I'm still pretty eary in the process though, having done a bunch of preliminary testing and the psych eval. My surgical consult is scheduled for two weeks from now.

I am so excited about embarking on this new journey. All I want for Christmas this year is my surgery date!