Ipod

Yeah, I finally have entered mainstream and bought an Ipod. I bought the new Nano Ipod, that is square, in black.

At work all day I mostly do data entry to bill out ambulance transports so music is kind of important if you want the day to go by fast. Before I just listen to the radio but the only channel that I could get was called the Valley station. We live an hour outside of Anchorage so the valley just listens to Anchorage radio stations. But the Valley does have it's own station that plays a mixture of everything. So you get a lot of songs you don't like. I moved to a different desk at work and the one station that I got I could not make come in very good anymore. So my 8 hour day felt like a 20 hour day.

We I plugged my Ipod into my parents computer to set it up the Ipod pulls all of the music you have on the computer. Well my dad is a big have of OLD COUNTRY and he had about 180 old country songs on there. I had to let the Ipod pull them in before I could delete them. So then the next day at work I was all ready to listen to my Ipod I found a few songs that I had missed from my dad's collection. Oh well, at least I can still delete them off.

Doctors

Have you ever just been so mad at your doctor and think then and there that you do not want to go back, but you stick out the appointment so that they will do what you want.

Man I had my monthly doctor appoint to follow up with my doctor supervised diet until the insurance company approves my surgery on Tuesday. I was so mad at him by the time I got out of there I could have just scream at him. My normal doctor that I liked a lot was going to have his first grand baby so he decided to move to the lower 48 to be close to the baby. Well that doesn't help me because I am still in the middle of the process trying to get the surgery. But I go to a family clinic so I think I will just make an appointment with a doctor that I saw maybe twice before I started this process. Well he was a jerk!!! He is one of those doctors that thinks I should be able to do this on my own. He told me that I am like "a smoker who smokes 2 packs a day and if you take away there cigarettes it does not solve the problem". And told me that I need to see a shrink because I have problems and they won't be solved with the surgery and that there are so many people who have the surgery and gain all the weight back. And the surgery is not going to be fun.

For one he is not my surgeon and if he was I would go to someone different, but he does not know me or why I am having the surgery, but talk about trying to make me fail. That is what it felt like he was just trying to bring me down.

So I bit my tongue so that he would finish the appointment and fill out the paperwork I need from a doctor for my September appointment. I am not going to jump thru all the hoops that I have to let some pompous doctor ruin it for me.

Cards

I went with my sister and mom to a Stampin Up party today. It was called 10-10-10, you make 10 cards at 10 minutes a piece for $10. This is right up my alley because I am not very creative but can copy real good. So I can take the examples that we have to follow and sometimes make them a little better (not often). We got to make a variety of different cards not just fall cards which made it nice.

It was so funny though a lot of people from the ward were there and most of them know our family because my dad was the bishop for a while. Anyways one lady was asking about my other sister Laura and why she wasn't there because she is so, then she stopped herself and you could tell she was going to say creative so she added well you all are creative also. My mom, sister, and I just laughed and told her we know that Laura is the creative one in the family. Once I figure it out I will post some pictures of the cards we made.

All clear....

Well I got the call and I have been cleared for surgery. yea!!!!!!!!!!!!

I sometimes felt I would never get to this point. Now is the hard part I have to wait for the insurance company to authorize the surgery so that I can have it. And I know what you are thinking because I thought the same thing I have had to go thru all of those appointments and spend quite a bit of money and I don't even know if I can have the surgery yet.

Now I just have to go thru the waiting game.

Dr. Todd's office....

My first appointment with Dr. Todd was 7/11/07 finally I was a step closer to having the surgery. The first thing that they do is take your picture from the front and the side. (what fat girl wants there picture taken) Then you have to fill out a survey that is very embarrassing but you want to be honest so that you won't get turned down for the surgery. Like how often do you get short of breath, how do you do in public situations, and some things I wont even tell my husband.

I was weighed, and they went over everything that was wrong with me. Dr. Todd was very nice though and knew that I want children, so he told me about other women who were in my same boat and how they had success and were able to get pregnant. And he said he wanted to do whatever it took to help me get the surgery. Then he gave me the list of all the test I had to do to get cleared for surgery.

- chest X-ray
- upper GI
- lab work (like 8 tubes of blood)
- abdomen ultrasound
- EKG
- treadmill stress test
- sleep test
- psych eval
- meet with a nutritionist
- pulmonary test

- last thing was to see Dr. Lucht to get "cleared" for surgery

The first step....

One of the first things I had to do was a 6 month doctor supervised diet. Back in November I went to my doctor and told him I wanted to start the process because my insurance requires a 6 month doctor supervised diet. So he wasn't real supportive at first he was just said "what do you want me to do". In my head I felt like screaming I want you to do what ever it takes so that I can get this surgery.

Well he did not tell me I had to come in every month, I think because he did not take me seriously, so I did not come back in until February 2007. Which meant I had to start the 6 month doctor supervised diet from then not November.

Still some how I missed April so I might have to do 6 months from May on I am not sure how strict the Insurance company will be. So basically I live at the doctors office. Once I got 5 months into the supervised diet my doctor refered me to Dr. Todd in Anchorage who will be the one to do my surgery.

The start of my journey...

Well like others I started this blog because of my sister. I did not think that I had enough going on in my life because I don't have any kids yet, and I did not feel I would be very interesting. I love looking at many different blogs to see the challenge that women go raising kids and maintaining there home and job.

But then my sister thought that it would be good if I blogged about my process of going thru gastric bypass surgery. She thought that some people out there might want to hear about it. I started this process almost a year ago with my doctor. Let me back track even further, I have been overweight most of my life. I know that I missed out on some normal high school milestones that most kids go thru, but I was probably a better kid because I was out of the mainstream. As I grew up the only thing I have ever wanted to do was get married and become a mom. I know a total step back from women's lib, but that is what I wanted. I got out of high school and meet my first husband. I had a very bad first marriage that only lasted a year and we didn't have any kids. (I thought I was just lucky)

Then several years later I met a wonderful man that I am married to today. So I thought now is the time we can start to have children. Long story Long, I went to the doctor and I have something called PCOS Poly cystic ovarian syndrome. Some of the things that PCOS does is make you gain weight, thin hair, facial hair, skin tags and basically everything a woman doesn't want to have a problem with. It also makes it very hard to have kids especially if you are over weight.

So that is it that is one of the main reasons I am going to have the gastric bypass surgery, I want children oh so very bad.