I get to join the club!

Today was my first consultation with the surgeon.  I woke up super early because I was so nervous/excited and wrote out all the questions I had.  Then on the way to the surgical center I started getting shaky and cranky. I realized I'd forgotten to eat breakfast.  Normally I would just power through it, but I didn't know how long it was going to take and I didn't want to rush the meeting or start getting spacy, so we pulled over at McDonalds. I ate a cheeseburger because they'd stopped serving breakfast.  I haven't had a McDonalds cheeseburger since all that news on pink slime came out a couple years ago.  That cheeseburger tasted soo freaking good!  I didn't even think about pink slime.  I felt kind of weird eating a fast food cheeseburger for breakfast on my way to get approved for bariatric surgery. In retrospect I could've stopped at the gas station or Walgreens and gotten a banana or granola bar, and I totally forgot there was a Panera near the doctor's office.  I would've much preferred Panera.  But in the future, I will try to not forget to eat breakfast in the first place.

Anyway, the appointment was great.  They took my blood which I was not prepared for but I didn't let it freak me out.  Usually I need some mental self-talking before I get stuck with needles.  They have to test it for Vitamin D deficiency.  While I was sitting in the waiting room I was thinking the chairs were kind of funny.  They were bigger than regular chairs, but not quite big enough to be actual love seats.  Then I realized they were for people who are maybe too big for regular chairs.  That made my heart fill with love for the surgical center.

The actual consultation was awesome.  He put all my fears about getting 80% of my stomach cut out to rest.  Unlike the surgeon that ran the seminar I was in, he's still very pro lap-band but I decided to go with the sleeve anyway.  He also said I don't have dyspepsia. That crazy feeling I get sometimes is low blood sugar.

The most exciting things!

- Because I'm self-pay he thinks that I can probably have surgery in about a month.  A month!!

-I can eat sushi til the cows come home.  Or sashimi if I can't deal with the rice.  This is huge because I really don't think I could give up salmon sashimi.

- He can do the surgery with one incision because I'm under 5'8" and have never had a surgery before.  

- I don't have to have a catheter! This was giving me nightmares.  And while he is going to stick two things down my throat, I will be completely asleep and won't even know about it.

- He doesn't think I will have an excess skin problem because I have "youth on my side," I already exercise, and (this made me laugh inside),  I'm "very small."  I swear no one has ever used those words to describe me before, and after he said it he said "I mean, I mean" but compared to many of the patients he operates on I don't have as much weight to lose.  But, he said it wouldn't hurt to start strength training since I've always focused on cardio.

- One last thing!  I still have to talk to the self-pay lady to figure out any hidden costs and she's on vacation until the 5th, but it's going to be less expensive than I thought.  I was terrified it was going to be a lot LOT more than lap-band since I have to stay overnight in the hospital, but this center has a self-pay, cash up-front package, and the only thing I have to pay for that's extra is the pulmonary test.

 So, yay!  I get to join the WLS club!  To think within a year I could weigh a lot less and have more energy to LIVE and not be in so much pain.