Update 3/3/07

Well, so far, not much is happening. I was told it was a long process and looks like it will be!

I did go to the informational session this past week. They explain the procedure in a bit more of detail and then they had a Q&A session with an endocrinologist, a surgeon, a dietician and a psychologist present. The surgeon got the most questions. Go figure! The good news is that at Mayo, 80% of surgies are laparoscopic, and the 20% of those that aren't, are typically on men since they tend to carry more of their weight directly in their abdomen area. The highest risk of the surgery is blood clots, but they put pressure stockings on you prior to surgery and try to get you up and walking soon after waking up to try to prevent that. At Mayo, the risk of death is about 1 in 300 compared to the national average of about 1 in 200. I say that is pretty good sign our docs know what they are doing.

I was supposed to see the dietician already, but have had to reschedule(her fault, not mine) three times already. Scheduled for 3/12, but trying to get in sooner. She will work with me to help me rework my diet now as they like you to start losing weight and exercising prior to surgery to prove that you can do as told after. I already started doing both and have lost 5 pounds as of last Monday, I'll weigh in again this Monday and hopefully will see a few more gone.

Next appointment then is the psychologist, they want to make sure you are mentally fit to proceed. It is going to be a mental battle in addition to the physical. I am scheduled for 3/20 right now, which is an improvement from the 4/12 appointment I had, but I am checking daily to get in sooner if I can. You cannot proceed with the LEARN classes until you see them. The LEARN classes are a group meeting to basically support you and others. Its 12 weeks of meetings.

After all of that, then you see the surgeon. S/he has the final say. They want you to be committed and they want you to be a success, so they can be hard to please. The main thing is they want to see progress in weight loss, diet changes, and activity levels.

So, you can see that no way is this going to be something that happens overnight. At the education session, they said minimum of 6 months, but could be anywhere from 6-12 before things really happen.

I'll update again after I have my appointments.
Thanks for checking in and for your support!