More tests

I'm not a good updater!

Last Tuesday I had so many tests: I had labs drawn, 13 tubes, an EKG, chest x-ray and an upper GI.  That was fun!  Actually it wasn't as bad as people made it out to be.

I went to the hospital radiology department in the morning because I needed to be fasting.  They took me into the fluoroscopy room and stood me up against a huge board.  It looked like a ginormous digital x-ray cassette we use to take straight images.  The fluoroscopy machine was in front of me. They gave me a quick rundown of what was going to happen and told me not to worry about remembering, they would walk me thru it.

They asked me if I was ready then they handed me a Styrofoam cup of water. The tech told me that once he put the alkaseltzer like crystals into the water I needed to gulp it down and not belch it out.  He dumped the crystals in and I shot it and it exploded out of my mouth!  I gulped as much as I could and immediately needed to burp.  The lady tech handed me another cup full of barium and told me to once again gulp as quickly as I could. The first gulp went down ok, but the next one got stuck on my gag reflex!  I didn't want to throw up so I swallowed has hard as I could and kept going. I just imagined I was drinking runny chalk flavored yogurt because that was the consistency.  He then laid the table back while I was still on it and had me roll around on the table, taking different pictures of the barium going thru me. Then I had to lay on my left side while I drank a thinner version of barium thru a straw.  All the while I could look up and see what they were looking at.  It was so cool!  When I was done the tech explained to me what I was looking at and I thought it was so nice for him to take the time to explain.  I'm pretty lucky to be in the medical field, especially taking x-rays, so I can understand what he was saying. If I was just a scared patient not knowing what was really involved with the procedure, I would have been very comfortable with him because he was so kind and patient.  They both were!

The EKG was awkward; the tech had me sit in a chair, pull up my bra and shirt, hook me up and do her test.  I felt so embarrassed but whatever, she was nice and it's over. I'm sure there will be more embarrassing tests to do.

I then met with the physical therapist and went thru my exercise goal and was given a pedometer and need to count my steps.  She wants me to start out with a goal of 5000 steps and work up to 10,000. 

Tomorrow is more test: a computer psych test and then I meet with my PCP for my annual exam.  Ug, talk about awkward!

Getting Started

Wednesday is my nurses intake (?) for the bariatric program.  I went to the seminar on October 16th, sent my paper work in and had a pre-program weigh-in on October 25th. The only thing that the program needed and kept calling/emailing me for is my insurance info.  My insurance was supposed to kick in on November 1st and I had been calling the insurance company for my ID numbers and they never seemed to have anything current on me.  Turns out that my HR received my paperwork but never input into their system. It's understandable that they figure that any doctor visits will retro-active covered but I NEEDED those numbers to start the program.  Grrr.

So on 11/1 HR input what they needed to and I made my appointment for Wednesday the 6th.  They had something today at 2:30 but profesora posponed the spanish test to today at 2:30.  :(  So Wednesday it is.  It gives me a day to clean this fricken HOUSE!!! Get some grocery shopping done and dinners put together. I need to get shit together.

I wanted to MAKE SURE my weigh in was high.  I wanted a high BMI so I've been eating.  And eating.  And eating and eating and eating and fucking EATING.  I gained approx 12 lbs and my left knee has been KILLING me.  It almost makes me cry it hurts for fricken bad. I've been eating a shit load but I'm not sure what my weigh in will be on Wednesday.  I hope it's high then I have hopes to start walking at the gym and maybe some muscle training as well.  I have to get a big fat weigh-in tho. 

There will be so many things I'll need to give up to make this surgery successful: food, comfort eating, happy eating, grazing and most of all DRINKING.  That will be hard.  But more on that later...