....17....

This morning was a great reminder for how excited I am to have this piece of garbage taken out of me in 17 days! I had a toasted bagel with whipped cream cheese for breakfast. I got almost all of one half of it down before I was running to the bathroom throwing it up. Never mind the fact that I had this same thing the night before with NO problems at all. I'm just tired of the inconsistency of it. I can eat a full rack of ribs with all the fries one day, and the next I'm choking on apple sauce! It just makes no sense. If it were all the same then at least there'd be some understanding that I'm too tight or something, but with this constant back and forth...UGH! I am soooooo excited for it to be 17 days from now so that I won't have to worry about the PBs and the foaming and the throwing up and the pain in my chest that makes it hard to breath when something gets stuck!

In other news, I discovered I'm allergic to bananas. I love them, and whenever I eat them my inner ear itches like crazy. Sometimes the roof of my mouth does too. When I looked these symptoms up online I discovered they are allergic reactions. Interesting! It's not bad enough to make me not want to eat bananas ever again, hell no! But still, good to know :) If you couldn't tell from my tone in the above topic, I like knowing what to expect!

I hope everyone is having a GREAT weekend! I'm going to be doing some pre-op shopping (blender balls, soups, diet power aids- that sort of stuff) and then hitting the drive-in to see a double feature. I am not even going to attempt to see Harry Potter this weekend, I'll wait for a week day when it won't be as congested.

Until tomorrow...

....18....

I will be posting every single day until my surgery, so the count down is officially on!

As you may notice I am making some changes to my blog...just felt like updating it and got some good inspiration from my friend over on Vanishing Mom's blog. I have to keep up with the times and trends :)

So I got some slightly bad news today- not in the long run, but for the short run definitely. I was originally told that the self pay amount for me to have my band removed (since my insurance isn't covering it!) would be $2500 so that's what I was saving for and planning on. Well today I was told that it would be closer to $4000!! :/ yikes! I'm kind of stressing about it to be honest, but thanks to my wonderful OH family I have some good advice to try out. First I'm going to make sure that they are charging me the BC/BS contracted price, not the full self pay price. Second, when my surgeon is inside my guts I'm going to have him take special note of ANYTHING he sees that might be the cause of why this lap-band has failed me. Then I can take that info and re-appeal the insurance company's decision to deny coverage for non-medical reasons. They might approve my appeal with actual surgeon notes saying "this" is why it was medically necessary. I'm not going to hold my breath, but it's worth a shot. And as one person said, in a couple years I won't even miss that money. I knew this would be expensive, but at least it's not as bad as being a full self pay.

Well back to trying to spruce up the ol' blog! I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Ok NOW it's official! (t-minus 19)

I thought I'd be having my surgery on August 1st but it got moved back to August 3rd. Not a big deal, but still...that's two whole days!!!!!!! I'll be sitting around on Monday thinking "well by now I'd be in surgery" and "I should be coming out of surgery right now!" and "instead of working today I could have been in a hospital bed recovering!"

So on Monday the 18th I have my private pre-op classes. Then I have some pre-op testing and labs to do. Then I have a pre-op appointment with someone else...geesh, it's hard to keep track. I would like it if they could just call me the morning of the days that they need me for something and just say "be here by this time today." That'd be easier.

My vita-lady order should be here on Monday, so I'm very excited about that! And I do have a lot of things to do still, so I'm sure I'll actually realize I'm grateful for an extra two days to prep.

19 days and counting!!

That hurt a little- not gonna lie!

I just made my first super important purchase toward my DS...the vitamins!

I ordered through VitaLady, of course. For anyone who isn't familiar with her, she is a regular on Obesity Help and she is a constant support to anyone who has questions about their blood labs or vitamins in general. She is, herself, a weight loss patient and very successful. Vitalady is passionate about what she does and it's obvious. She never pushes sales or advertises for herself. She's so awesome that everyone advertises for her--like I'm doing now, lol.

I ordered a 3 month supply of all the vitamins I'll need to start with, as well as MULTIPLE protein shake samples. Honestly about $100 of my order was just samples. I am very super sensitive to the smell of protein powders and I am really worried how I'll tolerate them, so I ordered a whole bunch of different flavors and brands so that I can experiment and hopefully find some that I like enough to order tubs of. I will be posting review blogs for them as I try them.

I've been putting this order off for a while because it is expensive, and it hurt my wallet quite a bit today, but it is 100% necessary and is not in any way, shape, or form negotiable. Vitamins and supplements are going to be my new #1 priority post op, as well as healthy high protein foods. New shoes can wait, new clothes can wait (I'll out grow them too fast anyway), nights out can wait. Vitamins first!



I am really excited to get my order. I love getting stuff in the mail to begin with, but this is going to be super fun for me. I'm slightly OCD when it comes to organizing and compartmentalizing things. I already have my vitamin organizer which I SUPER love, and I really cannot wait to start sorting out my pills and setting up! A lot of people hate doing that, I seriously love it. It makes me feel accomplished, organized, and ready to go.



Okay so I just placed the order 10 minutes ago...I wonder if they've shipped it yet?!? I'd better go check! ;)

Wait...you mean they listened??

I am so excited! I just got off the phone with Bridges (the name of the center I'm having my surgery at) and the gal I spoke with called me because of my complaint regarding the joke of a pre-op class I attended a couple weeks ago.

I had emailed my patient advocate and asked if I even had to go to the second pre-op class because the first one was so pointless and such a waste of my time. She jumped right on that and emailed the lady who normally does the pre-op classes (who was NOT the lady who was at the pre-op class I attended- hence the horrificness of it) and she called me right away. She apologized for the class being so horrible and said that the nurse who did give the pre-op class won't be doing it again. She wants to sit down with me and give me one on one pre-op classes and also get my opinions on how to better the pre-op class for DS patients! Now THAT is what I'm talking about :) I'm very glad to hear that they want to incorporate more DS information and make the pre-op class not all about the RNY.

I'll be going in for that on the 18th. I'll let you know how it goes :)

I'm very impressed with how quickly my complaints were escalated and listened too. Maybe all hope isn't lost just yet.

Product Review: Hershey's Sugar Free Strawberry Syrup

To all of the Strawberry Milk fans out there....are there any left?? Well I LOVE strawberry milk, always have!

I found this SUGAR FREE strawberry syrup at the store and almost peed my pants out of excitement. Perhaps it was also because my inner child was awoken full force, she's not always potty trained.

As soon as I got home with my bright red bottle of childhood goodness now packed with adult responsibility and a fresh carton of milk I immediately made a glass.

My first reaction to the sugar free syrup was that it is incredibly thin liquid, it's not syrup by any definition. It's red water with some flavor. And that is where my little soiled pantsed inner child went back into remission and angry adult consumer came out instead. The flavor is horrible! I can't even describe it, it's kind of sour, kind of bitter but not even remotely strawberry-y. I was going to return the bottle back to the store but my inner child arose one last time and had a temper tantrum and threw the bottle in the trash.

How disappointing. I had really wanted that to work because I won't be drinking high calorie high sugar drinks much after my revision. I know I can have it as a treat once in a while, but I usually have good luck with sugar free versions of my favorites. This just was not one of them.

Hold out for the real stuff, it's the only way to go in a strawberry milk for your inner child sort of situation.

A Bit Bummed :(

**WARNING** this post is a pitty party for myself. I'm just whining because I need an outlet.

One of my very best friends in the entire world wants to write me off because of an argument we got in over work related issues :( It shouldn't have effected our friendship at all, but she basically told me (after I apologized even though I have nothing really to be sorry for-I'm passive aggressive) that she's done with me. Maybe this work issue is just what broke the camel's back. Maybe she's been ready to be done with me for a while...that's the only thing that makes sense, otherwise this tiny stupid insignificant work issue would not have been enough to end an entire friendship.

She was supposed to go to the hospital with me for my surgery :( And now I'm sure she won't be. I'm so bummed. I really needed her for support and just to have her there with me. I support her in everything and now she's abandoned me all because she got her panties in a twist over something stupid :( I guess our friendship wasn't that strong.

And now I'm just frustrated because I was counting on her in the first place. Maybe I shouldn't count on anyone because they all have the ability to let me down. Or maybe this is one of those life lessons where I'll learn to count on myself and only myself.

In all reality I won't be by myself, I do have other people who love me and would not abandon me over such stupid little arguments, and one in particular who will be by my side the entire time. But again, this is a pitty party and I wanted to be dramatic and negative.

To those of you who are still with me and haven't given up on me, I so appreciate you!! Your constant support and encouragement is what keeps me going!