Final Group Nutrition

We had our fifth and final nutrition group yesterday. It was a bit of an adventure. Nothing earth-shaking, or anything, just... well hang on. First let me update you on what else has happened since the last update.

CPAP Adventures

In our continuing saga of Gastric Bypass Tales, L's CPAP machine arrived on Friday. She needed one because the sleep study showed that she had sleep apnea with 15 waking events an hour. So a woman from the company brought her out a machine. And wow, surprises ensued.

November Appointments

November was kind of a break for us. Not too many appointments. It was nice. K & I had our behavioral health visits with Lisa. We talked about how I was doing with the food modifications, what my expectations are, stuff like that. She answered any questions I had. I was wondering what to do about time release medications I take once I'm supposed to be on the liquids only pre-surgical diet. She said I can just open the capsules and dissolve them. And that afterward I can mix them in with the mushy food.

Sleep Study

So on to the sleep study portion of this story. L's sleep study was scheduled for a weekend night. We chose the Leominster office because it's closer than the Concord office. It's in the plaza with the RMV and the hotel where they held the info session we attended. The last building on the left before BJ's Wholesale Club, front right-hand corner as you're facing it, up the elevator, top floor. J & I drove her there for her 8:30 appointment. We sat with her while the doctor was with another patient. Then he showed her to her room. She was super nervous, so he let J & I go in with her while she got settled. She'd worn her pajamas there, so she didn't need to get changed. She had a nice little room with a big TV. We stayed with her for a little bit until she felt comfortable, and then we left.

Met the Surgeon

As I was saying in my last post, we all had our appointments to meet the bariatric surgeon the day after K & I had our upper GIs. What happens on surgeon appointment day is this. He does his consultation visits on Thursdays. So you sign in and then go sit in the waiting area with the other people waiting to see him. Sometimes that takes quite a while, from what I've heard. Ours didn't take that long, though. Enough to watch a little bit of waiting room TV. I don't remember what it was that day. Probably Family Feud with Steve Harvey.

Have I talked about the waiting area yet? It's pretty nice. Low key, and it has mostly extra large seats in case you need them. At 5' 9" and ~255 lbs, I can sit comfortably in the big chairs with my purse sat next to me on the seat. Not squished next to me. Just sitting beside me like it's a bench. Nice. I guess it would be awful for the really high weight people to not be able to fit in a chair at the weight loss doctor.

October Appointments

I'll get to October in a second, but I was just noticing how it doesn't look like there were as many September appointments as it felt like. But scheduling between the girls & I, while I was in physical therapy twice a week, K is working full time and going to college part time, and K, L, and my son J all had eye doctor and dental visits during the month was basically exhausting. Plus L turned 25 at the end of August and I turned 45 at the end of September. So there's that. Did I mention that we only have the one vehicle (my '97 Blazer that doesn't start when it's raining)? And L & J don't drive, So I have to drive to all the things.

I also forgot to add that after our initial appointments we had to get blood drawn for a million tests they do. They do the tests in a lab upstairs from the office. You don't have to go over to the hospital itself.  Once you get in the chair, they come over with a basket of blood vials. And all three of us were thinking the lady was just going to take a couple of them out to use. Nope. That whole little basket is for you. I hope you have a lot of extra blood. LOL. So that was fun.

More September

So last night I said I would talk about October and November weight loss surgery appointments next, but I completely forgot to mention the appointments we had in September that weren't for me.

When you go to the first appointment and you're filling out paperwork, one of the things you fill out is a sleep apnea self appraisal. You answer questions about how likely it is that you will find yourself falling asleep various situations, such as driving, sitting in traffic, while waiting for something, if you lie down in the afternoon, etc, and how often you find yourself waking up during a typical night. . They use this to determine whether or not you need to have a sleep study done.