I knew it had been a while since I posted anything, but I didn't realize it had been a year.

I finished my nutrition classes and began going to the cardiologist, pulmoninolgist and endrcronologist. Over the course of the next several months I had an ekg,the heart stress test,a lung breathing test,a colonoskpy (SP?)and thought I was getting close to being done. I went back to my pcp and she told me I needed to meet with a therapist.(I wish they would have just given me a checklist of doctors to go to, but I felt like I would go to one, sent in the report and then the pcp would come back and say they needed me to see this doctor over here. It wasted a LOT of time!!) In July I had my appointment with the therapist and again, thought I was all done and ready for the surgery. In August my sister came to live in Hemet for 4 months while she was on medical leave and here having a baby. I didnt really do anything on the surgery until October when my insurance finally pre-approved the surgery and the pre-approval was sent to my pcp. I made an appointment with my surgon, Dr. Suh for the first week of December. I was hoping to get in, see him and have the surgery before the new year!! No such luck.

I meet him and he referred me back to my pcp for more lab work and another ekg. During this time I got wrapped up with family and the holidays until the beginning of February and again did nothing toward getting the surgery until one day in early February. By coincidence I had called my pcp that morning to get going on things again. I was starting to worry that some of the first tests I had done may be too old or soon expire, and I did not want to spend the time an money to do them again. Early that afternoon, Dr. Suh's office called to follow up on how things were going. In the course of the conversation she mentioned that she still needed the therapists report. I told her that I had seen him last July and it should have been faxed over a long time ago. This began about 4 weeks of telephone calls and faxing to both offices to the point that I became a pest. Desiree, the referral coordinator at my pcp's office and I are now on a first name basis. She would fax things over to the surgon, they would only recieve a portion of it. She would re-fax, this time they were missing something different. She'd re-fax but the office was closed until Monday. I would call to verify that Desiree sent the fax. Then I'd call to make sure Dr. Suh's office recieved it. Then I'd call Desiree again. During this time I was spending 2 to 3 hours on the phone daily dealing with this. Finally about the second week of March I got a call from Dr. Suh's office that all the paperwork was in. The doctor would have to review the chart and then send it to the insurance for final approval. On March 22nd, Marisol from Dr. Suh's office called to tell me that my surgery was scheduled for Monday March 29th. I didn't know what to do. I had worked so long and seen so many doctors I had to stop...was this really what I wanted? Had the goal gotten lost in the obsession of doctors visits and wishing for it. I knew I wanted the end result, but do I really want to have an elective surgery for it? I took some time to ponder this and pray about it. I had an overwealming calm and knew that this was the path for me to take. I felt blessed to live in a time where something like gastric bypass is an option for me to take advantage of.

Fortunately the next two weeks were full of activities with my children. Evan was out of town for work the week leading up to the surgery date, so I was full time mom and dad plus coordinating carpool rides for my five children to school and friends houses. I also had my final appointment with Dr. Suh and pre-registered at the hospital. I'm grateful that I didn't really have time to sit around and think of all the things that could have gone wrong.

Upon recieving Marsiols fax with the pre-op instructions I cut out all starchy carbs-bread, rice, potatoes, tortillas. I had already cut out chips, crackers and soda. On the Thursday before the surgery date I ate my "last supper" at In-N-Out. A yummy double double, protein style with water to drink. That was the last beef I'll be eating for several months. After Thursday I had to stop eating beef and leafy vegetables. I had gotten into a routine of eating salad for dinner so found myself floundering a little until I realized that chicken and steamed veggies were still on the list of available foods. I cooked extra chicken to keep in the fridge and would find myself grabbing a chunk of a chicken breast for a snack over the next couple days. Sunday was a liquid only day. It didn't have to be clear liquid, just nothing solid. At 7pm I drank a bottle of magnesium citricate (I think thats what it was called) to help clean me out. It was as effective as the stuff they gave me when I had my colonoscpy as I spent most of the late evening in the bathroom. I also had a blessing.

Monday morning we were to be at the hospital at 7:30. We arrived at 7:15, finished some paperwork and by a little after 8 am I was being taken back to the pre-op room. Evan had to wait in the waiting room. I changed into a gown, took out my contacts, got an IV, met with the operating room nurse, anesthesiologist, and Dr. Suh. I was a little freaked out when they asked me what procedure I was having done, but then they assured me it was just their way of making sure that I understood what I was having done. Evan was allowed to come back to see me for a minute,give me a kiss and take my clothes out to the waiting room. The nurse wheeled me into the operating room and I was asked to move from the pre-op full size hospital bed to a much narrower bed. They strapped my legs and arms down. There was a problem with my IV so the nurse and anesthologist spent a couple minutes getting it to work. I must have looked sacred, because he finally handed me a mask to cover my nose and mouth and told me to take a couple deep breaths. I think I was out on my second breath.

I don't remember anything until I was waking up and felt like I'd been kicked in the stomach by a horse. I remember pulling my knees up to my chest and letting out a big moan. A nurse came right over and put something in my IV. I was out again. Next thing I remember was being wheeled up to my room and hearing people say "room 249...Porter...yea, she's going to room 249". Over the next several hours I was in and out of consciousness. I remember Evan being there when I opened my eyes. Someone handed me the cliker for the morphine drip and I was out again. At one point I tried to lay on my side to sleep and that hurt...mostly because the hospital beds are so uncomfortable. Finally about 5 pm I woke up and was able to stay awake for more than a few minutes. My mouth was SO dry. My nurse was a very nice black woman who was telling me about how she has the lap band and lost 66 pounds. She brought me some q-tips on steroids that were wet and tasted like lemon. I used them to swab my mouth and it was wonderful!! I couldn' actually drink anything, but I could swab my mouth as much as I wanted. My night male nurse brought me some little sponges on a sticks -they looked like suckers- and I would dip those in water to swab the inside of my mouth. Monday night was a horrible night sleep. Mostly because I found the bed so uncomfortable. I would sleep and think that it was almost morning, only to have 30 minutes had passed. Every 4 hours someone came in to take my temperature, blood pressure and oxygen level. At 5am someone came in to take blood.