02-02-2020 was significant because it was my 40th birthday, the only palindrome in our lifetime and Super Bowl Sunday. A palindrome is the MM/DD/YY and YY/DD/MM are the same. Neat huh? The last time my birthday fell on Super Bowl Sunday was back in 2014 when my beloved Seattle Seahawks won their first Super Bowl #bestbirthdaypresentever
Knowing that my last doctor’s appointment was the very next day, I had a nice little hurrah for myself. Anything and everything was consumed.
Monday morning comes and I’m sitting in my doctor’s office. Since January’s weigh in, I gained 3 pounds which was obviously from the night before #sorrynotsorry. This was the LAST APPOINTMENT BEFORE SURGERY! This was the day that I needed to make my decision on whether I was going to have the surgery, which bariatric procedure I would have, and sign my life away before they submitted for insurance. There were so many forms to sign. Acknowlegements of the procedure, possible complications, what to expect before, during and after care. And most importantly, the hold harmless to the doctor if anything happens. I jokingly said that I was “signing my life away” which he immediately replied with “No, you’re getting your life back.”
No truer words have ever been said.
They also need payment of my procedure and thank god I have insurance! I was only responsible for the deductible, which was nominal in comparison to the final cost. I was told that they would submit for final approval of my surgery to my insurance. The approval can take up to a couple of weeks but low and behold my approval came in the very next day! That’s unheard of in the insurance world but was I complaining. Not one bit.
It was now time to schedule the day. From our monthly appointments, they said that I would need to be on a full liquid diet for 2 weeks prior to my surgery, the reason being that they wanted my liver to reduce in size so that it’s easier to move around as they’re doing their bariatric magic in ma belly. I’ve heard other surgeons have way different requirements on this pre-op plan, but this was mine. But then it wasn’t.
They told me that the soonest day they could do my procedure was the follow Tuesday. As in 6 days. Clearly not the suggested 14 days that was mentioned before, which I asked about. They said 6 days would be plenty of time to shrink that good ol’ liver. Off I went to the grocery store to stock up on all things liquid: broth, clear soups or at least easy to strain; jello, popsicles, and vodka. Just jokes on the vodka. I’ve got plenty of that at the house lol!
HOT DAMN, IT’S ABOUT TO GO DOWN