Cheryl is due to arrive in about an hour. I got a call from Dr. Marchesini last night - I've never been so happy to hear from a man before. *laugh* He has a deeper voice than I expected and none of the nasal twang I associate w/Spanish. But then, he speaks Portugese, not Spanish.
He just got back and got all my emails and said Durval will be at the airport with a van to help us. It was a brief conversation, ut it made me feel so much better. Just hearing from him really. So, I didn't realize how much of a damper it had put on my feelings until they were released.
Got another 3am alarm going off last night. I called down again - two nights in a row? Get it fixed! It's not that's it's a false alarm. It's that it's interrupting my sleep. It took over 2 hours to fall back asleep again. But I did what Susan Lightfoot recommended. I stayed in bed. No lights - Nothing too stimulating and eventually I fell back asleep. I wonder if D'Artagnon misses me? These beds are the most comfortale I've ever slept in. I love the duvet, the feather topper. I would definitely stay in another Sofitel. But man, they gotta fix that alarm!
We'll need to be at the airport at 9pm tomorrow night. That way I can turn the car in, and we'll be there two hours ahead of time for the international flight. I'm dressed down today. Jeans, sneakers and a t-shirt. I don't care. I'm not trying to impress anyone. I dressed up for the flight because they will sometimes upgrade you if you look professional. The flight to Brazil is the long one - I'm hoping to sleep some on that trip. - Cheryl just called. She's on the ground taxi-ing in.
--BT
Saturday, September 10, 2005
Friday, September 9, 2005
The Road To Brazil - Miami, FL
The road to Brazil & beyond. Today has been odd. I had really wanted to go to Key West today - yet through a strange series of misfortunes, I had to cancel. At 3am, a loud voice came blaring through a speaker into my room. It kept repeating something in Spanish, but I have no idea what. I called down to the front desk who assured me it was a false alarm.
Apparently, it reset the power to my phone because it lost track of what time it was. Unfortunately, I was using my phone as an alarm clock and it didn't go off. I woke up at 6:59 am and I was supposed to be at the pick-up place at 7:15 for a bus leaving at 7:30am. I quickly got dressed and ran downstairs. I got all the way to the car when I realized I did not have my voucher. I returned to my room only to realize I had left the room key in the car! Argh!!
I had just gotten back in the car when they called - so I told them I wasn't going to make it. So I slept in. I brought my big suitcase in along with the bottle of water from the car. I woke up around 11:30am and began to get dressed. It is only then I discover the bottle of water was open, and I have soaked the other bed clear through the feather topper on the mattress. I decided to go out for a drive.
Found a nice Thai place on Hwy 1 then up to Kinko's on Ponce De Leon where I got directions to Coral Castle. Kellie had asked me to sit for at least a minute in all three of the reading chairs which I did. I bought a copy of all of his writings for both Kellie and me. I found it interesting that he had metal soles & heels on his shoes. They said it was to make them last longer, but I wonder - could it have anything to do with magnetism? After all, my scale uses bio-electric feedback to determine my fat percentage. Cheryl arrives tomorrow. She wasn't too enthused about seeing it so I went today.
I had other mishaps today, too. In Kinko's bathroom, the car keys dropped into the toilet - Argh! I couldn't believe I did that. There was something else, too. I've forgotten what it was.
My feet are tingling. I wonder - did it (Coral Castle) change my magnetic field?
Sunday night - 48 hours from now, we leave for Brazil, and I still have not heard back from Dr Marchesini. I am glad I came down early. It's good to have some time alone. I think I will put in some applications down here. I like what I've seen so far. Of course, it's still Florida, and they get hit by hurricanes here, too. But it never hurts to look. I haven't responded to Stephane's latest email yet. I felt I needed to wait. For what, I'm not sure.
Six more days. Actually less - 5 1/2 days for by 5 days from now, I will be checking into the hospital. And then surgery first thing in the morning. I'm kind of in an odd zone right now - not scared, not excited. Even the anticipation seems to be dissipating. It's like I feel nothing - another day at the office kind of thing. Is this a good thing? Not sure. I've only been up about 8 hours, but I may go to bed.
My feet still tingle and I feel drained. I had the rest of my leftovers from lunc, and I still have half a sandwich and a banana from the airport. I'm having my body physically altered - you'd think that would scare me, but it really doesn't. So many people have been helped by this, and I'm ready to be next.
Cheryl seems reluctant to do what I want her to do - she wasn't planning to come to the hospital while I have surgery. Hmmmm Not sure why, but I'd really like her to be there. Been thinking about cycles & revolutions - sun, moon, stars, growing up, how we change and come back full circle. This is a pivotal point in my life - a point of no return. Peek, peak, Pique. Reaching a peak. They say the first few days are monumentally painful. But after that - it gets a little better every day. I bought more little 4 oz cups today - to store food in the right size. That's not much food - but I'll get used to it.
I'm carrying more money with with me than I've ever carried in my life - over $5k. Most of that is for the surgery. But I have $1k in spending money and the hotel bill will be over $1k as well. I neeed to write checks at some point & mail them before we leave Miami. That includes one to Yates Wood. I'll have to look up their address online. I forgot to bring it with me.
I have $5300 remaining in savings and about $3600 in my checking account. I took out $500 from this month's rent from Mike & Priscilla. So I have at least $250 in that account, and another $250 in my Freedom Account. That means when I get home, I'll still have about $9k. At $1200/mo, that gives me six months before I *have* to find work. I may apply at the water company again. And I need to put in some applications online & track my job search. But once I'm feeling better, I'm going to try the Signing Agent thing. That really sounds to me like a great opportunity.
Eighty sheets (in the paper journal I originally wrote this in) - just enough pages to track my journey. I bought six cameras today. Four regular disposables, one Black & White, and one Zoom. I'll be really interested to see how those come out. I took a number of pictures at Coral Castle, and a lady offered to take a picture of me sitting in the middle reading chair. I'm glad I wore something pretty. I'll be curious to see how they came out. I may finish up that roll here in Miami & leave the rest for Brazil.
I'd like Cheryl to take several pictures of me - front, side & back to get a historical record. I also brought a tape measure and plan to record a bunch of measurements. I'm still taking the antibiotics from Dr Shanahan. I am *so* going to miss Dr Becker. She's been my favorite so far. She gave me her email addresses so we can keep in touch. I'm not sure who my new doctor will be - she suggested a guy named Noetlich or something like that.
Apparently, it reset the power to my phone because it lost track of what time it was. Unfortunately, I was using my phone as an alarm clock and it didn't go off. I woke up at 6:59 am and I was supposed to be at the pick-up place at 7:15 for a bus leaving at 7:30am. I quickly got dressed and ran downstairs. I got all the way to the car when I realized I did not have my voucher. I returned to my room only to realize I had left the room key in the car! Argh!!
I had just gotten back in the car when they called - so I told them I wasn't going to make it. So I slept in. I brought my big suitcase in along with the bottle of water from the car. I woke up around 11:30am and began to get dressed. It is only then I discover the bottle of water was open, and I have soaked the other bed clear through the feather topper on the mattress. I decided to go out for a drive.
Found a nice Thai place on Hwy 1 then up to Kinko's on Ponce De Leon where I got directions to Coral Castle. Kellie had asked me to sit for at least a minute in all three of the reading chairs which I did. I bought a copy of all of his writings for both Kellie and me. I found it interesting that he had metal soles & heels on his shoes. They said it was to make them last longer, but I wonder - could it have anything to do with magnetism? After all, my scale uses bio-electric feedback to determine my fat percentage. Cheryl arrives tomorrow. She wasn't too enthused about seeing it so I went today.
I had other mishaps today, too. In Kinko's bathroom, the car keys dropped into the toilet - Argh! I couldn't believe I did that. There was something else, too. I've forgotten what it was.
My feet are tingling. I wonder - did it (Coral Castle) change my magnetic field?
Sunday night - 48 hours from now, we leave for Brazil, and I still have not heard back from Dr Marchesini. I am glad I came down early. It's good to have some time alone. I think I will put in some applications down here. I like what I've seen so far. Of course, it's still Florida, and they get hit by hurricanes here, too. But it never hurts to look. I haven't responded to Stephane's latest email yet. I felt I needed to wait. For what, I'm not sure.
Six more days. Actually less - 5 1/2 days for by 5 days from now, I will be checking into the hospital. And then surgery first thing in the morning. I'm kind of in an odd zone right now - not scared, not excited. Even the anticipation seems to be dissipating. It's like I feel nothing - another day at the office kind of thing. Is this a good thing? Not sure. I've only been up about 8 hours, but I may go to bed.
My feet still tingle and I feel drained. I had the rest of my leftovers from lunc, and I still have half a sandwich and a banana from the airport. I'm having my body physically altered - you'd think that would scare me, but it really doesn't. So many people have been helped by this, and I'm ready to be next.
Cheryl seems reluctant to do what I want her to do - she wasn't planning to come to the hospital while I have surgery. Hmmmm Not sure why, but I'd really like her to be there. Been thinking about cycles & revolutions - sun, moon, stars, growing up, how we change and come back full circle. This is a pivotal point in my life - a point of no return. Peek, peak, Pique. Reaching a peak. They say the first few days are monumentally painful. But after that - it gets a little better every day. I bought more little 4 oz cups today - to store food in the right size. That's not much food - but I'll get used to it.
I'm carrying more money with with me than I've ever carried in my life - over $5k. Most of that is for the surgery. But I have $1k in spending money and the hotel bill will be over $1k as well. I neeed to write checks at some point & mail them before we leave Miami. That includes one to Yates Wood. I'll have to look up their address online. I forgot to bring it with me.
I have $5300 remaining in savings and about $3600 in my checking account. I took out $500 from this month's rent from Mike & Priscilla. So I have at least $250 in that account, and another $250 in my Freedom Account. That means when I get home, I'll still have about $9k. At $1200/mo, that gives me six months before I *have* to find work. I may apply at the water company again. And I need to put in some applications online & track my job search. But once I'm feeling better, I'm going to try the Signing Agent thing. That really sounds to me like a great opportunity.
Eighty sheets (in the paper journal I originally wrote this in) - just enough pages to track my journey. I bought six cameras today. Four regular disposables, one Black & White, and one Zoom. I'll be really interested to see how those come out. I took a number of pictures at Coral Castle, and a lady offered to take a picture of me sitting in the middle reading chair. I'm glad I wore something pretty. I'll be curious to see how they came out. I may finish up that roll here in Miami & leave the rest for Brazil.
I'd like Cheryl to take several pictures of me - front, side & back to get a historical record. I also brought a tape measure and plan to record a bunch of measurements. I'm still taking the antibiotics from Dr Shanahan. I am *so* going to miss Dr Becker. She's been my favorite so far. She gave me her email addresses so we can keep in touch. I'm not sure who my new doctor will be - she suggested a guy named Noetlich or something like that.
Wednesday, June 1, 2005
Did This Dr *lie* to me? Here's what he said...
I had a visit with a surgeon today, and I'm really upset. I KNOW what I've read, between the literature available here (on Obesithelp) and what people have posted about their experiences, and I think he flat out LIED to me.
True or False?
1) BPD/DS is only done on people 700lbs or more.
2) DS patients have to have protein INJECTIONS for the rest of their lives.
3) That the common channel in someone my size (250lbs) would be about 6 inches long and I've have chronic diarrhea 6-8x a day.
He mainly does Roux-En-Y, and both he and his staff became antagonistic when I said I wasn't interested in that. I want the DS, and that I've read a lot about it. He basically told me my research was flawed, that I didn't know what I was talking about, and the only surgery he would do on me would be RNY.
Was he BS'ing me?
(I received a couple of replies indicating that yes - these were all lies, to which I responded:)
Thank you, both of you. I was really feeling blindsided, because several people here locally had just raved about him, but I walked out feeling like I was being railroaded.
Fortunately I had an appointment with my regular physician yesterday and she told me there is another bariatric doctor coming to town who not only does this surgery, but does it laproscopically. (And he's never lost a patient).
I just had such high hopes. I didn't walk in uninformed. I took the time to read about all of the different types of surgeries, and it made me angry to have my intellect, and my choice summarily dismissed.
I appreciate the support! (and some part of me is shouting "Vindicated!" *hehe*)
True or False?
1) BPD/DS is only done on people 700lbs or more.
2) DS patients have to have protein INJECTIONS for the rest of their lives.
3) That the common channel in someone my size (250lbs) would be about 6 inches long and I've have chronic diarrhea 6-8x a day.
He mainly does Roux-En-Y, and both he and his staff became antagonistic when I said I wasn't interested in that. I want the DS, and that I've read a lot about it. He basically told me my research was flawed, that I didn't know what I was talking about, and the only surgery he would do on me would be RNY.
Was he BS'ing me?
(I received a couple of replies indicating that yes - these were all lies, to which I responded:)
Thank you, both of you. I was really feeling blindsided, because several people here locally had just raved about him, but I walked out feeling like I was being railroaded.
Fortunately I had an appointment with my regular physician yesterday and she told me there is another bariatric doctor coming to town who not only does this surgery, but does it laproscopically. (And he's never lost a patient).
I just had such high hopes. I didn't walk in uninformed. I took the time to read about all of the different types of surgeries, and it made me angry to have my intellect, and my choice summarily dismissed.
I appreciate the support! (and some part of me is shouting "Vindicated!" *hehe*)
Monday, May 30, 2005
Terri Schiavo
I live here in Florida where the whole Terri Schiavo contreversy happened.....I'm definitely making sure I have both a will and a living will before I undergo the knife - but oddly enough, I find that comforting, knowing I'll be taken care of no matter what.
I don't think everyone has to have plastic surgery, but it's something to keep in mind that you *may* need.
I don't think everyone has to have plastic surgery, but it's something to keep in mind that you *may* need.
Sunday, May 29, 2005
Deciding Which Surgery is Right For Me
I'm pre-op, so I'm in the same stage you are - deciding which surgery is right for me, and I'm really sold on this one for several reasons.
1) The digestive system as God created it still exists in its entirety. The stomach is smaller, and part of the intestines are bypassed, but each section of the digestive system still exists. I have to believe the creator knew what he was doing, and want to keep as close to the original design as possible.
2) Because the duodenum still exists, there is still a gatekeeper between the stomach and the intestines. This is important (to me) for a couple of reasons. It allows for more normal absorption of calcium and iron, and B12, and it prevents the 'dumping syndrome' that goes with the RNY.
3) The only consistent negative I've seen anyone talk about is foul-smelling stools.....and I would think something like Beano could take care of that.
4) It seems to have a greater success in weight loss and getting you all the way to goal - not just 70% of the way.
5) The social aspects of eating are still in tact.....which is really important to me. I went through a medical fast, and it wasn't fun to be the only one not having birthday cake, or wedding cake. It seemed less 'celebratory' not to eat turkey & dressing on Thanksgiving, and dating gets really complicated when you say "I'm not eating".
Now - you have to commit to a lifetime of taking care of yourself - taking vitamins, being observant of your eating and getting some exercise, but if you're like me - taking a few vitamins is better than the 5 or 6 prescriptions I take now.
1) The digestive system as God created it still exists in its entirety. The stomach is smaller, and part of the intestines are bypassed, but each section of the digestive system still exists. I have to believe the creator knew what he was doing, and want to keep as close to the original design as possible.
2) Because the duodenum still exists, there is still a gatekeeper between the stomach and the intestines. This is important (to me) for a couple of reasons. It allows for more normal absorption of calcium and iron, and B12, and it prevents the 'dumping syndrome' that goes with the RNY.
3) The only consistent negative I've seen anyone talk about is foul-smelling stools.....and I would think something like Beano could take care of that.
4) It seems to have a greater success in weight loss and getting you all the way to goal - not just 70% of the way.
5) The social aspects of eating are still in tact.....which is really important to me. I went through a medical fast, and it wasn't fun to be the only one not having birthday cake, or wedding cake. It seemed less 'celebratory' not to eat turkey & dressing on Thanksgiving, and dating gets really complicated when you say "I'm not eating".
Now - you have to commit to a lifetime of taking care of yourself - taking vitamins, being observant of your eating and getting some exercise, but if you're like me - taking a few vitamins is better than the 5 or 6 prescriptions I take now.
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