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Bariatrics, revisited
Nov. 3rd, 2017 11:22 amIt's been a while since I mentioned bariatric surgery, so you may have wondered what's going on with that. I had my second appointment and pshrink appointment back in early September, which I ended up cancelling because I was still sick as hell from the Con Crud.
I never got around to rescheduling because to be honest, I wasn't overly thrilled. Here they are, blithely telling me to loose 30=odd pounds, see five or six doctors for this, that and the other test, live on pricey protein and leafy greens, and read Dr. V's manual on pre- and post-surgical lifestyle (Not just read it, but read it three times so they could quiz me!). His baseline for doing the procedure is much more involved than the insurance requirements; I know he's trying to max out his success rate, but not at my expense, thank you very much for nothing.
After thinking it over, once I felt better, I called the Other Guys in town and made an appointment with them, which was yesterday. Thank God--these guys are rational. They aren't asking me to lose anything. (All they ask is that I don't gain more than five pounds.) They aren't demanding a sleep study, a dental check-up, or Optifast (Did I mention that Crazy Doc insists his patients use only Optifast during the liquid diet portion of the process? Which we have to buy from him at a cost of $300? For me, that's about two months worth of what I have to spend on groceries.) So I like these new guys much better. I'm looking at several months of nutritional counseling, assorted tests, but they're much more helpful about arranging referrals--they don't just say, "Do this, this and this" and shove you out the door.
Anyway, bottom line is, if all goes well, I'm probably looking at surgery some time around February-March. So I get to savor the holidays and I'm not going to be recuperating at the most treacherous time of year. (I'm thinking of things like snow/icy conditions that could be hazardous to a convalescent.) March is almost springtime here, so hopefully I won't be freezing my arse off.
Not a lot else going on. GK and I are going to see Thor: Ragnarok this afternoon, then she's going to drop me at the grocery store and I'll catch a Lyft home, because once again, she's scheduled herself all over the place and I'm not a priority. (I know I shouldn't complain--she's done a lot for me--but when she says, "I'm going to take you shopping, that wasn't quite what I was expecting.) I'm trying not to feel all butt-hurt, but after everything I went through to get back here, with her egging me on, now I feel abandoned. I knew I wasn't going to see her as often as when I lived with her, obviously, but these days it's once a week if I'm lucky, and it almost always involves dropping me off in haste so she can go do something she deems more important.
To balance the scale, to her credit, she's picking me up at the crack of dawn on Monday to go down to the Social Security office. I need a letter from them to give to the student loan assholes who are garnishing my benefits. Not ALL my benefits, but for me, the $75 they're appropriating is A LOT of money. We're trying to prove that I'm disabled enough that they aren't entitled to take my money, hardship, etc. Wish us luck!
Til Death: A Crimson Peak epilogue by Vanillafluffy
...
I never got around to rescheduling because to be honest, I wasn't overly thrilled. Here they are, blithely telling me to loose 30=odd pounds, see five or six doctors for this, that and the other test, live on pricey protein and leafy greens, and read Dr. V's manual on pre- and post-surgical lifestyle (Not just read it, but read it three times so they could quiz me!). His baseline for doing the procedure is much more involved than the insurance requirements; I know he's trying to max out his success rate, but not at my expense, thank you very much for nothing.
After thinking it over, once I felt better, I called the Other Guys in town and made an appointment with them, which was yesterday. Thank God--these guys are rational. They aren't asking me to lose anything. (All they ask is that I don't gain more than five pounds.) They aren't demanding a sleep study, a dental check-up, or Optifast (Did I mention that Crazy Doc insists his patients use only Optifast during the liquid diet portion of the process? Which we have to buy from him at a cost of $300? For me, that's about two months worth of what I have to spend on groceries.) So I like these new guys much better. I'm looking at several months of nutritional counseling, assorted tests, but they're much more helpful about arranging referrals--they don't just say, "Do this, this and this" and shove you out the door.
Anyway, bottom line is, if all goes well, I'm probably looking at surgery some time around February-March. So I get to savor the holidays and I'm not going to be recuperating at the most treacherous time of year. (I'm thinking of things like snow/icy conditions that could be hazardous to a convalescent.) March is almost springtime here, so hopefully I won't be freezing my arse off.
Not a lot else going on. GK and I are going to see Thor: Ragnarok this afternoon, then she's going to drop me at the grocery store and I'll catch a Lyft home, because once again, she's scheduled herself all over the place and I'm not a priority. (I know I shouldn't complain--she's done a lot for me--but when she says, "I'm going to take you shopping, that wasn't quite what I was expecting.) I'm trying not to feel all butt-hurt, but after everything I went through to get back here, with her egging me on, now I feel abandoned. I knew I wasn't going to see her as often as when I lived with her, obviously, but these days it's once a week if I'm lucky, and it almost always involves dropping me off in haste so she can go do something she deems more important.
To balance the scale, to her credit, she's picking me up at the crack of dawn on Monday to go down to the Social Security office. I need a letter from them to give to the student loan assholes who are garnishing my benefits. Not ALL my benefits, but for me, the $75 they're appropriating is A LOT of money. We're trying to prove that I'm disabled enough that they aren't entitled to take my money, hardship, etc. Wish us luck!
Til Death: A Crimson Peak epilogue by Vanillafluffy
...