Plastic surgery, still not feeling well, another NSV

As I said before, I have been "interviewing" plastic surgeons. I am done. I have decided on who I want to go with. He is the third guy I saw. I saw one after him who was quite negative and refused to operate on me. He told me I need to get down to a BMI of 30 (I'm at 37) before he would even think about doing surgery on me. He told me that at my "Still very large size" there would be too much chance of healing problems. Getting own to a BMI of 30 would mean about 30 pounds loss. He wasn't too thrilled with my reasoning that if you remove 30 pounds during surgery I will be right there!!!

To be honest, even if he was willing I would not have gone with him. The main reason for this is that they strongly recommend either a night or two in a recovery center or a private nurse. The center they use is the one pretty much all the surgeons in the area use. It looks nice, but it is a good 25 miles from his office/surgical center. The recovery center supplies transport, so after being cut and sewn up all the way around they put you in a vehicle and take you to the center. The next day they take you back to the doctor, as well as the day after this, if needed. This is a lot of getting in and out of a vehicle with all these stiches (not to mention a whole lot of pain, I'm sure) in my opinion. I would rather not do this. I feel all this moving is just more chance to pop stitches.

The surgeon I have decided on is Dr Murphy. I saw him for the second time a couple days ago. He answered all my questions He seems very knowlegable and confident in my results.

He said I am NOT too heavy. Basically what he said is the only areas I am bigger are the ones he will be removing. Also, since I will be staying in the hospital his office is attached to I will be taken by gurney to my room. He will come visit me for follow up (he also comes to his patients at the aforementioned recovery center, as opposed to making them come to him) I like this.

I talked to him about doing a boob lift at the same time. I was on the fence about having them done, or doing a upper body lift later on. A upper body lift comprises the breast lift and your arms. I do want to get my arms done (as well as my inner thighs, later on) but decided it would be more adventageous to me at this time to pay the little bit more (it adds about 3K) instead of waiting and paying 10K later on. Maybe when it's time I can work out a deal for my upper thighs and arms!!!



Now, of course, I still am not able to schedule it becasue I am still having stomach issues. I ended up going to the ER a week ago for the stomach pain. They called my band surgeon, Dr Metz. Now, we just joined a diferent insurance carrier. We just started with Kaiser Permante. I had made an appointment to see a gastroenterologist, but it is taking me 3 weeks to get in!!! Dr Metz called me a couple days ago and told me he just joined up with Kaiser and I should see if I could get a referral to see him. I am now working on this. Dr Metz says I have something called gastroparesis, which basically just means your stomach is not emptying properly due to lessened muscular contractions. He says my band may be causing this. He says it may be pressing on the vagus nerve. He says we may have to remove my band. I say NO FRICKIN WAY. This is not even a consideration..... unless I can get something to replace it. I would be willing to have a vertical gastric sleeve done. But I am not, let me repeat this NOT going to have my band removed and be left out to dry. I know I would gain all this weight back. I need the tool. I can't even stand the thought of all this I've been through the last 3 years or so being a waste.

Not to mention, people who have never had any sort of abdominal surgery can get this too. There is no guarantee that removing the band would even cure the problem.

Guess I'll just have to wait and see how this whole thing plays out.

Now... on to another NSV.

My friend and I took our daughters to the stock show here in Denver. They had a "super dogs" show. It was in the colisseum. I was sitting in my seat and actually thought the arm rest was up between out seats since I didn't feel it sticking into me. Imagine my suprise when I looked down and ralized the arm rest was, in fact down!!! What a pleasant suprise. I honestly can't remember the last time I had enough room in a seat.