The Doctor is..IN!

Since my last update I have found out all kinds of news..most important being that (drumroll please...) my insurance approved the surgeon I wanted to go with! Yay! I'm trying to remain proactive with all of this so I scheduled my first appointment with them on Wednesday afternoon. My workplace has been AMAZING to work with in getting all of my various appointments covered so I can leave pretty easily without causing too much inconvenience to my coworkers.

That thought brings me to a slight tangent- I work 'retail' but it's the most un-retail like retail job that there possibly could be. I sometimes miss working in an office with a set schedule-but this job definitely has been really great for me. I am up and moving around, work with amazing people (although I still miss my office peeps-you know who you are) and I work for one of the best companies out there. I can't say what it is on the blog because of policy-but if you know me then you probably know where I work so it doesn't really need to be said, does it? =)

One of the perks of my job are the amazing benefits that I get as a full time employee. Our insurance utilizes a company called "Bariatric Resource Services" that is dedicated to just helping me through this process (after making sure that I meet all of the qualifications first of course!). I have been assigned both a nurse case manager and a customer service coordinator that makes sure that all of my questions are answered and that I have all of the forms I need. Between them and the surgical group that I'm using it really is my own darn fault if I fall behind on things! As soon as I found out that I had to be on a 6 month diet supervised by my doctor I immediately went and scheduled an appointment with my general physician. He and I agreed on the Weight Watchers solution and I started attending meetings two weeks ago tomorrow. I had my first weigh in last Saturday (on my birthday of all days) and have already lost 2.4 lbs! I love that Weight Watchers has joined the technological world. I signed up for the monthly plan which comes with access to all of their web services and most importantly (to me, at least) that info coordinates with free apps from the app store that I have loaded on both my iPhone and my iPad. AND THEY TALK TO EACH OTHER! I can keep track of my points and my weight loss numbers all through my apps so that I never have to worry about writing down what I eat and counting the points for it-it's all through the app! I cannot tell you enough how much of a help this is! Weight Watchers worked the best for me when I did it about 5 years ago and lost about 65 lbs in a year. I was a self proclaimed points-nazi and would write down every single bite, lick or taste (blt's they call them) that happened. I was also working out regularly and I have never felt better in my life. As soon as I stopped counting those points though and got lazy with it and the weight creeped back up. I'm hoping that with this new app I will continue to be able to keep track of my points and lose weight before any possible surgery.

On a serious note, some of you have expressed concern about me going the surgery route altogether. Believe me-I hear you and I understand where you are coming from-but until my doctors say, hey-maybe this isn't the right thing for you-then I'm going to continue to go toward this. I appreciate your concern and welcome feedback-as long as it is kept in a positive light. Thanks!

So, what are my steps from now on? I have some things I need to take care of like getting an EKG, a chest x-ray, some other medical tests and set up appointments for support groups and psychological evaluations (hope they don't think I'm crazy!). The show I've been working on opens tonight and I'm trying out for another one tomorrow...and I still have my full time, 40 hour/week job and my second job helping out the music ministry at church...somewhere in there I need to fit in a regular workout schedule! I joined a 24 hour type of gym a few months ago and so far have only been a few times! I really am determined to go back and hope to slip it back into my schedule in the next week or so. You guys keep me accountable on that, k? So that is about it for now. I will continue to update this blog and let you know how things are going. All told-we're looking at the earliest possible surgery date in January. I'm sure the time will fly!