It's official. I qualify for a roux-en-y gastric bypass. I just have a little "legwork" to do in advance. Such as getting clearance letters from my Internist and Cardiologist. Seeing a shrink and a nutritionist. Have a sleep apnea study done.
But all things considered, it's probably a done deal. We're shooting for a surgery date sometime in August.
Today I am up to my eyeballs in all the hubbub associated with seeing doctors and getting things in writing -- all in a timely fashion.
This brings back lots of memories of my quadruple bypass in 2004, and my bilateral endarectomies (or, as I call them, "Mz. August and Mz. October") in 2005.
Because the bypass will, at the very least, cure my diabetes (I hope) and cause me to lose about 75 pounds (going from pleasingly plump to skinny-as-a-rail), I am really looking forward to it.
Other beneficial side-effects include curing my gout, alleviating my burgeoning rheumatoid arthritis and generally fixing up various aches and pains (especially joint pain as the pounds melt away).
But it's the diabetes I'm after. I'm long past the point of actually caring about the cosmetic effects of surgery. I was never particularly vain and I have no intention of starting now.
This is about having 30 or so years of high-quality dotage ... unlike what happened to any number of people on my mom's side of the family -- many of whom wound up sightless and/or limbless in nursing homes in their old age(s). I really don't want to wind up like that.
So, today I am doing what we refer to in 12-Step programs as "the next right thing", calling doctors, making appointments, taking care of business.
So, before I start thinking that I am God (which I sometimes do),
and to keep me "right-sized" this morning
I spoke at a 12-Step meeting here in Manhattan at 7:30 a.m.
Because, you see, I need to be reminded, and often, that even though the monkey is no longer on my back ...
the circus, most definitely, is still in town.
2 comments:
I will be following this with interest as you pass through the various stages.
As you know it all hinges on the BMI. I happen to be fortunate enough to have an insurance company which will lower the bar 5 points (to 35 from 40) for type II diabetics, or sleep apnea sufferers.
I am just, exactly, at a BMI of 35 (and a teensy bit of change).
But to be sure, I offered to put on a few more pounds... just in case.
He shot that idea down. No need, he said.
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