Vanishing Velez

Starting Weight: 267 lbs.
Current Weight: 248.0 lbs.
Total Weight Loss: 19 lbs.
Goal Weight: 140 lbs.
Pounds to go: 108 lbs.

Today was my final pre-operative appointment with the PA and surgeon before my surgery. We are definitely in the countdown stages.

Before we talk about this appointment though, I do want to add that I received a phone call on May 22 from an operating room nurse who went over some things with me. In this phone conversation, we talked about some things that I need to be aware of pre-surgery. The first is that I was mailed a pair of compression socks that I need to wear to the hospital the day of surgery. I was also mailed a calendar and a handout that very briefly went over my post-operative eating abilities. She then confirmed that I had or was purchasing the necessary post-operative vitamins. She told me I’d get a call on the Friday before surgery to tell me what time I needed to be at the hospital.

I also informed her that I was unable to get my bloodwork done because Quest did not have the orders. She was able to e-mail me the orders so that I could get the bloodwork done. Lastly, she told me that I could have absolutely no metal on my body when I go into surgery. No jewelry of any kind. I asked about my nose ring, because of the difficulty that I have both putting it in and taking it out. She said that I would have to either take it out or convert to plastic, and explained that the reason that this is a requirement is because if Dr. Shetty needs to use a laser at any point to assist in my surgery, it could actually cause a reaction that burns the skin near the metal. (I bought plastic, and it’s actually great).

So that was 2 weeks ago. Then, I went on vacation, expected to gain a ton of weight and waited until today to really check and see my results at my pre-op appointment.

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The Appointment

A brief rundown of how this went, I went in and was weighed like normal. I was pleasantly surprised that I actually had lost five pounds since my physical on May 16th. I do have to day that I think that that number was skewed because my physical was in the afternoon. However, it’s also 5 lbs down from the last time I saw Kaitlyn.

But anyways, after weighing me I was brought to an exam room where a nurse took my blood pressure, pulse, and O2 levels. Then I waited for Kaitlyn to come in. After a quick catch up, Kaitlyn gave me a folder full of information and walked me through what was in it.

The big takeaways were that I was aware of the process before and after surgery about what I need to do. She confirmed that I had everything that I needed (I still need to buy benefiber and Miralax). She also showed me where my incisions would be on my stomach, and did a quick discussion of some things to watch out for.

Once she was done, Dr. Shetty came in and confirmed that I was still on track for surgery, and then I was done. Since my two first follow up appointments are scheduled, I did not have to schedule any follow up appointments.

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What’s next

The last thing I need to do is my final medical clearance, which is scheduled for June 19th with my GP. I don’t foresee there being any issues with that, but I will let you know how it goes anyways.

I also did want to go over the handouts from today, but there is a LOT of information and I’m still going through it, so I will do that in a different post.