[ Originally Posted October 5, 2000 ]

Well, I was going to wait until I received the official results of my sleep study before I posted here, but apparently the Dr. is taking his sweet time getting those results to me! After the sleep study (for which I was able to sleep about 2 hours and toss & turn for 6) the Dr. came in and told me that I probably had “moderate to severe” sleep apnea. That was just from the 5 or so minutes he had analyzed so far. He said he would go over my results and send them out some time this week.

It turns out I was wrong about why I need to have the sleep apnea diagnosed before surgery. I thought that I needed to have it diagnosed so that I could have the cpap machine during surgery so I could breathe. I was very mistaken.

Apparently during surgery, they give you some kind of muscle relaxant that temporarily paralyzes your diaphragm. Your breathing is done for you via ventilator. I guess it makes sense, because if your diaphragm were to move during surgery, it would be very hard to operate.

The 2 reasons I need to be diagnosed are these: first, to add to the list of diagnosed co-morbidities to get the insurance company to agree that the surgery is necessary. Second, because I will defnitely be sleeping on my back during recovery, and good sleep is very important to recovery. Thus I will defnitely need the cpap machine then!

Right now I am in the frustrating wait for approval from my insurance company. Due to mistakes/incompetence I am in my 7th week of waiting. And I know, fairly certainly, that my answer will be a denial. So I have a good plan for appeal, but I have to wait to be denied first. That means I will probably be fighting this until the first of the year and wind up having my surgery some time after that.

I was really hoping, since my surgeon sent the letter of medical necessity in to my insurance company on August 16th, that I would actually have had the operation by now! Or at least I would be in the fighting stage. I really never dreamed that it would take 7 weeks (and counting) to get an initial answer from the insurance company.

It’s easy to get a little bit discouraged, but I had something happen yesterday that helped me get my excitement back about this surgery! I had to go in for a dental procedure yesterday, and they gave me a prescription for extra-strength vicoden for the pain.

I came home and took the vicoden, and low and behold – EVERY ache and pain associated with my super-morbid-obesity was GONE! I fixed an extravagent dinner, cleaned it up and did tons of housework for hours with no pain whatsoever! I never even had to stop and rest! It was a miracle, and it was so energizing to be pain-free!

It made me realize how I would feel once I’ve had the surgery and have all this weight off my frame. I am soooo looking forward to feeling that way all the time. It has helped me to get excited about the surgery again and to make me be as patient as I need to be – and as assertive as I need to be with the insurance company!

Today I took no vicoden because I didn’t need any for my mouth and I sure feel the difference; back pain, hip pain, knee pain, etc. It’s a difference like night and day.

Well, I guess I will post more when I learn my official sleep study results or when I have more news of some kind to report.

[ Originally posted Sept 28, 2000 ]

I go in for my sleep apnea study tonight. This is one of the tests Dr. Welker wants me to have before surgery. I believe that I have mild sleep apnea, but it doesn’t really bother me because I always sleep on either my side or my stomach. But when I do occasionally sleep on my back, I have dreams where I am under water or something and I can’t breathe and I wake up very short of breath.

It’s important for the sleep apnea to be diagnosed before surgery, because during surgery I will be on my back and under general anasthesia and won’t be able to wake myself up to breathe!

I will post more on how the actual study goes after I have it and what they will do to ensure I can breathe right during surgery once I find out.

I said in an earlier journal entry that I would post about “more seemingly-minor things I am looking forward to” that this surgery will bring. So I am just going to list them here: doing house & garden work without having to rest every 10 minutes; not having my back, feet, legs, hips hurt all the time; being able to go for walks and feel good both physically and emotionally (not worrying about people staring or making comments); riding a bike or a horse or an airplane or an amusement park ride; going to the movies or out to eat and not having to worry about the narrow seats; getting in and out of the car without it being a hassle; borrowing my husband’s t-shirts; feeling more comfortable around in-laws & my husband’s friends; shopping for clothes without an “X” on the tag; shopping for clothes in a normal store… believe it or not, I could go on and on!!

It’s unbelievable, now that I know there is a cure for my super-morbid-obesity, how much I have let myself realize about how being this fat affects my life. It affect every single aspect of it – and not in a positive way.

I look forward to being more active and not obssessing about food, for the most part. The rest will just be “gravy”, no pun intended. LOL

[ Originally Posted Sept 26, 2000 ]

There isn’t any official news to report today. No news from the insurance company – yet. I’m going to make a web page just to document the process of getting insurance approval (or denial), because there is so much to it and I don’t want to gum up my journal with all the gory/boring details.

I’ve had more energy lately and have been “spring cleaning”. I always do my spring cleaning in late summer/early fall, because I love to have a nice clean house for Autumm/Holidays.

I’ve been eating less than I did during the summer. I’m sure this has to do with the “seasonal depression” I often get during the summer months. I really can’t stand the heat, and we don’t have air conditioning (yet), so I just kind of “shut down” during the summer. This year I managed to gain about 30 pounds while in “shut down mode” – it’s kind of amazing, really, considering I helped my sister move in August – I’m sure that burned up a heap of calories!

My feelings & outlook right now are mostly positive. The prospect of this surgery has given me a lot of hope for the future, where before I had little. I was VERY unsure of what the future held for me before I learned about this surgery. I not only dreaded another (failed) diet, but felt in my heart I would never be able to lose this excess weight. I had even worse fears about my diabetes. It was/is not under control and I worried about all the bad things; loss of sensation, loss of limbs, organ damage, eye damage, loss of sight, heart problems, advanced rate of aging . . . it seemed like a slow & painful, yet EARLY death was in store for me.

But according to the history of this procedure, every person who had diabetes before this procedure is essentially cured of it within 2 months of the operation. Their blood glucose numbers are normal with no insulin or medication whatsoever.

I feel that it is important to have this surgery and to have it as soon as possible. Every day that I live with diabetes, my body is being harmed internally. Lately it’s been MOSTLY under control, knock on wood. I look forward to it being under control NATURALLY, without medication and the “lovely” side effects of glucophage.

There are a lot more seemingly-minor things I am looking forward to that have nothing to do with my health but everything to do with quality of life. I will write about them in my next entry.

[ Originally Posted Sept 24, 2000 ]

First entry! This is where I will record progress, information, thoughts, feelings, etc. that go along with this journey. Latest entries will be at the top.