OWLS

I continued my research on my own as I waited for my phone call from OWLS. I was visiting one of the community sites they recommend their patients to become involved in. While there I ran into Karrie Massotti’s post about Why Weight Loss Surgery is Not the Easy Way Out that she had written at Spark People. Her post goes over a lot of the after effects of surgery, about the social issues, and why she chose to have the surgery. These are the things that I have to consider as I move forward down this path. Life will be so much different. This is not a magic button though, I will still have to fight and work. This is a tool for me to lose weight.

Scheduling my appointment

I got a hold of scheduling and found out to make this even harder they only do appointments on Fridays and Saturdays. The two days I am scheduled at work now. But they were able to fit me in on a Saturday I already had asked off, March 12th. Their goal is to try and get as many of the test you need done in each appointment. Some of the tests I will have to go through:

• Bariatric medical evaluation (history and physical) with a nurse practitioner or bariatrician
• Nutrition counseling and diet history
• Psychological testing and evaluation (I will get the contact info from them and have to schedule this test on my own)
• Physical therapy or exercise assessment
• Lab work
• EKG (I will not be able to do this on the day scheduled, so I will have one more appointment to schedule)
• Sleep study

For the Sleep Study I get to bring a special box home to see if I have sleep apnea. I think this will be very interesting. Especially since lately I’ve been so tired, I’m hoping loosing weight may help. My insurance company also requires me to participate in a “medically managed weight loss program” for 6 months. I will be visiting OWLS every month to work with their nutritionist to weigh in and discuss diet and exercise. I’m actually very happy with this, because if I can loose the weight on my own I would love that. I’m not too hopeful but maybe a professional can help me.

To Be Continued…

Next week I will only be a few days away from my first appointment. We will see how anxious I will be. I really don’t like doctors so by next Wednesday I may be really freaking out. We will see.