I hope you are all having a good day! We are all excited in Seattle because pre-season football starts tomorrow! Go HAWKS!
Yesterday I had a doctors appointment that was a part of this whole process, and was thinking about how I have never really gone over just what testing hoops I have had to go through so far through this process. There are a lot of testing requirements that you have to go through when you are considering weight loss surgery of any kind:
1. Weight Requirements - You have to be considered obese on a BMI scale in order to have weight loss surgery.
2. Nutrition Requirements - This varies depending on your insurance plan, but most insurance companies will require either 1, 3, or 6 months of nutrition visits. Very few require no visits. Insurance companies want to see that you can lose weight. Realistically, you don't have to lose weight, just as long as you don't gain more than your start weight during this process.
3. Blood Work- Just like with any surgery, they require base level blood tests before a weight loss surgery. One reason is to compare where you started to where you finished, but another is to clear you for general surgery
4. EKG - The EKG is done before most surgeries to ensure that your heart is strong enough for a surgery.
5. Abdominal Ultrasound - This is done to make sure that your abdominal anatomy is what it should be, and that the doctors won't run in to any surprises during surgery.
6. EDG - An EDG is a test where you are put under general anesthesia and a camera is put down your throat and in to your stomach. This is to see if there are any abnormalities inside your stomach that could prevent you from the surgery. For example, when I had mine they found a hernia in the lining of my stomach called a hiatal hernia. This is common in most obese people.
7. Psychological Testing - This testing is done to make sure that you are psychologically ready for the extreme changes that you are about to go under. Since most obese people are emotional eaters, they want to make sure that you will be able to deal with those emotions when you aren't able to eat them away,
8. Sleep study - Most surgery centers will require you to take a sleep study to determine if you have Sleep Apnea or not, as people with Sleep Apnea require more oxygen during surgery. I found out from mine that I have double severe Sleep Apnea, where I stopped breathing 80 times per hour and my oxygen levels got down to 70, which is enough to turn your lips blue.
That is a LOT of hoops to jump through just to qualify for this surgery! But it's all worth it! It hit me yesterday that my last nutrition appointment is on September 14th, and I started sleeping with my new BiPap machine last night, so I potentially can schedule my surgery for 6 weeks from yesterday! The day is close, and I am getting so excited to start my new life!
Have a good weekend!
Jenelle
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