From the Beginning

Welcome to my first of many posts I hope and plan on doing in the future.

I thought I would start out with introducing myself.  I am 27 from Ontario, Canada and am 3 months opt op RNY Gastric Bypass surgery. I had my surgery October 28th, 2011 at Toronto Western Hospital and my procedure was performed by the talented and yummy Dr. Timothy Jackson.

My journey started in December 2009 when I went to see my family doctor and approached him with the idea of having Gastric Bypass. He welcomed the idea with open arms and was beyond willing to help me out. He was to send my referral to the Bariatric Registry than I would hear from them what the next step would be. It took a year before I had my orientation letter sent to me in December 2011 informing me of my orientation in February 2011.

After that everything just kinda flew by! I honestly don't remember going to half the appointments I went to. Everything went by so quickly that by summer I was just waiting to have a scope done and my file would be sent to Toronto. It took 13 days from the time my file was sent till I got my call from TWH.

I remember it exactly because I had just been on the phone with the Assessment Centre because the doctor who I had the scope done with wanted to have a follow up appointment in December and I was freaking out at the thought of delaying this process anymore. I remember thinking when the phone rang "It better be the freaking Assessment Centre calling me back or I am going to flip shit" and all I remember hearing was "This is *insert name I don't remember* from Toronto Western Hospital" and my heart sank. I knew this was the moment I had been waiting for forever! So I took a deep breath and confirmed my identity to the woman who then told me that Dr. Jackson would like to meet with me on Thursday. Of course I naturally said "yes yes of course I will be there" not thinking at all because I was so excited. I hang up the phone after writing all the details down and thought to myself "Oh Shit, how am I going to get there" I was so excited I didn't think of anything else but saying yes. Regardless I was able to get ahold of the cash needed to take the Greyhound (Which I will NEVER do again) to get there as I was meeting one my best friend there who would later bring me home.

But this isn't the end of my story, not at all. If you know one thing about me is that it's never a dull moment with me around.

So I take the 1am-6am Greyhound with the drunks and sluts from Southern Ontario to Toronto where I meet up with another one of my best friends at a Tim Hortons around the block from the bus station. We sit, we chat and liaise about the excitement and what not. Of course my friend decides he is going to text his boss and tell her he isn't coming in because of his friend going to the hospital (not a total lie just made it sound a lot more urgent then it needed to be) We spent a few more hours at Tim Horton's checking out the view and chatting before we hopped into a cab to TWH.

We arrive and find our way upstairs to where my appointment is. Now this is where the story kind of goes blurry for me because I have no memory of anything prior to meeting Dr. Yummy. I remember my other best friend showing up and the 3 of us sitting in the waiting room with 2 of our cell phone plugged into the wall charging and that's about it. I was then called into the Dr. office to wait to meet Dr. Jackson. Now normally I thought 20-25 mins tops. Nope, 2 and half hours later Dr. Yummy walks in sits with me and we start chatting like old friends. We discuss my file and the risks and yadda yadda and he agrees to do my surgery. I remember wanting to cry I was so excited. Of course I don't share the news to my friends but instead I text them telling them I got declined and that I am a wreck and I need some time to compose myself. From what I remember I do believe they started to freak out and to formulate a plan to make me really happy really fast. I was in the office for another 45 mins but felt like forever while I picked my date for surgery.

I finally leave the room and I am walking down the hall (but in my head I was totally skipping) I calmly come around the corner using my file to cover up my face. My one friend gets up right away to hug me and ask if I am okay while the other one stares at me. I walk up to my second friend and put my hand on my knee and say "What I am doing October 28th, 2011 cause I totally got my surgery date" They were sooooo not impressed with me but it was totally worth it lol I was given 5 weeks of Optifast which is a shake that I had to drink 4 times a day leading up to my surgery. The first week felt like forever but after that I honestly feel like it flew right by.

That pretty much sums up the experience leading up to my surgery. I think I will save my experience with the surgery for another post.

If you have any questions feel free to post below I would love to answer them!

-Pouch Girl