Well it seems that 2009 is coming to a close. I have a year-end visit with my surgeon Dr Richard today, since effective 2010 his practice is ‘out of network’ for my new health insurance carrier Aetna (thanks, LexisNexis!). But on a positive note, Dr. Richard has been asked to head up the new bariatric Surgery program at Gwinnett Medical Center, and while he will not be leaving his practice in Gainesville, this new program in Gwinnett County will be considered ‘in network’ for my Aetna health coverage! So I can continue to see Dr. Richard, albeit via the Gwinnett Medical Center program. When God closes one door, He opens another one.
12/31/2009 will be my nine-week anniversary since the Lap RNY surgery, and I have lost a total of 88 pounds from my initial date with Dr. Richard, and 74 pounds since the surgery date. Absolutely stunning. I am still having a big of a nervous stomach, but I have found that if I can eat it, my new stomach reacts well. No more scary episodes like I experienced Thanksgiving (see prev posts).
I am concerned though about my protein intake – since that episode I have not been able to get the IsoPure protein mix down – and prior to that I actually looked forward to mixing it with my morning coffee. Now I can’t even get that mix to my lips without retching. Just thinking about it makes me queasy. I have been drinking the IsoPure flavored drinks to try to get some protein in me, but I fear that is not enough. I have been feeling weak lately and dizzy, and am having issues with my left hand not wanting to cooperate. This is really affecting the accuracy of my typing, and in my job as a Database Administrator, you have to be accurate.
This morning I was able to mix a scoop of IsoPure protein in with a cup of skim milk and drank it just fine. I am going to try another scoop here in a few minutes with a bottle of Nesquik Banana-flavored milk and if that works, I’ll go with the milk/protein mix for awhile. My hope is that by increasing my protein and better tracking my food intake will help me with this dizziness…I read on Brad Garland’s blog that he experienced dizziness and found that his protein intake was too low. Crap. I do however hope that is my problem. I just completed a stressful oncall weekend where I had to review very carefully all of my entries (which I probably ought to be doing anyway), and everything went well. But still, this isn’t how things were just before my t’giving episode. At first I thought it was a head cold causing inner ear issues. I went to the doctor and got a shot for that (he did see some pressure building behind my left eardrum). And I took a z-pack. Then another z-pack. Still no change. I’ve tried Mucinex. Nothing. My doc said that the next step would be to have an MRI done, which I did (yesterday), and the results should be back today. I was fortunate to get that MRI done so quickly, but I pressed hard since my insurance deductibles for 2009 were all met, meaning no out-of-pocket expense for me. I called to check on when I could get in, and the receptionist asked if I could be there in 20 minutes. Oh yeah! I got there, got scanned, and was back home within an hour.
I’ll post the results when I get them.
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