This was written as a reply to someone in the January 2017 Sleevers post (BelleKreyol) and ended up being a pretty long reply post that I decided should be edited a bit and posted as a blog post. I think it'll be useful for me to be able to go back and read this later, and also may be interesting to other people down the road... who knows.

Belle had said she'd be interested in hearing about others' journeys and I kinda rolled with it:


As far as my journey goes my pre-decision to have VSG info is mostly on my 'About Me' page. After that, it's been kinda crazy. lol

I decided to have VSG, chose Dr. Almanza as my surgeon (mostly due to cost and the location being easy for me). Once I was approved for surgery I secured financing to cover the cost and set my date. That all happened over about 8 days, decision point to 'paid'. Kind of felt like a whirlwind; which I was and am still happy about. I can't imagine having to wait years at this point. It also didn't give my brain much time to do its usual overly analytical stuff and has effected my sleep quite a bit. My somewhat anxiety prone brain is having a field day LOL.

After surgery was 'paid' I had a few days to prepare myself for a cross country move. I flew to TX to pick up my Ex, who is still one of my best friends, and all our stuff in a big UHaul truck; and we drove back out here (WA state)... through Winter Storm Decima... RIGHT through it! 20 degrees below zero.. Ice everywhere, crazy winds, snow... it was an experience for sure. Once we got here we had an entire 2 bedroom house to unload into an apartment. That took a week. And I'm STILL working on little stuff getting where it should be.

My surgeon is requiring me to do a 10 day pre-op liquids diet, which I decided to start 5 days early. I am glad I did. I have lost 13 lbs in preparation, SO FAR and I still have a week to go. I'm pretty sure the glycogen in my liver is exiting rapidly and that will definitely make my surgery easier. Doing the extended pre-op liquids diet is making me feel like I am accomplishing something toward the surgery, and is easing my brain in a weird way. It's also given me a lot more energy and I have noticed an improvement in my mood over the last week. (The first 3 days are the hardest, truly. And after that the only issues I have are mental desirings of foods that I shouldn't have [noodles, wine, etc] which I am really proud of ignoring.)

My liquid pre-op diet is outlined in another blog post I made if you're interested.

Now, surgery is one week away and I am MOSTLY ready. I am thinking today I will start thinking about what to WEAR for travel down, travel back, and while I'm there. It'll be cold here, and warm there which complicates 'packing light'. Also knowing I need abdominally loose fitting clothes is making my brain work extra hard. (I'm sure you can tell by now the types of anxieties that are keeping me up nights; good news is it's NOT really worry about dying on the table or anything, anymore.)

Well, I think that pretty much covers my journey. LOL...

I'd also like to say that I really value the opportunity that these forums have given me, given all of us, to create a support network that I wouldn't have otherwise as a Mexico VSG patient.