And away we go!

welcome to by blog! I am going to take this opportunity to go into my back story to get us caught up on who I am and how I got here!

I have been thinking about WLS for many years now, but each time I would get serious about it something would come up to deter me for the moment. I would either get sick, or change jobs, or move or something like that. There just never seemed to be a good time to do it. It came up again last year when my brother and I decided that we would do it together. My brother has a huge fear of Dr's and surgery so we thought it would be good to go together and support each other. Of course, just like every other time I tried I lost my job and my great insurance right before our consultation appointment. At that point I convinced him to go anyway, he needed it as bad as I did.

Around the time of his surgery in November 2008 I was complaining to a friend that my new insurance would not cover the surgery and I was pretty bummed about that. She emailed me a few days later with a web address and the possibility of getting into a clinical trial in Cleveland! I immediately linked to the site and entered my information! I knew it was a long shot, but it was better than where I was at the moment. It also was going to require me to wait and see, which is not necessarily a strong suit of mine....lol

Right before Christmas I received a call asking if I was still interested... umm YES! She said that I would get a call from the coordinator in Cleveland to set up my first appointment after the first of the year. I was so excited and nervous at the same time! When Ada called me, I wanted to cry. She had me set up with my first appointment on Feb 23, 2009. I just knew that was going to be the day that changes my life! I met with Dr. Khaitan and instantly felt comfortable and knew I was making the right decision for me.

So what am I talking about you ask? The TOGA procedure, this is a clinical trial to study the safety and effectiveness of a non invasive procedure to staple the stomach. Basically, they go down your throat with a device and create a pouch. The theory is that it will reduce the amount of food the stomach can hold and therefore allow you to lose weight. If you would like the nitty gritty click here http://www.togaclinicalstudy.com/pages/fq.htm

The one kicker to this whole thing is that because it is a clinical trial, there will be a control group. But of course you won't know if you are in that or not. 1 in 3 will not get the procedure done on surgery day. Everyone will go into the operating room and be knocked out. They will put the dilator down your throat and then open and envelope. Right then and there your fait is sealed, you are either given the surgery or not. No one but the surgeons will know for sure for the entire year. At your one year appointment they open the other envelope with you and it states if you are in the study or not. If you not selected, you are given the opportunity to have it done then for free. SOOOOOOO my thoughts were that I could get it now, or at the very least get it in a year and not have to worry about insurance and all that!

Where was I... oh yes.. So I had my first appointment and was given all the information and signed up to be in the study. I had a list of tests that I would have to go through prior to the surgery, but if I passed them all I was in!! I was so excited and scared all at the same time! After completing two of the appointments I was given my surgery date of April 28, 2009. That was perfect for me, I had a cruise scheduled and would get off the ship on the day I needed to start the liquid diet! I was all set, I had my appointments scheduled, there were 7 in all and I had had two completed, but still had the more intense ones left. Including the manomentary test which I was sooo not looking forward to at all.

On or about March 18th I got a call from Ada asking if I wanted to push my date up. They had had a cancellation and wanted to fill that spot. I told her that if she could get my appointments lined up that I would do it. Why not, it was just going to get this show started quicker. She was able and at that point I was on the fast tract to get it all done in two weeks. My new surgery date was March 31st 2009! Of course this meant that I would still be healing on my cruise!!!

Fast forward through two weeks of driving 2 hours each way to Cleveland for all my appointments and getting prepped for surgery. I arrived at the hospital bright and early Tuesday morning. They get me back to the pre-op area and start asking me 100 questions to get all the paperwork filled out. This young nurse came to put my IV in and had some trouble, I of course got a little freaked out and passed out while they were trying to get it in and Dr. Khaitan was talking to me....LOL.. When I woke up, I had no pain at all. I was really comfortable and just wanted to get to my room. That took several hours because they didn't have any rooms ready for me. I spent the night walking and chatting with some friends who visited me and went home the next day. The worst part for me honestly was the sore muscles from the positioning during the surgery. I went back to work the next day and then off on my cruise!

More to come soon!