Friday, May 30, 2008

Stomach Stitching

I have a lot of medical issues. I won't beat you over the head with the list, but obesity is by far the worst, being the root of so many others. I weigh 360 lbs and I'm about 5'-8". Obesity adversely affects most of the other maladies: arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, back problems and even depression. Losing weight could lead to these and other issues being at least partially resolved.
Recently I found out that that bariatric (obesity) surgeons were taking Medicare again. They'd stopped taking it for a while. Needless to say, I was quite pleased. But I have a lot of things I have to do to get the pre-op process in motion, like a six month physician monitored diet. There's also a requirement for psychiatric certification. Given that psych issues have been a lifelong destructive presence in my life, this could be a bit sticky. But I'm having a mild depressive episode right now and, as my grandmother used to say, my get up and go just got up and went. Maybe I'm afraid of change to the extent that I won't do what I need to do to radically change my life, which is what I suspect is happening. But I WILL come up with a plan to do what I need to do, and then just DO it..."doing" has always been the hard part for me. I've had a meeting with one surgeon, but I didn't feel like he was really interested in helping me get through the Medicare mill. So I want to see at least one or two more surgeons to see if I'll feel more supported by them and their staffs. Anyway, that's it for now.

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