The final countdown...

Well, the past 6 months have both gone very slow yet very fast at the same time. I reached my weight loss target set by my surgeon, and got on the list. Surgery was scheduled for 5th February but then it had to be postponed due to a high number of acutely unwell patients. It's now scheduled for this week so my time is being spent packing bags, shaving legs (because priorities), making lists etc etc.

Oddly, I'm not nervous about the surgery. I am nervous about the enema they'll be giving me beforehand though (again, priorities. I have them). I know in the grand scheme of things an enema is nothing, but it's still a nothing that I'd rather avoid!

I also "came out" to my extended family and friends over facebook about the surgery approx 4 weeks ago. It went well, no negative comments (or at least none that I know of). It was a bit of a concern because there is a bit of a "fattist" culture in New Zealand. People like to say that you've brought your obesity upon yourself therefore you should diet and exercise to fix it or pay for the surgery yourself rather than spending "their" taxpayer dollars on a public funded surgery. I think I've ranted about this before so i'll keep it brief. First, the statistics for morbidly obese people successfully losing large amounts of weight (via diet and exercise) and keeping it off for a significant length of time (without surgery) is dismal. It would actually be depressing if I wasn't already having surgery. Secondly, obese people pay tax too, why shouldn't they be allowed surgery? Anyway, moving on.

The only other obstacle in my way (which I can't do anything about) is that due to previous surgery I might have scarring in my small intestine which could hinder the surgery. Hopefully there is none, or very minimal so that the surgery can still be done keyhole but otherwise the surgeon might have to open me up and fix that as he goes along. If it's really severe then he might not be able to do that part of the surgery at all, in which case I'd be left with a gastric sleeve rather than the duodenal switch. Time will tell soon enough though.

I probably won't be able to update for another week or so depending on how long they keep me in hospital etc. So, until next time....