Surgery Date! (Hopefully) 1/11/11

Isn't that a nice date? It's also the day after my 41st birthday, so my year will get off with a bang and hopefully by summer I'll be rockin' my hot new body. :)

The date is contingent upon insurance approval, however. I believe my surgeon submitted for pre-certification this Monday (that was the plan, anyway). The insurance company has nine business days to make a decision.

I have been really struggling with the decision to have VSG (sleeve) or RNY (bypass). I want the sleeve. I am concerned about RNY: you cannot take NSAIDS (Aleve, ibuprofen, a prescription med, Celebrex, that worked wonders for me with back pain). I worry about digestive issues with RNY - gassiness and stinky poop. Not that my poo smells like roses, mind you! It's more the gassiness. I lean this way anyway (more and more I am realizing it is because I am much, much more lactose intolerant than I am willing to admit, and my body deals with it as best it can). I don't want to opt in to additional problems with gas. And, for that matter, I should be more proactively addressing my current issues. It's the dairy, dummy.

I'm more comfortable with VSG. I'm a quantity eater, not a particular foods eater. I don't gravitate toward sweets or fats in particular, I just overeat. I have a good, varied diet and the only foods I really balk at eating are olives and mushrooms. :) But I will tolerate them if I am out with my olive and mushroom-eating friends.

SO...you see, I want the gastric sleeve. But...what if my insurance doesn't approve it? I have read the policy on their approval of gastric sleeve. I do not technically meet the requirements. I do meet the requirements for RNY. I have decided that if my insurance only approves RNY, I will move forward with that procedure. So, if that's my bottom line - why not just choose the RNY? This is my surgeon's preference, I believe. He maintains that I will lose more weight with the RNY, and have a better likelihood of keeping it off.

Lots of people don't have complications with RNY. I do not tend to have complications with medical procedures. I am a "pretty typical to best results" sort of person with surgeries and medical treatments I've had. My back surgeon (fusion in 2004) said I am a poster child for the procedure. :) So I tend to look at it all pretty optimistically: I don't have any higher degree of likelihood to have complications.

I think I'll stay on my current course: have the VSG if approved by insurance, have RNY if not. This morning, I have my WLS support group and I may do some more interrogating questioning of the people there. Most have had RNY, a few have had VSG, and a couple have had the band (which is not even on the table for me).