The good news is that he said physically I'm an ideal candidate and my Bi-Polar will not prevent me from getting the surgery done as long as I keep up with my mental health and continue to follow my plan of care. There's a course that the hospital requires that I take before the surgery that teaches about the surgery, about the eating habits afterwards, what exercises you should do, how to cope emotionally, etc. He said it depends on the patient but surgery can be scheduled after the courses are complete, which if you're dedicated and working on it could be as soon as a month after starting them. This is all good news.
The bad news is I've been a pack a day smoker for almost seven years. Because of this he told me he won't touch me with a scalpel until I have been nicotine free for six months. Six. Months. You read that correctly. He said that smoking increases the risk of a hernia 20%, and it increases the likelihood of an infection or the stomach not healing properly. From what I understood when you smoke it basically suffocates your veins and doesn't allow as much oxygen to get to them, when you have the surgery you have 60-80% less stomach to be able to absorb the oxygen that it's used to. Without that oxygen the staples won't heal as quickly and there are chances for complications. I've attempted to quit smoking multiple times before, and always failed. I think a big part of that was because I was trying to quit because other people wanted me to. I decided at the appointment that I have one pack of cigarettes left and once those are gone, they're gone and I'm done. I want this surgery more than I want another pack of cigarettes, so this will be a good thing. I am pretty bummed that because of smoking I'm now seven months out from surgery instead of one month, but most people have to wait six months to get it anyways so I kind of expected some form of wait.
Although I wish I could get it sooner, I'm slightly okay with the wait because, well, I'm a fatty. There's a chance I will be going to California in May to watch my younger siblings while my parents go on vacation, and not having the surgery done yet will allow me to enjoy some real Mexican food and eat one last Chipotle burrito before my stomach can't handle it anymore. #fatkidsoul
I'm not sure what waiting six months of not smoking will mean for the blog. I absolutely want to focus more on blogging about the surgery than anything else, but this is leaving a six month gap in my plan. I'm not comfortable sharing the inner workings of my marriage anymore as we're trying to focus on us and I don't feel right broadcasting it to the world. With that being said, I will still post between now and starting the classes. I have a book with about seven hundred idea topics to write about and I would like to get back into blogging a bit again. However, I don't want to write just to write. I've made countless numbers of posts in the past about absolutely nothing and that's not how I want to run this bitch anymore. I've decided I'm not going to put myself on a schedule. When I first started blogging I wanted to be a big blog with tons of readers, I'm not really interested in that any more. I'm not going to follow the rules of blog land. I don't care about the number of people my blog reaches, I care about the content I put out. I want to write when I want to, about what I want to write, and how I want to write it. If that means that you get a long post with no pictures, a bunch of curse words, or me shamelessly expressing my opinion with no fucks to give what anyone else will think, so be it. And while I'll be posting about my life some and I absolutely will still be wildly inappropriate at times, I also want to make sure that what I post either matters or is funny. Basically what I'm saying is don't expect me to come back with the four to five posts a week. Hell, there may be a couple of weeks that go by that I don't say anything at all. Just know that I'm around and I'll be posting when I want to, because it's my blog and as Cartman would say...
*High-five* I'm sorry that you'll have to wait six months, that is disappointing, but you'll have some good time to mentally and emotionally prepare and more time plan your lifestyle change. That preparation would be great to write about, if you want. And that preparation will make your post surgery transition smoother than not. And of course a quitting smoking rant is always great! If you have a smart phone there are app to help you quit smoking. I like the ones that shows you much money you've saved! Stop Smoking Manager - SMOQUIT is really cool! The LIVESTRONG MyQuit Coach is really cool too and it's own social media support group! You're awesome! *Another High-Five"
ReplyDelete-Andy