Lock it in Eddy!! 20 September 2012

Woo Hoooooooooo! I finally have my surgery date - Thursday 20 September 2012 I go under the knife! 

I met with Dr Ken Wong this morning and have locked in my surgery date. Dr Wong is just lovely, a great communicator, and very friendly. He answered all of my questions and particularly the most important Q on my mind... Have any of your patients had any complications, particularly any leaks?? 

When considering this question in the lead up to my appointment, I also considered which answer I'd prefer and found myself torn... through much research I discovered that there is a 1% chance of complications with this surgery, mainly from a leak at the staple line. Such a leak can then lead to other significant complications which can quickly turn into a life threatening situation. So did I want Dr Wong to say 'No Complications' therefore speaking to his surgical prowess and giving me confidence in his sleeve skills... ?? YES! But then I found myself thinking, Russian Roulette - what if that means I could potentially be his first... do I want to chance being that unlucky No1. and risk being at the mercy of a Dr who has no experience in managing a surgical crisis... hmmm I was certainly in a quandary... I thought that perhaps it would be better for his answer to be 'YES' then I could take comfort in knowing that he's successfully managed/treated a potentially life threatening medical emergency... I ended up getting the BEST answer I could have hoped for. Dr Wong said he has not had any patient suffer complications from his surgery and no leaks! But here's the best bit - when he was doing his residency and training in the sleeve gastrectomy in New Zealand many years ago, he was involved in over 7 cases per wk (they did them in the public system over there all the time) and due to that large volume, the surgeons he worked with did experience a few leaks and complications which gave him the opportunity to learn the skills required to manage such situations, each time with a successful outcome. BRILLIANT!! that was the BEST answer ever! I now have every confidence that if something does go wrong, he'll be able to manage my recovery successfully ;-))

So it's all systems GO! I went and had all my blood tests done together with my ECG. I meet with the dietician, Megan, next Wednesday and commence 100% OptiFast diet from next Thursday 6th Sept continuing right to my surgery (2wks). I need to lose 4kgs from the start of the Opti to surgery day - so the challenge will be on... apparently it's so that the liver shinks to give more room for the surgeon to perform the operation.

Oh yeah, I should really update you on my OptiFast sitch from the start of the week... I decided that I had really bitten off more than I could chew stopping smoking and starting OptiFast on the same day, so after some wise advice from my wife, I decided that I would wait to see when Dr Wong said I needed to start it & just conquer the no smoking on its own for this week & that's what I've done...