Step One. Complete.
Today I completed the first step of what I am sure will be many. I attended Kaiser's Weight Loss Surgery Class. This class is the first step in the process for Kaiser. If you talk to your doctor about weight loss surgery they must first send you to attend this class. Only after you attend this class do you get a official referral to the bariatric program. I live in Sacramento but attended the class in Roseville. The class started at 10:00am. They said to get there early to register. I've never been to the Kaiser in Roseville. It's massive! I am so glad I get there at 9:40. After I finally found the right building I couldn't find the right room. Just my luck. After asking the help desk where the class was I was able to find it.
The class was held in one of their classrooms. It's more of a seminar than an actual class. The class had about twenty people in attendance. I felt super cool because I sat in the front row. Ha. They gave us this workbook that had information about what the presenter talked about in class so that was nice.
The class is taught by a health educator, not a doctor. They made sure to make that very clear to us. Since they are not our doctor they cannot answer any medical questions we had. I thought the class would be about weight loss surgery and what is involved ect ect. I was totally wrong.
Actually the class was barely about the surgery itself!
What the class was really about was the lifestyle changes you must make to be successful. The presenter - Roberta, told us that this class was about figuring out if you are really ready for WLS. She explained that surgery is just a tool and the the real key is figuring out if you are ready to make the lifestyle changes needed to be successful for the rest of your life. I thought this was really interesting. She even gave us some ideas about what she was talking about
Roberta told us
Today I completed the first step of what I am sure will be many. I attended Kaiser's Weight Loss Surgery Class. This class is the first step in the process for Kaiser. If you talk to your doctor about weight loss surgery they must first send you to attend this class. Only after you attend this class do you get a official referral to the bariatric program. I live in Sacramento but attended the class in Roseville. The class started at 10:00am. They said to get there early to register. I've never been to the Kaiser in Roseville. It's massive! I am so glad I get there at 9:40. After I finally found the right building I couldn't find the right room. Just my luck. After asking the help desk where the class was I was able to find it.
The class was held in one of their classrooms. It's more of a seminar than an actual class. The class had about twenty people in attendance. I felt super cool because I sat in the front row. Ha. They gave us this workbook that had information about what the presenter talked about in class so that was nice.
The class is taught by a health educator, not a doctor. They made sure to make that very clear to us. Since they are not our doctor they cannot answer any medical questions we had. I thought the class would be about weight loss surgery and what is involved ect ect. I was totally wrong.
Actually the class was barely about the surgery itself!
What the class was really about was the lifestyle changes you must make to be successful. The presenter - Roberta, told us that this class was about figuring out if you are really ready for WLS. She explained that surgery is just a tool and the the real key is figuring out if you are ready to make the lifestyle changes needed to be successful for the rest of your life. I thought this was really interesting. She even gave us some ideas about what she was talking about
Roberta told us
"You did not have surgery on your brain. You had surgery on your stomach. Your stomach cannot hold as much food BUT your brain will still want to eat everything you were eating before. Just because you had surgery, this does not mean you will not crave or eat foods like candy, soda or junk food. You can STILL easily gain the weight you lost back and even more. You must be ready to make a lifestyle change to really be successful."
This was really important! I knew before this class I wanted surgery. I knew that no matter what nothing was going to change my mind. However I an realistic. I know that surgery is not a quick fix. I know that I will need to change my lifestyle and the way I eat. However after attending this class and after learning about really needing to make a lifestyle change, it definitely gave me a wake up call. I really appreciate what she had to say. She is 100% right. If I don't make a change in my lifestyle then there is no point on having surgery. During class Roberta showed us a 45 minuet long video about 4 people. Two people in the video had WLS and two people went through the process but in the end decided it was not for them. I liked how they showed both points of view. One women decided against surgery in the end because she was older and her children were grown and her and her husband enjoyed to eat out multiple times a week. She knew that after surgery should would not be able to do that any more so she decided that it was not right for her.
Roberta also told us about how important it is that we take our vitamins. One of the key points to surgery is malabsorption. This will help us loose weight but will also make us very likely to loose out on key vitamins.This will make it crucial to take vitamins every day.
Roberta spoke a very little bit about the three surgeries that Kaiser performs. RNY, VSG and the Lap Band. She told us that during our Surgery Orientation Class we will learn a lot more about each surgery. She did tell us that the VSG surgery is fairly new so they do not have a lot of long term data. The RNY is the most popular and successful surgery they preform with the expectation to loose 50%-70% of your excess weight in a year to a year and a half. She said that the Lap Band procedure is starting to get phased out and that it's not a successful as the other two procedures. I still don't know which surgery I want. She really did not go into much more detail than this.
That's about everything. Again, such little information about the surgery itself. In the end I was actually happy I went (not that I had a choice). It was an important wake up call to start making lifestyle changes. My biggest problem is that I know no matter what I want surgery but I still have not made the diet changes. That's really dumb of me. I've kinda had the mind set of, well whats the point? I don't really need to change until surgery. How dumb am I? If I am going to do this right I need to change now. I am going to take little steps but starting today NO MORE COKE. I don't know if we've talked about this but I have a terrible addiction to Coca Cola. It' awful. It's my drink of choice and I drink a lot of it. Well starting today, no more! I am done! I know I can do this. As I sit here writing this I am sipping on a nice fruit juice smoothie blend (oranges, mango's, bananas etc) that is my dinner. That's better right?
After class Roberta told us what the next step is. She said now that we've completed the class we need to talk to or email our doctor asking for a formal referral to Kaiser's bariatric program. The funny thing is I emailed my doctor at the beginning of class while I was waiting to start. Roberta said that if we are accepted (fingers crossed I get accepted!!), then we should expect a phone call in the next few weeks to set up orientation. I AM SO EXCITED. I actually got an email a few hours later from my doctor to let me know that my referral has been sent so now we wait. Wish me luck!
Love and thinner thoughts,
Anna
Love and thinner thoughts,
Anna