Back to work, for a couple of days this week at least. Today and Wednesday. Tomorrow I have pre-surgical testing and an appointment with my sleep specialist to get the compliance letter the FAA will want for my third-class medical. So I have to haul my ass out of the house early, ugh.

Thursday I head to Massachusetts for the FAA medical itself on oh-god-early Friday morning. I was optimistically hoping that Thursday afternoon or Friday afternoon would be nice weather, so that I could try to fly again at 7B2 where I trained, but various weather information sources claim it will be heavy clouds and likely rain both days. I'll take my license and medical and headset just in case.

Another user here on E2 has reached out to share their story of success (and, from the info, stellar success) with the vertical sleeve gastrectomy - I'm very very grateful, as their experiences sound like pretty much what I'd hoped for both in terms of results and life-after-procedure. Here's hoping.

I am realizing my house isn't very clean. This is annoying because a) I'm really no good at cleaning and b) I don't know if I'll have time to do it (or have it done) before I go in for surgery. I'll have to figure something out. It's neat, for once, but I haven't scrubbed things in, uh, cough mumble. And I'll need to do laundry before I go in.

Laying in more supplies. Vitaminwater, broth/bouillon, some apple juice, and jello. I've ordered some protein powder. Also some chicken breasts and lean pork chops for the freezer, in the hopes that as I can eat lean protein I'll be able to eat them to reassure myself that my life with food is not over. The E2er who chimed in reminded me that right now, I'm on a diet that is designed to crash-lose fat out of my liver - it's not really a sustainable level of consumption. And that means that even after the surgery, once I've recovered (which may take a few months to fully happen) I'll be able to eat much more than I am now, even if not nearly as much as I can right now were I to choose to do so. They described a diet which basically boiled down to "around 1/3 of what I used to eat, but whatever I want, although avoiding bread/pasta." That's very heartening. It's weird, I've always had a sweet tooth - but being restricted to this sugar-free crap for all my nutrition has made me crave savory something fierce. My one cup a day of salty soup mix is pure treat now. I'm craving simply grilled chicken and pork and beef, no sauces, just protein. Hopefully I can carry that over; I'll be spending weeks eating clear liquids and thin purees, so by the time I can start attempting tiny bites of meat I'll either be overwhelmed with joy to get even that, or I just won't care anymore.

Today, in the mail, I received the formal authorization letter for the surgery from my insurance carrier, so that's good news.

Weight: 319.1