As I countdown to the surgery on Thursday, I’ll recount the first appointment I had with the plastic surgeon.

I found the plastic surgeon based on online reviews and personal accounts. The surgeon I selected was highly regarded, had very good results, and very few reported issues. I searched for days; this wasn’t a decision I made lightly. Allowing someone to make permanent changes to my body is not something I do every day, nor is it a decision I would jump into without sufficient investigation.

After making the decision, I scheduled an appointment that was amenable to my wife’s schedule. I wanted her to be involved in the decision making process, so that meant her being there for the consultation. I wanted her to receive all the same information I was receving from the source. I didn’t want her to receive the information from me second-hand. That information would be tinged with my personal opinions or be skewed due to how I inferred what I was being told. This turned out to be a good call; there were a few things I misheard or inferred incorrectly. She was able to help me make a better informed decision.

At the appointment, I was interviewed by a nurse and then by the surgeon herself. I was asked a lot of questions about my health, the process by which I lost all the weight, and about what I do to maintain my weight and health. I was told that I was a good candidate for skin reduction and “Tummy tuck” surgery, but that I’d also need liposuction on my lower back. The fatty tissue there is exceptionally hard to get rid of, and in my case, it wasn’t going away. If it was going to go away, it would already be gone after six years of eating right.

Once the consultation with the surgeon was complete, all that was left was to fill out the paperwork and schedule the procedure. We settled on a date, and I was given instructions for what to do prior to the surgery. A pre-op appointment was made where I was told I would receive more detailed instructions and information as well as prescriptions for me to fill prior to the surgery so that I would have the drugs on-hand immediately after the procedure.

We made a down-payment on the procedure and went home to further discuss the procedure and how we were going to handle my recovery. I had to inform my employer to let them know I was going to be out for a few days as I recovered, and I had to let the military know that I was going to be unavailable during my six-week recovery time. We also had to arrange for my daughter to come and stay with us for the first week after my surgery to help take care of me. While I will be more-or-less able to function after three or four days, those three to four days will be pretty rough and I’ll need a lot of help to do some basic things.

At this point, I wasn’t yet nervous. I didn’t feel any anxiety or have any apprehension.

Tomorrow, I’ll talk about the pre-op appointment and the process from that point forward.