Awright, so I went to my appointment in Morgantown on Wednesday.

First off, I'd like to say that I was warned that Morgantown had changed so much I wouldn't recognize it. Well I'm still trying to figure out what they meant because it looked like the same old place to me. The only appreciable difference was the new Wise library, which is freaking huge. There's some new building behind the B&E building, but it's not nearly as large as I'd been told. And as for Sunnyside (Scummyside) there was no appreciable difference. OK, it was a little cleaner, but you can't say Sunnyside is clean if freakin' Mutts is still there. They might not be doing nitrous in the basement anymore, but it's still a pit.

So the good news is I think they're going to do the surgery. The bad news is I still have some waiting ahead of me. I have two more appointments in a month (annother goddamn month...), one with the guy I saw this week and one with the plastic surgeon that's going to do the weight reduction surgery they insist on.

And yes, I know it's a good idea.

But here's the thing, the surgeon was all hemming and hawing about how the hernia repair surgery is risky. Well when I hear risky I think chance of death. Apparently to him risky means the hernia could reopen. He also said that every time a repaired hernia reopens the greater the chance it'll do it again. I countered with the fact that if we don't fix the hernia I have now then I'll always have a hernia anyway so I'm more than comfortable that I may need to have it fixed again in the future.

But here's the thing, as cautious and apprehensive as he was about what could possibly go wrong with the hernia repair (and it IS a major undertaking) he really harped on the idea of getting a gastric bypass, a surgery that I've ruled out as too risky. So a hernia repair might, MIGHT, cause damge to a bowell and I have to consider that danger, but the surgey where they DEFINITELY cut apart my bowels and stomach? Oh, there's no danger in that one at all! By God I need that one right now! I honestly think that if I'd let him he'd have performed that one right there in the office.

They're really pushing this gastric bypass on people. Even people that aren't that overweight. And if they've offered it to anyone reading this and you're considering it, I urge you to look into the possible dangers and side effects. As much as I need to do something, I've decided it's not for me.

So they're going to surgically remove some weight when they repair the hernia and put in a stomach band (a safer, lower impact, REVERSIBLE version of the gastric bypass) at the same time. This means shortly after healing up I'm going to be one damn studly individual (like I'm not now) and I'll be taking appointments for all you ladies that think you're ready for my kind of love.

Don't worry, there's plenty to go around. Hope you like scars.