IwantTHATshu

***I apologize now because this is a REALLY long entry. *** I am someone who has been over weight my whole life, in fact the last time I remember being thin was in 3rd grade. But over time I just ignored my problem until my senior year of high school. I realized I was going to college and needed to do something about this problem. Unfortunately after plenty of yo-yo diets, weight watchers, Nutrisystem and so on I still couldn’t get my eating under control. It wasn’t until last year when I decided to attend a WLS meeting at the Hospital of Central Connecticut. From that point I was determined to go through with this! I initially wanted the lap-band, but after some research I realized for the amount of weight I want to lose the band is not the best fit for me, and I really need something permanent so I went with the Sleeve. I began the processes in June of 2011, but chickened out and wanted to give one more try at losing weight on another fad diet… obviously that failed because I am here, haha. After starting the process all over Ii took a long time to get to where I am now. I was lucky enough to not have to jump through hoops the way other people on here have mentioned. My insurance covered a great deal of the surgery as long as I met some of the medical necessities, and luckily (unlucky) for me, the fact that I was at a BMI of 50 at the age of 21, had worsening asthma, and had mild hyper tension, it was all enough to get the go ahead from both doctor and Cigna. The hospital of central Connecticut only requires a psychological evaluation, a meeting with a nutritionist, and a couple other things that I don’t remember right now, but my Insurance said besides medical necessity I needed to get an EKG, psychological evaluation, and to meet with a nutritionist for 6 consecutive months. After I completed that it was all a matter of last minute pre op appointments with Dr. Barba including an Endoscopy, where he determined that I had a hiatal hernia that he would fix during surgery. I then found out my surgery date, which was July 10th…I couldn’t have been anymore excited and nervous. I was getting all sorts of worked up about the surgery, I was more nervous about the surgery it’s self then focusing on the benefits afterwards. “Was I going to wake up? How badly would it hurt? Will I be able to tolerate all the foods I liked before? What kind of complications might I have?”... these were the questions that kept repeating in my head. It wasn’t until July 6th when I received a letter from my insurance company saying that I still wasn’t approved for my surgery did I then started to not just worry but now PANIC. “HOW CAN I NOT BE APPROVED YET? I WAS TOLD MONTHS AGO THAT EVERYTHING WAS ALL SET, THAT I HAD EVERYTHING IN. MY SURGERY IS IN 4 DAYS! (of course I got this letter on a Friday so my insurance and my Doctors office wasn’t going to be able to tell me for sure if I was or wasn’t approved till Monday). I spent hours of the phone trying to get things straightened out, and I thought that there was finally a light at the end of the tunnel! I had gotten in touch with someone who said that it was my insurances’ fault and that they would rush my paperwork. I was given an approval and an apology! It was such a relief for me because I was so worried after all this time that it wasn’t going to happen. But of course, my approval was too go to be true…Monday morning I got a call for my Doctors office saying they STILL didn’t have an approval and when I told them it wasn’t possible because I had gotten an approval Friday, the office was more then confused. I knew it was going to be a long and stressful day for me. I called my insurance again and that’s when they told be that no I was not approved, in fact I had been DENIED! You could only imagine how infuriated I was. “IT’S JULY 9TH AND YOU ARE TELLING ME I HAVE BEEN DENIED!? WHY HADN’T I BEEN INFORMED DAYS, WEEKS, MONTHS AGO!!.”. Turns out I was missing 3 things…one thing was something that the hospital forgot to fill out, the other was an “up to date” psychology evaluation, and the last piece was a letter of medical necessity from my primary care doctor. To say the least I was in tears because I thought I had all of that taken care of back in June. Turns out my evaluation was 2 months too old ( they wanted it within 6 months), and they wanted not just a referral from my doctor, but specific details and for it to clearly state that he thinks that it would be in my best interest to go through with this surgery…. I honestly don’t know how we did it but I was able to get my evaluation updated, a check up by my doctor, and a letter from him all in that afternoon and submitted to insurance. I just had to wait till the next morning to find out if I was approved or not. My original time for surgery on the 10th was 10am…but 10 am came and went and we were still waiting to hear from my doctor’s office. My adrenalin was rushing and I was so anxious about what the final result would be. Finally at 12 pm we got a phone call saying to head over ASAP they would get my in for a 3:30 surgery time. We got to the hospital and everything was so fast, they brought me right up to the surgical floor. They got me changed into a gown, hooked up to an iv, and just had me sit and wait…..I waited for about 2 hours before a Doctors showed up. I was running on what must have been purely adrenalin because it wasn’t until the anesthesiologist showed up did I begin to panic and get nervous. Once he left I couldn’t stop crying. I kept thinking “I can leave, I don’t have to go through with this, it would be so easy. Just tell them no!”…but I had made up my mind, and I knew if didn’t do this nothing was going to help me. Dr. Barba finally showed up and went over everything that was going to happen during surgery, how long recovery would be and then explained about how even though my insurance finally approved my surgery for VSG they did not approve paying for hiatal hernia. I was happy to hear that he agreed that my insurance was crazy and that he was just going to fix it anyways for no charge as long as we said it was okay. As I was getting ready to be wheeled away in my bed, I remember being offered some Valium to calm me down. The anesthesiologist saw just how nervous I was, and I’m glad he did because it was so tempting to jump and run. But a few moments later I was so calm and relaxed. I felt almost a bit drunk… I was still tearing up a little in the OR so he gave me a little more Valium as I watched everyone in the room prep for my surgery. I remember getting on the table and being strapped down in position, and I was then introduced to everyone in the room. They then asked me to start breathing through the mask on my face and of course they only thing I could think was “I hope I wake up”… I was out like a light. When I woke up in the recovery room I was in a LOT of pain. I remember yelling because it hurt so much, and I felt like I couldn’t breath. They just kept telling me to press my button and try to administer more pain relief. I eventually fell back to sleep, but my parents told me later that I was in the recovery room almost 4 hours because I was in more pain then they figured I would be. The next thing I remember is being in my new room with my parents there. I woke up just for a little just to tell my dad “I did it!”. The first night was really rough, I was in so much pain and would press my button enough just to fall back asleep, but within 30 minutes to an hour I was wide awake in pain again. The nurses were so nice and helpful, I’m really glad they were so patient with me. The next day was a lot harder, because I hadn’t walked at all that night, and so I was not only in pain, but exhausted from the lack of sleep. I also had to do my blue dye test and my upper GI test all within a couple hours of each other on the same day. Once I passed both they gave me some ice chips and jell-o…I was then told I was being discharged. I really could not believe I hadn’t even spent a full 24 hrs at the hospital and they were discharging me! All I have to say is thank god for liquid oxycodone. It was an hour-long drive back to my parent’s house where I would be staying to recover. The first few days were pretty hard, and if I wasn’t in pain I was sleeping because of the pain meds. Breathing still hurt because of the gas from the surgery and sleeping lying down didn’t happen until day 4 post op. But I found out that gas-x helps a lot for gas, only taking half the dose of my liquid pain meds didn’t turn me into a zombie, and that I could begin to sleep laying on my back much sooner then I thought I would be. Because trust me, with all that pain I really was starting to think “what the hell did I do to myself”… Tomorrow will be one week post op and I am much happier with my choice. Thought weight loss was slow this first week, I did lose some weight and I’m feeling back to normal again. The only issue I have now...I constantly feel hungry. Maybe it’s my lake of protein? I really hope that’s it, because this is not head hunger. This is the wake you up in the middle of the night because it hurts so bad, kind of hunger. I just can’t wait to be eating real food again, and happily watching the lbs drop.

I have finally hit stage 3...I was supposed to do two weeks of stage 2 and my dr said I was healing well and could slowly start bringing in mushy foods. I was getting that feeling you were describing constantly, like with every small nibble of mashed potato. I waited a bit and am actually starting again at the begining of my 3rd week, but I am still having such uncofortable pains! still with really mushy foods. It's driving me nuts. (sorry I know this was off the topic but I'm just glad I found someone else who was having the same issue!)

at first I had no issues with Cigna! Everything was going to smoothly and I really didn't think I was going to have any issues. I finished all my pre op visits, nutrition, I had a letter of referral from my primary doctor and a letter necessity from my surgeon, 6 months nutrition, and the only thing else I needed was a psychological evaluation, which I had done early in the game. I had my meeting with my surgeon on June 18th and they submitted everything to insurance June 20th or 21st. My surgery was scheduled for July 10th, but it wasn’t until July 6th did I hear anything for Cigna or my Doctors office in regards to approval. We received a letter saying that I still wasn’t approved! So after hours of the phone with no one being able to figure out why I wasn’t approved yet, we finally got a hold of someone named Brad who told us he got everything figured out and they were looking it over as we speak! And before he hung up he gave us the OKAY YOUR APPROVED!!... The weekend came and went and I thought everything was all set, but I then received a call from my doctor saying I STILL wasn’t approved. So I called Cigna again and said that time they told me I was DENIED To say the least I was in tears and extremely angry that I was finding this all out THE DAY BEFORE SURGERY. Apparently they changed some things and I needed not only a referral from my doctor, but also a letter of necessity, they never received something from my surgeons office, and my psychological evaluation had to be done with in 6 months before surgery, mine was 8 months….. Thank god I was able to pull some strings and got in to see my doctor after hours and have him to a surgery clearance and a letter, I got my psychologist to do a phone session with me and update my evaluation, and I harassed my surgeons office to figure out what the heck they were doing over there and get this mess fixed because my surgery was tomorrow. Im sure it is partially my fault for not checking closer to the date of my surgery if everything was all set, but I cant help but put some blame on Cigna and my doctors office for both sitting on the paper work and not checking in to make sure everything was set on both ends and getting in touch with me . I did end up having my surgery on the 10th! I got a call from my doctor’s office around 12 pm saying to head in asap I would be the last surgery of the day. my word of advice, double, triple, and quadruple check to make sure things haven't changed on you since you started the process and that they are on their A game and are actually working to get you approved!

Just make sure you follow through when your doctors have submitted everything. And constantly check up on your insurance company. Make sure everything is in order, and you shouldn't have any problems. For me it was all a break down of communication between my Doctor, and Insurance.

ALSO....cigna told US that the peer to peer does NOT have to be with the surgeon himself, but could be someone in his office like a nurse or for us we had the office manager talk to someone at cigna.... (sorry for posting so many times!)

HI! i am so glad I found this. I had to go through a VERY similar ordeal with Cigna the DAY BEFORE surgery. I was told I was denied less then 24hrs before my surgery. So I called up and they told me I was missing that letter from my surgeon and a letter from my primary care doctor. The letter from my surgeon was a mistake on their office… as for the primary care doctor letter, we had him write a few and none were correct. Finally the medical director at Cigna told us that the letter specifically needs to state “__ is my patient, she has (the following co-morbidities) and based on my decision this patient is medically cleared for surgery…” again this is for what worked for us! I am hoping this will work for you. Also make sure that your psychological evaluation is as up to date as Cigna wants it to be. (we were told that it needed to be within 6 months before surgery and of course mine was 8 months. Good luck!!

<p style="text-align: left; ">HI! i am so glad I found this. I had to go through a VERY similar ordeal with Cigna the DAY BEFORE surgery. I was told I was denied less then 24hrs before my surgery. So I called up and they told me I was missing that letter from my surgeon and a letter from my primary care doctor. The letter from my surgeon was a mistake on their office...</p> <p style="text-align: left; "> </p> <p style="text-align: left; ">as for the primary care doctor letter, we had him write a few and none were correct. Finally the medical director at Cigna told us that the letter specifically needs to state "___ is my patient, she has (the following co-morbidities ) and 'based on my decision this patient is medically cleared for surgery'...."</p> <p style="text-align: left; "> </p> <p style="text-align: left; ">again this is for what worked for us! I am hoping this will work for you. Also make sure that your psychological evaluation is as up to date as Cigna wants it to be. (we were told that it needed to be within 6 months before surgery and of course mine was 8 months...) </p> <p style="text-align: left; "> </p> <p style="text-align: left; ">good luck! </p>

sorry peer to peer*, haha.

thats exactly one of the things that was missing and i had had to scramble to get to my Doctor and have him check me out and give me clearance. I also was told that I needed to do a pier to pier, but my doctors office kept telling me it had to be with someone at cigna and with my doctor...which cigna said wasn't necessary. Once i finally got my doctors office to just humor me and try it, turns out cigna was right and they just needed someone like a nurse or medical advisor to talk to them. It really it a big mess at times. As long as you are checking in with both ends, making sure YOUR policy is being met correctly, and are keeping track of everything they tell you, all the number they give you, and ALWAYS ask for names you should be okay. Heck, even after my whole fiasco I was able to get approved in 24hrs once they gathered all my missing things and past files and re-submitted them again.

Hi everyone! I Had my surgery one week ago today! so far weight loss has been slow for me which is really irritating me as is, but now I am constantly feeling hungry! I know I'm not getting the amount of protien I should be getting in....so maybe that's why? All i know is it is more then head hunger because this that wakes you up in the middle of the night in pain, kind of hunger. Anyone else with either issues? slow weightloss the first week or feeling hungry already? I feel like I get plenty of liquids in, but nothings filling me. almost wondering if they even took my stomach out! ha-ha.

oh god! I have been trying to crush my pills but I have no idea if I even supposed to. When I asked my doctor if I should be taking my medications he just said yes take your medications, but said nothing about crushing them. I have been doing it as a just in case. Hopefully I can get more answers today, because I felt a bit rushed out of the hospital and I was still kinda loopy and of course I didnt have any questions besides "when will this stop hurting".

I am so sorry to hear that! I was told I was dinied approvel for vsg and the hernia fix the day before my surgery! but after a lot of hard work I was able to figure out what I needed to do to get it approved and was lucky enough to have doctors that were wiling to help expidite the things I was missing. It wasn't untill the day of surgery right before they were wheeling me to the OR did my doctor tell me that my insurance is crazy (cigna as well), but they werent going to approve the hiatal hernia...but He was nice enough to just repair it for us anyways for no cost. I would talk to your doctor and see if there is a way he could write a letter of nessecity, also if you had an endosocopy by a seperate doctor maybe they could write something as well. It really is crazy not to cover it all togeather.

I would have never thought it was stomach acid! I will have to try taking something for refulx and see if it gets any better. I'm actually going to my first post op appointment this afternoon so I will ask him about that as well. Hopefully he gives me more then "well yea, that happens sometimes but it will go away eventually"...that has been his answer for a lot of things, ha. Thanks everyone for the speedy responses!! and congrats to all the new sleevers as well

good luck to both of you!

I think about those all the time.... but weight loss is weight loss and it's all to make you healthier! also they have some pretty cute haircuts that are short now. if you feel like its looking too thin, maybe a new do would help with the new you! ( thats kind of what I have decided for myself...I've just spent 2.5 years trying to grow out my inverted bob cut...its now getting so nice and long, but I know theres a good chance of my hair thinning a lot, so it might end up back as a bob again, lol. ) good luck! I hope it went well.

Hey guys! So I have yet to get lap band, but I am really interested in getting it. I have looked into a few times and each time I think to myself that I can just lose the weight myself by dieting and working out alone. I think I am finally ready to take the first step and talk to a doctor about getting this procedure done. I’m 20 years old 285 lbs. have awful asthma as well as lower back pains and knee pain. I know I need to do something about this issue while am young. I am hoping that I can get some real information from people who have had this done! I know the basic information that you read online, but what are some of the things that you experienced pre and post op? “(examples: hunger, food you can eat, can’t eat, exercises and when you can start exercising, pain, weight loss and then weight gain, rapid weight loss and extra skin..) I am hoping to gather as much information for myself so that I can better prepare myself…. Also…are any of picky eaters? If so did you find that to be an issue for you after the surgery? Really any information would be great! -Heather

Hey guys! So I have yet to get lap band, but I am really interested in getting it. I have looked into a few times and each time I think to myself that I can just lose the weight myself by dieting and working out alone. I think I am finally ready to take the first step and talk to a doctor about getting this procedure done. I’m 20 years old 285 lbs. have awful asthma as well as lower back pains and knee pain. I know I need to do something about this issue while am young. I am hoping that I can get some real information from people who have had this done! I know the basic information that you read online, but what are some of the things that you experienced pre and post op? “(examples: hunger, food you can eat, can’t eat, exercises and when you can start exercising, pain, weight loss and then weight gain, rapid weight loss and extra skin..) I am hoping to gather as much information for myself so that I can better prepare myself…. Also…are any of you picky eaters? If so did you find that to be an issue for you after the surgery? Really any information would be great! -Heather