I had another appointment with my surgeon yesterday. He was extremely happy with my food journals. My Upper GI, chest x-ray and EKG were great. And I've lost 9 pounds! He had told me his best expectation of his new patients was about 4 lbs in a month. I more than doubled that! It's paying off! I feel pretty impatient at most times, and just ready to get this surgery, but knowing all that I'm going through is really paying off, makes all the waiting worth while.
So then we talk about my other outstanding appointments & that they'll be completed next week. He says, great! Then here's your blood work orders, get your PCP to send over their records and recommendation letter. Come back to see me next month and we'll set your surgery date! I was floored! Really? So soon? I don't have to wait forever & ever?! You couldn't have knocked the grin off my face. Then we talked for a minute about my insurance. I had spoken to them a few weeks ago & was expecting to be mailed all of the requirements, etc, of bariatric surgery, but it never came. I explained that from my understanding, I would need the 6 consecutive month weight loss attempt - documented by a Dr, of course. He told me, no worries, if that's what we have to do, we'll just keep seeing you every month until we get there. And that's fine.
We talked about this to the lady in the office that works closest with the insurance companies. She tells me she should have the policy already. She finds it, prints it out and gives me a copy. We're looking over it and sure enough, there's that stipulations - six months documented attempt, blah, blah, blah. So I leave the office. I had another appointment to get to. Actually with my PCP, so I'm all fired up to find out if last year's phentermine attempt had me in the office for 6 consecutive months. I'm crossing every finger, toe and eyeball in hopes that I won't have to wait another 4-5 months.
As I'm waiting to be called back, I find the next point in the stipulations - the six month documented attempt will be waived if the patient has a BMI of greater than or equal to 50. (I have a BMI of 53/54) Fireworks went off in my chest! Really?! So, that means, I can get my surgery date next month?! Do you have any clue how excited this made me? I was literally sitting in my Dr's waiting room, reading from this huge stack of papers and wiping tears from my eyes. I couldn't wait to get out of the Dr's office so I could go back to the surgeon's office to let everyone know what I found! Sounds crazy and dramatic, but I was crazy with excitement! And I also had forgotten to make next month's appointment, so I needed to go back anyway. I showed the ladies what I'd found and they were all so happy for me.
My surgeon has such a wonderful team. I'm so blessed to have found them. Everyone is so supportive and welcoming. They treat you like family and it's a wonderful feeling. I know I'm in good hands and I'm so thankful for this feeling of confidence in them.
So now I just have to get a few things out of the way - Tuesday I'll have my Dietitian and Exercise specialist appointments. The following Saturday, I have my second/final session with the psychologist and one day I'll drop by the hospital for my blood work. Then I see Doc again on September 22nd to set my surgery date. I'm coming into the home stretch! I'll be sleeved within two months and I am barely containing my excitement.
Thanks again for reading my ramblings. Best of luck to each of you, no matter where you are in your journey!
That's the date I'll be making my way onto the 'Loser's Bench'! I just got the call today, from my insurance company no less.
My paperwork was originally submitted around 8/4. I gave it a week, called my insurance company and found out it was sitting in the wrong fax queue. So glad I called! This awesome rep, Cynthia, personally got the docs, checked them to make sure there weren't any obvious exclusions (i.e. my hospital wasn't a Center of Excellence or whatever BCBS's term is) and then pushed it over to the correct department. She then followed up with me 3 days later to let me know it was there but a case number hadn't generated yet.
She said I'd hear back on Monday, but I didn't (which really, I wasn't bothered by), but I did follow-up on my on Wednesday. Got through to the right department only to find out that my file was still sitting in someone's pending queue and, again, hadn't been touched. The rep got his supervisor involved and he personally started the process of creating the case. I got a call later that night from Cynthia, giving me the case number and telling me she'd be following the case personally. This was last Friday.
I called yesterday, got a rep that wasn't quite as helpful but did find out that my case was still 'Pending'. My plan was to call again on Wednesday, since I wanted to be sure it didn't sit in pending for days. Lo and behold, I got a call this afternoon and it was Cynthia letting me know that the procedure had been approved, along with a 2 day hospital stay. WHAT?
So the next hour was a flurry of activity that involved checking on my husband's paperwork, getting it faxed again (they didn't get the actual paperwork for some reason) and then scheduling my appointments.
Sadly, we discovered that in order to have my surgery at the hospital that's about 10min from home, I'd have to wait until November to schedule. While there's nothing wrong with waiting, there are various reasons that I really wanted to be sure this was done before the end of October. Fortunately the surgeon had 1 slot opened at his other hospital, about 40min away, that was his last before he went on vacation for a few weeks.
So September 18th it is! The next 2 weeks are going to be relatively busy, so I don't even think I'm going to notice the wait.
Next week I have my pre-surgery education class on 9/3. I'm looking forward to that and getting more information about what Dr. Srikanth expects post-op.
On 9/8 I start my 10-day, clear liquid diet. My husband has already said he and the kids will be staying in a hotel from 9/10 until surgery.
On 9/15 I have my final consultation where I'm sure we'll go over a lot more information.
Then at 5am on 9/18 we make the 40 minute drive to get me checked in for surgery.
This will be the first time since I was 17 that I'll be going under general anesthesia for longer than 30 minutes. This will be only the second time I'm having any sort of major surgery.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared - I am. There's a lot of 'unknown' ahead of me, but also so much promise.
