Cota1262

Well, I just met with Dr Varnell. He's a really nice guy, and explained the surgery very well. He's easy to talk to, but he also scheduled an EGD. I get to be put under sedation and a scope ran down me. He said you have to have a person over 18 be your driver. Moving right along....

Gotcha. I mean all of it. The pulmonalogist is seeing me for sleep apnea, cardiologist for shortness of breath, and so on.

Mine won't either that why it's coded under something else. Hopefully if all goes as planned, I can get all the testing paid for and just have to pay for surgery. Talk to dr kirk about it. Have him code it under your comorbidities and send it to your insurance company. All they can do is not pay it. It's worth a try.

Will your insurance not cover it? He will code it under your co morbidities.

Ok, I sent it. If you don't get it, let me know.

BTW, the lady at the desk said I had to see Dr Kirk 4 times before surgery.

Lol, yeah the psychologist was a trip but I actually felt a little better about some of my "deep dark secrets" lol after I left. I am going to try to attach the papers she had me fill out and the price sheet. If it doesn't work, I will need to email them to you. I really like having someone to talk to too. I am not telling any of my family and only a few friends what I'm doing but they don't get it. "So instead of going on a diet, you're going to cut part of your stomach out??" Lol well when you put it that way it does sound crazy but they are skinny and don't understand. Well apparently I can't attach them to this thread but if you give me your email address, I will send them to you.

Even though I am self pay for the actual surgery, we are trying to get all the preliminary testing paid for by my insurance. They are coding my visits under my co morbidities so hopefully the insurance companies don't ask questions and just pay it lol. Dr Wood did give me a price sheet though but it is 6am and raining outside and the sheet is in my car, so I'll get it to you later today :-). At first, I felt the same way about Dr. Kirk and his talking lol but I was very hesitant about doing this in the beginning and I have already seen him 4 times. But I think he uses his talking as a "tool" to calm people like me down. I want to get to know people before I can feel comfortable asking questions so I'm OK with that. I really liked Dr. Worley. He was 15 mins late for our apt and actually apologized, that rarely happens. He also explained stuff pretty well. I'm sorry you had a bad experience with him. I'll let you know how my apt goes today.

What do you think of him?

We have to go to at least one support group, and I think you just show up. I haven't decided which one I'm going to. Which one are you closes to? I though the psychologist would be the easiest, but it was actually the hardest for me. I saw Dr. Wood in Owasso...I just thought I was going to talk about me being fat lol but noooo. She started digging into my brain and wanted me to talk about things that I really couldn't bring myself to say out loud. It was crazy how emotional I was. I'm typically the girl that doesn't cry in front of others, but oh my. She is very nice but at the end I had to take 2 tests on a computer that had about 500 questions on them. I got all my appointments mixed up so I actually see the surgeon tomorrow (Friday). I'm excited. I have Dr. Varnell, do you know who is doing yours ? In addition to seeing the pulmonalogist and cardiologist I have to do a stress test, echo, sleep study, pulmonary function test and he says I need a cpap machine (yuck). The pulmonalogist also said that if you have sleep apnea and don't address it, it will negatively effect your weight loss. Besides tomorrow, my next day of tests is December 8. By the way, just in case, if you do any drugs, including weed, Dr. Wood said that they will cancel your surgery permanently- no second chances. I quit smoking on Oct 26 and am doing ok with it. Everyday this week I have gotten up around 5 or 6 to exercise. I totally surprised myself on that one lol. I'm also doing the food journal on my iPhone app, it actually is helping. I've tried doing it before but only half assed it. Sorry for writing a book lol. I hope all is going good.

BTW I'm also self pay. If you smoke you have to quit. Also, you will have to see a psychologist, pulmonalogist, cardiologist, dietician, exercise physiologist and get their ok before the surgery. They will set up the appointments for you. I meet with the surgeon Dr. Varnell on Monday as well. If you have any other questions just let me know :-)

I am going to Bailey and I actually am seeing Dr. Kirk on the 17th as well. He's a really nice guy. I'm doing my cardiologist and psychologist vist tomorrow as well. I'm hopefully doing the surgery in January. Good luck.