abtenney419

I feel like this entire pre-op process has fried my brain. Literally, things that prior to this I would just say "Let me look this up" or "I will call the doctor" or whatever are now causing me all kinds of distress and second-guessing...I think it's because I have been working really hard to make this happen and I want it so badly that I've convinced myself it will all fall apart at the last minute! Here's my question: my surgery will most likely be scheduled for mid- to late December, according to my patient navigator. But say I get everything done, get the approval from the insurance company, and for whatever reason can't get the surgery scheduled until early 2016...is the approval still valid? Do all the pre-op tests/labs/etc still "count"? Or would I at that point have to basically start over? Help!

I had my psych eval a couple of weeks ago. It was not at ALL what I expected: I filled out literally 30 pages of background information on myself, then had to answer 338 true or false questions on a computer - one of which was: "Evil spirits sometimes possess my body"...then spent not quite an hour talking to the doctor. We barely spoke about food or my relationship with food - instead, she thinks I have the potential to become an alcoholic (because my mother is an alcoholic and I enjoy a glass of wine after dinner most nights) who also has a mild case of PTSD stemming from my sister being sexually abused when we were children. I left her office completely dumbfounded, like "WTF just happened?". I really thought the purpose of this evaluation was to see where my head was at as it pertained to the surgery and the permanent changes I will need to make afterwards, but like I said - we barely spoke about the surgery. Then I get a phone call from my surgeon's office. Apparently the psychiatrist presented my "case" to a board that included her peers, as well as a representative from my surgeon's office, and together they decided that I need to see a counselor for at least a couple of sessions and have that person put together some kind of treatment plan for me before I can be cleared for surgery. The counselor I have to see didn't have any open appts until Dec 2 and Dec 9, which I have already scheduled, but even if I get the clearance on Dec 9 and it's submitted to my insurance the same day that isn't enough time for them to review and approve (provided they approve it on the first try) and for me to then do the 2 week diet in order to have the surgery done in 2015. Because in 2016 my insurances changes to a high deductible plan - $3000 vs the $700 it currently is (which of course has already been met this year). Thankfully my employer will contribute $2200 in January to use towards the deductible and/or other medical expenses, but it's still another $800 I will need to cover. Not to mention the money I will need to spend if I also need to redo any of the tests or labwork I've had to do already. I don't deny that I would probably benefit from speaking to a professional about my issues, but this surgery is one thing in my life I feel completely in control of. I am ready for it. I'm ready for the changes. With the addition of these two newest appts..with all the appts I have already been to (tests, lab/blood work, follow-ups) I will have been to a total of 24 appts since August, including the first info session. I rearranged my schedule at work countless times to accommodate my appts, burned through nearly 50 hours of vacation time...I even cancelled a cruise for this! I will have spent nearly $1500 out of pocket, because although my insurance covers the surgery and the hospital stay it won't cover any of the pre- or post- op requirements...I've got journals and food plans and I've reorganized cabinets in my kitchen to make room for "my" food... I'm dedicated and determined and READY, and I feel like I got robbed because I never even had the opportunity to tell any of this to the psychiatrist. I realize this is just a delay, not a no, but I still can't help but feel completely defeated. I have done everything I have been asked to do, and all of my doctors have been wonderful as far as working me in and helping me to get this done before the end of the year...only to be derailed by a woman I literally talked to for just under an hour and other people who never met me, never spoke to me - but yet feel they know me well enough to know I'm "not ready" for this. Sorry for the length. I just needed to vent I'll be fine. I'm just mad at the world right now. And thinkin' that I shoulda just went to Mexico.

Thanks - I appreciate you all taking some time out to offer your input

@@reree6898 That's a great idea - and one that never even crossed my mind. Good grief. So not only do I apparently live under a rock, I also spend my time under there daydreaming and drooling! I've been kind of AWOL over the weekend, but here is the latest: "Bella" did remove my number from her outgoing voicemail message - I verified this for myself. So far, the calls and texts have stopped. And while this really did feel like an honest mistake on her part and not malicious or intentional, after some additional pondering and reading what you guys have to say I have decided to contact my cell provider and see about changing my number. Too much potential for trouble, and I'm just not willing to risk it. Better safe than sorry, and all that. Thanks again

Funny story. About a month ago I started receiving phone calls and texts that would begin around 11:30 pm and continue until sometimes 4 or 5 AM...it wasn't all night, every night, but enough to be a PITA. After sharing a few choice words and desperate texts ("PLEASE tell me where you got this number!") with these - and I use the term loosely - gentlemen, I was able to discover that my cell phone number had been listed as the contact number for an escort named Bella (thanks to one eloquent text: "dis Gary I lookin for Bella") on a website called Backpage.com! So I went to Backpage (which appears to be similar to Craigslist) and looked through every escort ad - after which I wanted to bleach my eyeballs - but couldn't find my number on anything, although I did find a couple of "ladies" named Bella... around this time the calls had died off so I assumed "Bella" had corrected the mistake and didn't think about again other than to laugh about it over drinks with my friends. During one of these drinking sessions, my phone rang. For Bella. And even after I answered the phone and told this young man that I most assuredly was not a prostitute, he still sent me a text telling me to "try me, you'll like me" and then called AGAIN. It literally took my male friend to answer the phone and tell this guy that I had a penis for him to stop calling or texting. Ugh. And last night I got a call from a man named Bill who didn't believe me when I told him he had the wrong number...followed at 3:00 this morning by another man who told me he called one number and got a voicemail to call a second number (mine). I asked him to text it to me, which he did, and then sent me another message asking me where I was from! Dude. Really?? So at 4 this morning I called the first number, and the outgoing message very clearly leaves my cell phone number. Considering my number has been my number for like 7 or 8 years now I'm not sure how that would happen, unless someone is doing this on purpose?? LOL. I wonder who I pissed off?? I called her over and over and left her *several* messages and have yet to get a response. And as of the last time I called, she hadn't changed the message. I suppose the next step would be to contact Backpage? And unfortunately, turning my cell phone off at night isn't really an option, as my disabled mother lives in the back of my property and I would never forgive myself if she had some sort of emergency and couldn't reach me... This entire situation has completely grossed me out - all told, there were 20+ calls/texts from 10-15 different numbers. It gives me the heebie jeebies to think about it. Then combine this with the fact that I am BARELY sleeping as it is, as I'm trying desperately to adjust to my brand-stinking-new CPAP machine (which I'm afraid to going to cause some delays with my surgery, because there is no way my pulmonologist will sign off my surgery if I can't get the CPAP thing straight) and I ended up spending the last two hours before I needed to get up for work between crying and overthinking my entire life. Sigh.

Wow. Apparently I have been living under a rock, because I never heard of Zola and I thought Backpage was a legit classifieds site, just with an adult section ???? And I definitely appreciate everyone's input. I called Bella one more time, and she answered - she laughed and apologized and said she must have misread her number.. she said she wondered why no one had called her.LOL... She seemed sincere, and said she would change it as soon as we hung up. I will call again later to make sure she has, and if she did at this point (provided there are no more calls to my number) I probably won't pursue any further action, as it didn't "feel" threatening...I know, I know. BUT. If anything else feels wonky I will definitely file a police report and change my number... Thanks again for all the input ????

Awww, yeah! Congratulations

I haven't started the liquid pre-op diet my surgeon requires, and my supervised diet required by my insurance has been more of my NUT assigning me homework...like cutting out carbs or eliminating soda from my diet, in preparation for the changes coming for me post op. So far, I've had pretty good results making these gradual changes. How about for you, cookies_queen?

So I will be going Monday to do my psych eval...for which I am super excited, because this is one of the last items to cross of my list of things to do in preparation for my surgery buutt I am a little concerned because the doctor I will be seeing Monday asked me for the medical records from a doctor I'd seen once 3 years ago...I called and spoke with that office; they told me no problem, that I just needed to fax an authorization form to them. I did that - and they call to inform me that I have a balance for two missed appointments and they may not release my medical records until that balance is paid! I know this is incorrect because after my initial visit with the psychiatrist, he made an appt for me with the therapist in his office... Literally the morning of my lunchtime appointment, his office calls me at work to let me know that the therapist was supposed to be scheduled off after lunch that day so they needed me to come in right then. I told them there was no way I could keep that appointment as I was at work. Although this was 3 years ago, I distinctly remember this because this incident is the reason I did not return to that doctor (I thought it was unprofessional and didn't give me much faith in the competency of the doctor or his staff). This is also the reason I know without a shadow of a doubt that I did not schedule the second appointment they are claiming I missed. I keep records of all my doctor's appointments...although a handwritten note in a calendar nor a lack of some kind of paper trail hardly count as "proof". At the time, I didn't give this another thought because I never imagined they would charge ME for THEM rescheduling my appointment...honestly, I never heard anything else from this office until the call recently - I never even received any statements or phone calls about me owing them any money. If I had, I certainly would have handled this then! So I am worried that no medical records from my old doctor will be a problem for my new doctor. And if it is, do I just pay it and be done with it, in order to get the records?? Or do I continue to fight this with them? Because if I remember correctly, their fee for missed appointments is $100, $125 or something...you can see why I don't want to pay it. But at the same time... I've already spent about a bajillion dollars in co-pays and out-of-pocket expenses, so hey - what's another two fifty?? :wacko:

The BMI that "counts" might vary from surgeon to surgeon? My doctor's office will verify your insurance requirements in the beginning, but will only submit it officially for pre-auth once those (and the surgeon's) requirements are met, so they use the BMI from your final weigh in with the NUT. And I think the requirement to have a BMI of at least 40 with no comorbidities is some kind of federal regulation...

Thanks to everyone for your responses Interestingly, when I typed this I hosed up the spelling of "everyone" so badly that my tablet corrected it to Beyoncé. "Thanks to Beyoncé..." Got a giggle out of that one

@@tamywill if it comes down to it, no, I will not let this stand in the way of getting my surgery done...especially since I am already cutting it very close in terms of my desire to have it done this year, due to some pretty significant changes in my insurance for 2016. It's just the principle of the thing ???? but it sounds like this is really a nonissue anyway,...I guess I'll find out on Monday! Honestly, I'm pretty sure I'm stressing over every little detail at this point, because I'm so close and have such little wiggle room for any obstacles. Thanks for your response, and good luck with your surgery!

@@cindyw41 I live in Georgia. I did some research on my own, and if I understand correctly every state is held to the "can't withhold records due to a balance owed" thing...one thing I think does differ from state to state is whether or not the doctor's office will charge me for the records. But I think they can only charge if I request actual copies, and even then only if the copies are not requested due to the patient seeking treatment at another facility or with another doctor - which is the case in my...case. so it kind of sounds like doctor one cannot withhold my records from doctor two, even if he wants to

Gotta do my psych eval Monday, then one more appt with my NUT next month, then submitted to my insurance! According to my surgeon's office, my insurance provider has a history of quick turn around, as far as approvals/denials - so provided everything continues to go as smoothly as it has thus far, my patient navigator tells me to expect mid- to late December! Yay! Happy New Year to me! And to all of you ????

@@Bufflehead Thank you for the info - I never even considered that what they are threatening is technically illegal. I will definitely bring this up with my new doctor on Monday, and see if we can at least get the medical records part of this squared away...I'll figure the supposed balance out later...again, thanks for the info ☺️

Just got the side-eye from a coworker for giggling and snorting... too funny!

Soooo can someone explain to me what this "goop" is?? I'm supposed to do a sleep study (just waiting for my doctor's office to call me back with the appt info) and this is the first I'm hearing about goop. Just want to be fully prepared!