davinahope

So I called the surgeon's office on April 1st to find out what the hell was going on. It was then I was informed that I was basically denied, though no one was exactly sure why. I requested the bariatric coordinator connect me with the financial person involved with CMS (my insurance) to try to figure out why the hell I was denied. That was a Wednesday, and it was after 5pm before she got back to me to tell me the insurance people had already left for the day. Thursday, I contacted her again and she tried to contact the insurance company all day without any success. :smile2: Friday, April 3rd, I got a call around 11am. It was the bariatric coordinator. She literally said, "I have a question for you. Do you want to have your surgery Monday?" (April 6th). I was screaming yes, yes, yes! Then I remembered the cruise was scheduled for April 8th and I couldn't cancel that close to the date. So I had to decline the April 6th date. But I am approved! :thumbup: And my surgery date is June 15th. The coordinator told me she is going to try to get my surgeon to do some Tuesday surgeries, and that if she can she will be moving my surgery date up - or if there are any cancellations. But, cancellations and Tuesday surgeries aside, I have 61 days until my surgery. 61 days and an unknown amount of pounds to lose prior to surgery. I am just going to do what I was doing - going to the gym and trying to watch what I eat - and hope the pounds have come off. My mom's (and dad's) birthday is June 4th, and my godmother and best friend's birthdays are June 10th. So June is an active month for me. Not to mention the two kids I watch are out of school as of June 6th, so it will be their second full week without school when I have my surgery. Someone else will need to be watching those kids! And the unemployment rate in Florida is officially at 9.4%, according to Fox News. Just incase anyone wanted to know, haha! Okay, off to walk the dog then make my way to her house to take a brief siesta before waking up the kids and driving them to school. Ciao. :tongue2:

So I called the surgeon's office on April 1st to find out what the hell was going on. It was then I was informed that I was basically denied, though no one was exactly sure why. I requested the bariatric coordinator connect me with the financial person involved with CMS (my insurance) to try to figure out why the hell I was denied. That was a Wednesday, and it was after 5pm before she got back to me to tell me the insurance people had already left for the day. Thursday, I contacted her again and she tried to contact the insurance company all day without any success. :scared2: Friday, April 3rd, I got a call around 11am. It was the bariatric coordinator. She literally said, "I have a question for you. Do you want to have your surgery Monday?" (April 6th). I was screaming yes, yes, yes! Then I remembered the cruise was scheduled for April 8th and I couldn't cancel that close to the date. So I had to decline the April 6th date. But I am approved! :smile: And my surgery date is June 15th. The coordinator told me she is going to try to get my surgeon to do some Tuesday surgeries, and that if she can she will be moving my surgery date up - or if there are any cancellations. But, cancellations and Tuesday surgeries aside, I have 61 days until my surgery. 61 days and an unknown amount of pounds to lose prior to surgery. I am just going to do what I was doing - going to the gym and trying to watch what I eat - and hope the pounds have come off. My mom's (and dad's) birthday is June 4th, and my godmother and best friend's birthdays are June 10th. So June is an active month for me. Not to mention the two kids I watch are out of school as of June 6th, so it will be their second full week without school when I have my surgery. Someone else will need to be watching those kids! And the unemployment rate in Florida is officially at 9.4%, according to Fox News. Just incase anyone wanted to know, haha! Okay, off to walk the dog then make my way to her house to take a brief siesta before waking up the kids and driving them to school. Ciao.

Hi guys! I am 20 years old and weighed 237.8 pounds at my local gym on Tuesday (3/17/09). On February 12th, I had my consult with the surgeon. On February 26th, I was approved by the psychiatrist. Now it is 3 weeks out from the psych approval, 2 weeks out since contacting the surgeon's office again, and about 2 more weeks possibly until I know whether I am approved or not. At any rate, I am pursuing this harder than I have anything else except my college degrees. :smile: Oh, I live in Gainesville, FL (thus the title) and I noticed another UF-area person is on here. Also part of a lapband community, and wls community, together on LJ so hey there! My surgeon will be Dr. Kfir Ben-David at Shands & UF, as long as I am approved. So yeah, hi again!

Hey I am from Gainesville, too. My surgeon will be Dr. Ben-David, provided insurance approves me. I've read great things in here about him. Someone said he is strict but supportive. Could anyone give examples of how his follow up appointments are post-op? Thanks. I've only seen him during my consult and he seemed very supportive, but yes also strict; told me to lose 10 pounds and theorized I would be out of the hospital the same day as my surgery. It excited me but also kind of made me cringe about the weight loss. :smile: Hopefully I am doing well with the latter, aside from the last week and a half-ish. Anyone who wants to get together as a group or stuff, I am up for making friends with the lapband. I could definitely use the support since my family is passive aggressive supportive (you probably know the type - telling you what you can and cannot eat, yet shoveling donuts into their mouths in front of you at 10pm, all the while still telling you not to touch one of the other donuts. A bit annoying, really.)

Okay, so I did the consult with the surgeon on Feb. 12th. That was a smooth, painless process. Lose 10 pounds and do these three things: EKG, psych eval, and blood work. Sure thing. Did the EKG the same day, the blood work on the 13th [Friday the 13th at that!], and the psych eval on the 26th... It is now March 21st, and I haven't heard anything. :thumbup: I called the surgeon's office to inquire a week after the eval [March 6th], and was told it could take up to 30 days to hear about an approval. So it's been 2 weeks since then, and I know I am being impatient, but I am just dying to know if anything's going on concerning my approval! Dying, I tell you. lol I have a mini-vacation (3 day cruise) planned April 8-10th, and a 2-day Busch Gardens trip planned for April 4th and 5th. It will suck some dirty [bleeps] if my pre-op or surgery date falls into those time frames, but I think he only does surgeries on Mondays. Still, it would suck if my surgery was April 6th with the cruise being 2 days after that. On the other hand, I want this surgery so badly that I would say sianara [and if that's spelled wrong, so be it] to cruises and amusement park visits for the rest of the year to get it tomorrow... seriously. :ohmy: I just want that fat envelope from the surgeon's office to come telling me when the pre-op and surgery dates are. They can be scheduled for June. It's just killing me [again with the dying, I know!] with the suspense and stuff. I'm aching to be sure that I was approved. The psychiatrist approved me... so I ought to be golden, right? As for the 10 pound weight loss, I lost approximately 10 pounds from 10 days prior to my consult to the beginning of March according to my GP scale... So I'm hoping that will suffice for him. Otherwise, I am still going to the gym, so I probably will lose more than 10 pounds prior to the surgery... Because it's taking so long. Yipes. Okay, complaining aside... I totally need to go to the gym more and get control over my nightly eating again. I did so well for a whole month, then the nightly eating and not feeling like working out took over and BLAH! I haven't gained an enormous amount back, but I know I have gained a pound or two back in the past week and a half. If I don't get back on the wagon soon, I am going to be above my consult weight and that'd be bad for business...:mad2:

Okay, so I did the consult with the surgeon on Feb. 12th. That was a smooth, painless process. Lose 10 pounds and do these three things: EKG, psych eval, and blood work. Sure thing. Did the EKG the same day, the blood work on the 13th [Friday the 13th at that!], and the psych eval on the 26th... It is now March 21st, and I haven't heard anything. :w00t: I called the surgeon's office to inquire a week after the eval [March 6th], and was told it could take up to 30 days to hear about an approval. So it's been 2 weeks since then, and I know I am being impatient, but I am just dying to know if anything's going on concerning my approval! Dying, I tell you. lol I have a mini-vacation (3 day cruise) planned April 8-10th, and a 2-day Busch Gardens trip planned for April 4th and 5th. It will suck some dirty [bleeps] if my pre-op or surgery date falls into those time frames, but I think he only does surgeries on Mondays. Still, it would suck if my surgery was April 6th with the cruise being 2 days after that. :sneaky: On the other hand, I want this surgery so badly that I would say sianara [and if that's spelled wrong, so be it] to cruises and amusement park visits for the rest of the year to get it tomorrow... seriously. :tt1: I just want that fat envelope from the surgeon's office to come telling me when the pre-op and surgery dates are. They can be scheduled for June. It's just killing me [again with the dying, I know!] with the suspense and stuff. I'm aching to be sure that I was approved. The psychiatrist approved me... so I ought to be golden, right? As for the 10 pound weight loss, I lost approximately 10 pounds from 10 days prior to my consult to the beginning of March according to my GP scale... So I'm hoping that will suffice for him. Otherwise, I am still going to the gym, so I probably will lose more than 10 pounds prior to the surgery... Because it's taking so long. Yipes. Okay, complaining aside... I totally need to go to the gym more and get control over my nightly eating again. I did so well for a whole month, then the nightly eating and not feeling like working out took over and BLAH! I haven't gained an enormous amount back, but I know I have gained a pound or two back in the past week and a half. If I don't get back on the wagon soon, I am going to be above my consult weight and that'd be bad for business...