Finally I am all done with my testing! I am really very happy and relieved. Now I will just wait and see what my insurance will say-accepted or denied and with my luck I'm not holding my breath.LOL! I am just kind of down about life in general lately so please forgive me. There are so many things I must deal with in my day to day that the WLS is what keeps me hopeful about my life right now.

Last night I attended my first WL seminar. I must say going into the seminar I was pretty prepared to have the lap band procedure but after listening to everything Dr. Richardson had to say on both the lap band and RNY procedure I knew in my heart the RNY option would be the wiser choice for me. I called first thing this morning and scheduled my appointment with the Dr.'s assistant and the dietician. I am not nervous at all really about the procedure itself, in fact I am very excited! The only thing I am so concerned with is my medicare coverage and if they will refuse to pay. I have already started keeping track of everything I eat and drink for the dietician and filling out my patient chart information. This is something I have wanted for so long. Keep your fingers crossed Please! I will keep everyone posted.



It's Oct 14th. the day of my first appointment is here finally! I'm so excited I have all the information they needed me to fill out all ready to hand over. I don't even think anything about the one and half hour road trip, my 20 year old son is with me. I'm happy and that is very rare. We get to the hospital and I check in and I'm waiting in the waiting area not very long when my name is called (we all know how good that feels) and the nurse tells me I will not be being seen today nor will I be able to have my surgery there period! I probably stumbled a bit but loss for words never, I asked why? why is this happening? and it is because Medicaid is my secondary insurance. Medicare is my primary but still they will only pay 80% and Medicaid does not pay for weight loss surgery- who will pay the other remaining 20% ? I certainly offered to but was told it was ilegal to bill me since I was a medicaid recipiant. I wanted to just die right there but I had to be strong. That long ride home was awful. That next day I posted on the message board (main forum) and got some really wonderful, supportive replies (Thanks Again to everyone!) My friends have been just amazing to me as well. How Blessed I have been. I called the only other Center Of Excellence that I could possibly travel to and was told they are not even accepting Medicare patients at this time! So that was even worse. I called the first hospital back and asked them some questions and as of yesterday I have been accepted back into the program! YES!! I am so happy...all I have to do is purcahse some additional insurance to cover the 20% that Medicare will not cover. Doing that Thursday Morning and already have an appointment set up for Nov. 4 @ 10:45 a.m. I have also quit smoking (3 days ago) and doing alot better then I thought I would (I have NOT cheated one time) It's very hard I am not going to lie. I want to give a much deserved shout out to Mindy who had her surgery 10/14 and is doing absolutly FABULOUS!!! You Go Mindy!