My surgery is a go for June 17. No insurance changes and all my pre-op's are finished. Now I'm starting the optifast in preparation for my surgery. These next few days are going to be tough until I've adjusted. I'm eating salads with a low fat/calorie raspberry vinaigrette dressing with my shakes to help fill me up until I've adjusted.. I am so looking forward to getting this done.. I will miss a few things but I know my health is more important and this will keep me focused and on tract..

After several long months of having to qualify under Blue Shield's standards I finally did it. I got the letter saying I have met their criteria and that they have approved that bariatric surgery is medically necessary. My surgery date is scheduled for June 17, 2013. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that nothing changes between now and then.

 Today was my first day to starting the process all over so I can meet Blue Shield's requirements to have the gastric sleeve done. I saw my doctor, I have an appt. with a dietitian next week and a sleep dr next month. I'm getting my blood work done this week to check for any other health issues. I know my cholesteral is high. My blood pressure is up, hopefully it's just stress related. It's stressing to have to get all your ducks in a row by yourself. I had help last year when I started all this, before I found out the surgery center and drs were out of network and I had to find a new dr. Anthem Blue Cross allowed me to use all the testing I had done to qualify with when I found an in network dr. Blue Shield is not so nice...

 My surgery for Monday has been cancelled because Blue Shield of CA would not accept my qualifiying under Anthem Blue Cross of CA. Their process requires some 6 month monitoring on top of everything else that I have completed. I guess they just want me to give up and pay for more of my medical expenses affecting my health instead of covering the surgery as planned and save themselves money in the long run. Blue Shield is NOT for the patient. If I had a choice to change back I would but I can't so now I'm going to suffer because of it. Blue Shield is NOT the insurance carrier to go with if you don't want to wait forever to get approved or if you don't mind starting over... I feel like giving up. Maybe I should. I've been jumping through all the hoops since November and now I need to jump through more till next year because Blue Shield won't accept that I've completed everything. What other hoops will they put in my way because they don't care about helping people get better?

My husband's union change the health insurance plan. We went from Anthem Blue Cross of Ca. to Blue Sheild of Ca. That happened on July 1, 2012. My surgery is scheduled for July 16. I've been told that Blue Sheild has stricter guidelines to meet to be approved for any type of bariatric surgery. I have been on the phone with several people trying to see if I can get Blue Sheild to approve my surgery without having to go through their 6 month prerequisite when I have already completed everything. Honestly I'm not hopeful.