Cassondra
I came down to my mom and dads for a visit last week July 11th, I had decided to try again with the surgery. called my insurance company (phcs) to find out if i could go out of state, they said yes and said i just had to find a participating doc. which i did. I happened to come across the Barix Clinics. I was told by many people that they were the number one in the nation. I called them july 12th and had my consult appt the very next day in scottsdale , az. I got a list of criteria from my ins. so i knew what i was up against. surgeons letter saying it was medically necessary, all docs notes, surgery to be perfomed, psych eval, nutritonal eval, medically supervised diet of the last 3 years (this was my biggest concern) and also a list of any co-morbidities... DING DING DING... i was told that any co-morbidities would outweigh the medically supervised diets. I have been on a few diff medically supervised diets, including being on meridia, atkins diet, slimfast....etc... over the last 10 years, but cant recall sticking with anything for more than a few months....... however.... i do have asthma and sleep apnea... i was diagnosed with sleep apnea last summer and sleep with a cpap machine. i am hoping this is my ticket. The Barix clinics will be sending all my info to my insurance this week, and my insurance informed me that if they had all the proper papers that i would be approved or denied within a matter of days.... is this possible??? can it possibly go this fast??? I guess we will see now wont we. The only clearance i had to get was a psych eval... well guess what.... i just happened to have been seeing a psychiatrist for the last 5 months for being bipolar, so all i needed was for him to sign off that it was ok for me to have the surgery, which he did the very next day after my consult, he faxed the paper straight back to barix. so now i begin the waiting game. I am keeping my fingers crossed tightly and praying to God up above that this is his will and he will make it possible for me to finally be rid of my fat self and become healthy...
My girls need a healthy happy mom. i dont want to waste anymore time on the couch eating chocolate and chugging diet dr pepper all day complaining about how uncomfortable i am and how i need to do something about myself.
I want to live, laugh and love...... as a thinner mother, wife and me!!!
just a little update....they are holding an appt for me for my pre-op/ pre-admission testing on tuesday the 25th... pending the insurance approves it on monday and faxes over the approval letter... lets keep our fingers crossed shall we?? melissa from the corporate office for barix in michigan is the one handling my chart... she faxed everything to my ins yesterday evening. My ins pre-determination lady, Natalie was nice enough to have it looked at as a priority, she had the cover sheet say :please review ASAP:.... i should almost for sure find out on monday if i am approved or not, based on everything that was sent in, ive been told that i should be ok... i have been doing ALOT of praying lately... ALOT!! Im trying to get this done as soon as possible, because my girls go back to school August 29th, and i dont want to have to worry about whos going to take them to school and pick them up and what not... hubby works very early and comes home well after schools out. Im so hoping that this isnt too good to be true, because it's all been going at lightening speed. I will be so heartbroken if my ins company wants to play ping pong with barix... i know i shouldnt put all my eggs in one basket, but i just feel it's the right thing to do... i just need to slow down and breathe.... well i guess thats enough for now... i will update again on monday to let everyone know what happened ( insert cliff hanger music here...... dun dun dun!!!!!)
July 31st Monday
Well sorry it took a week for me to update. Between traveling and getting my house back in order after being gone a few weeks and getting back in my routine of sitting on my butt all day doing nothing, i havent had much time to update. So im here now to do just that. I left off on waiting to hear from my insurance. Last Monday the 24th my insurance came back and said they needed a 6month diet history from my pcp, i was a bit irritated but i guess it's part of paying my dues like everyone else. They are going to go ahead and submit it to the review board anyway because sometimes they will waive the 6 month diet history. Im supposed to hear back sometime this week. I made my first appt right away. I talked to the PA when i went and he was deterrant against the GP but said he would try to help me lose weight through diet and exercise and then let me be the judge after that. Im ok with that. Worse case scenario, I will have to wait til the end of the year to have the surgery. Ive been overweight for over 10 years now, so whats a few more months right.?? Im ok either way... if the ins says yes w/.out the diet history then im definitely ok with that.... if they say no, then at least i know why... and it will be resolved w/in 6 months. if I do end up having to wait, then it will be fine.... seeing as how from August til December it's a busy time of year... school starts in August, Hubbys bday in September... Jacalyns bday in October, then Halloween, then Thanksgiving, then my 10th Anniversary... then Christmas, then my oldest daughter Mykailahs' bday. Whew, Im tired just typing it all out. Well I will keep you updated as soon as I get new info or just feel like ranting... Take Care
Wednesday, August 2nd
Well i called my ins today and was told i was denied due to lack of a medically supervised diet..... no biggie.... at least i know it's easily fixed.. right.!! not being sarcastic either.... 6 months is no time at all... gives me lots of time to prepare... well i guess i will updated more throughout the next few months....... good luck and take care
Wednesday, August 9th
So I just talked to Natalie from my insurance company a little bit ago . I wanted to make sure that seeing my PA was sufficient and i didnt need to be on nutrisystem or weightwatchers or something. I asked if in December after my 6th appt if i could just resubmit and she said i could go ahead and do it in November so it can be done before the end of the year!!! woohoo.... so 3 more months.... just wanted to give ya an update take care
Wednesday, August 23rd
Just a little update.... not much to go on, but didnt want a huge gap in between dates. Anyhow... I called my pcp's office and asked them to check for any diet attempts in my records for the last 3 years and i thought about resending that info to my insurance and see if i can get an approval then... wont hurt anything i guess , right? If all else, I just have to wait til NOV when i know for sure it will be approved. No biggie. I am just impatient and i want to get it done and over with. Im waiting for my docs office to call me back. I honestly dont think there are any attempts in there though. But I guess we shall see. .... Take care and good luck
Wednesday, August 30th
Procrastinating on cleaning so i thought i might update. Nothing really new or exciting..... just another week closer to my surgery. Still dont have a date yet or an approval. I did talk to my insurance company the day before yesterday and was told that I absolutely have to do the 6 months medically supervised diet and there is no way around it. Guess I have to pay my dues like everyone else, right? I have also been debating about waiting til the 1st of the year and do it then or do it around the holidays. Here is my contemplation: the insurance i have now, expires on December 31st as far as I know and a new ins company takes over. My husband works for Burlington REsources but they just got bought out this year so he know works for Conoco-Phillips, that is why our insurane will change. However... the new insurance that im told we will have is Presbyterian. From the research on insurances on the board on OH, almost 99% of ppl got approved after the 1st letter, w/out all the hassle that im having now. I want to have the surgery as soon as possible to get it done and overwith so i can move on and start really living, not just taking up space. But then on the other hand, the holidays would be a tough time to be going through all of this is my opinion. Between all the food and people and chaos of planning the holidays.Also, starting in Jan, my hubby will have more vacation time, but i just dont know. Decisions Decisions. Well I will pray about it and go from there i guess. Take care!!
Wednesday, September 27th
Havent updated in awhile because that hasnt really been anything new. I had my 3 month appt for my MSD with my PCP instead of his PA. He said that I am making a good decision with WLS. He is all for doing what he can to help me. He did put me on a revised diet though. No more than 1600 calories.. YEAH RIGHT. And of course exercising 5 times a week... but truth be told... my asthma is kicking my butt , has been for the last few months. So I cant really exercise. He put me on advair. ewww. W/in 2 days of taking it , I ended up having to go back to the doc because I had such awful ear, jaw, and throat pain, and in my neck also. Found out I had an middle ear infection. So he put me on keflex. I swear.. between 4 keflex , 1 wellbutrin xl, 1 lamictial and a few pain pills every day.... it's making me so nauseous. Im sick of it. Supposed to take the keflex for 10 days, but had to stop after 6. Makes me way too sick. But i have no more pain. So im good to go. I think I am on a streak of bad luck though.. haha.. Have to laugh it off. A few weeks ago, I got the bright idea to clean hair removal wax off of my bathroom counter. Somehow it spilled , whe whole jar thingy of nads. Purple was all over... about the size of a dinner plate. Well it sat there for about 2 months, because I could never get it off. So I bought GOOF OFF solvent remover.... poured it on the counter, let it set for about 10 mins, then began to wipe it off.... it worked great!! I didnt read the directions where it said..."use in well ventilated area". Well I did all this around 9 am... and by noon, my chest hurt so bad , like an elephant was stepping on it and my asthma was getting worse. I called the nurses line and was told to go directly to the ER... do not pass go, do not collect $220. Well I called my mother in law and asked her to watch my girls, and told her what happened, she was irritated for some reason, I guess that I god forbid , asked her to watch her grandchildren so i could go to the ER. Well she agreed to watch them. We showed up at the urgent care @ 4:30 ... had an EKG, a breathing treatment and chest x-rays. Doc was worried enough that he gave me nitroglycerine.. (yes indeed)... killer headache... and 4 baby aspirin, and transported me by ambulance to the ER around 8 pm. We sat in the ER for about another 5 hours.... had another EKG and chest x-rays and a shot of morphine (woohoo). They didnt find anything major. In fact, they left it up to me if I wanted to stay or go home... of course i said go home. They did find a mass in my chest though... but nothing real serious. Just have to have it checked. Ok so then.. the following week...i was rubbing my eye, cuz it was itchy from my allergies, i apparently rubbed it too hard, and my eye started hurting really bad, and was swelling shut, it felt like i had something in it.... i called the nurses line after an hour of pain... she said again, to come in to the ER... so i did... well I TORE my eyeball, so i was given allergy drops and antibiotic drops and sent home... all better now. Well when i called my mother in law yet again to watch the girls.... her response was "what did you do now?.." i told her what happened... she then says "I dont understand why you keep doing these things to yourself"...OMFG are you kidding me.... she did not just say that..... well she did... couldnt believe my ears.... i told her... "nevermind then, i will get someone else to watch them, ty anyway" then i hung up. She never has apologized. Go figure.
I did recieve my letter from my psychiatrists office last week, more in depth, clearing me for WLS. Yipee... So i called the lady from my ins that does the pre-determination, and read the letter to her to see if it was sufficient, she said it was right on. So I will be sending it over to them in November with everything else once i submit.
Well I guess thats enough for now... Take care..
October 19th, 2006
Wanted to give another update since it's been a few weeks. I wasnt expecting to resubmit everything until next month upon instructions of the lady that does the pre-determinations @ my insurance company. Well I went to see my pcp for my monthly weigh in and I had gained a pound over the last 4 months. He seen that the other doc in his office had put me on prednisone for my asthma.. My asthma was becoming worse and worse by the day. My pcp said that it was going to be almost impossible for me to succeed being on steroids. He said this whole 6 month diet thing is ridiculous when I clearly need the surgery and am clearly a great candidate for it. The only way to stop all these comorbidites is to have surgery. He sat down right there at my appt with him and typed out a letter to my insurane company.... really beefing it up and making it seem like there wou,ld be no way they would turn me down again. Then we faxed all my records from the last 4 months along with that letter over to my insurance co. I called a few hours later to make sure they recieved it, which they did. I called on Tuesday to check on it, and I was told by a rude lady (first rude one I have dealt with this whole time). She wasnt hateful or anything,.. just kind of cold and irritable with me... stating that it takes 24 hours to be reviewed... HELLO!! it's been 24 hours already,... but she said I needed to call my docs office to find out when they recieve a fax of my approval or w/e. Everyone else from my ins co told me I can call as much as I want to check on the status. I went onto my ins co's website and seen where it said if I wanted a status report on a pending autorization , to email them for an inquiry. So I did.... well low and behold... guess who responds back... The ice queen!! Great... She says something like "AS per our earlier conversation... you need to call your doctor on this matter... bah blah blah". I was pissy at this point and I dont quite know why. I then called Natalie(pre-d lady.. very nice) on Wednesday morning and asked her which doc they would send the fax to so I knew who to call and ask to be informed by. I called Barix and told them to watch out for it. She also said it could take up to a week to be approved or denied. I am actually very scared of the decision. Im trying hard to have faith. I was denied before for lack of a 6month diet history... they said everything else was great... so this was all they were waiting on. I was told to resubmit everything is Nov but it ended up happening mid October per my pcp's request. I did call Natalie that same day of my appt to tell her that my pcp was really pushing it and he wants me to submit everything now and I told her why... and she said to do it... so Im hoping since she said to go ahead... that means she will approve it. My only worry is that its only been 4 months .... even though I was told to do it now. Because if I get denied again it will be an appeal. I did however find out that my insurance wont change until 2008... which is great!!!! Thought we were changing in January. Melody from Dr. Simons office called me yesterday to check some info with me... like about my insurances criteria and such... I told her that everything was done... all clearances and everything.... also that everything was submitted to my insurance company on Monday and I was just waiting on the approval which should come sometime this week or early next week. She seemed suprised I was so far along... but I told her I have been at this since the summer lol. I then asked her how long after the approbal I would be able to have the surgery... she said If i get it this week or next... I would have it mid November!!!!!WOW!!!!! Now Im excited again and sooooo trying not to get my hopes up... but you all know how that goes. Im trying hard not to think about it or it's going to drive me crazy lol.
A few weeks ago I posted on the forum that my surgeon that I originally had was moving to PA so I would have to start all over again basically, but it would be at the same clinic that I wanted (Barix). I thought since I was starting over that I would check out other docs... seems like everyone I talked to wanted me to go back and forth between here and scottsdale for appts and group consults and seminars and such... HELLO!??? it's a 7 hour drive there and 7 hours back.. I think not. So I called the Dr. That Barix wanted to refer me too and his staff was so polite and nice and understanding. THey said since Im out of state... I would only have to go once!! yay... I would go down on a Wednesday for the group seminar, and have my testing and my individual consult with the Dr. before that weekend... and my surgery would be on that following Monday... Much better... only one trip... now that I can deal with.. lol Well I guess thats all I have to update for now... now I just play the waiting game.
Good luck and take care
Thursday, November 30th
WOW! I cant believe it's been that long since I updated. Im on here everyday and I dont know why i havent done it yet. Anyway... time for updates. A few things have happened in the last 2 months. I went to my appt for October to see my pcp for part of my 6month diet history thing... well anyway... prior to that I was put on steroids for my asthma. It was only a 9 day treatment, I was off it for a few weeks prior to this appt. He wanted to really help things along for me so he sat down right there and wrote me a really awesome letter for the insurance. ... stating that to complete the 6month diet would be impossible at being successful due to the fact i was on steroids and steroids really dont help when youre trying to diet... in fact it does the opposite... it makes you gain wait or inhibits you from losing any. I was only 2 visits shy of submitting everything anyway... so we decided to go ahead and try it. So we sent it in mid Ocotober. I waited a few days , then called my pre-d lady from my ins... she said she had to send it to the medical review board, because it wasnt something she could decide for herself. So I gave it til the next week... Oct 30th I called to check the status and she told me that I was denied... I assumed it was for the lack of completion on my 6 month diet. This was the reason I was denied before... Well needless to say i wasnt prepared for the denials.. there were 4 reasons for denial... 1. failure to complete 6month diet (ok, easily fixed) 2. Steroid would hinder proper and timely healing of an incision (I hadnt been on steroids for a month or more... and I wasnt currently on them) 3. My thyroid hadnt been ruled out as being a culprit (what!! they didnt use this reason the first time, how can they pull it out of their ass all of a sudden now?) 4. (this one is my all time fav... and the one that pisses me off the most) We cannot rule out that patient has a chemical dependancy (WTF!!) Back in April of this year I started seeing my new psych and of course you start all over ... so when he asked about drug use... I said yes... I have smoked pot 2-3 times when I was in my early 20's. So apparently those notes got into the hands of my ins company. GRRRRRr
Ok well... In the last month... apart from being ticked to high heaven... I completed my 6th and final appt with my pcp.... had him write a letter stating I am not currently on steroids and nor have I been in the last 2 months , had a drug test done to prove i dont do drugs, and had blood work done to show my thyroid wasnt a culprit. Everything was faxed to Natalie (pre-d lady.. very nice) on Tuesday of this week (11-28). I called this morning to see if she needed anything else for her review , but she hadnt gotten to it yet. So i asked her to call me when she made a decision, and she agreed. I gotta tell ya though.. its so damn hard not to call every hour to check the status. I should have asked her for a time estimate on when she might be done... cuz i dont know if it will be this week or next or what. She said before that if I sent in evidence that adressed all the reasons of denial that it wouldnt have to go to the medical review board this time... and this is what i did. Even though Im trying to have faith.... it's hard to be confident since they can come up with some pretty stupid stuff.. but im hoping that 3rd times a charm... I will keep ya updated... now lets see how long i can keep my sanity :P
Take Care
Friday, December 1st, 2006
Guess what???.... Natalie from my insurance co called me this morning @ 7:22 to tell me I am approved!!! I just need to have Dr. Simons office fax her something saying I am going to be a patient there... and she will fax something right back to them letting them know I am approved. And then I will get my date. I am waiting for the surgeons office to call me back... hopefully it will be today, so I can find out my date before the weekend. Im so hoping for a December date... I cant beleive I finally made it to this point!!!! Im sooooo excited. Well I will update more today hopefully.
Take Care
Monday, December 11th, 2006
Well... my surgery date was scheduled last Monday for Tuesday, the 19th. I have to be in Phx the 13th and 14th for pre-ops and classes. Im sooo excited. So My girls and I are leaving tomorrow around noon and driving to phx. We are going to meet my mother there so she can take care of the girls while im in class and doing my pre-ops. I will be in phx til the 14th then drive to yuma and stay for the weekend, then come back to phx monday, the 18th and pick up my hubby from the airport. Then hopefully go back to yuma on the 20th or 21st...then stay there til the 28th... drive to phx, stay the night, then the next morning the doc will hopefully give me the OK to go back home, and hubby and the girls and I will drive back home. Its actually perfect timing for the surgery. The girls will only miss 7 days of school and hubby will only miss 8 days of work. Im so excited, yet there is sooooo much to do. Im a procrastinator so of course I left all my housework and laundry til the day before I leave. It never fails. Gonna have the neighbors come over and feed Lucy (my cat) and the birds (frost, captain jack sparrow , and the other one is still to be determined.) Honestly if I wasnt going to have people in my house, I wouldnt worry so much about it. But then again, I would love to have a clean house to come home to. It snowed last night and it's absolutely beautiful outside. No school delay though, but thats ok. Im glad I got a little piece of winter before i go to desertville. I def wont have a white christmas lol. Well... I guess thats all for now. I will do my best to update in the next 6 days... if not... then for sure after surgery.
Take Care and God Bless
Wednesday, Jan 3rd, 2006
Well , here I am 2 weeks and 1 day post op. Im down 23 lbs so far. I was 276 day before surgery and 253 today. Yipee. The surgery honestly went pretty good. My doc was great.. the hospital was ok. I had lap rny. So i only have 5 tiny little holes. I didnt have any drains at all. I did however have 2 small wire things that were delivering lidocaine to my incisions. THey didnt hurt at all when they came out the next day. I didnt have a catheter left in either. I only had my morphine drip for 24 hours. The first day I didnt get to have anything by mouth. That was really hard. Then the next day i got to have an ounce of water every 30 mins. That was so nice... but I wanted to chug it sooo bad. lol They had to move my iv 3 times... and even to this day, i have brusing that just came about and 2 of the spots are soooo sore and swollen still. i called my doc a bit ago and Im waiting on a phone call from him. I went in for surgery on the 19th, which was a tuesday, and got out on the 21st which was a thursday. Once I could keep my applesauce down. I started my walking an hour after I got out of the recovery room. They made me walk every hour during the day and every 2 hours at night. They called me speed racer cuz I would whiz around the floor with no problem... not doing one lap... but 2-3. I was told I was an excellent patient and wished alot more were like me. I got up out of bed by myself... didnt ever complain or whine about anything. I got up when i was asked and did anything else that was requested. I think for good behavior i got moved to my own private room with a little patio on the side of it... my own bathroom... very nice room with a nice view. We stayed the night in phx the day i got out. and went back to yuma the next day. For Christmas eve my family has a tradition of doing a mexican food dinner. i only ate refried beans with some cheese. Im supposed to be on pureed foods for the next 4 weeks... have already been on it for 2 prior to today.. so i have 6 weeks total. Anyway.. on Christmas day I ate a tiny piece of cornish hen, and some lima beans. it was really good. and i also ate about 10 olives throughout the course of the day lol. We started our drive back to new mexico on the 28th but had to stop in winslow az because the snow was sooo bad and the roads were awful. .. but we made it home on the 29th... my oldest daughters 10th bday. Anyway... things have been good since then.... it's definitely been an adjustment... its hard at times. You just want to gorge sooo bad. But im sticking to my really soft foods... refried beans... soups, applesauce.... cheese... eggs.. and the best ever... bushs baked beans... they are so sweet and so yummy. My biggest problem is getting in all my water and protein. I actually started getting a UTI last night so i went and bought some uristat and it solved it. I have been so awful about getting in my vitamins and pills... So today I made a vow to do my absolute best.... why go through all of this just to do it half assed... im going all the way with this. Ive worked hard and long to get here. I want to be the healthiest I possibly can. I took both my mental pills (bipolar.... i take wellbutrin xl and lamictal)... I took my flinstones vitamin, still have to take my b-12 and one more of my viactiv chocolate chews to get the other half of my calcium intake. i keep benefiber on hand just in case. Havent had to use it yet though. Although it took me 8 days after surgery to make a "deposit" lol. I found atinkins advantage protein bars for my protein... so yummy. I already have about half of my protein in and it's only 3 pm. and im on my second 20 oz of water intake. I mix some water adding stuff to it... krogers brand i think... i have fruit punch and lemonade,.. very good. I cant wait to start exercising... WEll I guess thats all for now... Im sure I missed some things as usual... but Ill update again shortly... Thanks for reading
Take Care and God Bless
Tuesday, April 10th, 2007
Holy cow!! I seriously cant believe I havent updated in so long!! Shame on me!! WEll I guess this will be a long one huh? Ok so lets see... Well.. Im exactly 16 weeks out today and im down 73lbs!! Wow that sounds awesome to hear that... You never believe it can happen to you or it will work for you until you are there! I cant say that I didnt have any complications or set back because I did. On Feb 3rd my Grandfather passed away. WE went to oklahoma for the funeral and to be with family... that week I had a problem keeping alot of my food down... I just thought it was stress given the situation and all. We got back home to NM on Feb12th... which was a Monday.. well that whole week after, my vomiting was getting out of control. I would even throw up sips of water... literally couldnt keep a drop down. I had called my surgeon on this issue before and was told it was just stress and to not eat anything but liquids for a day , then start soft foods again ... ok by the time i called this time, i hadnt eaten in 5 days.. nothing... not a drop. My surgeon told me to go into the ER and have them do an endoscopy because he thought I maybe had a stricture. So I went into the Er on Monday, Feb 19th and ended up being admitted. They took blood and gave me an iv with potassium. Apparently my potassium was at a critical point. It was at 21 and it should have been at 34... I could have went into cardiac arrest at anytime. I didnt know potassium was such a big thing... I do now. Well anyway I was admitted. Then the next day they did an endoscopy and found the narrowing in my esophogus and also had me do a swallow test.. EWWW!! The GI was scared to push past my stricture, so I sat in the ER til Friday while they debated whether anyone would touch me here or send me back to Phx to have my surgeon take care of it. .. but at that point it had been 10 days since I had any food at all. So it was at a critical stage. One GI decided he would go in and look and if he had concerns they would fly me to phx. Well luckily he took care of me.. he opened the stricture back up and I was released on that following Saturday night. 6 days in the hospital.. not fun!! But I have been absolutely doing awesome since then. I have only thrown up twice since then and not at all in the last 6 weeks or so at least. I feel sooooo good. Prior to my stricture... well even when i had it and didnt know... I was working out every morning @ 5:30 am and loved it but was just soooooo worn out.. now I know why!! I just started doing my Turbo Jam and working out again today and Im so glad I did.. I feel so much better. I started out in a size 24 jeans and am now wearing a 16. My tops are all Larges instead of 2x's! I feel so good and Im looking good too! And i wont feel ashamed or conceited for saying so. I started out at 276 and now weigh 203.. Im soooooo close to onederland I can taste it! pun intended
Take Care and God Bless
