Lo82
Pre-surgery rigmarole
Dec 22, 2017
So, from my last pre-surgery update, I was just establishing care with my new surgeon, Dr. Sandor. That went well and I was given a new tentative surgery date of December 27. I was kind of bummed out because my original date with the other surgeon was supposed to be December 20. I get off the week between Christmas and New Year's and I could couch the extra days beforehand in Christmas family time. The new date would mean time off work after New Year's which takes some more explaining. BUT December 27 would be better than January, so I was all for it.
I kept in contact with the doctor's office, but she told me that my insurance denied my surgery for a 2nd time. The first time was because of the hospital not being a bariatric center of excellence and that is why I had to switch surgeons/hospitals. Now, they denied me because they said there wasn't 90 days between my first doctor's visit and my last doctor's visit. That actually wasn't true! Because of the insurance I have, there is a "Carelink" between my main insurance company and the approver for the surgery (Cigna). For some reason, I don't get to talk to Cigna and can only talk to my insurance company. My insurance company and my doctor's office can talk to Cigna, but not me. I have no idea why that is.
So... time is counting down if I want to have 2 weeks for the pre-op diet and I'm stressing out. I kept calling my insurance company and doctor's office to see if there was anything that could be done. My doctor's office filed an appeal and I was denied again! Then, my surgeon called Cigna for a peer-to-peer review which means that my doctor talks to a Cigna doctor about my case. Cigna was only denying me because of the time between first and last visit and my doctor had to literally count days on the calendar with the Cigna doctor. What a waste of time! BUT it worked! On Wednesday, Dec 13 (after I had already talked to my doctor's office and she said not to hold out hope for the 27), she called me back and said that A) I was approved and B) there was a cancellation in the hospital OR for December 19 (less than a week away)!! It was either December 19 or January, so I took it! I was surprised they would take me with less than a week for the pre-op diet, but I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Luckily, I hadn't eaten yet that day, so I started the pre-op diet. I'm not going to lie and say that I was perfect on it. I had no time to prepare and I think that messed with my mind a little. I did mostly protein shakes, broccoli and veggie soup (which were all approved). Not so approved were the few pieces of cheese, pepperoni and crackers that I had a holiday parties. Or the peanuts (small individual pack). Definitely not approved was the popcorn I ate at Star Wars on Dec 14 or the small piece of lasagna I had on Saturday. I do feel guilty about the popcorn and lasagna. All in all, I think I did pretty well.
Anyway - that's the catch-up on my pre-surgery story. Next post will be about surgery day and how I've been doing since (surgery was 3 days ago). Thanks for reading!