I have a date!!!

Jan 13, 2009

I had a pre-op appointment with Dr. Needleman yesterday and got my surgery date scheduled! Woo Hoo. I did a physical, then they did my bloodwork, took an EKG and had a consult with the surgeon himself.  When I went to schedule the surgery they asked me when I wanted it and I said as soon as possible! So i have it on the 22nd of January which is next thursday. 8 days away!

Everyone said approval was the hardest part. The rest is fast, and just happens. I didn't believe them. Now I do. Waiting for six months on the medically supervised diet with no idea whether or not the insurance would approve at the end...having to jump trough all the hoops. it has not been easy. It is also hard to plan for leave at work when I had no idea even if I would be granted approval for the surgery or when. It was october when I ended my six months...so it took three months to get everything into the insurance company and get an approval. Just to note, part of the delay was the hospital I am having the surgery with.  They are really bad at calling patients and updating them on their status. The process is a little confusing. I had to call several tiems to ask what I needed to be doing and get scheduled for certain things.

For example, all patients have to take a four week class that talks about life after the surgery. Most folks do this the month or so before surgery. Because i did my medically supervised program with my primary care physician I had to call them and say, i'm in my six month, what else am I supposed to do.  By luck they were starting a new class and I was able to get in, otherwise I would have been a month behind or more. But I promised myself that I was taking ownership of my weightloss and was not goign to let someone else determine whether or not I got surgery. I can't tell you how many times I called my insurance to check the status of my approval. Everytime I called they told me that WLS was not covered under my policy. When I was looking right at the statement of coverage for WLS as I called! I had to tell them that it was covered if medically necessary, and then they would say, oh yeah. Except that. If we determine its medically necessary then it is covered. What a load of crap. I think they practice learning how to be evasive and rude to patients. The more they can confuse and discourage you the less likely you are to go through with the surgery and that means they don't have to pay!

I get worked up about the whole thing.

I feel excited about the surgery. A little nervous too. I'm reallizing that it is actually going to happen. I've never had major surgery before, nothing more than wisdom teeth pulled.  I'm realizing that it is still going to require a lot of work and discipline on my part. I know that to hit my true goal, I still have to commit to eating right and not cheating, to working out regularlly and pushing myself. I have that irrational fear that it won't work for me. I hate failing, and this is something I want so badly, so I am making a promise to myself that II will not sabotage my surgery. That I will celebrate the blessing God has given me and do everything I can to take advantage of the surgery. But it is still scary! There is going to be a band inside me. A device that sits around my stomach. Crazy.

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