spittman

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So the doctor agreed to operate on me. I am extremely happy because I thought she was going to back out considering all the heart stuff that I had in the pat 6 months. The excitement lasted a day.

I thought I had all my financing done. I called the financing company to get paper work signed and come to find out that the amount I thought I had approved, I don't because the doctor is out of US.  I am not missing that much but it seems like a fortune right now since I do not have it. I am trying to finance it some other way. I have 30 days from today to get $$$$

WOW in 30 days I will get my WLS does not seem that long.

You read stories here of all the hoops and hurdles that one goes through with insurance. I thought I was done with that since I am paying for it myself. I never thought that I would be going through this with a finance company. I am down that I am missing $3000 but I simply do not have it. I have paid for everything else and am just missing that.  Maybe I should wait a little longer till I get save up for the $3K. I think I would have to wait 2 months if I do not spend a penny nothing zilch nada. Then again I would have to buy new airline tickets or pay the difference in airfare.

Well something will happen.

Am so excited I just cant hide it. . My surgery date is 06/29/09 a month and a couple of days away. I cant believe it. I now understand other people when they say that they are excited and nervous at the same time. I tried to update my surgery date but I did not know where to find that info.

My husband and I are going to get the red eye to San Diego and we come back July 3rd just in time for the fire works.

  The doctor that I chose in Mexico told me to get back to them in 3 hours to see if they would take my case since I am sensitive will all the cardiac issues. Well I called in 3 hours but the "Cricket phone is either turned off or is away from the area" FIGURES this sucks!!!.  OOH well I guess will keep trying.


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I just got this email:
" We show your file to the Surgical staff and they decide that you are a candidate for the surgery so if you could send me the possible day that you want to come I´ll let you know what´s next."

So the doctor in Nicaragua never answered any of my questions. Since I am a woman with a mission I found another doctor.

I am glad to report that I have my finance money for the surgery. I am very excited about it. Now I am waiting for the doctor's office to contact me. YEAH!!!!

On another note I have lost some weight . I do not know if this is because I am on some new medication and its just water weight. Whatever it is I am very thankful for.

I had my cardiologist appt. yesterday and the nurse actually put her hand up when I started discussing WLS. All I wanted to know was well... (actually double check) what do you do in cases where patients take blood thinners. She said we cannot even begin to talk about that. So my question is if I cannot talk to my cardio-group about complications and alternatives who the hell do I talk to? Why the F...do I pay $200-$350 a visit when I can't even ask a question?

If I had emergency surgery and they had to take my spleen out (hopefully this will never happen) what would doctors do regarding my blood thinners? I know they would not say well she takes Plavix and Aspirin therefore we cant operate. 

This woman actually told me that WLS was an elective surgery. I wanted to smack her then leave the practice and never come back. How the hell can she tell me it is elective when I have all these issues because of my weight. Truly pissed the more I think about it. Since it is not her that has the weight, heart. diabetes, and stents put in every 3 months it is very easy to say such as dumb ass comment.

I wonder why every other doctor tells me YES do get WLS, there are great benefits and the Cardio people are like well... then to tell me the heart is the most important part in the body if that does not work then you can die. I have heart issues because of Diabetes and truth is it is not even the heart it is the left artery that is a mess. OOH am pissed, anyway I guess each doctor surgeon thinks that they specialty is the most important.

After my mom went to the doctor with my cousin, hundreds of pages of my medical records/surgeries and my other crap the doctor said that he was very interested in my case. He said though that it would be two surgeries not one. One would be the gastric sleeve and the other would be metabolic. The metabolic is the one that type 2 diabetics. Brazil has been doing them for years and that in the US it takes years for procedures to be okay-ed.

I did some research on my own and only one is needed. I think that maybe the doctor has never done a metabolic surgery and wanted to practice on me or he wanted to get more money   another or  maybe the surgery is not even metabolic and I just assumed. Better check that again. He said that he would review the file and consult with cardiologist. He was going to get back with me last week. Well here is almost 2 weeks later and I have heard nothing which is pissing me off.

I know that some people think OMG going to a third world country to get surgery sounds scary but I have researched it and I was confident with my decision it just that this Dr. seems not really to be interested. I am looking now at Mexico again. I am looking at Dr. Armando Joya. I have read his reviews and talked to several people in his practice and they sound great.

Anyway the only thing I am now waiting for is finance since in Mexico its a little more expensive.

So last Monday I had a follow up with my cardiologist. I was going in to get an approval for WLS. HA!! as I was crossing the doorway to his office I got an angina attack. They did my EKG, blood pressure the usual and as usual nothing was wrong. The Cardiologist said you are going to the hospital and I will see you later... 5 hours later I had another stent put in. My left artery is now completely clean. The blockage that I had was giving  me problems so we decided that it should be stented even though the lesion was 60%.

So now I have to wait a couple of weeks to start talking to Cardioman again. SUCKS!!! but on a good note I lost about 5 pounds. I weighed 193 at doctor's office.

I weigh myself once a week. I am thinking that I should stop. I loose weight then the 3 pounds I loose, I gain the next week. I have never been 200 pounds today that is how much I weighed. I just looked at the scale and kept on going. It did not even face me, I will not let it get to me.

I have decided that I am doing the VSG. I am doing it out of the country. My insurance will not pay since I am not 100 pounds over weight.  I am going to the doctor that operated my cousin in Nicaragua. My mother has the appointment with him on Friday at 6PM. After this meeting we will set up a time to meet via on-line or telephone. I am getting excited. If I could loose 10 pounds before I get the surgery I would feel much better.

My cousin did her surgery in Nicaragua over a year ago. She has been loosing weight really slowly which she loves because she does not have any extra skin. NONE. Her doctor has her loosing weight 3 pound per week and she looks amazing, The first month she lost about 24 pounds then it was between 3 - 4 pounds.

I have gotten his information. I am sending my mom and cousin with a list of my questions. Depending on how he answers them and how we would communicate then I think I found my surgeon. He costs $4500 everything included well except airfare and hotel which I don't really care about that since I go on vacation every year.

Next Monday I go to my cardiologist and endocrinologist to get their blessing. Cardiologist has said that my heart is okay to take the surgery but I need to tell him how many days without my blood thinners I would be.

I was in the mountains this past weekend and ate everything in sight. Today has been a carb day.  I should not even be close to them ooohh well I still have dinner or maybe not eat dinner.

Okay so I have called several doctors in Mexico. Two I thought their staff and them were very knowledgeable the other I was actually scared that the doctor has someone working for him who is clueless or maybe the doctor is clueless. Either way he is off the list.

Since I am a cardiac patient I have to take blood thinners so getting any procedure for me requires so planning. This doctor 's assistant (who shall remain nameless) sent me all information for the surgery but he all the information was more about how much it cost, transportation the pre-op and post op diet which was great but I had specific questions regarding my heart condition. He never address my question regarding my medication. His email ended with if you have question please email. I sent him back an email "YEAH you didn't answer my cardiac concerns".  He wrote back and said "you do not need to do anything special, you can keep taking your medication up to the day of surgery". When I read this I maybe thought that the name Plavix for the medication was not the same in Spanish so I checked, it was. I was amazed that this doctor is actually willing to work with a cardiac patient and not get a letter from my cardiologist or even get a copy of the EKG so he can have a reference. Amazing, needless to say this doc is off  the list.

My cousin had the VSG in Nicaragua and her doctor is wonderful. I am thinking of getting it done there.