A Visit with Dr. Mueller - January 7th, 2011

Feb 22, 2011

Let me start this post out by saying, I ADORE Dr Mueller’s staff already and I haven’t even met them yet. Yesterday, I called the office to try to get an appointment on VERY short notice (see my post from yesterday) because of pending insurance changes. And I get to speak with Leti, (aka, my own personal miracle worker), who is the coordinator with my insurance company. For the past few days, Leti has had the task of trying to confirm my benefits with my insurance company – right after the first of the year and after an insurance change. No small feat by any means. She has managed to confirm that I have surgical benefits but that she hasn’t been able to get a live person to confirm the bariatric surgery benefits. Technically, Leti isn’t supposed to let me schedule an appointment without having confirmed my benefits.

I calmly explain to Leti that my insurance has some pending legislation and that I have to be DONE with my 3 month supervised visit and all my paperwork submitted BEFORE March 15th. So that gave me all of 5 days, two of which were the weekend, so really all of 3 days to get in to the doctor and to the Nutritionist. And she hasn’t confirmed my benefits. Things aren’t looking too good for me now.

In steps Leti… she agrees to just go ahead and schedule the appointment for the Dr Mueller and the NUT. “Awesome!!!” Well, then she tells me that the doctor is booked for the next 3 weeks. Ugh… great. “Oh wait” she says, “You’re in luck. The doctor AND the NUT both have an opening tomorrow at 9:30 am. Can you make it?” Yes, I will absolutely be there! This was meant to be!

So I arrive at the doctor’s office a bit early and fill out the paperwork. I don’t have my new card yet because of the transition to the new plan, but I give them the required information. I fill out the family history, personal history, etc. I’m weighed with my clothes and shoes on, but they made my put my purse on the floor. (Side note here – I was afraid that I wouldn’t weigh enough to meet the 40 BMI criteria. The last time that I had weighed myself about 3 months earlier, I had been 254, which was about 8 pounds short of the 40 BMI needed. So I was praying that they would let me carry my purse on the scale. Well, they didn’t. But it turned out that I weighed a hell of a lot more than I thought so there was no reason to worry. This was probably the ONLY time in my life that I was hoping to have gained 8 pounds. But I was starting my period so I had water weight gain, and it was just after the holidays… so the stars were aligned).

The meeting with Dr Mueller was awesome. He was patient with my questions and by the end I was comfortable with my choice of the Sleeve Gastrectomy. He thought that the LapBand offered too many complications down the road, especially for someone of my age. He wanted either RNY or the Sleeve. Since I wasn’t comfortable with the malabsorption (even though he wasn’t worried about it) the sleeve seemed like the perfect option for me.

Next I met with the NUT to start my 3 month weight loss plan. Pretty easy actually – 1,500 calories and exercise 30 minutes per day 5-6 days per week. A lot LESS intensive than the HMR thing I did last year. And I’ve found that it’s pretty easy to follow the plan.

I leave to 2 more scheduled appointments to meet with the NUT, the last of which is on March 9th. So I should have 4 days to submit all the paperwork. My goal is to have EVERYTHING except the final weigh in down by my appointment in February, so that the only thing left to do on March 7th is to send the paperwork to insurance.

So, what do you think? Do you think I will be able to scrape by with only the 3 month weight loss, with only 4 days between submitting the paperwork and the new requirements being put into place?

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