surgery date... check - worried pre-existing cond. will disqualify me

 hello everyone,

my journey so far has been miraculous to say the least - long story short i went from my insurance company not covering my gastric sleeve to being approved by the VA in less than 3 weeks.  my surgery is scheduled for march 7th and i'm in the process of completing my pre-op work-ups.  my concern is that after my initial consult with the cardiologist he expressed concern that my resting heart rate was 112. i have a stress test next tuesday - but i'm concerned with three more assessments left to go (pulminary function, edg and psych eval) that something might disqualify me at the last minute.  has anyone had a similar experience? how did it work out?

Hi,
I also was just approved & date possibly Feb. 27th. Anyway I have AFib & had Echo, Stress test, & Lexiscan yesterday, I think these are considered co morbid conditions. I have sleep apnea,morbid obesity, HTN, GERD, Osteoarthritis. My insurance required just the paperwork submission & my surgeon required cardiac clearence. I hope everyting was good from yesterday,
I also hope everything works out for you. I have just done the footwork & everything else just fell into place. I was surprised my BP was actually low yesterday ????? maybe cause of no caffeine???

Hope this helps! This is a stressfull process isn't it? I'm trying to take it one day & one step at a time!
Good luck!

 thanks debbie - it did help give me more perspective. i didn't think about it from a co-mobidity stand point - which could give even further validation of the medical necessity. my bp was ok - but i take lisinopril to control it. the cardiologists thinks my heart rate may have been out of control because of the adepex i've been taking for weight loss. plus i was just sooooo nervous. my father passed two weeks ago from congestive heart failure and i guess i was a little worked up at the prospect of testing my heart function.

of course the adepex is getting flushed down the toilet immediately!!

thanks so much for sharing - i'll keep you in my thoughts and prayers.

The Adipex/nervousness could absolutely increase your heartrate (30+yr nurse here)-and YES-the recent loss of your dad was a much bigger stressor...but..that being said..i AM glad you are having a stress test, because your LIFE does come first-even before WLS-ya know? BUT-I betcha everything will be fine, and the test is just a precaution. Your cardiologist would be a FOOL to clear you, without the the stress test, after finding your resting heartrate like that.

The other tests-the pulmonary, EGD, and pysch, shouldn't have any bearing on your heartrate, so you should be okay there. Pulmonary MAY be as simple as blowing some balls to see how hard you can blow, to check your lung capacity.

Sounds like the "WLS angels" have been with you so far-approved in 3 weeks-WOW-so I bet the angels won't let you down now.

Continued luck on this, the most stressful part of the journey!

 thanks gina - you're absolutely right. my health is the most important thing. i was just looking for some consulation that i'm not the only one going through or who has gone through this. i do believe it had to be God to get me this far and so quickly - so i guess i just need to keep doing what i'm suppose to do and let him finish what he started. thanks for the words of wisdom. :-)

 update... i was cleared by cardiology - everything came back normal. was also cleared by pulminary. labs came back and i'm anemic and have vitamin D deficiency - they also mentioned hyperthyroidism but i don't have any details yet - i'm scheduled to meet with the endocrinologist on the 23rd. hoping it can be treated without delaying surgery - but glad to know what's going on in my body.

My advice is to start working on the anemia and the D deficiency RIGHT NOW---it'll be a lot easier to get them up now than after surgery.

I had a detour in my road to WLS when they found breast cancer on a mammogram. I then has several months of cancer treatment, and after that got back on track for surgery.

Glad your heart is OK!

Keep your eye on your goal!