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 My surgery date is July 20.  I am so nervous.  I hope by some strange luck, complacency hits me by then.  I am trying to keep busy but then I start to get sore as I have had to stop taking an NSAID that I have used for years.  I didn't realize how much my hip hurt me until I stopped taking this medication.   Next week, I will have two stepchildren here in the house.  ages 10 and 16, which you would think would be ok as they are older.... NOT, the older they get, the more they aggravate each other!   I am not sure that is the best place for me to be, but I am going to do the best that I can.  My husbands Ex, always has a way of sending them to us at the most inconvenient time!  They are moving to Alabama at the end of the month, so there is no way around it.   
I had so many things I wanted to get done!  Well, let's see how it goes.... think positive right!

 I received a phone call from my Primary care MD this morning and now they want me to see them  for a surgical clearance visit.  I just had a yearly H&P done with them on 4/23/09.  Per the office manager, "We need to cover our buns.  If something has changed and we gave you surgical clearance we would be liable."  OK so what is one more appointment?  
I also have one last pre-surgical appointment with Dr Aranow the day before....
To add to the mix, I have an appointment on Friday as one of my 2 remaining wisdom teeth decided to call it quits and split in half...Of course the giant filling put in years ago didn't help with the strength of the tooth.  It should have been pulled years ago.
So poor me, poor me.  
As far as the impending surgery, I am excited, anxious and a little scared.  "Fear of the Unknown".  I think about it constantly, and find it hard to concentrate a whole lot these days.  The fact that we have had rain for the past 2 weeks doesn't help.  I walk my dog in it all though.  She doesn't mind the rain..lol  I am thinking about going through all of my BIG GIRL clothes and letting them go.  I have sizes 1x through 3x.  I am going to sort them all and keep just what I need to get past the 1st month pre-op.  As my size goes down, I will get rid off the old big clothes.  I am going to save one pair of fat pants so I can compare them to the Loser I will Be in the near future.  I have bought enough protein so far to get me through 2 weeks pre-op and 1 week post op.  I am going to do the Brigham and Woman's Gastric Bypass 2 week pre-op diet.  I am a nurse, and I just think it is a good way to prepare for surgery.  I have from now until the 7th of July to satisfy any "I gotta have that before surgery foods".  I can honestly say, there aren't many things I really gotta have....thank God!  I am going to go to a Breakfast Brunch one last time with my husband.  That is probably the one thing I will miss the most.  But I can definitely do without in the pursuit of fit and healthy..

 I began my morning feeling sad and sorry for myself.  I stayed in bed later than usual.  One of the nicest things about working in the late afternoon....love it and will always leave for work in the afternoon..
As you all know, I received a letter from my insurance company on Saturday.  I thought it was my approval letter, when indeed it ways a letter asking for more information.  
This morning I began my Monday morning calls.  Being a member of the professional health care community, I know that being proactive in your own care is a tremendous help in getting where you need to be..
I called my Md's office and asked on of the many office person ell there if they had received a letter from Oxford looking for more information and they had not, or had not done anything with it..... BIG SURPRISE.  I talked to an office member and she understood the urgency and said she would do it today.  My next phone call was to Oxford... The service person ell that I spoke with said, " You are approved for your gastric bypass", your MD office has already sent us what we asked them for!!!!!!!!!!!
YOU ARE APPROVED!!!!
MY DATE PER MY Surgeon's office is JULY 20th. 
I know that I probably overdo my blogging and I am sorry but this is so important to me.  I have waited since 2002 to have this procedure and my insurance is just now allowing it for treatment of MORBID OBESITY.  My BMI is 48.  For once my weight has worked for me.....I think that is a first!!

I am soooo excited.     

 Just wanted to update anyone who might be interested in my journey.  I am feeling a little down in the dumps today.  Today is Saturday, and my husband proudly delivered an envelope to me from Oxford.   My heart started pounding!!    Was this what I has been on my mind ever sleeping and waking moment!  Good God I can't even sleep these past several days.  
TO MY DISMAY, MY INSURANCE COMPANY IS LOOKING FOR OFFICE NOTES FROM MY PRIMARY CARE PHYSICIAN.   I hope what they are looking for are the weights that are recorded on these notes.  If you recall on one my last blog, I was having trouble with my Primary Care Physicians documentation.  I hate to say this, but when I first started going to this doctor, they were a small practice.  3 docs and 1 APRN.  Now they are like 5 docs and 3 APRN's and they are busy.  The office is swarming with ancillary office staff and one has to wonder, if it is not these people who ultimately put together my packet for my insurance company!    The insurance company was just sending me a little note to let me know they had to get additional information from my MD office.  They also suggest that I follow up with them to assure that it is done in a timely manner.  So starts my dialing finger on Monday morning.  I have found that faxes work well also.  I guess I am lucky that I have been going to the same MD for the past 13 to 14 years.  So if the insurance company wants history, history is what they.  
shall have.  I have come so far since my journey started again this past February when I attended my informational session with Dr Aranow.  I have been tested both physically and mentally.... I need a date..... I need to know WHEN..... I have a busy life between job, home, going to school for my RN degree.  I just am too anal and like to detail everything and when the detailing is out of my control, I can't rest.  Once I have a surgery date then I can plan out the next year of my life....Pray for God Speed on all of this from one fellow lifetime "fattie".  Only kidding.  

 I called my surgeon's office this morning and they told me that all my paperwork has now been recieved and is satisfactory.
I then got a nice little voicemail from the surgeon's office this afternoon and was told that the MD has signed off my chart and it is being sent to the Insurance Company for Pre-Authorization.......
I know the next 10 days or so or however long it takes Oxford to approve me, will be a lot like watching paint dry.  I intend to stay busy and continue to work in my house, in my gardens, at my job and study for my next exams.  Keep Busy and Keep Blogging.  This really helps a lot.  

I hope the next time I talk to the MD office it will be to set up my DATE..... 

 I called the surgeon's office today to find out what the state of the "insurance paperwork shuffle" was at.  The last time I called them, the only thing missing was my GI consult paperwork.  They still did not have it, but as soon as they found out I had the procedure at Middlesex hospital, they were able to drag all the information up on their computers.  OK, that is done.  
So, as the young lady I spoke to on the phone was looking over all my paperwork, she asked me who my insurer was.  I told her Oxford.  She said, "we haven't dealt with Oxford in a while now." What does that mean?????
She furthur stated, that they require a 5 year weight history....not a diet history....but a weight history....
No problem, I have been seeing the same MD for about 20 years now.  Usually once a year for an annual health screening.
They sent to 5 years of weights on a excel like paper from a computer, with my name hand written on the document.  No letter head paper.  No MD signature!!  What are they thinking????    So, that has all been fixed, I hope, as I will be calling the surgeons office again tomorrow to make sure.  My next step will be to go to the office and sit in a chair while they type it up for me on the letterhead and stamp it with my doctors signature............. Then everything is in my file, ready for submission to the insurance company.  I have come so far and this is my third attempt in the past 7 years to do this.  I am still proactive for my own health.  I can only hope the insurance company feels the same way.  They have paid all the pre-op stuff, so why stop now..
I spoke with a rep from the insurance company before I launched campaign number 3 for WLS.  I don't think I could take another denial. Mentally it would crush me.  I am so ready for this to happen.

I always worry too much.  About everything.  I will worry until my date, when I get one!
I want to feel thin.  I want to feel good.  I want to see myself.  I dont want to not look in the mirror.  I want my husband to turn his head twice.  I want to ride on the back of our motorcycle.  I want more energy.  I want to feel like a woman someday.  I can not explain the utter sense of displacement obesity gives a person, for an entire lifetime!  It sucks!  

 Still no call from my surgeon's office.  So, I am in limbo.  I don't know what more I can do to expedite this surgery.  I guess I just need to breathe deeply......Will update as soon as I find out something new.

 OK, so I called my surgeon's office today, as I wanted to know the next step.  I really wanted to know if they had received all of the required evaluations from all the pre-op tests that I have labored through.  Surprisingly they had all of the files except the upper endoscopy evaluation.  But, not to worry as the GI doctor and my surgeon are in the same building.  I am sure a phone call will render the results.  OK so, the next thing I was told was that once they have everything together they will submit all of my paperwork to Oxford for surgery approval.  The office will call me on the day the paperwork is submitted.   And then it is time to wait once again.   I am starting to get a little anxious.  I need to divert that anxiety to something besides my usual stress reliever, which has been food.  I decided to clean a room in my house very thoroughly.  Surprisingly it worked.  I burned off the stress and had a positive outcome.  .
I took measurements of my neck, upper arms, forearms, wrists, bust, waist, hips, upper thighs, calves and ankles today.  A family member of mine who is 5 years out now says that it is a fantastic journey and documenting inches will show just how much is gone.  I hope I loose well cause my numbers were way too high today.  

I will update again when I get my call from the surgeons office.  By the end of the week would be sweet.  

 Ok, all my pre-op appointments are finally finished as of this morning.  I was seen be the psychologist and she feels that I am ready to go forward.  I do not have any psychological issues.  She said she will be sending my paperwork into Dr Aranow's office in tomorrow mornings mail.  So tomorrow is Thursday, and the MD office is in the same town, so assuming the MD will have this paperwork by Friday.  Hopefully all my paperwork will be submitted to my insurance company sometime next week.  I understand it takes my insurance company about ten days to render a decision.  The next 2 weeks are going to be nerve wracking for me.  But hey, what the heck, I have been waiting for nearly 7 years now and this is the closest I have ever gotten.  Please pray that I have a date by sometime in June.  I am thinking a July surgery would be great.
That means that I will be 9 months out on my next birthday and hopefully thiner than I ever imagined possible.

    Ok, so here I sit, tick tock, tick tock.......I am glad Monday is a holiday.  That should make that day a little faster.  I have the last appointment so that the MD office can submit my paperwork.  I am glad that I do not have the type of disease that causes sudden death?  Or do I................. I think the wait from the time you start the process until you actually get a date is hideously long.  I am a patient person, and will continue to be so, but "enough already!"
I thought that if I called the psych office and went on a waiting list that I might be called earlier, but no such luck.  So next Wednesday I go.  I am a psych nurse, so I can only imagine what this visit is like.  
Is there anybody out there that can tell me what their experience was like?  If so, I would love to hear from you.  I will be seeing one of Doctor Aranow's team K.D., not to mention any names.  How long did it take for the MD's office to submit to the insurance company, once all the paperwork is in.  How long does the psych paperwork take until it reaches Dr Aranow's office?  I am assuming they submit a whole package deal to the insuance company?  These are all questions that I have.  
My journey has started 2 times before this, when I was denied coverage.  This time, it will be different.  Now it is covered for morbidly obese people.  What does Morbid mean?  (Deathly), that it can kill you? For God's sake enough already!
Oh well.  I guess as the time gets closer, I am getting a little nervous.  I KNOW I am in excellent hands.  I can't wait to be on the losers side.  My back and hip pain are killing me.  I have been trying to exercise to get in better shape so I can have a hopefully speedy recovery.  The only pain medication I take is Voltaren and I wish I didn't take that.  Without it I can hardly walk, my joints swell up and hurt terribly.  I am trying tylenol, but I do not think it is strong enough, and I don't want to go on any narcotic pain killers so, what to do?  The ridiculous cold weather doesn't help much either....Thank you New England for givinig us such a cold spring.  
I will repost after next Wednesday.  I have lost 21 pounds since April 1st, on my 1200 calorie diet.