katikati
progress... finally!
Nov 18, 2012
Hello, all! I haven't been to the site in quite a while. I had to wait months for the evaluation report from my psychologist, and in the process of waiting I just became so mired in despair and loss of hope. I have no idea why it took her so long, especially since I've been seeing her since before I decided to pursue surgery. I called multiple times a week, and finally had to lay the guilt on saying this was literally the only thing holding up the process, and then I finally got what I needed. Once they had the letter, I was approved almost immediately (Medicare does not do pre-auths, so this was basically acceptance for surgery by the surgeon because I was deemed to meet the criteria set forth by Medicare.)
I'm super excited to say that Dr. Houston in Nashville will be my surgeon. I had my first consultation with him this past Monday and I liked him very much. He's very... serious, but not unfriendly. It's easy to be confident in his abilities as a surgeon, and he took plenty of time with me. The good news is, in the time that I spent waiting, Medicare has decided to cover VSG! I honestly wonder if it was divine intervention, because I would have most likely had the surgery by now and had the DS had I not had to wait so long for the psych eval. It's not that I'm opposed to the DS, and it is, in fact, a backup option for me. However, if I can be successful with the VSG, then that is preferable because it is an easier surgery.
There is one little hiccup in the process, which is preventing me from having a surgery date yet. Without going into boring details, I have an anomaly in my abdomen that may need to be addressed at the same time as my bariatric surgery, so I have to get another CT scan performed so that he can review the results and make a determination. I was told that it wouldn't prevent me from having the surgery, it's just a matter of deciding if we need to remove this at the same time.
There have been endless question marks throughout the process for me, as I've had to jump over hurdle after hurdle. When I first started, I was filled with such excitement and hope. However, my physical state has declined so much in the last couple of months, that I teeter between a state of panicked hopelessness and a startling indifference. I think once I finally have a surgery date, that I'll feel that forward momentum again. At the very least, I absolutely know now that I need this surgery. There's no more balancing on the fence of indecision. I'm just grasping now for the hope that this will work for me, and that I will work what the surgery has to offer me.
I can't wait to post my surgery date to my profile!
