Andrea N.

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Okay, so today started like any other and while I was working I got to thinking about it has been over a week since Dr. Schirmer's office submitted for approval so during lunch I called the insurance company and the lady I talked to on the phone told me "we have nothing in the system about anybody ever submitting for an approval" - I was pretty steamed and tried to call Mike Miller, but it was continuously busy so not wanting to wait another day I faxed him a little note telling him what the lady said. He called me at work about an hour later and told me that obviously that lady did not know what she was talking about because he was holding my approval letter in his hand and that it had been put on his desk that morning!

I am so excited - I have been waiting for this day since 2003 and it is about darn time!

So I am officially scheduled for June 23rd, 2006 - exactly 32 days from Today!

I should have updated this a LONG time ago, but now that I am working Monday through Saturday and then of course 'working' when I get home being a mom, I just never seem to have the time and now that summer time is getting here and the kids are getting out of school I want to update as to what is happening in my life.
On the job front my job is WONDERFUL! I love it! I have never been happier!
On the surgery front I have switched yet again back to Dr. Schirmer and I actually have a DATE! To make a long story short with the switch - basically Dr. Kellum was great but I could not afford to have another psych evaluation and pay for it out of pocket and they tried to work with me and I was very appreciate of that, but after talking to family and friends, they really wanted me to be close to home so I switched back. I am currently waiting for my insurance to approve and if they do I will have having surgery June 23rd at UVa. It is the perfect time because the following week two of the docs will be on vacation and I won't get so far behind and I can stay home, recover and relax and start LOSING!
So that is what is going on in my life and if you stopped by to read this will you please take a sec and sign my Guestbook - just so I know the darn thing is working. Thanks.

GOOD NEWS!! I got the job. I'm so excited. It has been a long rough road and for a while there I was beginning to think it had all been for naught but then on Tuesday afternoon while out my cell phone rang and it was a lady at the HR dept. of MJH telling me that the office manager had requested that I have a second interview with them. I scheduled it for Thursday at 10am and even though the weather was snowy/icy I went anyway. It went well. Then when I got home I saw that the office manager had called a little after 11am so I called her back and she offered me the job. It seems I did even better than I expected because my competition was a lady with 15 years experience and I tested better than she did. It was good to know that I am as good as my professor used to tell me I was. He used to tell me I just had the knack for the job and I guess I do.
On the surgery front, I received a pack of papers from MCV and I have filled out some of them but I there are two things they requested be sent back with the questionaire that I do not have. One is a photocopy of the back and front of the insurance card and a photocopy of the section in the insurance coverage book stating their policy on weight loss surgery. I will make sure I have EVERYTHING they want before sending it back in so I don't have any delays. That is it for now! My prayers go out to Betsy who just had surgery today and to Melissa who will be having surgery on the 27th. You are both going to do great and I'm here rooting for you both.

My life has been nuts in good ways and bad ways over the past few weeks. First the good! On the Tuesday after the Thanksgiving weekend I had to take my son to the doctor for a follow up. I talked to the office manager afterwards and she gave me 2 tapes. One was my sons PCP and the other Mr. Notorious (my own PCP). I’m not sure how many hours it took plus a trip to my friend Jackie’s house but I got the tapes done (on time I might add) and took my work in. She told me to come back the next day and pick up the other doctor’s tapes because I had not done her yet and since the 3 of them (there are 4 doctors, but one is doing her own) they all have to see how I do on each of them individually before a decision can be made. The next day I went in to pick up the tape and she told me Mr. Notorious was very impressed with my work and he told her to give me more of his tapes. I ended up with 4 tapes and a very tight timeline. I didn’t meet the timeline this time because it snowed 5 inches on Monday and they closed the office so hopefully that will not count against me. I dropped off what I had yesterday and then when I finished this afternoon I took the rest of the work. I was pleasantly surprised that Mr. Notorious has apparently stopped giving his tapes to the other transcriptionist (that has been helping them out until they hire somebody) and only giving his tapes to me. Now that I have provided transcriptions for each of the doctors they are supposed to have a meeting and actually decide whom they are going to hire. I think since Mr. Notorious is happy with my work I might actually have a shot at this. Please say a prayer for me!! I think I will be truly devastated if I do not get this job because of all the hard work I have put into it. I have worked until sometimes 3am (when it is quiet) and then turning around and getting up at 6am and starting again. I’m still slow but they have to expect that. Eventually I will get a lot faster but it just takes time and I hope they know that.
Well now the bad news. The insurance coordinator for Dr. Schrimer called yesterday and told me that BC/BS of NE PA has not outright denied my surgery but they said they would deny it in 5 days if they did not receive X, X, X, and X. I guess I should back up and explain a little. My ex-husband called me sometime last week and told me the insurance is changing as of January 1st, 2006 to Anthem BC/BS HMO, Healthkeepers. I talked to the insurance coordinator then and told him about the change and at the time I did not know it was Healthkeepers but he mentioned that they do not participate with Healthkeepers. Once I found it I will indeed have Healthkeepers my ex-husband started looking in the book they gave him and found Dr. Kellum and his group is in his book as participating. I put the insurance issue out of my mind until the insurance coordinator called today and told me what BC/BS of NE PA was asking for before they would approve. He was outraged. He told me a couple of the things and then proceeded to tell me that the stuff they were requesting was crap. Never before had any other insurance company requested the stuff they requested and on top of that a couple of the things were just plain none of their business. I reminded him about my calling before about the insurance change (he didn’t remember at first) and told him I had found out it was indeed Healthkeepers and I was already looking at switching surgeons to Dr. Kellum. He was greatly relieved that I didn’t give up and told me if I would fax him a quick note requesting my records he would photocopy everything and send it to me in the mail so I can hand deliver the records. He told me he hoped that with all the stuff I already had that Dr. Kellum’s office would be able to get a 24-hour approval. I called Dr. Kellum’s office today and they are going to send me the information packet that I have to fill out and send back. Hopefully within the next couple weeks I will have a consult date and (crossing fingers) not long after that a surgery date.

I've been meaning to update because I've tons of stuff on my mind but have been putting it off because I hate to sit and write and then somebody read it and have to read all about my pity party. At the same time I guess I could just say "STOP HERE". :-) I've been depressed lately. I don't think it is clinical or requires medicine, just this down feeling where I don't want to go out of the house and most of the time I just want to stay in bed. Currently, I'm unemployed and the kids and I are on food stamps. I was with one company through the temp agency for 6 months (see below) and they tried to get me hired but the big bosses didn't want to add another position right before the end of a financial term, so I had to leave.
Right about the same time the position that I have coveted ever since going back to school came open and I applied and was interviewed. The office manager told me it would be about 2 weeks and she would let me know something. Today was 3 weeks and even though I had e-mailed and called I never got a response. I was really really down about it because I was beginning to think they had hired somebody but didn't tell me. Turns out that while I was there picking up a prescription for my son I talked to the office manager again and she told me they just hadn't had anybody else apply that was even remotely qualified and the HR dept was still telling her she had to interview at least 2 people before hiring somebody. She told me today to give her this coming week (Thanksgiving week) and then if I hadn't heard from her to call her on Monday the 29th and if nothing else she would give me the hardest doctor's (my own PCP) tape and if I could do it and get the transcriptions back to them in the allotted time frame then she would know that I could do ANY doctor. My PCP himself told me he is notoriously hard so I'm expecting the worst but I'm pretty convinced that I can do it. It may take some extra listening and a lot of late hours getting it done but I need to not only prove that I can do it to them but also to myself. Being unemployed is really hard on me because I feel so guilty that I'm not doing the best for my kids. They are everything to me and I just want them to have an easier life than what they have.
On to other subjects that have been on my mind...like Love...what is wrong with me? Will I ever find someone that doesn't just use me? Will I ever find someone who wants to be around me as much as I want to be around them? Oh that is just too much to think about.
I took out my dreaded C-Pap machine out of the closet and have been trying to use it. I laid down for 2 hours last night, not sleeping, feeling like I was suffocating with the yucky thing on my face until I couldn't take it anymore and ripped it off, rolled over and went to sleep. Not that I really sleep. I don't know how many "incidents" I have in an hour because my sleep study was done a long time ago and I don't remember but I know it was a lot. I've been reading the boards and people saying that they have to take their C-Pap with them to the hospital. Oh my! What am I gonna do about that?
The insurance company is making me crazy too. When I called them last week (and this week) they just kept telling me that they have 2-4 weeks to make a decision. Well, their 2 weeks was up today so I'm hoping I won't have to wait too much longer. It would be nice if they would just say, "approved" since I've done everything they have required but I guess I will wait and see.
My biggest worries right now are that I won't get approved, I won't get the job, I won't be able to buy Christmas presents for my kids and worse, much worse that we won't have any heat this winter. Actually, I pretty much know we won't have heat this winter. Last Christmas Santa Claus brought us a space heater for the dining room and the kids got a space heater for each bedroom but it is hard to tell kids we can't turn on the main heater because there is NO WAY I can come up with the money to pay Amerigas enough to bring propane out here. They are such a pain. I know there are assistance programs out there but my particular company won't even come out to the house if you don't pay for 150 gallons in advance. Last year it was $1.79 a gallon and this year it is going to be even more or so they say. I sure hope we don't have a hard winter or the kids and I will be wearing feety pajamas for sure.
So I guess all that explains why I'm feeling depressed. Oh well, I know God won't give me more than I can handle or at least he isn't supposed to. I will survive and I will go on. Until next time!

I’m still in a waiting game with my insurance company. They wanted me to be on a physician supervised diet program for 6 months. My PCP says that by November they should have plenty of "paperwork" and hopefully they will approve the surgery with no more issues. If I get that lucky then I just have to decide when to set the date. Financially my best option is to wait until about March of 2006 because by then I will have filed my taxes and gotten enough money back that I can not work for 3-4 weeks and still pay my bills. But we shall see. I still do not have a permanent job. I'm at a place that I was assigned to back in March and sometime this month they have to either hire me full time or let me go. It wouldn't be my "dream" job but I would be ok with staying here at least for a while. I will write more as soon as I hear something from the insurance company.

I went to the first orientation with Dr. Schrimer on December 2, 2004. They are dealing with the insurance company and as of right now I have to have a psych evaluation, which is scheduled for February 2nd. I've finished school and did extremely well but as of yet do not have a full-time job although I've been on a ton of interviews. I'm discouraged because I know the reason I have not been offered any of the positions I've interviewed for is due to my size. Can't they see the person I am with all these great skills? I was on the Dean's List for all 4 terms and I held a 4.0 GPA the last 2 terms and the school even hired me to be a tutor to other students, but all anybody sees is my weight. AAaagghhhh!!! Anyway, enough of the self-pity. I'm getting really scared about doing this. I'm worried that I won't be the same person or that when people start treating me different it will harden my heart even more and cause me to trust people even less. I think I need a support person or group that understands what I'm going through, just not sure where to turn or what to do.

Just a quick update. I only have 6 months of school left. I'll be done August 21st. I'm really happy with my decision to go back to school. I've made the Dean's List twice and I'm holding a 3.67GPA even with 3 kids and a job. I'm studying medical transcription, which is a totally new thing to me but my teacher says that I'm "real fast" and "a natural" so hopefully that means I'll have an excellent future in this position. I still want to have the surgery but over the past few months I've been having a devil of a time with heartburn. I hope it isn't anything serious that would prevent me from getting the surgery. Any else ever have bad heartburn every day of the week? Good luck to all those who just had surgery and all those who are about to. My prayers are with you.

I finally got an official denial letter from my insurance company. I did have it in mind to fight it and hope that they would eventually change their minds, even if I had to hire a lawyer to do it. Things have changed though and I've decided for the moment my best option is to go back to school, get some training, get a better job and hopefully any insurance I get at another job will be more receptive to this surgery. If you read this or have ever read this you are probably going WHAT?? Why on earth would I go this route?? Well, this is the deal. I hate my job! I love and am very close to a lot of the other employees but essentially I am a customer service peon. Let me be the first to tell you that only about 40% of customers are nice, decent, thoughtful people. The other 60% has me hating my job. They are nasty people with nasty habits and mouths. I dread weekends because of the drunks, the partygoers and the part of the population who has no respect for other people or themselves. I have no future in my current position and I'm never going to make any real money either. Fighting the insurance company will require me to stay where I'm at and the thought just makes me want to cry. I start school October 13th and hopefully will be finished at the end of August 2004. I've chosen a field that I believe will be in my best interest all the way around and with any luck will provide me with a insurance company that I don't have to fight tooth and nail to get what I need. This is delaying my possibilities for the surgery for approx 2 years or more and I'm prepared for that because I not only need to be happy with myself, but I also want to be happy in my life, including my career. I will continue to come back here and update as to how school is going and when I finally get a new job. Hopefully I will still receive support from the wonderful people here and I'm willing to communicate with anybody who just needs somebody to talk to. Wish me luck!!

I found out that my ex-husbands insurance will cover this operation. The good thing is even though we don't live together and haven’t for many years we have never gotten divorced. So he can still add me to his policy. I called him a little while ago and he is willing to do it. I called Dr. Schirmer's office and talked to somebody. I explained the "rider" that Southern Health requires and she knew about it and said it was very expensive so then I told her about my ex's insurance and she said they usually have a one year waiting period for pre-existing conditions. She also told me they absolutely wouldn’t see me unless I have insurance. I'm not quite sure where to go from here.