pegleg63

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  This is my first post-surgery blog.  I am 3 weeks and two days out from surgery (Dec. 30, 2008) and of this morning I am 25 pounds lighter!  My jeans are proof too.  I feel like I am wearing the botton half of a clown costume!  LOL  My jeans are loose in the waist and really baggy in the hips and thigh area.  They feel just plain stupid to wear!  My next smaller jeans will go on, botton and zip but were still snug in the waist a good week ago. I will have to give them another try and see how they are now.
  My actual surgery experience wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  Pain was manageable at the hospital and minimal when I got home a couple days later.  Everyone at the hospital was nice and suprised at how well I could move around without their help. I returned to work after two weeks of being off.  It was getting boring at home too.
  I am tired of eating the same old foods right now, I can venture into trying other things besides cottage cheese, protein shakes, and scrambled eggs.  Making a batch of chili now and it smells good, yum!

I see my last post was exactly one month ago, my how fime has gone by fast.  I just finished my 2nd pre-op appt. Had the lab, EKG, pre-admission, etc.  It's becoming more real now than ever before.  Only two weeks from yesterday and I will be having surgery.  I am number 1 or 2 that day, I will be called the night before from the hosital and they will let me know. 

I can still hardly believe it, I really have a surgery date, Dec. 30!  My insurance coverage nearly messed everything up.  As of Jan. 1 the locations to have surgery may change.  If I couldn't have surgery at the hospital I planned on, then I would have to choose another place and start all over again, and I will lose my insurance before I could complete the whole process again.  It basically boiled down to get my surgery before the end of this year or I maybe would not get it at all and all the past year would be a waste and I would still be fat.  I was squeezed in and got a date yet this year.  My first pre-op is next week and then another one in the middle of Dec.  My work schedule is already out and both appts. happen to fall on my days off.  God is looking out for me!  I will spend New Year''s Eve in the hospital but that is fine, I will celebrate the new year by becoming a thinner and healthier person.  I am really looking forward to this. 

Talked to Patti again today.  I gave it a few days for Dr. Kotharit to get back from out of town.  Patti said he will be back tomorrow.  Not sure where he is now.  She plans to come in early with a stack of patient charts for him to schedule surgery dates.  I told Patti I will call Friday, in two days to see if I have a date then.  It's  been a month today that I have been waiting.  It's taking more time to get a surgery date than to get approval!

  Called Patti again today since it is after Oct. 10th.  Dr. Kothari won't be back in the office until Friday!  I was told he won't have dates until at least next week and I would get a call when she knows something.  By next week I will have been waiting a month for a date, this is more frustrating than waiting for a approval decision!

Called Patty again at surgeon's office.  My doctor may be speaking at a seminar and he won't know for sure until Oct. 10th.  Once he knows either way he will schedule surgeries again.  He doesn't want to schedule surgery dates and then have to re-schedule because he might be gone.  Most likely my date will be in Janurary of 2009.

I called Patty, the bariatric program director. She still does not have a surgery date for me.  Dr. Kothari has had a lot of patients get approved recently and he has not gone through all of them to assign dates to yet. Patty says to keep calling her, it doesn't bother her, so I told her I will call next week if I don't hear anything before then.  She originally said end of Nov. to early Dec., now it looks like 2009!  Disappointing, but I have to remember there are others who have waited longer or never got approved.  I have to remember to put things into perspective.

Please pinch me in case I am dreaming!  I stopped at the clinic today, got the results of my H-Pylori test, it was negative.  I had them fax it to the HMO.  Called HMO to tell them to watch for it and it was neg.  HMo calls back and says they got it and I am now approved.  They will send a official letter out tomorrow.  I called the surgeon's office to let them know.  I will get a call back with a date by Monday, but surgeries are being scheduled right now from end of Nov. to early Dec.  Someone has a surgery on Dec. 6th.  I guess no Christmas cookies for me this year!  I might have to make them and eat them for Thanksgiving before surgery!  LOL I am so excited, I was doing the happy dance at home after I got off the phone!  I'll post the date when I get it.

The HMO called me last week and told me they want a H-Pylori test done and have the results faxed to them.  If the test is negative then they will get me going, whatever that means huh?  I am taking this as encouraging news.  The requested this test about two days after they received my appeal again.  I'm hoping this is the last thing they will want to give me approval for surgery.  Keeping my fingers crossed.

I called the HMO yesterday, it has been 22 days since the appeal was faxed and still no word.  The woman at the HMO says they never recieved the appeal!  My clinic says they have the fax report saying the fax for the appeal went through, so they faxed it again.  HMO called today and they have recieved the fax this time.  No it is the waiting game again!  I am upset that I am another three weeks behind and they somehow can't find the appeal, sounds like a insurance trick to me!