tonnabug

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Well, I go to surgeon #2 today and the experience was a nightmare!!!  After being tossed new paperwork at the receptionist’s window and being triaged by a nurse who looked terrified and hardly talked loud enough to have her voice recognized by dolphins, I was sent into a tiny, poorly laid out room to sit on a hospital mat and wait for the doctor.  He rushed in spouting questions and instructing me on what I weighed, what I should weigh, and how much I need to loose to get to that weight.  Then amongst the flurry of questions he asks if I have any.... ummmm, well, I did - but I have forgotten what now!  So, I make reference to the fact that I am interested in the LapBand at which point he tells me essentially... I am too fat for a LapBand.  He asks if I will be happy losing “15 pounds”.  I say no - so he says well, you need gastric bypass then.  So when I stick to my decision that I want the LapBand he asks if I know how much weight I have to loose to get to a BMI < 50.  I say yeas about 50 pounds.  So, he tells me to loose 50# and call him.  After I find him (since he left the room and ran off without me while I finagled the maze of a treatment to get my jacket), he tosses me some papers as I leave and says this is the diet I can follow and turns to chat with the receptionist.  WHAT??  Am I on candid camera???  This experience did not just happen to me.... did it?

I am still in shock & don't really know what to do at this point.  However, I do know this… whatever it is I decide – this “doctor” will have NO part in it!!!!!

Well, it has been a while since I have posted here… and a lot has happened without much happening!  In August, just hours before my initial appointment with Dr. Facundus, I received an unexpected phone call from someone offering me a job.  The job was closer to home and more money, but meant a complete overhaul not only in my personal and professional life, but how would the change in insurance effect my WLS?  I even *briefly* considered not taking the job, but in the end knew it was the best choice for me & my family.  Well, fast forward to January 31^st.  I finally had another appointment with the nutritionist.  I called United HealthCare to confirm everyone was “in-network”.  The customer service rep. says I’m fine.  Dr. Facundus and Crestwood are “in-network”.  So, one nutritional consult and $175 later I find out that the hospital is NOT “in-network” and I have NO out-of-network benefits for bariatric surgery!

So… since the reps at UHC can apparently be clueless, I am out a total of over $600 dollars and now in the process of finding another surgeon.  I have heard good things about Surgeon #2 (I'm removing Dr.'s name to show him more respect than he showed me, so we'll call him surgeon #2), and will be going to his seminar on 2/12.  Please say a little prayer that this time around, things will go a bit more smoothly!

Moral of the story:  Always, always, always make sure the information being given to you is correct!!!