Thursday, January 5, 2012

The Decision 2012 - Bariatric Betty waits for Pre-Approval

OK, the "decision" in my case will not be broadcast on network TV, and it also won't give any city an inferiority complex.  The decision is whether or not my insurance company will pre-approve me for Roux-n-Y gastric bypass.  Before submitting for pre-approval I had to be on a 90 day multi-disciplinary medically supervised diet.  I met with the Physician's Assistant monitoring me 4 times, met with a nutritionist 3 times, met with a psychologist twice and had one telephone consult, took the MMPI to see if I was of sound mind, and worked with a trainer over the 90 days.

Yesterday my wonderful P.A. Drew called to say the the packet of consults, diet and exercise logs, and his recommendation were ready for me to pick up, and this morning I took them to Hospital C where my Patient Care Coordinator Diane reviewed them and combined them with all of their notes and medical histories.  She
is submitting them today, and says we should here back in less than two weeks.  She said it looked great, and was especially pleased with my exercise.  She said that exercise before and after surgery are two great predictors on the success of patients, and that if I keep it up I will be so pleased with my results.  She said a lot of patients say "well, I walk" when they are asked about exercise, but that they need to push themselves.  Many of them may not have been able to walk before, so walking is an appropriate first step.  But adding in more vigorous cardio, strength training (not my favorite), and changing up our routine will make a big impact. 

So I made it through the holidays on my diet, eating some cookies I won't be able to have anymore, but staying within my pre-op diet calories.  I had a really hard time exercising.  Partly be was EXHAUSTING.  Partially because I spent a lot of time cleaning up after them and getting ready for guests.  I guess that counts as some exercise (as does walking the dog) but you know what I mean.  Anyway, the boys are back in school as of yesterday and I've been on the elliptical again for the past 3 days.  Feel SO much better.

So I'm thinking about coming "out of the closet" about bariatric surgery with more people after I get approved.  I just posted a rant on a friend's wall on Facebook to an ignorant (ex)friend of hers who was saying that weight loss surgery kills too many people, that people just need to exercise and shut their mouths.  Augh!  I realized that now someone can go to my wall and click on the post intro and see that I know A LOT of statistics about bariatric surgery and put 2 and 2 together.  If they care that much what I write on other people's walls, I guess they'll know. 

Not that I have strong opinions about anything :)

I guess what make me think I might be ready to "come out" about having surgery (after I actually know I'm going to have it) is because all it will take is one uneducated person saying something like Dee in real life, and everybody will know because of how I respond.  Besides, I think I will be proud to be a good example or how baritric surgery will help.  I'll probably treat it like I treat talking about taking meds for my depression - I won't bring it up with random strangers (which I guess I don't think of my readers as), I won't have a problem talking about it/ defending it.

Waiting is hard.... but at least it shouldn't be for another 90 days.

No comments:

Post a Comment