The Decision, and The Call

OK, so if you're a Weight Loss Surgery person, you know what "The Call" is and can skip the next paragraph.  If not, here you go.

I got two days of The Call.  The first one was yesterday, 1/30/2012, about 6 months after I went to my first information session about baritric surgery.  It was my patient care coordinator, Diane, from hospital C calling to tell me that my insurance company had finally pre-approved my surgery!  This is the call I've been waiting for - I finished my 90 days of multidisciplinary supervised dieting a month ago, and needed them to review all the documentation and say "Yes, she's compliant and fulfilled our requirements for pre-approval".  The second part happened today, 1/31/2012 about 15 minutes ago.  Sabrina, the scheduler called and said that they actually have an opening in the surgical schedule for Feb. 16th! 

So now that I have a surgery date, I'll call Feb. 16th my new Valentine's Day.  The one where I and my whole family say "You are worth this, we love you and want you to live a long healthy life".  I'll be honest, when I got the call about the insurance company approving me I broke down and cried.  In my car in the parking lot of the grocery store.  Several times.  It took me until my fourth phone call to family to stop crying each time I told them.  So the scheduler was supposed to call me in the next couple days, but they needed to make sure I understood that I would need to pay the $350 program fee and the $3000 deposit (because my insurance caps it's bariatric benefits below the cost of the operation) when I come in for pre-admission testing.  OK, I've been preparing for that.

I was so overwhelmed, I almost got in a car accident on the way home.  By the time it was dinner, I think I felt like a kid at the end of Christmas day.  Dazed, so happy to have gotten just what I wanted, but exhausted from the emotions of it all.

The scheduler called today, and I'm going in for blood work, EKG and counseling with the inpatient care doctor and nutritionist all day on Thursday.  Deal!  Can I pay the program fee and deposit in just two days?  If they take credit cards, I can!  (The answer was yes). 

So now things are clipping right along, and I'm going to be working like crazy to get everything prepared.  Coverage for the kids (my husband and mom will be helping), grocery shopping for them ahead of time - grocery shopping for my liquid diet post-op (noting NOT to overbuy - especially on things like broth, thank you guys for your blogs), and cleaning the house so my mom doesn't put EVERYTHING away where I can't find it when she comes to help.  Pre-op pictures - check.  The list is a living, evolving thing.  Suggestions are welcome!

I'm so excited!  And everyone I know is so excited for me.  I am blessed. 

Bariatric Betty's pride goes before a fall...

So, today I reached my 90th day of supervised dieting.  Hurray!  I've lost almost 20 pounds and I'm very proud of myself.  I emailed my patient care coordinator at Hospital C to make sure she had received the records she needed from my primary care doctor from 2008 and 2009.  She wrote back and said she received a packet, but it only had records from 1998-2004.  This was a big problem, because I need multiple years of weight history showing my morbid obesity for insurance pre-approval of partial payment of my bariatric surgery. 

So I got ticked that my past doctor's office could have screwed up my request so badly.  I wrote out specifically what I needed on the record release request.  I calmed down enough to call them and explained that there seemed to have been a mistake.  The woman at first agreed and then pulled my file.  Turns out there was no mistake, except my own.

I remembered going through a phase where I declined to get weighed because I was so embarassed with my weight.  Apparently, that phase was from 2004-2009, because all of of my visits during then don't have weight recorded.  So now because I was too embarrassed back then I might not have enough documentation to be approved my my insurance company.  I have data from my doctors from 2011, late 2010, and then 2004 and earlier. 

This afternoon I was able to get a copy of my record sent electronically from my old weight watcher's location in Central Ohio.  That gave me a starting weight in 1/2008 and an ending weight in 11/2008.  During that entire 10 months I lost just over 20 pounds.  Versus the last 90 days when I've lost just under 20.  I hope my earnest trying helps.  But now I'm really worried that since we don't have data from 2009, I may have shot myself in my foot.  What if my reluctance to face my weight in 2009 results in my not being approved for surgery?

There's nothing to do about it, but pray and wait.  My P.A. that is coordinating my multidisciplenary diet will be writing up his summary and putting together the packet next week.  Then the hospital will submit and we will wait.  And pray.  And try to remember that things will happen the way they should, even if I don't get approved. 

So here's my advice of the day.  Don't decline to be weighed, or have tests done.  Because you can't predit what will be needed in the future.  I never thought I would be looking at having this surgery, and now look what happened.  Pass it on.