It is Approved and it is Official!!!!

The office called on the 23rd and said they would send my packet into insurance, despite my elevated thyroid levels. My last post stated that I thought my surgery would not get approved because of it. I had not heard back from the surgeons office since February 23rd so I was getting very nervous as to why I had not heard back. I kept thinking "no news is bad news" instead of the other way around.

I emailed my mediator/liaison on Friday and asked how long it takes to hear back from tricare for approval. She said the average is two weeks. I told her it had been three weeks and she said not to worry, give it another week or two. Urghhh!!!

So I got online and emailed some of my banded buddies on two support groups that I belong to. I asked if anyone had tricare and how long it takes to hear back from them....I got a bunch of replies and read some posts that it only took four days to a week to hear back and get a date.....urghhhh again!!!!!

So I called the office today and asked what the status of my approval was. They said that they were waiting for some labs to be done, my thyroid and pylori tests....I laughed in frustration! I said that I had already had the tests done and that the lasts time we talked it was in reference to my test results. I asked if they had sent the packet in or not. She said wait a minute, turned a page in my file and said, "oh yeah, it was sent in and you were approved. we will keep your date of April 20th if that is fine with you." Wow!!! I am approved and have an official date!!! yay!! Anyone who has kept up with my blog knows how long I have been waiting for this.

The part I am most looking forward to the week of my surgery is to be with Scott. He is out of town for a month, then I am leaving town, then he is leaving town, then I leave town again. We will not be reunited until April 19th. Then he is going to take the week off for my surgery. I am looking forward to being with him that week. And very much looking forward to the change this will make in my life.

I will be in Arizona before my surgery and I will need to start my liquid diet while I am there. My mom plans to do it with me. I know she is nervous for me to get the surgery and wants me to try to do this on my own without surgery, so it means a lot to me that she is going to support me while I am visiting her.

April 20th.......Only 35 days away!!!!!

Might Not Happen

I know I just post good news about April 20th, but now it might not happen. I just got a call from the surgeon's office and my lab work did not come back so great. My thyroid is not functioning right. I have to see my family Dr. before they will progress any further. I am ready to give up and just not do it. So much time and money invested. I am so tired. It has been a huge emotional roller coaster. What should I do now?

April 20th?????

I got my 2nd opinion on my psych consult and it went great, despite the kind of day I was having. I have been extremely emotional these past two months because of some events that have taken place in the last two months. So every time I get in the car by myself I start to cry as my mind thinks about tragedy, death and loss. When I dropped my kids off with my friend to watch so I could go to my psych appointment, I told her I was going to listen to only fun uplifting music on my drive and repeat positive thoughts so when I arrived for my appointment I would be calm and not walk in with blood shot eyes from crying. My plan almost worked. when arrived in the parking lot at the Dr's office I got some really bad news about the death of my nephews' father. I was so sad for them and almost left the parking lot and just drove home. I knew there was no way I could go into the office in the state I was in. But I went ahead and went in. I knew I needed to just get this done. I had shuffled the kids off to different houses and the dr's was a little trip away, I had to just go in and hope for the best that I would pass my psych consult. So I disclosed all info to the dr as soon as I entered his office because he could tell I was emotional. He asked if I wanted to reschedule, I told him rescheduling was way too hard for me and asked him to just go through it and hope that I could compose myself. We got through it and he was very nice! He was very patient and understanding of my situation and passed me with flying colors.

I called the surgeons office a few days later to tell them to throw out the first psych consult and make sure only the 2nd one got sent in. They said they never even got a first one. That dr. I first saw three months ago never even sent in her eval.....what a flake. She was very weird. She was more concerned with billing when I met with her. She kept talking about how she was going to bill it to the insurance as two appointments because it takes her an hour to write up the eval. she seemed to just be doing it for the money and not really to help people.

I asked the office when they thought I would hear back from them about insurance approval and get a surgery date. They told me my packet was incomplete........What????? incomplete? I thought I was done! They said I had two blood tests that had to be submitted. But they did give me some good news. They said that they would be me on the calendar for April 2oth then that way when I got my blood tests done and they heard back from insurance with a yes then I would have a date already. So I went and got my blood tests a week ago and I am anxiously awaiting a phone call from the surgeons office. Then I will go for some more pre op tests and appointments and my surgeory will happen on April 20th!!! Yay!!! Scott has already asked work for that week off. We are being very hopeful. And we are already making plans for what we want to do that week that he is off as I am recovering. We are planning to watch all of the episodes of Lost from beginning to current. We love that show and have followed it from the beginning but we are LOST right now and need a refresher course.

Last night I was at the store with Scott and had my eye on a few swimsuits I liked that hopefully by the end of summer I will not look too terrible in. Hopefully by August I might feel comfortable pool side. I hope!!!

Jumped Through My Last Hoop

So my final hoop to jump through has been my psych eval. I had posted last time that I had an appointment in early December that I had an appointment. I had that appointment but I did not fully pass. I passed, but I made the mistake of mentioning that I am worried about my husband. I have a few issues with saying no to his food plus a few other things. So the therapist recommended a couples therapy session before she recommended I get the surgery. I was not too worried about it. So I set up a session with a nice lady I had seen before. I asked her receptionist if she saw couples and she said yes. So Scott and I went off to our appointment. The counselor was put off by my request and let me know that she does not work with couples. I guess our insurance only has one family therapist on one base in our area and it is a four month waiting list to get in with her/him. (mmm....no wonder there is such a high divorce rate in the military.) I left really frustrated and ready to throw in the towel.

I talked to my surgeon consultant and she told me in all of her years of scheduling appointments that she has never heard of someone being told to have couples therapy before surgery. I told her what our issues were. She said they were no big deal and to just get a 2nd opinion and start over with a new psych consult. I spent an entire day on the phone calling my approved list of therapists. I left about 10 messages around town. I finally heard back from one. I went to my appointment today and it feels so good to get it done. This one went really well. He said he will get the paperwork in by Friday. I am hoping to get a call from the surgeon within two weeks with a surgery date and my date will be around one month from then. I can not wait to get the call!!!! So I am guessing my surgery will be in about 6 weeks. I can not wait. It has been exactly a year since I was referred for the surgery by my nutritionist. It has been a long year. Lots of hurdles and hoops but I have jumped through them all.

Two more videos...I love this girl!!!

You Tube and Lap Band

I have been checking out you tube lately for stories about the lap band. There are a lot of great before and after videos made by actual patients from their homes. But I really like this commercial.

Done With My 6 Months

I have not posted in a long time. I hope no one thought I was giving up on the surgery. I have been very busy running from appointment to appointment. I just completed my 6 month check list of appointments. Once a month I had to do these three things: 1. Go to the nutritionist. 2. Visit with my Primary Care Manager (Doctor) 3. Attend a bariatric surgery exercise class. I was so nervous that I would miss one, making my surgery date pushed back or cause me to start the 6 month process over again. I did it! I made it to all three once a month for the past 6 months.

Some other things I have accomplished are attending a 4 hour nutrition class. That was very informative. The biggest fact was learning that I will only be eating 4 TBLS of food for all three meals. And two protein shakes a day. That was not a typo....4 tbls. 2 of a protein and one fruit and one veggie. That is all my stomach will be able to take in at a time. The first few weeks will all be pureed food. Pureed veggies...yum!!! For my proteins I am not going to eat pureed meat or chicken, my proteins of choice will be peanut butter, tuna, refried beans and eggs. I can't really stomach eggs, but I know I can stomach it better than pureed meat. Another moment in class that I thought, "can I really do this?" was when I was told that I can't have gum anymore. I love gum. Why can't I have gum? I can't risk swallowing it. the gum will have a hard time passing the band and it could result in surgery, that is the worst case scenario.. But on top of that is that it will cause gas because of the air consumption while chewing. so no gum. Plus other things I will miss are popcorn. I love pop corn. Pop corn is one of many no nos..

Another thing I had to do was to take a sleep study test. They had to test for Sleep Apnia restless leg syndrome. I do not have it. In fact I have the opposite.....I have hyper sleep. Meaning that I am a very deep sleeper. Any of my kids could have told you that. They learned at a very young age, like four weeks, that they had better just sleep through the night because mommy can't hear them to come get them. And daddy has hyper sleeep too. Deep sleepers here.


So what is next. There is a few check ups I need and then a surgery date will be scheduled, hopefully, remember that I still have to wait for approval from the insurance company. I have a psych consult scheduled for next Tuesday. I don't think I have posted on the latest on my emotional therapy. I had written earlier about how much I love my eating disorder therapist. I went into see her in August. We had a great visit. She said she would get me my letter I needed stating that I am a good candidate for the surgery. I had not gotten the letter from her yet, but in September I was feeling yukky emotionally so I called to set an appointment and she was gone. They told me that she no longer worked there and could not release any info about where she was working now. I was so mad!!!! And very sad. The finding a new therapist has been nothing but torture!! I asked my current office if I could meet with someone else to get my psch consult. They said it will take 12 to 16 weeks to get one scheduled and that If would be put on a waiting list. I could not wait that long and that I would need a new referral anyways. I got a new referral and requested to be sent somewhere else that could see me faster. I got a letter in the mail for a therapist to call. I called him and he was so RUDE!!! first he asked me if I needed an appointment or if I just wanted him to place a prescription for medication. I thought it was weird that he asked if I wanted a prescription when I hadn't even met with him yet, nor had I told him my name. All I had said was "hello, I would like to schedule an appointment." I told him I needed a psych consult for bariatric surgery. and all he said was, "no I don't do that no I don't do that no I don't do that." I tried to tell him that I received his name from my insurance company and if there was any one at his office that did do it. before I could even get it out, her hung up on me. I was so upset. Scott was home at the time. Scott is a very passive and loving character. He always gives people the benefit of the doubt and tries to be noncrontational. It is a good quality and balaning out my drama queen side. And usually when I cry about stuff like this he tells me that I am over reacting....but not this time. As soon as I got off the phone, which he heard the brief conversation, he called the dr. right back and yelled at him. It was just a voice message, but it was a great voice message!! He told him that he had no right to hang up on me and treat his wife like that. I was so proud and so in love with him in that moment. I think it was one of the first times he stood up for me rather than try to convince me to see it from the other person's point of view. I loved it. I called my insurance company to ask for another dr. They gave me a list of five places to call. I called all five and left messages. Of all those messages only one place called me back. One very nice lady that said she does this all the time, help bariatric patients get their psych consults.

Other things I have to do include: upper GI, galbladder ultrasound, chest x-ray, blood work, and some other labs. Other than that, I am just waiting to hear from insurance and get a date scheduled. I am very excited, but nervous that this was all for nothing. I am nervous that it won't happen and I will be told no. Hopefully next time I post will be with a date!