Got my surgery date!

Just got off the phone with the scheduler. I have to go in on Friday for my pre-opt I will met with the Diatican and the Nurse to go over any questions I have. We will also go over my pre-opt diet, and current medicine I am on. My surgery is scheduled for 5:00 am on May 18th. So excited to finally have my date now just have to get everything scheduled with work. I will be out of work for about 3 weeks but may be less depending on how my 2 week post-op is.

~G-Ann

Almost there!

Well Gallbladder ultra sound came back normal so I am good to go for surgery now. Spoke to my case worker yesterday, she said a scheduler will contact me next week to setup my surgery, pre-op and post-op appointments. With this information I would guess I have about another 3 weeks at the very least until surgery. After the pre-op I will more then likely be placed on a liquid protein diet for two weeks prior to surgery.

~G-Ann

Gallbladder Ultra Sound

Well just finished the last test Dr. Spitz required, this should mean I will be scheduling my surgery soon, as long as the results come back okay. Sounds like it will take about 2 days for the results. Worst part of the pre-opt process has been all the waiting, not to mention having to harass everyone to insure the paper work gets to the right people.

I think once I have my date a lot of the stress, and anxiety I have been feeling will start to get a little better. Though I am sure waiting till surgery will be even worse.

~G-Ann

Gastric Bypass Pre-Opt so far.

Starting in October of 2010 I began looking into getting gastric bypass. I started with going to my primary doctor and requesting a referral, he agreed that it was something I should look into at this time my weight was at 285. I was able to check with my insurance and find out that Bariatric Surgery, Program at Rockwood Clinic (http://www.rockwoodclinic.com/services/weight_loss_surgery_center) was the approved clinic for Aetna Insurance so requested my referral be sent there. They later contacted me to schedule my orientation where you're in a large group you receive paper work on the different weight lost surgeries and get to ask any questions you have for the Doctor/Case worker. At first my husband and I thought it just wasn't for me. It then took about a month of waiting for the Doctor and case worker to review my file and schedule my first appointment. By the time we went to my first appointment we had become more set on me having the surgery. After talking to Dr. Spitz it became more clear that gastric bypass was what I wanted to do. With on going back problems that cause me to be laid up on the couch for weeks to months and on going diabetes getting the weight off and keeping it off would help.

I was then contacted by my case working in December and given details on what the pre-requirements for my insurance to cover the surgery were. Due to having diabetes, back problems, and PCOS I was able to qualify for just 3 months of  pre-requirements. I had to have a Psych eval, 3 months 1-1 with a diatican, 3 months 1-1 with my primary care documenting my eating and exercise. I quit drinking pop in November 2010 Thanksgiving weekend. After meeting Dr. Spitz for the first time. I finished my last 1-1 with my diatican and PCP the end of March. Putting my weight now down to 250. Once my Case worker received the paper work it was then submitted to Aetna to approve. It was sent in on a Friday (April 1st) and by the following Monday (April 4th) the approval was received. I have been told this is fast for Aetna when I asked my case worker a week before she had said they were taking 2 weeks to approve.

Once your insurance comes back with the approval they then start the next steps to insure you are ready for surgery. Depending on your health, and the requirements of your Doctors you may have different Bariatric Pre-Screening Orders. For me they required an
*EKG
*Bypass Labs: CBC, CMP, Lipid Panel, Folate, Ferritin, B12, TIBC/Iron, Vitamin D (OH25), TSH, and HgbA1c (due to having type 2 diabetes).
*Chest X-ray

I was then notified on April 12 2011, that after reviewing the screening results Dr. Spitz has approved me but would like me to get one last test a gallbladder ultra sound. Currently I am scheduled to have this on April 20th and should be receiving my surgery date shortly after.

~G-Ann