phyllser

Sorry to hear about this latest frustration, Carol! Be patient... and persistent. It will happen!

Toooo funny!!!

Yes, I just looked up all my Medicare claims online today and found that they denied my hospital bill.. $17K, and I'm assuming that it's because I didn't stay overnight! I didn't know that was a requirement, but it seems like my doctor's office and the hospital should have known that! I'm going to appeal it, but not sure I'll get anywhere with that.

One thing you should get clarified is whether or not Medicare requires an overnight stay. They have paid on all of my bills except for my $17K hospital bill!! I read on one of these threads that someone had their claim denied by Medicare because they went home the day of surgery so I'm wondering if this is why mine wasn't paid. I trusted my doctor's office to do all the interfacing with Medicare and now I may end up paying for that mistake, LITERALLY!!

My primary insurance is Medicare, 2nd, Tricare for Life. I had my surgery 7/20/07. Got an email from Tricare today that a claim had processed so I went online to look it up. All my surgery related claims have been processed so far except for my 2nd fill. Tricare has paid on everything. But, when I looked up my Medicare claims, they paid on everything except for the hospital bill.... $17K! Tricare picked up a little over $500 of that and the EOB states that my share is somewhere around $2400. So I'm wondering why Medicare rejected my claim since I thought I jumped through all their hoops including using a "Center of Excellence". I read somewhere on another thread that they won't pay if you don't stay overnight. If the claim was rejected because I didn't spend the night... that doesn't make sense, #1, and secondly, the doctor's office knew I was Medicare so why didn't they keep me overnight??? I hate to compalin because I know so many are self-pay, but, I'm going to be pretty ticked if I have to pay because they didn't keep me overnight! Can anyone shed some light on this??? I'm going to appeal it, but, it's very frustrating. And a little frightening because one place on the EOB it says I have to pay $2388 and somewhere else it says $9600+!!

He is SOOO cute!! What a sweetie! Thanks for your compliments, Lynette.

Thanks for all the compliments, gals! They're much appreciated. Yes, that's the same sweatshirt. It does feel a little baggy these days.. it's my favorite! And now the sleeves keep hanging down past my fingertips! So I guess the shoulders have shrunk some. We do want it all NOW, don't we?!! Need to be happy that the scale is moving in the right direction. Since we're starting to sort clothes to pack for the winter, I'm going to have to leave behind some of my favs! No point in taking baggy clothes with me.

First photo.. start of pre-op diet - May 2007 This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago... down about 35 lb. at that time. I don't see a lot of difference yet, just feel it in my clothes.

:whoo::clap2::whoo::clap2::whoo::clap2::whoo::clap2::whoo::clap2: Wow!! what a difference! That's great, Janet!

Happy shopping this weekend!

And if that doesn't work then copy/paste one of the hotlink codes.. 1 or 2, but not the html, etc. You're not alone. I notice that a lot of the signatures are no longer showing up. Mine was doing that also, so I redid it and pasted hotlink code (1).

This stupid site makes me so mad sometimes. I wrote this big long response to your "blues" and all of a sudden it all went away in to Cyberspace before I could hit the "Post" button! Grrrr! Anyways, I was saying that I've got a drawer full of new clothes in the next size down already out in the RV ready for the winter that I bought off clearance racks. I like Lands End, especially their Sports Knit Pants which I normally pay around $35 for. I found a pair in the next size that I will need for around $10, as well as a couple of tops that were that cheap and cheaper! Look at consignment shops, sales racks, etc. There's a store in DHS that has fairly nice clothes at reasonable prices but I can't think of the name of it. I even did a search on the internet and can't find it. It has an unusual name. And I like "Honey's" over by Olive Garden... Rancho Mirage, I think? Anyways, don't be "BLUE", keep looking! You'll find some things!

You're off to a FANTASTIC start!!

I'm kind of enjoying having my clothes feel baggy right now. I've given up a few things, but keeping the ones that aren't yet falling off for a little while longer.

:hungry: Find out if your community does a Thanksgiving Dinner for homeless or indigent people. You can do your thing by helping with the cooking and serving and get a real blessing at the same time. Or if there is a college near you, there are always kids who can't or don't go home for Thanksgiving and probably someone at the college could help get you in touch. One community we lived in had a lot of foreign students attending and people from our church would invite them for Thanksgiving/Christmas festivities. Just some ideas for you to think about. :hungry:

Cheating! That's ridiculous. Taking desparate measures, maybe! Or just taking advantage of the best in medical/surgical technology available to improve our quality of life, our health, our life span, etc.! How can you call that cheating??! So, let's see..... does that mean maybe something like using a CPAP machine is cheating?? Cuz you're using artificial means to keep breathing while you're sleeping??? And then maybe using crutches when your leg is broken would be cheating, too! Get my drift?? Ridiculous to say we're cheating!

I tried changing one letter of my name to get something better, but it only got worse! LOL I tried Phyl, Phyll and Phyllis and went back to Phyl..... Violent Beauty! What does THAT mean????

That is frustrating! I know I went about a whole month with very little loss... August, I think. Then I started losing again, then stalled again for a few weeks, now I'm losing again. i've had two fills and go back two weeks from tomorrow for a possible third. I have a fair amount of restriction, but it fluctuates from day to day and even hour to hour. I am very restricted in the morning and sometimes all day. Other days I can eat more at lunch and/or dinner. Have you had one or two fills?? The scale can be a curse! I like to get weighed each morning before my shower, but it would probably be better to weigh once a week! It's great encouragement when the scale is moving, but very discouraging when it's not!

Wow! that's a really good point, Marilyn! I've told everyone! And the ones I didn't tell, my DH did! My friends and family have been extremely supportive and I haven't detected any negative feelings at all, so I guess I'm quite fortunate!

When our daughter brought me candy from Hawaii... Chocolate covered Macadamia nuts... my DH hid them.. He was doling them out to me one at a time every few days. But I only had two or three before he told me they were gone!! He was apparently eating a few every time he gave me one, and in between!! I was mad when I found out they were gone, but better in him than in me!!

violent beauty

Wow! You're doing great with your pre-op loss. I think some have posted on these threads that certain doctors and/or insurance companies have age restrictions, such as none over 60, others 65, and some have restrictions as to BMI. My doctor was very reluctant to do surgery if BMI was over 60. Then, coupled with my age, I was on shaky ground with him. But then I got my BMI down to under 60 prior to surgery and he was much more comfortable with the risk factors. I have heard of people in their 70's having this surgery, though.

:welcomeB: Cherlita, Congratulations on your surgery date! You'll sail through the process! Don't stress over it. You've got a great attitude towards it and you'll do fine. I had a starting BMI of 63.5, now down to about 55. My doctor required a pre-op diet, but I was on my own as far as what that would be. So I did a very low calorie diet having a protein drink in the morning, and lots of veggies with very little meat the rest of the day. I bought a big bag of E.A.S. chocolate protein at Costco and had that every morning. I also got a can of unflavored Whey protein that I could add to other things to get more protein in. Often I'd have a salad with maybe an ounce or two of tuna or shrimp in it. Small piece of meat with vegetables at dinner time. I lost about 20-25 lb. prior to surgery and got my BMI under 60. I can't do much in the way of exercise because my knees are bad. But that's an important component, too. We go south for the winter, so I'm looking forward to getting to CA where we stay in an RV park with nice warm pools and I do water aerobics all winter. You'll find lots of help here. Keep us posted on your progress.

:welcomeB: Yes, I was nearing that cut off age, too, and getting desparate to get rid of this excess weight. I have similar problems with my knees, in fact, I use an electric scooter much of the time. I've had a partial replacement on the right knee and the left knee is badly in need, as well. I had my surgery July 20th and I'm down over 40 lb. Welcome to this site.

We were babysitting our three youngest grandchildren this afternoon and evening. A little before bedtime, Grandpa took them in to the kitchen for a snack of milk and cookies.... home made chocolate chip cookies!! So he brings me one little tidbit of a cookie. It wasn't even enough to call a "bite" of a cookie. I savored it for a few minutes and then I hollered in to the kitchen, "Hey! Couldn't I have like maybe one HALF of a cookie???" Before my DH could answer, our 5 yr old granddaughter chimed in with "Don't you know you're not supposed to have any sweets??!! You're trying to lose FAT!" My DH came back in the living room, trying hard to suppress his laughter, and gave me another nibble of a cookie!