Sharon1964

This. In spades. YOUR doctor (not you specifically, amylynns, but "you" in the generic sense) has his/her reasons for their rules. My doctor may allow certain NSAIDS and disallow others. My doctor may allow it for VSG and not GB. Your doctor may say "never ever ever."
So ask your doctor what his/her rules are, then ask for the reasoning behind them. If you don't agree with your doctor, look for peer-reviewed research on the subject, then show those to your doctor. See what he says.

THAT IS SO FREAKING AWESOME! You must be on cloud nine!!!

After a week full of non-stop battle, Cigna has decided to make right of their error. I can't think you all enough for your comments and suggestions. You all are the best!!

Oh my god, I've been approved. APPROVED!
Sheeet just got real.

Who knew my surgeon works on Saturdays?!?!?! I just got my approval letter and my surgeon is booked into August. If someone cancels, they'll call me to see if I can do it sooner. I'm hoping for July.

My surgeon requires you to have all the preventive care and age-appropriate procedures before he will do the surgery. He wants to make sure that anything else going on is discovered and taken care of before the surgery. I'm 50 so I had to have the colonoscopy and I was overdue for a mammogram.

Oh my god, I've been approved. APPROVED!
Sheeet just got real.

You could try goal-setting.
1. Make a specific, measurable goal. "Eat no more than 1/4 cup of food at each of three meals and no more than 1/8 cup of food at each of two Snacks."
2. Set a time limit. "I will do this for one week."
3. Identify obstacles. "Eating out", "portion size", "lack of restriction in my tummy."
4. Identify ways to conquer the obstacles. "I will only order an appetizer, and I will ask for a to-go box with my order and I will portion it out before I take a bite." "I will wear super snug Spanx to remind myself not to overeat."
5. Identify who you will be accountable to. "In one week, I will call my best friend and talk about my week."
Read over your written list every morning and as often as you need to. You can do this, it's only for one week. Then when you are successful with that, do it for another week. Keep reminding yourself about your goals.

I feel fantastic but had not paid much attention to body changes as yet until i did this side by side, the pic on the left is June 1st, the night before my surgery, the pic on the right is today June 14 and im shocked at the change in such little time, im so happy i had to share

Oh my god, I've been approved. APPROVED!
Sheeet just got real.

I know during the pre-op stage it can be incredible difficult and you may be questioning your decision or struggling through the pre-op diet, wondering if you will ever get through your insurance requirements, wondering if it will even work or be worth it. I thought I would post really quickly with some encouragement. I know everyone's experience is different, but for me, the sleeve surgery, and the abdominoplasty to remove excess skin after losing 155 pounds, were the VERY best decisions I have every made in my life. And...the proof is in the pictures!
I posted the following in another forum, but thought that someone here might benefit from it as well. You can also see my blog (in my signature line and linked in the text here for all of the ups and downs of my journey from the 1st pre op appointment in Jan. 2013 to today. Hope this helps someone!!! :-)
I am now 1 year and 9 months post op. I reached my goal weight at about 10 months post op (140-145) and in the year since then I've felt that things have been moving very slowly. Well, I was ordering a dress online the other day and I had to take my measurements. I hadn't taken then since reaching goal weight almost a year ago. I was shocked to see that even though it felt painstakingly slow, I lost an additional 20 pounds and 22 inches in the past year, putting me at my "dream goal" and feeling pretty freaking amazing.

My husband and I just got back from our anniversary getaway and we took a picture together. When I got home I decided to see if you could really tell a visable difference from me at 1st goal weight and dream goal weight a year later and I think you can. I was pretty surprised. I'm feeling super happy at my weight and health and fitness level right now, and having kept it off for nearly 2 years I"m feel pretty good about the prospects long term as well.

Well then I decided to go a little crazy, and I went back and found my anniversary pictures from the past 5 years and decided to do side-by-side comparisons. I'll only include the one from last year (goal weight) to this year (dream goal weight) AND one from my highest weight (278.4) to now (125), but if you want to see the rest of them, just click on the link here to the blog post with all the pictures from the past 5 anniversaries:
"The Proof Is In the Pictures" Post

Here is goal (June 12, 2014) to dream goal (June 12, 2015) and highest weight - 278.4 (June 12, 2013) to dream weight - 125 (June 12, 2015). Enjoy!

So I posted about my colonoscopy from earlier this week. The day before the colonoscopy, I had my psych eval. These are some of the things that we talked about during my psych eval.
Ever since I decided that "enough was enough" and I wanted to have WLS, back in November 2014, my right eyelid has been twitching. Almost constantly. It drives me crazy, but it's what happens to me when I'm stressed. I couldn't figure out what I was stressed about, but I figured it had something to do with my decision to have WLS. I have spent a lot of time since that decision really exploring my past and how I got to where I am.
I looked at pictures of my childhood, and saw that during the time my father was telling me I had to diet because I was too big, I was actually normal. I was shocked. I was shocked at how much one person could really screw you up. I thought about all of the things he did over the years, and the things that brought me to cut him off about 10 years ago and stop all contact. He is a mean, toxic person and is no longer in my life.
I also thought about the time in high school when I weighed 195 (I'm 5 ft 7 inches tall) and thinking, "well, it's okay, because I'm not 200 pounds." I remembered in my early 20's weighing 281 pounds and thinking, "well, it's okay, because I'll never weigh 300 pounds." Now all through this time period, I was still dieting, losing weight, then regaining weight when I couldn't keep up with the demands of the diet. But hey, it was okay, because I wasn't XXX pounds, right?
Then in my early 30's, I got serious (or thought I did), and dieted down to 225. I married someone who liked big women and was not supportive in my efforts to lose weight. Two years later, at 350 pounds, I got pregnant. When our daughter was two years old I left him. I continued to struggle with weight. About 5 years ago, I got on the scale and it read 397. I was shocked. There was no way in hell that I was going to let the scale read 400. I went back to my go-to plan, Atkins. I lost 75 pounds. But I couldn't keep it up, I was still emotionally eating and eating out of boredom.
But hey, it was okay, because I have tons of clothes (thank you, internet shopping), boots that fit my fat calves, and even tights that fit. There was nothing wrong with being a BIG BEAUTIFUL WOMAN, because that's what I was hearing all over the place. Accept who you are! Accept your size! That's the message I was hearing.
People couldn't believe that I was 50 years old. They would say, "you have no wrinkles" and I would respond, "that's because I'm fat - only skinny people have wrinkles." And they would laugh and I would laugh. Because it was okay to be fat, right?
In November 2014 I got on a scale and it said 403. I felt sick to my stomach. I did some soul searching. I decided to stop kidding myself and to stop accept being fat.
I told the psychologist that Fat Acceptance did me no favors. It may have done wonders for other people's self esteem, but it just enabled me to be fat. Now most of you are younger than me, and you may not remember what things were like before "FA" became a thing. There was no such thing as "BBW" - the term hadn't been invented.
I told the doc that I was afraid of failing. That I had read a post here about someone who was afraid to get rid of her fat clothes, because every other time she had done that, she had to go back and buy that same size again when she failed in her efforts to keep the weight off. I told him that I had a hard time with failure (and had been my whole life, another thing to thank my father for), and I think that was what I was really stressed about.
I poured all this stuff out to the psychologist, things I had never, ever admitted, even to myself. And it felt great.
And then my eye stopped twitching.

Wonderful!

I'm the office manager for a pain management doctors office. Trust me, we get more than our fair share of muffins, donuts, candy, etc. We started letting it be known that we were all trying to eat healthier, and now we get trays and baskets of fresh fruits and vegetables as well as meat and cheeses. It is VERY much appreciated!

You're so welcome. Keep up the good fight!

The reviewer has to have a specific reason to deny. It doesn't sound like there is a reason. Not to worry.

There is someone else on these forums who went thru the same situation. I'm not sure who their insurance carrier is. They successfully appealed citing the numerous instances of false information on the part of the insurance company.
Cigna itself can cover it. It doesn't have to affect the employer's rating or costs.
Appeal and keep appealing up the chain of command. Appeal to your state insurance commissioner if necessary.

Tell her you want her to submit without the records. If they ask for them, you can respond, in writing, that their written policy doesn't require it.
If they deny, appeal with copies of their own policy. It looks like "right" is on your side.

It's a form letter. Here is an example of what it means: If your plan allowed 10 chiropractic visits and you had already used 8, you can still get a letter authorizing 5 more, but they will only pay for 2 of those. You will max out your visits and will have to pay for the balance of the visits, or 3 of them.

Surgeon:
Colonoscopy - check
Endoscopy - check
Mammogram - check
Pap Smear - done within last two years, so not required
Barium swallow - check
Cardiac clearance - check
Insurance:
Psych eval - check
6 months of supervised nutrition visits - check
I just had my last of the 6 monthly visits on Friday. They are sending everything to the surgeon. Now the surgeon's office has to submit everything for approval to Blue Shield of California. I started this process in November 2014 and it seems like it has taken forever to get to this point.
The last time I checked in with the patient coordinator at my surgeon's office, she said he was booked for surgery until the end of July. Harrumph! Even if I get approved soon, it will probably be AUGUST before I get surgery!
YAY for requirements done. BOO for having to wait some more!

Look at the parts that I highlighted. I think you would do well to spend some time examining your ideas of "healthy". What is healthy for you and your existing ideas of what is healthy for you are not the same. A "healthy portion" for you is not a plate full of food.
As far as babies go, the baby gets nourished first. Your body will cause you to lose weight if it has to in order for the baby to get what it needs.

I wish I had been able to do it at your age. I'm 50 now, and will likely turn 51 (July 26) before surgery. I have one more nutrition visit this week, then one visit with cardiologist next week to go over my test results for cardiac clearance, then everything gets sent in to insurance for approval.
My surgeon is booked through the end of July right now, so it will probably be August before I get my surgery.
When I look back over my life, I realize I should have found a way to make the surgery happen much sooner. I didn't have health insurance for a long time, and then when I had it, it didn't cover the surgery. Now I have insurance that covers it.
I think about all the things that I passed on, all the things I couldn't do, all the times I missed out on, because I didn't physically fit into the world.
I wish I could go back to 35, where you are, and do it then.

Look at the parts that I highlighted. I think you would do well to spend some time examining your ideas of "healthy". What is healthy for you and your existing ideas of what is healthy for you are not the same. A "healthy portion" for you is not a plate full of food.
As far as babies go, the baby gets nourished first. Your body will cause you to lose weight if it has to in order for the baby to get what it needs.

Ok, here's the thing about surgery. My sleeve was my 12th, including 2 c-sections, spinal disc repair, gall-bladder out, appendix, blah, blah, blah, and was the easiest recovery, least painful of them all.
They will give you an IV. You will feel a little prick. My first ex-husband was a little prick. (My second ex-husband was a big prick)! They will give you a mild sedative, just enough so that you are can be relaxed and don't really care what is happeneing. When the get you to the OR, they will help you navugate your mello self onto the operating table.
Then they will ask you to count to 100 backwards - or something distracting like that. 100, 99, 98, wake up, wake up, hey you're all done, You did just fine.
There you go, on your way to a new you. You can expect to be nauseous for a few days, maybe even until you complete your post-op meds, but they will give you something for it. No lie, even if you have an uncomplicated recovery, you may still have an uncomfortable recovery. It is a right of passage to good health and being able to be more involved in your own life.
For me, I did not really get any energy back until I got on regular cooked foods at 4 1/2 weeks. It is hard to believe that next week I go for my 18 month check-up. How did all of those slowest days days of pre-op liquids, post-op diet phases, and multiple crazy-making stalls go by so fast?
Hang around here with us for encouragement, support, and the unvarnished truth about our individual experoences. You will learn a lot. If you want to find a thread on certain topics, go to the search box, type in your subject, click on the nearly invisible little down arrrow for a drop-down menu. Click on FORUMS, then the search magnifying glass. That will give you a display of different threads on that subject. Welcome, and good luck with your surgery.

So my surgeon sent me my "before" pictures yesterday, which of course made me want to take an "after" pic to compare. My surgeon does the "official" after pictures at the 3 month appointment when the scar is more healed. So I snapped a couple of pics today. It amazes me. There's only a difference of about 5 pounds in my weight since before and after surgery, but it seriously looks like a huge difference. I couldn't be more pleased with the results so far.

I have scar sheets on the scar, so we will see how that ends up, but so far so good.