trekker954

There are many out of pocket costs pre surgery consults with potentially many doctors to get cleared for surgery. Between the requirements to send in to BCBS and my surgeon wanting me to get cleared I ended up having to see so many specialists. One would clear but then what a different specialist to clear me also, this went on and on with invasive testing with all results coming back just fine. This added up to over $650 out of pocket so far. I am approved for surgery by BCBS. But I had no idea I'd have these out of pocket costs before even going in under the knife. I would imagine this would be difficult for some.

Congratulations on your retirement. I hope to retire also at the end of the year, or possibly go as long as mid year 2017. Good to hear. Yes, they had put a Jan. 20 expected date. The approval was for 5 night hospital, although I was told that is put down in case of complications and its typically only 1 or 2 nights. I was still awaiting test results that would have not been returned until the following week. The admin gal, who handles scheduling, told me, oh its okay, you can have the surgery without the test results. I had quite a blowout with that admin gal. I orginally wanted the surgery in Dec but the clinic required so many invasive and expensive tests that it got ridiculous, IMHO. The pulmonary doctor results came back fine, but then he's say, you should see a cardiologist. The cardiologist would say your tests were fine, but you should see a Gastroenterologist, he'd order more tests and say, they came back fine but you should see a Hepatologist. You see where this is going? I started to feel like hospital just wanted to rack up more money. So by late January (one month of tests) I had paid out of pocket $650 for co-pays (BCBS). So when the admin gal wanted me to go under the knife before all tests results were in, I lost it. Insisting if my surgeon ordered this test last minute (he actually even wanted me to see a specific doctor who wasn't available for two months - so I saw someone else); I wanted to wait until all test results were in which was going to overlap the Jan. 20 date. Then I had to travel for work, (three seperate trips to Asia between Feb and May 27), so I just put it off until I had time, which is in early August. I can take up to six weeks off if I want to. I'm older so I think that is important. I expect and am hoping its just a chest x-ray and blood work that will need updating. I do hope the nurse (not the admin gal) calls me back on Monday with good news. There is no way, I'm going to jump through all those hoops to get the insurance approval done again.

A considerate office/spa will have squeeze balls. They help me a lot and what I typically use for laser pain. Also I try and use the breathing techniques i learned in lamaze class 32 years ago. lol And maybe if I'm having a tense day, I will pop a Vicodin before a treatment.

OMG, they just submitted it (I think late Monday). I'm approved. I have butterflies. I'm not telling anyone at work, so I had to jump online to tell someone. I'm telling y'all!!!! My cardiologist had "cleared" me for surgery but in his notes, recommended I see a pulmonologist (I wheezed during my stress echo). The first available was Feb. 8th. Not happy so I'm going to look for someone outside the hospital. The surgeon said I have to see a pulmonologist before he gives me a date. If I can see the pulmonologist within a week., he'll see about scheduling me late January. Which would be perfect.

My official approval letter from BCBS shows 5 days hospital stay. My surgeon told me his patients stay 2 nights. I have no idea what they requested, I assume they must have asked for 5. Or does the insurance have standard days. I'm having the sleeve, not a by-pass. Do they just do that worse case scenario?

I love the flatout Protein up. It is healthier than regular bread and I like sandwiches.

I was going to post this in pre-op; but I really want the surgery scheduled for Jan. 20th. So I think I want to hear from post op patients who will calm my fears. I jumped through so many hoops to get this far and have insurance approve it; I can't believe I'm having these thoughts. Tell me it normal and to just plug away. I feel an overwhelming feeling of not going through with it. These are my thoughts. I'm scared what if I don't wake up. Am I too old, I'll be 62 on Jan. 25th. I travel extensively for work and my work is leading meetings where the group is focused on me - what if I do an Al Roker and pooped in my pants, or my farts smell awful during a meeting or lengthy car rides with other company members. What happens 15 to 20 years from now when I may be dependent for someone else to make my meals. I also made the mistake or reading the complications forum. I have a temporary crown in a back tooth - well cemented I might add, but I even thought well maybe I should cancel because of that. Just a million thoughts are going through my mind. Mind you, I've had just about every test under the sun and pass all just fine, I'm not on any medications, and have moderate sleep apnea. But I'm fearful of complications.

Also BCBS FEP approved within a day of submission, then quickly scheduled Jan. 20th. EGD tomorrow (yikes). I hope this is the last hoop. They always come back with something else they've decided I need to get.

I cut out, as in cold turkey, caffeine two weeks ago. I had the most horrendous headache for a full week. Especially when I wake up. The past week, I'm doing the one shake replacing a meal and protein/veg for other two. I'm sort of light headed most of the time. Wednesday one week out I will start full liquids

My gallbladder is being removed as well. Everyone's comments have made me feel better. I have no been given a time yet. Maybe CC is known for that. Hurry up and wait. But even for my EGD, they want me there at 1130 for a 1:30 procedure. I will be starving, but at least that is my first day of pre-op liquids only. last week for my cardio CT Scan with contrast. My appoint was 8, got there, they prepped me for IV and I sat there until until 9:30 before we got into the CT Room.

Surgeons are moving away from the lap band. They all seem to prefer to do the sleeve now. There are many people now moving from the band to the sleeve. I'm scheduled for the sleeve in Cleveland Clinic soon, I was told they never do the band anymore.

Insurance Companies have their set of requirements and the doctor has his own. I'm assuming since you have been at this a while, you know exactly what the insurance company requirements are. Since you are talking about comorbitities, i'm assuming your BMI is between 35 and 40 somewhere. If they are documented comorbitities, the insurance company can't ignore that. Ask your surgeon's office what documentation they sent in for you. Did you provide all the test results and such showing your co morbitities?

Outside, I agree with you, while I binged watched yesterday I don't really really to these patients and or their socio-economic level. I guess that was why my comment earlier. i too do not care for Dr. NOW. And then watching the first episode of Skin Tight. yikes. First i was surprized she went back to her WLS surgeon. If/when I decide to have plastic surgery, I will use a known and experienced plastic surgeon. I assume maybe it wasn't costing Lauana anything by using Dr. Now. But geez lousie, that really old doctor that he brought in. OMG. I was so happy to see the guy (forgot his name) who lost the weight "on his own" (I hate that verbiage) his doctors were young and positive. I do like watching plastic surgery shows. But Skin Tight, oh my, they are all so cut up.

I'm reading so many recipes for pureed food phase. But what are you using to puree. I even saw a post that someone blends a lean cuisine. Do people use nurti bullet or regular bullet since it shouldn't be much food. If you get cottage cheese (which I think is disgusting) do you mash that up till its creamy? I see people are eating oatmeal in this stage, aren't there kind of pieces in oatmeal and dry going down? Any advice on how to do puree stage while long haul air travel and hotels. I'll be bringing lots of Protein powder for meal replacement; and those chunk tuna packages (even though that may not be pureed - not sure how to make it creamy.). getting nervous how I'll manage this stage while traveling.

Wow thanks. Yes, I am obviously overthinking this worrying about it too much, but I'm a planner also. I also want to make sure I do everything right to avoid feeling or getting sick. You all made me feel better and confident I'll be able eat things without have a blender attached to my side.

When I watch this show, its typically a single person living at home or a single mom, etc. Usually their enablers are also overweight. They rarely have a job. I wonder how they can afford to eat what they eat and almost daily eat fast food every day. That can get very expensive, especially the amount of food they eat. Where do they get the money for all that food. Are they are getting federal or state assistance to feed their habits? then others pick up and move to Houston to be near the doctor. wow. I do watch many of the episodes. Some I am rooting for the person, others I just feel they do not deserve the effort the doctor and staff are putting in. then others I wonder how the heck they are carrying around all that weight and still be alive. OMG. It is a motivated for sure.

There were so many hoops. For insurance, I needed the psych eval; the nutrition class, BMI over 40, evidence that past diets have failed, consecutive weight in for 3 months all done with my PCP who wrote the letter of necessity. Now my surgeon also required clearance from my cardiologist an pulmonologist who also required some tests before they would clear, tons of blood work, chest xray and an endoscopy. I will tell you this, all these co pays and some test deductible add up. At least after each test, i'm finding out I'm pretty damn healthy regardless what i may look like. But I was approved this week, so just have the endo left and scheduled for next Wed. Now if I could just get someone from that darn surgeon's office to return my call to schedule the big day. The initially wanted me to schedule the date as well as endo; but I wanted to wait until I was approved by BCBS. I was pushing and booking though, as I really want this done in January. I want a good 4 to 5 weeks at home, before my work travel schedule starts. Surgeon said I can fly internationally after 10 days. I wonder how many flights he's taken to China. I need want to be on pureed food by then. I don't like the food in China so its a win win. I'll probably live just on Protein shakes.

Cleveland Clinic Weston (South Florida)

I was just reading an article on WLS and gas. So I have a few questions for post op folks. Most of the threads here are all about the gas pains right after surgery and to walk, walk, walk. I got that. I thought that was it, within a few days gas is no longer a problem. But then I read this article. It seems like WLS patients will have flatulence issues for their lifetime. And that it is often quite loud and often quite an odor. I know its a touchy topic, but can someone be honest. Is all of this true, does it not get better. Do you have time to relocate so not to share your fart with everyone?

I really love my morning coffee and on weekends may have 3 cups. I decided to start weening off caffeine or tryinng to go cold turkey now and not post surgery. Walked into Dunkin Donuts this morning, ordered a small decaf and that was it. No donuts either. I didn't feel too bad. I'm also doing one Protein shake replacing one meal. all my documentation is in, just waiting. Hoping for an early Feb. date. I will say this, I'm not sleeping well at all. I think I just have too much on my mind. I'm so preoccupied with this whole process. UPDATE: As of Jan. 6 10:30 a.m. APPROVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Miss Mac, I wondered about baby food as I passed the aisle at the grocery store today. So much of it looked like vegetables. Is it good? is there enough Protein?

So they drag my psych out of his surgery recovery and he tells his staff where to find the eval that he did in fact send to Cleveland clinic, my surgeon the day of our meeting. So she refaxed the one that showed it was already done. The surgeon staff confirmed they got it, but didn't apologize for losing it or whatever. She also said she's not sure I will be approved after all of this, because my BMI hasn't been 40 for over two years. and while its been over 37 most of my life, I only have co morbity evidence for 2015, not going back two years. That isn't at all what the eligibility states for BCBS Fep. I also just Saturday received my official letter from the surgeon dated Dec. 11th, the day we met. And he said he was removing my gallbaldder, yet that was missing from the surgery plan. Although my surgeon is suppose to be one of the best, one that fixes others mistakes, I'm losing faith in Cleveland Clinic. They just seem soooooooooooooo disorganized there.

The psch I chose, took a while to find, but while he did accept my insurance for office visit, it still cost me about $150 for the "report." ugh. Some said the meeting would take 2 hours and include a couple of tests on the computer. I found one who's meeting was about 1/2 hour long and was basically a chat after some questions. I was told by him I was a good candidate and had no problems emotionally. And to top it off, my surgeon said he's still waiting on it after he promised me he would immediately send it (Dec. 22). So here I thought the insurance would receive everything last week. Tomorrow I will call the psych to find out WTF? I'm pretty annoyed.

My surgeon's office called late Thursday and said they are still missing the psych eval (he promised to send it out before Christmas); I'm so mad and of course have to wait until Monday to get someone in the office there. The nurse also told me no labs which I had done last monday at Quest. I stopped by this morning and they looked me up and said not finalized. I asked why when typically Quest gets reports back in a day, two at most. They said because it had to do all those test on the Vitamins and such. It was really a long lab list. So hopefully that will be this week sometime. But they only need to psych for the insurance, the labs are just the pre-op. I don't want to schedule the endoscopy until BCBS says they'll be paying.

its so crazy the different responses. I told my surgeon I have a work trip to China the last week in February and it was important I know how long after surgery I can fly/travel. He said 10 days. That answer kind of shocked me, I'd like at least a month, although I think the liquid diet would be far easier to deal with in China than blended or soft. Last time I was there, they served a lot of fish (not a big fish eater) but they could never tell me what type of fish, other than "river fish".