ChunkyCali

Argh, how frustrating for you! I suppose that they can't even imagine how it feels to have spent the past few months, planning, waiting, researching, waiting... getting through all those hoops and hurdles to get to insurance submission and then they just forget about us. Argh! On a good note my Dr. office called me back after I asked them yesterday 'how are things going', they told me that some papers didn't seem to go through so they resubmitted. I'm tentatively scheduled for May 5, if the approval comes in by Tuesday next week. Yay!

Good luck! I hope that the approval comes through fast. I too am waiting on insurance approval. It's been 2.5 weeks since my surgeons office said they were submitting, I just called the insurance office and learnt they had not submitted anything. Very frustrating! Make sure to check up if you don't hear anything in a couple of weeks.

I had the Johnson and Johnson one dose shot last week. About 6 hours after taking it I got chills and was very cold, I had a slight headache and low grade fever (between 99.5 and 100.3). Woke up that night because my arm was very painful. Fever and headache lasted approx 36 hours then I felt fine. Sore arm lasted about a week but the pain greatly diminished on the 2nd day. Many of my coworkers have had their shots in the past month, all different kinds. Some people had no side effects, a small amount had some mild side effects after shot one, and some had similar side effects to me after shot 2 or the J&J shot. All side effects were resolved or minor by day 2/3.

Thank you to all who have posted in this thread. I'm about 6 weeks out from surgery and doubts are starting to set in. Reading this thread reminds me of why I want this. I've spent the last decade overweight, with that high point creeping up and up. I have high blood pressure, it's getting harder to move around, stairs at work kill my knees and things like cutting my toenails are an exercise in itself. I want to be healthy, I want to go on an airplane or to a theme park without obsessing about seat belt length and if I'll fit on a ride. Most of all I want to be a better example to my son. I see him already having all the issues that I have and I know that I have not shown him how to live a healthy life. I want to change that and hope that he too will find a way to put his health first so that he will be around for a long time to come.

My insurance also required cardiac and pulmonary clearance. The pulmonologist had me do a sleep study which uncovered severe sleep apnea, and a stress test which revealed mild asthma. The cardiologist had me do an echocardiagram and EKG which showed a leaky heart. None of these things stopped me from being cleared, I just now have a cardiologist to visit every 6 months plus an inhaler and cpap

Had my gallbladder removed Monday. I'd hoped to have both at the same time but my surgeon doesn't like to do it that way. I guess this is kind of a test run for sleeve surgery I hope to get in April. I feel a little traumatized as I remember coming to during the surgery, and of course I'm in pain right now and the though of another surgery so soon is not appealing. Hoping that I'll get over that soon enough. I'm using this to my advantage and practicing my clear broth stage, then I'll try out some shake/puree days.

My PCP sent me for an abdominal ultrasound as part of my regular checkup. Gallstones were discovered. PCP advised that she could refer me to have a removal if I was having symptoms, I have been off and on for some time, but they hadn't been terrible and I was just living with the irregular bouts of discomfort. I'm done with all my pre-surgery clearances and just waiting to get through my last 2 dietician appointments. What I'm wondering is - should I contact my surgeon's office to let them know about the gallstones. Wondering what the likely outcome will be, if it'll be safe to go ahead as planned or if this is going to delay my sleeve surgery or if I need to see if I can have my GB removed at the same time. Anyone had gallstones prior to surgery and not had to have GB removed?

Not going to lie... I'm kind of looking forward to this, as opposed to the person standing around in a tshirt when it's near snowing. But... I guess I've never been cold all the time, so I may change my tune when that happens!

Update - I asked my PCP to send my scan report to my Bariatric surgeon. They called me immediately after receiving my scans. Surgeon wants to see me next week to talk about scheduling gallbladder removal and my surgery.

Thanks all, I'm going to give my surgeon a call once I've had my dietician appointment tomorrow. Hopefully he'll be able to see me soon and figure out if we can remove the gallbladder at the same time.

Ohh good topic. Been starting to think about this one myself. I haven't told anyone that I work with that I'm looking to have surgery and don't think that I ever will. But I know that they're going to have questions.

Congratulations! I'm starting to feel a little stir crazy with waiting myself. I'm 4 months since I saw the surgeon, all my clearances are done, but they want me to see the dietician for 6 months before they'll submit to insurance and schedule me for surgery. I've actually been weighing up self pay vs my out of pocket costs with insurance...

Hello, Looking for others that have Anthem Blue Cross PPO in California. At my initial visit with the surgeons office they instructed me to have 6 months of dietician visits. Anthem had sent me links to their policy document cg-surg-83 that (to my reading!) looked like 6 months wasn't required as of August 2020. The policy states: Documentation of all of the following: Past participation in a weight loss program; and Inadequate weight loss despite a committed attempt at conservative medical therapy (for example, comprehensive lifestyle interventions, including a combination of diet, exercise, and behavioral modifications); and Also: Revised 08/13/2020 Medical Policy & Technology Assessment Committee (MPTAC) review. Revised criteria requiring participation of at least 6 months in a weight reduction program. Revised not medically necessary indications to remove examples of devices which are no longer available. Updated Discussion and References sections. Reformatted Coding section. I have all of my clearances except for another 2 months of dietician visits. What I'd like to do is ask my surgeons office to just submit to insurance now with the hopes that I will get surgery end of Feb/early March. Has anyone got any recent experience I can draw on to help inform my decision and make my case!