Choosing Surgery Date

[FireWife81 10]

For those of you who already have your date or have had your surgery...... How much input did you have in choosing the date??

I am well aware that surgery has to be approved by insurance if not self-pay before date is confirmed.

Little background.... My insurance doesn't require a set amount of nutrition or doc appointments. Basically just inititial consult, sych consult, EDG, 1 nutrition and 1 with the surgeon.

I have had in order: initial consult, sych consult, appointment with surgeon to confirm that I want to do this, EDG, nutrition appointments so far. I have an appointment at the end of this month to see how I am doing with my adjusted nutrition intake with medicine I was put on for inflamed esophogus, hiatil hernia and severe acid in my stomach. At this appointment I am to meet with the surgeon again to discuss what was found during EDG as well as to discuss potential surgery dates. I am told that after this appointment they will submit to my insurance company.

Again my question is this - For those of you who already have your date or have had your surgery...... How much input did you have in choosing the date??

[njlimmer 338]

I had complete input. They suggested a date, but I asked for another - further out - that worked better with my schedule. They didn't have a problem with it. I would think the only problem might be if they were already booked, or the Doc/hospital wasn't available for some reason.

[LookingForward22 320]

In my practice the surgeon keeps their own surgery schedule. When I met with my surgeon, (which was after I completed all of my program requirements) she asked me if her first available date worked for me … if it would not have - she would have gone on to her next availability and so on until we found a date that worked. I took her first available. I had an 8 day liquid diet to shrink my liver so the length of that will also play into that date.

[ShoppGirl 3,353]

It’s just like scheduling a dr appointment. They offer the first available but if you can’t take it then they suggest another date. If you want to make it months later you can. They work for you.

[FireWife81 10]

Thank you all.

[SpartanMaker 676]

I took the first thing they offered, but was given the opportunity to reschedule if that didn't work. I took it because there's never a "good time for it", and I wanted to have it done as soon as I could.

[FireWife81 10]

22 minutes ago, SpartanMaker said:

I took the first thing they offered, but was given the opportunity to reschedule if that didn't work. I took it because there's never a "good time for it", and I wanted to have it done as soon as I could.

I want to have mine done as soon as possible also. I hope it doesn't forever for my insurance to come back approved. I am hoping for a end of Sept date. My work schedule doesn't work with anything earlier than Sept 22, 2022 and I need to be back for the next rotation schedule starting Nov 3, 2022.

[SpartanMaker 676]

4 minutes ago, FireWife81 said:

I want to have mine done as soon as possible also. I hope it doesn't forever for my insurance to come back approved. I am hoping for a end of Sept date. My work schedule doesn't work with anything earlier than Sept 22, 2022 and I need to be back for the next rotation schedule starting Nov 3, 2022.

Hopefully it doesn't take you as long as me! I had all the pre-work done by May and it took 4 more months to get insurance approval and get on the surgery schedule. Now some of that I suspect is because I'm going to a large teaching hospital and their schedule is still massively delayed due to COVID.

[ShoppGirl 3,353]

7 minutes ago, FireWife81 said:

I want to have mine done as soon as possible also. I hope it doesn't forever for my insurance to come back approved. I am hoping for a end of Sept date. My work schedule doesn't work with anything earlier than Sept 22, 2022 and I need to be back for the next rotation schedule starting Nov 3, 2022.

If you tell them that and the dr has it available they will probably give you sept 22. Like someone else mentioned though you do have to factor in time to do your pre op diet too. I have heard a couple times that insurance only has 30 days to approve or deny it. Not certain that’s exactly true but it seems like there would be some sort of timeframe like that. Otherwise some insurance companies would just drag it out to save money.

[ShoppGirl 3,353]

1 minute ago, SpartanMaker said:

Hopefully it doesn't take you as long as me! I had all the pre-work done by May and it took 4 more months to get insurance approval and get on the surgery schedule. Now some of that I suspect is because I'm going to a large teaching hospital and their schedule is still massively delayed due to COVID.

Wow. That goes against what I heard about them only having 30 days to approve or deny it. Unless of course they just didn’t submit it until then.

[FireWife81 10]

@ShoppGirl - this date is figuring my 14 day liquid diet. I've done ALOT of planning. I pray for my co-workers, LOL. If I can have surgery on the 22nd of Sept, I will be with my co-workers the entire time for 12 hours a day. My family will only have to deal with me for a couple hours a day before I go to sleep.

[ShoppGirl 3,353]

20 minutes ago, FireWife81 said:

@ShoppGirl - this date is figuring my 14 day liquid diet. I've done ALOT of planning. I pray for my co-workers, LOL. If I can have surgery on the 22nd of Sept, I will be with my co-workers the entire time for 12 hours a day. My family will only have to deal with me for a couple hours a day before I go to sleep.

Ooh I must’ve misunderstood. I thought you wanted the 22nd. Well whatever date you want if they have it they should be glad to give it to you. They understand that people have to schedule around things. I definitely would not want to be working 12 hour days immediately post op though. I had very little pain but I was tired. Took naps everyday.

[SpartanMaker 676]

44 minutes ago, ShoppGirl said:

Wow. That goes against what I heard about them only having 30 days to approve or deny it. Unless of course they just didn’t submit it until then.

I think it came back from insurance in a couple of weeks, but due to the backlog at the clinic, it took them about a few weeks to submit it. The biggest delay was just getting on the surgical schedule. I think they are still running at a reduced schedule due to COVID, so the delay to even get on the schedule can be a month or two. Also, based on previous experience in this area, most facilities only schedule out a couple of months at a time, so like clockwork, I got my date exactly 2 months prior.

I trust the surgeon, she is very experienced, but I think the hospital and staff are just swamped with a huge backlog.

[catwoman7 10,851]

my clinic gave me two or three choices. If none of those worked for me, I'm sure they would have given me more options (although probably further out)

[kcuster83 1,502]

I was offered the first available date. I took that first option.

Otherwise, you really should have complete control. You have to get things in order, time off work etc.

Basically you and your surgeon should be able to find a date that works for both of you.