I have been reading up on surgery and cannot find any info regarding why I must have an esophagram PRIOR to surgery (i have found info re post op only). Can anyone tell me the purpose for this?

Also, my doctor's assitant informed me they finaly received paperwork necessary to fill out for the surgery and that it was all routine, nothing out of the ordinary. She stated she completed the paperwork and sent it after the doc looked it over. She then gave me a number to schedule the esophagram and a meeting with a nutritionist and psych. Is this a good sign that insurance has approved or will approve without the 6 month supervised diet requirement? Would I be scheduled for this without approval?

thanks...nervous:huh2:

I had to do an upper GI which I think is similar to what you had to have. It checks your esophagus. It was no biggie. Actually the abdominal ultrasound I had to have was more miserable!

I noticed on your thread you had Tricare insurance...so do I. Did you fnd it fairly uncomplicated with Tricare. Did they cover all that you expected?

Thanks for any info you can give!

Honestly because I was so large, I had no problems qualifying. My doc has a person who just submits ins for his patients so I didn't have to do a bit of paperwork and my claim was approved in two days. I knew because I have tricare standard and had met my deductible it would pay at 80% until I reached my catastrophic cap, and that's what happened. It was easy.

My surgeon has his patients get an upper endoscopy (scope that looks at esophagus and stomach). This is to ensure you don't have any problems preoperatively with the anatomy or integrity of either. I think that or the UGI is pretty standard