Tuesday, January 28, 2014

EVERYTHING Will Change

Yesterday I spoke to my surgeon's office, and insurance has approved the DS surgery for me. The first available date is March 14. In a sort of dazed disbelief, I took it.

My first pass at WLS was in February 2006. It had taken me nearly two years to get to that point, jumping through hoops for my insurance company, an HMO I called "HealthNOT." Four days before surgery for the RnY at UCLA, the director of my medical group refused to authorize surgery. I was scheduled for the next Tuesday; they called me from my doctor's office the Friday before. I was devastated.

I filed an appeal appeal and eventually won and surgery was rescheduled for May, but by this time I had decided on the DS, and was trying to get that aproved through HealthNot, when my COBRA coverage was canceled for being a day late on my payment--a date that changed every month. Go figure. *snort*

So forgive me if my excitement is not sky high. I've been down this road before. I'll celebrate after I wake up from successful surgery. My surgeon is one of the best in his field. I have at least one friend that I know of who has had their surgery with him and they are healthy and in good shape over eight years later. That gives me confidence.

Right now, I'm stressing a little over logistics. The only reason I am even having this opportunity is that my husband's job has very good insurance. In fact, I requested a visit with the surgeon back in October, and I met with him just last November. I didn't want to deal with paperwork or other issues like getting all my pre-op tests out of the way during the holidays when I knew I'd be in Southern California with family, and I told the office that. I picked it back up shortly after New Years. The authorization for surgery took roughly two weeks, and that was only because they requested paperwork that had already been submitted with the request and they had to go over it again, or it would have been sooner.

I'll need to be in Southern California for surgery. That is a surprise. I thought I would be doing it here near home in the Central Valley, but the surgeon has moved his office to Southern California and only comes up to the CV once a month. Damn. Well...the hospital I'll be at is a very, very, very nice hospital. I'm actually very happy about that. But. I'll need to be down there to register the day before surgery and then about 10 days or so afterwards. Where do I stay? I won't be able to drive. Who will stay with me? My husband has to work. He's taking that Th/Fri off to be with me for the check in, surgery, and the weekend, then he needs to come back hom to go back to work. So we can have that good insurance.

I'm still working on the details, it's only been one day since I was approved and there are more than six weeks until the surgery. I have a friend who lives in Pasadena, but I don't know if I can infringe on him or for how long at this point. We have a phone call scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. I'll talk to him then.

So for now, I'm just trying to wrap my head around this whole idea of surgery, recovery, and how EVERYTHING WILL CHANGE. After a severely broken ankle and a cancerous tumor in my eye, I'm sure I'll cope. It's just a matter of getting on with it. The waiting is the hard part.