Wait...you mean they listened??

I am so excited! I just got off the phone with Bridges (the name of the center I'm having my surgery at) and the gal I spoke with called me because of my complaint regarding the joke of a pre-op class I attended a couple weeks ago.

I had emailed my patient advocate and asked if I even had to go to the second pre-op class because the first one was so pointless and such a waste of my time. She jumped right on that and emailed the lady who normally does the pre-op classes (who was NOT the lady who was at the pre-op class I attended- hence the horrificness of it) and she called me right away. She apologized for the class being so horrible and said that the nurse who did give the pre-op class won't be doing it again. She wants to sit down with me and give me one on one pre-op classes and also get my opinions on how to better the pre-op class for DS patients! Now THAT is what I'm talking about :) I'm very glad to hear that they want to incorporate more DS information and make the pre-op class not all about the RNY.

I'll be going in for that on the 18th. I'll let you know how it goes :)

I'm very impressed with how quickly my complaints were escalated and listened too. Maybe all hope isn't lost just yet.

Product Review: Hershey's Sugar Free Strawberry Syrup

To all of the Strawberry Milk fans out there....are there any left?? Well I LOVE strawberry milk, always have!

I found this SUGAR FREE strawberry syrup at the store and almost peed my pants out of excitement. Perhaps it was also because my inner child was awoken full force, she's not always potty trained.

As soon as I got home with my bright red bottle of childhood goodness now packed with adult responsibility and a fresh carton of milk I immediately made a glass.

My first reaction to the sugar free syrup was that it is incredibly thin liquid, it's not syrup by any definition. It's red water with some flavor. And that is where my little soiled pantsed inner child went back into remission and angry adult consumer came out instead. The flavor is horrible! I can't even describe it, it's kind of sour, kind of bitter but not even remotely strawberry-y. I was going to return the bottle back to the store but my inner child arose one last time and had a temper tantrum and threw the bottle in the trash.

How disappointing. I had really wanted that to work because I won't be drinking high calorie high sugar drinks much after my revision. I know I can have it as a treat once in a while, but I usually have good luck with sugar free versions of my favorites. This just was not one of them.

Hold out for the real stuff, it's the only way to go in a strawberry milk for your inner child sort of situation.

A Bit Bummed :(

**WARNING** this post is a pitty party for myself. I'm just whining because I need an outlet.

One of my very best friends in the entire world wants to write me off because of an argument we got in over work related issues :( It shouldn't have effected our friendship at all, but she basically told me (after I apologized even though I have nothing really to be sorry for-I'm passive aggressive) that she's done with me. Maybe this work issue is just what broke the camel's back. Maybe she's been ready to be done with me for a while...that's the only thing that makes sense, otherwise this tiny stupid insignificant work issue would not have been enough to end an entire friendship.

She was supposed to go to the hospital with me for my surgery :( And now I'm sure she won't be. I'm so bummed. I really needed her for support and just to have her there with me. I support her in everything and now she's abandoned me all because she got her panties in a twist over something stupid :( I guess our friendship wasn't that strong.

And now I'm just frustrated because I was counting on her in the first place. Maybe I shouldn't count on anyone because they all have the ability to let me down. Or maybe this is one of those life lessons where I'll learn to count on myself and only myself.

In all reality I won't be by myself, I do have other people who love me and would not abandon me over such stupid little arguments, and one in particular who will be by my side the entire time. But again, this is a pitty party and I wanted to be dramatic and negative.

To those of you who are still with me and haven't given up on me, I so appreciate you!! Your constant support and encouragement is what keeps me going!

It's about time!!

Thank you SO much for those of you who still check this! I finally have some good news to share!

Insurance has FINALLY approved me!!!

It has been such a long time coming and it was NOT easy, as you all know given my last posts. Basically what's going to happen is I am going to self pay the band removal portion of my surgery only, and the insurance will pay for the rest. It's not ideal, but it's better than being a complete self pay and wasting more and more time fighting the insurance company on this. I'm not getting any younger or thinner here people!!

I am having my surgery with Dr. Husted here in Arizona. For those of you on OH who know of the Dr. Husted controversies- please, I am respectfully asking you to not put me down for my decision. I am not about to get into a surgeon war with anyone and I have made an educated decision that I am comfortable with. I only ask for your support in my surgery and surgery related questions/concerns, not my decision in my surgeon.

Anyway-- it's not 100% official yet, more like 98%, but my big day is supposed to be August 1st!! Six weeks!! AHHH!!

I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am, but nervous at the same time. It is FINALLY my time to re-join you all on the losers bench...so scootch over!

(ps- the pic is just 'cause I felt like photo whoring a good angled shot)

Ok, maybe it's not so bad...

Perhaps I over-reacted a tad yesterday, as it seems that the reason for the decline isn't all that bad. The insurance company denied the surgery because I didn't have an updated psychological review. The one that my surgeon's office sent was from my lap band surgery approval in 2009, so yeah, they'd want something more recent. So I have an appointment tomorrow with my same behavior modification therapist, Dr. Garcia. It'll take about 3 hours and 500 pages of questions plus the verbal part, but then I should be good to go! She'll write up her evaluation and then fax that to my surgeon's office and then they'll re-submit my request. I'm hoping for a week or so to hear back, but up to two weeks, and then it should be approved. I've gone over the requirements and I meet all of them so there really should be no reason for them to deny me again.

SO KEEP YOUR FINGERS CROSSED!

WHY?!

I do NOT understand why it was SO easy for me to get this crap-band put in, but now that I'm trying to revise to a surgery that will actually work for me, it's become the biggest nightmare of my life!! I can't get my insurance company to approve a revision. They said that it's not medically necessary. Despite the fact that my port is disconnected so I can't get filled OR un-filled without going in for a fluoroscope every single time, despite the fact that my band is FULL and I still don't have restriction 100% of the time, but then other times I take 1 bite and I throw up, despite the fact that it's making me sick all the time. So I re-submitted for approval for the surgery only instead of the revision, and I would pay to get the band taken out myself, and I just called and they have denied me again!! I am so livid, I don't know why they denied me, they couldn't even tell me. The crappy part of all of this, is that I'm going through a divorce and my insurance is through my husband's work, so the longer this goes out the riskier it is that I'll get kicked off of his insurance before the insurance company finally agrees. I'm waiting to hear back right now as to WHY it was declined, so that I can appeal immediately. I qualify for the surgery part itself, there is NO reason why I should be denied! I'm going to go cry.

Just one thing after another

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!!

Ok so here's what's been happening:

* I didn't have my revision because 3 days BEFORE my scheduled surgery, the insurance denied my appealed request for coverage stating that it's not medically necessary. They didn't feel that we presented them with any new information.

*My insurance wants me to write out a new letter with why I feel that the surgery should be covered and why I feel that my claim is medically necessary. I'll be getting the original letters and information sent to them from my surgeon so that I can see exactly what my surgeon's office said.

As I'm sure you all can guess, I am so extremely frustrated. I have until the end of January to write my personal appeal, so for now I'm just trying to recover from the holidays before I start stressing about that.

If anyone has any good pointers or tips on what to put in my appeals letter, PLEASE let me know.

Happy New Year!!