liannenc
I used to think that I would never consider having WLS, but now that I'm at my highest weight ever I've realized that I cannot lose weight and keep it off with dieting. I'm now trying to learn about WLS to see if it's something I really want to do, and if I'm willing to fight with my insurance company to receive it. Part of me is scared to death, but I know that I have to something about my weight if I don't want to die young.
05/18/03
I took a first step last week and called my insurance company. I was pleased to find out that WLS is not excluded on my plan, but that it does have to be preapproved. I asked the person I was speaking with what the requirements are. She didn't get very specific, but did say one would have to be morbidly obese (I definitely am!). She didn't seem to know whether I'd have to have any comorbidities. I think if that's required I'll have no trouble getting documentation of several from my PCP. My goal for next week is to call and make an appointment to see her and to get a referral to a surgeon. I have no doubt she'll do it-- she offered to do this at my checkup in December 2002 and I hadn't even asked about it. At the time I wasn't at all interested, but I wasn't at the weight I am now-- although at that time I was at my highest weight up until that date. I guess she realized before I did that I would need extra help if I'm going to lose significant weight and keep it off!
06/07/03
I've tentatively chosen my surgeon: Dr. David Voellinger. I received a packet of forms to complete and a letter instructing me to send them back with a letter explaining to them who I am, telling them about my problems with obesity, and why I'd be a good candidate for surgery. I mailed everything back to them this past Tuesday. Their info said they may take up to 30 days after receiving my packet to contact me with an appointment date. I am really not too impatient about this now, though, because I haven't decided whether to have the surgery later this year or possibly next year (for financial reasons).
06/19/03
I now have my consult date with the surgeon set: August 20. I know it's a long time (2 months!). I could have made it earlier, for the first week in August, but he is going to be on trauma call that week and it's entirely possible that he might get called out on an emergency and not see me, so I picked a date when I could be more certain of actually being able to see him. I totally forgot to ask when I was on the phone, though, about getting testing out of the way prior to my appointment. I e-mailed the coordinator today asking about that, so I hope to have a response from her by tomorrow. Currently I'm hoping to have the surgery sometime in early December if possible, so I think the timetable will work out well if I can get psych testing, endoscopy, etc. out of the way now. I'm beginning to get excited!
08/09/03
My consultation is now 11 days away-- I can't believe how quickly the last couple of months have gone by. My life has become even more busy recently due to a promotion at work, so I have not been able to complete any of the preop testing yet. I do have my endoscopy scheduled, though, for 08/25. I got that out of the way because I know that my gastroenterologist stays booked pretty far in advance. I think that on Monday I'll set aside time to set appointments with my doctor, a nutritionist and a psychologist so that I can get everything else out of the way ASAP. I should be able to see my own doctor within the next week or so, unless she's on vacation. I'm not so sure about the nutritionist and the psych, but I'm hoping I can get that done in enough time to have surgery approved and scheduled in November or December. I'm somewhat concerned because I've read profiles of other patients of my selected surgeon and they've had difficulty with his office staff and with submission to insurance for approval taking a very long time. I'd better get cracking!
08/25/03
Well, things are moving forward nicely. I had my initial surgical consult last week and it went very well (I knew it would!). The office staff was very nice, including Francis (the insurance rep) which was reassuring... I'd read some horror stories here! There was one thing about the insurance that surprised me, though... Francis told me that after I complete the preop testing, etc. the doctor will write the recommendation letter, which will then be sent to me to submit to my insurance company to obtain approval because their office can't release that information directly to insurance. This is the first time I've heard of this and I'm thinking it has to do with the new privacy laws. The good thing about it is that I'll know for sure when it's submitted. The hard part, I guess, will be waiting to receive the letter from his office. I have set up almost all of my preop testing: I have my endoscopy this afternoon (boy, am I hungry!!), my psych consult on 09/15, my nutritional consult on 09/29, and I'm going to call my PCP's office later this week to arrange for everything else. I'm hoping that if all goes well, I'll have it all completed by the end of September, meaning I can have my surgery by the end of this year or at the beginning of next year. Getting more excited!
09/10/03
I finally got several phone calls out of the way today. The major one was concerning my upcoming (on Monday) psych eval and possible ongoing therapy. I had to call my insurer to find out about pre-cert. I explained what the situation is and the nurse told me that the initial psych visit is automatically covered; if additional treatment is needed, then the therapist would need to contact them for approval. The nurse even wished me luck with the WLS and told me that someone in her office has had it and is doing great. Yet another sign, I think, that I'm on the right track :-). I also called my gastroenterologist's office to find out about getting the endoscopy results to my surgeon's office. The person who answered my call must be new because I don't think I've spoken to her before, but she assured me she'd pull my chart and fax a copy of the report today. I'll need to follow-up with the rep in the surgeon's office to be sure this was done... I'm sure this won't be the last phone call like this I'm going to make! I also called my PCP's office and have an appointment next Wednesday so that she can order the other tests I need: blood work, chest x-ray, EKG and echocardiogram. I'm really hoping that I can get all of that done by the end of the month so that the surgeon can submit the approval request in October. I've heard that it takes my health plan up to 6 weeks to approve surgery, so it's still possible I could have surgery by the end of the year. I would prefer it to be this year rather than early next year because I've already met my deductible this year-- I'll have to pay more out of pocket for it next year, but ultimately it's not going to matter. I'm going to have the surgery no matter what.
10/09/03
I finally completed all of my testing and consultations last week when I met with the nutritionist on Monday 09/29. I emailed Francis in Dr. V's office that day to let her know I was done. She replied right away, telling me that she'd forward my email to Julie and would fax the letter to my insurance as soon as Dr. V completed it. I waited until this past Tuesday to call and find out if they had everything they needed. Unfortunately, Julie was in the Matthews office that day so she couldn't check my chart, but she told me she'd check on it when she was back in the Randolph Road office. She also mentioned that she had 15 charts to review for completeness... Things are definitely really busy for them right now! I was going to call her today to follow-up but she beat me to it and called me this morning. She said she is missing a copy of my EKG and a copy of the physicians op report for my endoscopy, but that my chart was already on Dr. V's desk to do the letter... yay! I'll be faxing the stuff she's missing to her tomorrow-- good thing I got copies of those things! It's weird though, that those things are missing. I know for a fact that both items were faxed together with other reports and those items apparently *are* in the chart. I can't really criticize, though... stuff like that goes on in our office all the time! I'm going to wait another week (this sure is an exercise in patience!) before I call to check on the status of the letter. After I know it's been submitted, I'm going to call my insurance every other day until it gets approved. I'm beginning to doubt that I'm going to be able to have this done by the end of the year, but I'm going to try not to worry about that. If I have to wait, at least it will give me more time to get things in order (will, disability application, etc.). I'm just finally beginning to feel impatient to get this done, probably because in the last few days my knees and low back have really hurt-- I'm sure my weight is the primary reason. I'm really looking forward to getting to a less painful weight.
11/02/03
Okay, this is rapidly moving from being an exercise in patience to being just plain frustrating! I had read about other patients of Dr. V's having problems with the office staff and the process being a slow one, I was hoping for a different experience. At least I know I'm not the only one who's had difficulty! After I faxed the missing items to Julie I didn't hear anything for 2 weeks, so I emailed her. She responded within 2 days, advising that she wasn't at Randolph Road and she'd check when she was back there. Didn't hear anything for a week, so I emailed her again last weekend. I *did* hear from Lisa in their office last week (first time I've spoken to her) and she was very nice, told me that my chart was on Dr. V's desk with some others which were tagged with a note saying "insurance" but she couldn't tell if the letter had been dictated or not. She said she left my chart in the middle of his desk with a big note on it asking if the letter was done and promised to call me as soon as she heard something. Of course, I didn't hear anything by Friday, so I called and left her a message reminding her that I'm still waiting and it's now been a month since I got everything done. Another patient of his who I've kept in touch with told me that it shouldn't have taken this long and that I've been very patient. I'm walking a very fine line, because I'm starting to get really upset but I don't want to take that out on the office staff-- I know that when people do that to me, their requests somehow get moved to the "bottom of the stack"! Besides, if Dr. V hasn't even done the letter yet, there's nothing they can do about it. At this point, I'm almost 100% certain I won't get surgery before the end of the year, and I'll be lucky if I can get it before March unless they have a cancellation. As much as I hate to be difficult, I'm going to call Lisa every day next week-- I'll be very nice, but I'm still going to call. I know for a fact that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, especially a nice squeaky wheel! If the letter isn't done by the end of next week, I'm going to start leaving messages for Dr. V himself. Anyone who's reading this, please pray for me that this can be done quickly-- after all, the really big wait begins after the letter goes to insurance (could be as much as 6 weeks)! *sigh* In the meantime, I've started ordering samples of protein powder to try. Now I just need to get a blender to do it up right! Anything to keep me busy while I wait :-P.
11/04/03
This thing is finally getting somewhere-- sort of! I was finally able to speak w/ Lisa in Dr. V's office today (she's an absolute sweetheart, just incredibly overwhelmed) and she told me that Dr. V *has* finally dictated my letter, that she expects to receive it from the transcriptionist by Friday meaning she can probably submit it for me by the end of the week... yay!! She told me she'll call me Friday to let me know the status. If I don't hear anything from her by that afternoon I'll call her just to check in; she was nice enough to give me the number for her direct line. I'm going to call my insurance company tomorrow if I can (I'll be on the road most of the day on business) to ask them just how long it should take for them to review this for approval. I'm hoping not too long, so that I just might be able to get this done by the end of January. I'm already crossing my fingers!!
11/15/03
Some progress since my last entry! I did get to speak with Lisa on Friday 11/7 and she told me that she had given my letter to Dina, the coordinator at the bariatric clinic (newly created by the doctors at Charlotte Surgical who do bariatric surgery). I then called Dina, who confirmed she had the letter and would be mailing it to me Monday 11/10. She was true to her word and I received the letter in the mail on Wed 11/12. That same day I called my insurance company to find out what I would need to submit with the letter, and was told that I should provide copies of whatever I had. She also told me that I should have a decision within 7 to 14 working days. Fortunately, I had copies of all of my pre-auth testing and consults, except for something from my nutritionist. I called her office and her assistant was kind enough to fax something to me immediately, so I was able to fax everything (23 pages!!) on Thurs 11/13. The next morning while I was getting ready for work I realized that I had neglected to include any of my insurance info to help identify me to the reviewer... duh!! So I copied my card and refaxed everything first thing when I got to work. I called yesterday afternoon to find out if they received everything they needed and wasn't surprised to hear that they didn't show it yet. The girl I spoke with told me that they get so many faxes that it will be a couple of days until they document receiving my info, and suggested I call again in a week to check status. I don't think I'm going to wait that long-- I'll call on Tuesday, and if they don't show it by then I'll start calling everyday. If they don't show it by the end of next week, I'm going to start faxing the darn packet every day!! At any rate, if they did receive everything then I should have my decision by the end of the second week in December. So much for having the surgery this year-- it means I'll pay more out of pocket for it, but it'll come out the same in the long run considering the follow-up visits and other med bills I'll have next year. I'm pretty sure I would have met my max out-of-pocket regardless, I'll just be meeting it earlier in the year than I normally would have without the surgery. So, now I'm just waiting... and not very patiently, either! I'm reasonably certain the surgery itself will be approved no problem, but I really want the DS, and I'm afraid they may not approve that procedure. All I can do at this point is to be as positive as possible, pray a lot and hope for the best!
12/06/03
I'm still waiting for an answer from my insurance. I have been able to determine that the request was submitted to the medical review department on 11/19/03. I've called a few times to check on status, the most recent being yesterday. I was told to call back on Monday, because they get a log from medical review every Monday which shows the status of the requests being processed. I was told I should have and answer within 14 working days, which means I'm supposed to hear something by the middle of next week. I still have my fingers crossed, and I really need this surgery. My back and hips have been bothering me a lot lately, even though I've dropped about 10 pounds since I first looked into WLS... that's according to my doctor's scale. I just want to get healthier, and I'm impatient to do it!
12/13/03
Well, I'm afraid that I'm totally f*cked for approval for my weight loss surgery. I've been calling my insurance every few days to check on status, and have consistently been told that it's still "under review". Yesterday was the deadline for me to have some sort of answer, and when I called I was put on hold for over 10 minutes. I figure that my request sat on someone's desk gathering dust until I called yesterday at which time they realized they had to give me an answer. My guess is that I waited while they quickly went through my stuff and processed it then and there. When the rep came back on the phone, she told me that my information had been referred to Intracorp for further review. I asked what this meant and was told that Intracorp would be making the decision as to whether or not it would be approved. This is completely the opposite of what I was told a couple of months ago by someone else at my insurance-- I was told that GB would make the decision and that Intracorp just precerts the surgery/hospital stay.. If they actually are going to make the decision, I'm almost certain to be denied. They have very strict guidelines about prerequirements, one of them being that you have to have two medically supervised 6 month periods of weight-loss attempts in the recent past. I don't have this because I knew it was a waste of time and effort for both me and the doctor, not to mention money for me. I have no idea what to expect or even what to do if I'm denied. My employer is self-insured and self-administered, but apparently they use Intracorp to help make certain medical determinations. I don't know if trying to appeal through my employer would do me any good. Normally if I had to appeal I could try to get my PCP to write a letter on my behalf (she has, after all, been encouraging me to lose weight ever since I've been treating with her-- over 3 years) but she's on maternity leave until March. If I am denied and decided to go ahead and do the twelve months of medically supervised weight loss, that means a whole year from now before I could try for authorization again. By that time, my surgeon likely won't consider my preauth testing valid and I'd have to go through all of it again. Considering what it's cost me out-of-pocket already, I simply can't afford it. What I've paid for already this year has caused a financial hardship for my family. Having to go through it again next year at this time would mean that everything I spent this year getting ready for this was money wasted. That bothers me a LOT. If I had known about this Intracorp sh*t ahead of time, I could have planned accordingly. I could have started the weight loss stuff back in June, and not had all the testing stuff done this year. I could have waited for it until next year, and not spent the money on useless tests. I could have had a decent Christmas for my family this year, instead of the half-assed poor one we're going to have. I just want to curl up and cry... I'm trying to hold it together right now because I have nowhere I can go to vent this right now. Thierry is still in bed and Alexa is here beside me in the living room watching TV. I am leaking at the eyes a lot as I type this but she's unaware of it, thank God. I remember that seeing my mom cry when I was a kid was always VERY upsetting to me. I just feel absolutely, completely hopeless. I feel like I'm doomed to spend my life as a hugely fat out-of-control pig. Regular diet and exercise are useless to me-- dieting just leads me to regain more weight everytime I fail at the diet, which is why I stopped dieting in the first place. My back and hips hurt so much now because of my weight that I cannot effectively exercise. Water aerobics might be something I could do, but I can't afford them. If only I could win the lottery so that I could afford to pay for everything myself, AND quit my sh*tty job. Yeah, right. I'm a lot more likely to be hit by lightning. Right now I'm thinking that would be a blessing. At least I wouldn't hurt anymore.
12/16/03
I called Intracorp today to confirm they they had rec'd my packet from GBA and they had. I even obtained the reference number and a status report. They advised that I need to obtain a second opinion from another surgeon, not affiliated with my surgeon. I called the Bariatric Clinic and spoke to Dina, who suggested Dr. Melkonian. He works through the Bariatric Clinic, but he's in a different surgical practice. I called his office and, lo and behold, they had a cancellation for next week! I have an appointment on the 23rd at 11:00. I could hardly believe it-- seems like it was meant to happen ASAP. The nurse told me that I have to bring all of my records and test results, and that I also have to have blood work within the last two months. My blood tests were done in September, so they're sending me an order to get that done. This worried me somewhat, because my portion of the bill for the bloodwork I already had done was over $100. I called GBA and asked them about this. They told me that since this is for a second opinion at their request, the surgeon and the bloodwork would be covered at 100%... woo hoo! I'm still not getting my hopes up, though. I wouldn't be surprised if I jump through THIS hoop only to find out that my fears about diet history are confirmed. I guess I'll just have to wait and see... and if I'm denied after all of this crap, I'm *definitely* hiring Walter Lindstrom. Someone from my office had breast reduction surgery earlier this year and it was all covered... I know she really wanted it done, but she didn't have any serious health problems prior to the surgery. If my insurance will cover something like that, then they'd damn well better cover my WLS!!!
01/01/04
I got the best news, just in time for New Year's... my surgery has been approved! I can still hardly believe it. I attended my second opinion appointment on 12/23 with Dr. Melkonian (very nice, btw!!) and he of course confirmed that I am a good surgical candidate. He told me he'd contact Intracorp about this but warned me that they might still not approve surgery for me. I told him I understood this, that it was something I was afraid might happen but for right now I'm just jumping through their hoops as they come up. He thought this was pretty funny and we laughed about it. I managed to be patient for a few days, but I finally gave in and called Intracorp on Tuesday to check on status, thinking that I'd be lucky if Dr. Melkonian had contacted them yet. The rep I spoke with told me that they just needed my surgery date and hospital info from my doctor. I told her that I didn't have a date because we still didn't know if they'd determined if the surgery is medically necessary, then asked her if she could tell if that had been done yet. All of these reps are looking at info on a computer, I know, and they all sound like they really don't understand what they're looking at... Again, she said "We need your doctor to give us the surgery date and the facility info, then it'll go back to the nurse". I told her again that I don't have a date because I can't get one from the doctor until they get approval. She then told me "We just need a date we can work with". She gave me contact info for the nurse who has my case, so I called the clinic and talked to Pam... she told me they could give me a fictitious date, so I told her that's probably what they need, and asked her to call them since they wanted the info from the doctor's office. This was right before 4:00, so I left work right after that. When I got home, Thierry told me that Pam had called, and told him that he needed to take me out that night to celebrate (which kinda freaked him out because we were already planning to go out!) because my surgery was going to be approved!! Of course, I couldn't believe it, so I called Intracorp myself yesterday and was told that yes, they've pre-certified 3 nights in the hospital for me. I still have trouble believing it, but I *do* feel a huge sense of relief!! I imagine that it will all seem more real to me after it's scheduled, which will happen after my surgeon gets the approval letter from insurance. I'm planning to call the clinic on Monday, however, to see if there's any way I can go ahead and schedule a date now. I'm hoping I can have it done before March or April, but I'll probably have to wait until then. No problem, really... the worst of the battle is over now!! It really feels good to update my insurance status info here today :-).
01/10/04
I called Dr. V's office earlier this week and Julie told me that she couldn't schedule the surgery until they got the approval letter, but she said while they were waiting she'd go over my chart one more time to be sure nothing was missing. My letter arrived in the mail yesterday and my sweet husband called me at work to tell me the good news. I called Julie to tell her about it and ask her if she found anything missing in my chart. Lo and behold, something was-- a liver function panel which was supposed to be part of my blood work. I went through my copy of the test results and, sure enough, my PCP hadn't ordered what Dr. V needed. I told Julie that my doctor is on maternity leave and asked if she could fax me an order for the blood test, which she gladly did. I stopped by LabCorp on my home from work yesterday to have the test done. I'm hoping that they'll fax the results to Julie on Monday. If she hasn't received their copy of the approval letter by then, I'll fax her my copy. I've got my fingers crossed that I'll have my surgery scheduled by the end of the day on Monday!!
01/15/04
I am about to pull my hair out! I cannot believe how long this is taking now. I tried calling Dr. V's nurse, Julie, on Monday but she was at a different office. I called that office later that day and learned she'd gone home sick. I tried calling Tuesday and she was out sick. I called again yesterday and she was sick again, but another nurse was covering her phone calls. She said she would check for the paperwork to be sure they'd received everything. She called yesterday afternoon and said that they were still waiting on the lab work. I called the lab today and they told me that Dr. V's office should have rec'd their results Monday morning. I called Julie today and, thank heaven, she's better and back at work but still couldn't find the lab work. I told her that Labcorp told me there's a number they could call to get the report and she said she knew that. She then told me that at this point, once she gets the lab report, my chart goes back on Dr. V's desk for him to review and give the final okay to schedule my surgery. She said she didn't know if he'd be able to get to it this week or next-- sounded very noncommittal, which I can sorta understand. I'm not angry about her being sick because I know she couldn't help it, and I know she probably now has a lot of calls and stuff to catch up on. I've really tried to be patient during the last couple of months and I know that at some points I didn't push for stuff as hard as other people might. Lately, however, I've really started to try to get and keep things moving and I feel like I'm about at the end of my patience. It seems like I've jumped through enough hoops and I just want to get this scheduled. A lot of things in my life are on hold right now, pending getting this surgery scheduled. Once I have that date, I can move forward with those other things and get some people off my back about them!! Okay, now I've vented and I think I can get some work done. I'm just going to wait until next Wednesday, and if I haven't heard from Julie by that morning I'm going to call her again. Hopefully she'll surprise me and I'll get a call with a date tomorrow or Monday, but I'm not holding my breath. It looks like I'm going to have to keep riding herd on this until the bitter end!
*****UPDATE, 01/15/04**********
I now have a surgery date: February 19th! When the nurse called me today to tell me, she had already scheduled it for January 29th, but I just am not ready to do it that soon. So February 19th it is... and I have sooo much to do!
01/27/04
Things are falling into place, although I'm finding it very hard to believe that my surgery is less than a month away. I have to start my liquid diet on February 5th and I'm more worried about sticking to that than I am of the surgery itself... how twisted is that!? I have my pre-op appointment with Dr. Voellinger on February 11th, then my pre-op screening at the hospital on February 16th. No one has mentioned anything about money yet, and that has me kinda worried. If I'm going to have to pay for anything up-front, I'm gonna be in trouble because we just don't have much in the way of savings. I do have a line of credit that I finally got paid-off early last year... I'd hate to have to use it again (interest rate is 23%!!!) but if I do then I'll just submit for reimbursement ASAP to my medical reimbursement account, I guess. Money stuff worries me, and worrying bugs me, so I'm trying not to think about it. We've been stuck inside the house for the last three days and I'm beginning to get a little stir-crazy... I think I'll start making lists this afternoon of the foods I'll need pre- and post-op, as well as the stuff to take to the hospital. That should keep me occupied for a while!
02/29/04
Well, I'm now on the other side. Fortunately my surgeon was able to do my DS lap so my recovery has gone well, but there was a tiny complication. When I had my swallow test the day after my surgery, my surgeon thought he saw a "microleak" so I was kept in the hospital 2 extra days with nothing my mouth except a little ice. Let me tell you, I started to get pretty darn hungry! I had another swallow test on Monday 02/23 which came back just fine, so I got to come home on 02/24. I'm now down almost 20 pounds from where I was the last time I weighed before surgery (a week before... I forgot to weigh the morning of surgery... duh!!) and am feeling OK. I do have trouble with my appetite, though, in that I get physically hungry but have a hell of a time trying to think of something that I want and can eat at this stage. I also have to be careful to keep pushing the fluids... I've let myself get a bit dehydrated once or twice and that'll make you feel like crap! I can't say I've had any true regrets, although I've certainly had a couple of "What did I do to myself??" moments. I figure it's all part of this journey. I'm just taking one day at a time and am looking forward to getting my staples out when I see Dr. V this coming week! I have one smack-dab in the middle of my belly button, which is driving me nuts and I can't figure out for the life of me how they got it in there. I sure won't miss it when it's gone!!
03/04/04
I saw Dr. V yesterday for my first post-op visit, and it went well. I'm down 20 lbs from the last time I weighed at his office, but now I'm down 24 pounds from my highest weight. My staples were removed (his nurse, Julie, did that) and although it wasn't much fun, it's such a relief to have them out! I see him again in 2 weeks, at which point he said he'll put me on iron, B12 and Actigall (yay, more pills! :oP). I saw my nutritionist today, and she gave me some tips to help with getting in my protein. She also told me to ask Dr. V about the size of my stomach now... something that hadn't even occurred to me, duh!! I've also started to mourn food a little... I miss being able to eat what I want to eat, when I want to eat. Not that I have much appetite, still (though I do get physically hungry)... this is just that tough transition time, which I know I'll get through with patience. The weight-loss *does* help me see that I'm doing the right thing... I just need to establish a new relationship with food.
04/04/04
I'm a little more than 6 weeks out now and I'm down 35 pounds from my highest weight. I'm feeling pretty good since I went back to work (on 03/18/04, right at 4 wks post-surgery). Weekends are tough for me for some reason-- my appetite is still a funny thing but other DSers assure me that this is just a phase I'm going through. I'm already seeing health benefits from the weight I've lost: my back doesn't hurt anymore (before surgery I could barely stand up long enough to cook a meal), my knees feel much better, my carpal tunnel doesn't bother me much any more, and my husband says I've stopped snoring!! I also have a lot more energy than I used to, and my friends have told me I act and sound much "peppier" than I did before surgery. If I've done this well at 6 weeks, I can't wait to see where I'll be at 6 months! I've read some entries from some of Dr. Voellinger's other patients, and I can totally relate to the frustration of waiting while his office muddles through paperwork. In my experience, though, while they seemed slow, no one was ever rude to me, especially not Julie (his nurse). I have no qualms about recommending Dr. V to anyone, but I would be sure to warn potential patients that things do move slowly... you won't get your surgery in 2-3 months after your consult. I believe that another patient told me that Dr. V does only two weight-loss procedures a week-- he's still quite busy with other types of surgeries. I don't know if this limit is still the case, but it would explain why the process seems so "leisurely" to those of us who are impatient to get to the losing side. My advice is to have faith that it will happen for you when the time is right. I know the waiting is tough, but the time will be here before you know it!!
05/15/04
Today I am almost one year out from my original "post" on this page. I am post-op by almost 3 months, and down 49 pounds. Today I went to the mall with my daughter and walked the entire perimeter of the mall with no back, foot or knee pain. In October 2003 walking less than a quarter of the perimeter caused me unbelievable lower back & hip pain: I had to sit down at least 3 times during that short trip to catch my breath and ease the pain. I know I still have a long way to go on this journey, but right now I'm grateful for just how far I've come.
08/28/04
I'm now 6 months out from surgery, and I can't believe how good I feel. I started out at a BMI of just over 56 and am down to 43 now-- still morbidly obese, but still a major improvement! As much as I hate exercising, I am doing it on a regular basis now and feel much better about myself because of it. Some days I really have to force myself to do it but afterwards I'm always glad I did it. I've lost 70 pounds from my highest weight, which is more weight than I've ever lost before. There's no way I could have done it without the surgery, and my only regret now is that I didn't do it sooner. I try not to think about what I've missed out on as much as all the fun I can have now. As someone who used to think "There's no way I'd ever have weight loss surgery" I can confidently say that change can be a wonderful thing!