Megan,

Have you had surgery yet?   Who is your insurance with??? 

Were you able to get tubial ligation and the WLS at the same time?  SOmehting that I am considering as well.

Hello,
My name is danielle. I am 31 and I am almost 5 weeks post-op from Rny from dr. schoen at UCH. I have to be honest and tell u of my experience. I like Dr. Schoen hes good at what he does. But hes a lil too dry in personality for me. BUT a good surgeon.  I had no problems after surgery. I had alot of pain where they pushed on my body and the most pain I had was in the tube that will protrude from the middle of your stomach (that sucked). It made healing very hard. He took the tube out about 9 days after surgery (that sucked). But once I got that thing out it was smooth sailing. NOW onto UCH! I hated my stay there and it was the worst experience at a hospial I could have imagined. First, the nurses didnt no jack about my surgery so that made me very uncomfortable. I stayed for 3 days and in those 3 days I saw Dr. schoen once! the day after surgery. The other days he had his INTERNS come in and they seemed to come in packs of 3's which is weird. I called them the 3 stug's. LOL!  They had no idea what they were talking about either. I asked them questions they couldnt answer and I found that unexceptable. THEN when I got discharged the INTERNS put on my directions to continue taking medications that I was not supposed to take anymore SO there were alot of oooppss on the way out! The surgery was the best thing I have ever done for myself and I wouldnt change Dr. Schoen for a minute but UCH I could have done without!  Just letting you no the real deal. Im just that kind of person! If you'd like you can cqll me sometime and we can chat!

As for the insurance question, I have UnitedHealth and was unable to use it to pay for the surgery.  I ended up going the self-pay route.  Now to be honest, it was not totally UHC saying it was not covered, it was my employer that specified the non-coverage.  A company that uses UHC as their medical insurance provider may or may not have purchased a customised policy for their employees.  They can ask that certain services to be excluded from the coverage and I am sure that it effects the contracted price the company pays.

Read your policy carefully and pay attention to the section which defines the exclusions.  If WLS is excluded, you'll have a tough time getting it over-ridden.  Its not impossible, but usually the larger the company, the harder it is to get an override.  You have to do a lot of writting letters to the HR Benefit offices and committees pleading your case.

Good luck.

I'm in Denver, not Pueblo, but I don't think there's many of us, in Colorado. My surgery is with Rabkin, in San Francisco, 9/10.
After I recover, I'd love to drive down and meet with you guys.
My husbands parents owned a house, in Pueblo, that we now rent out.
I figure by 6 weeks....10/22, I might venture out. Maybe a Halloween get together?
Maybe we can search out any other DSers in Colorado too?
It would be great to have a "somewhat" local group.
Take care....I'm glad you get to go home today SM!
Marsha

I will be attending the meeting.