I have my surgery date w/ Dr. Hart!!!!!!!!!!

I'm having surgery at 11am on June 25th @ Emory Johns Creek w/ Dr. Hart. I am SO thrilled and excited to begin this journey :) I have all my appointments w/ Dr. Hart (pre/post op), the dietician, and anesthesia......... I'm just bouncing off the walls!!! When do the pre-op jitters start? Is it insane of me to be thinking about doing clear liquids for the next 20 days?

Congratulations!!! I know you are walking in the clouds about right now.. I remember that feeling so well..It will be June 25th before you know it and you will be on the loser side with the rest of us. Good luck and let us know if there is anything we can do for you....

Congratulations!  That is so exciting.  I had mine on Tuesday (6/3/08) and I feel great.  Just do what they tell you to do.  Believe me when I tell you that 2 weeks is long enough if thats what they tell you! Keep us up-to-date!  You go girl!

That is VERY EXCITING!  I'm very happy for you.  Must be nice.  Having a surgery date seems so far off for me.  I have pre-op tests scheduled for next week (on my birthday...upper GI on my birthday doesn't seem fair, now does it).  I have a psych visit scheduled for next week.  I'm going to the support group meeting next week.  And then, I wait.  I have 4 doctors writing letters of medical necessity.  Once all that is together, I get to submit to insurance and wait for the denial.  I'm so happy your road to surgery is a short one! -Elli

Thank you Patrice, Joy, & Elli!

Joy, I hope you're doing well

Elli, I'm sure your day will be here before you know it! I got to be a "cheater," unfortunately, because my insurance had a clause against it, so I have to "self-pay".

Hope you all have a great weekend!

I'm so excited, I kind of turned into a preschool/kindergartener and made a paper chain to count down

I remembered in one of your earlier posts you had indicated you were self pay.  My insurance also excludes surgery.  I'm going to hire an attorney and fight it though.  If in the end, I have to be self pay, I'll come up with the money somehow, I guess...but I won't go self pay without a huge fight with the state of Georgia. On a positive note, the insurance did pay for the initial surgical consultation, and the pre-op testing has the diagnosis of "esophageal reflux", so it should pay for that too.  I even got an "authorization number" from the insurance company for the psych (whether they pay or not is a different matter) but I didn't say it had anything to do with bariatric surgery or weight loss.   -Elli

I had most of my pre-op testing done for other reasons during the past year- before I even started seeing Dr. Hart. All I've had to do was the bloodwork/ekg, psych eval, and clearance letter from my PCP. I had state health benefits... I know several people that had the same benefits that I had that tried to get them to cover it but weren't successful. I hope that you have success! I did get the psych and bloodwork done w/o problems by my insurance, I think... at least, I haven't seen a bill yet... fingers crossed...

I also have State Health Benefits (through the Cobb County schools).  They did at one time pay for WLS...one of my coworker's husbands had it back in the first 1/2 of the 2000 (she didn't remember the year).  My intention is to hire an attorney, in addition to contacting the insurance commissioner, state reps, governor, superintendent of my school system and anyone else who I can think of.  We'll just have to wait and see what happens. -Elli

I'm definitely hoping for the best for you, Elli! Only 18 more sleeps until my surgery :-D

I like that..."18 more sleeps". -Elli