Saturday Roll Call
Hey Nancy, do you wanna be the first customer? I can send Emily over next Saturday. She's good about running up and down stairs on errands for me and knows how to fold towels and set the table! 
BTW, great job on your rehab process, hope you continue to have more mobility. Good-luck with the )(*&)*&^(*&% Dish Network company. I'd be awfully mad too!
Stephanie
BTW, great job on your rehab process, hope you continue to have more mobility. Good-luck with the )(*&)*&^(*&% Dish Network company. I'd be awfully mad too!
Stephanie
Good afternoon Illinois!
I spent the morning at Silver Cross today at the Weight Loss Fair.
So many people had questions about band surgery. I hope I answered them for those I talked with. All in all it was a good morning. Not much more on the agenda for today...except we need to think about dinner. I have not planned for it.....bad option for me.
For what's left of the day....I hope it's a good one!
I spent the morning at Silver Cross today at the Weight Loss Fair.
So many people had questions about band surgery. I hope I answered them for those I talked with. All in all it was a good morning. Not much more on the agenda for today...except we need to think about dinner. I have not planned for it.....bad option for me.
For what's left of the day....I hope it's a good one!
Carol
Just got back home after three outings this morning --- including to the bariatric surgery seminar (you know, that presenation to everyone considering surgery) at Northwestern Memorial Hosp in Chicago. Attended the one at Little Company of Mary Hosp in Evergreen Park last Tuesday.
It's interesting to see how the two programs approach things differently --- of course, the bariatric surgery programs are situated in two very differnt medical institutions. One's a small community hospital, the other is a major medical center/teaching hospital.
Us folks in the audience seemed the "same" at both.
At NMH, one of the surgeons presented the seminar. At LCOM, the program coordinator, an RN, presented. Both focused on only the RNY & LapBand surgery options. Those two options seem to be pretty much what insurance is willing to cover; therefore, it's what's offered, so I've heard. The surgeons at both hospitals have "enough" RNYs under their belts (experience-wise). They're both Centers of Excellence, and take the approach of providing patients with full pre- and post-surgery programming and protocols for the long-term.
I'm looking for the RNY, btw. And I'm also trying to figure out which of these hospitals/surgeons to ultimately go with. It's like figuring out whom to marry when you've got two "suitable" suitors you love. (Help!)
The advantages NMH has for me:
1) Most my med care is there and so I have providers I know along years of med records available to all the NMH-based providers.
2) I know my way around there already, and they did NOT kill me during my giving child-birth or my hysterectomy.
3) It's downtown, and I work downtown --- so, it's relative easy for me to schedule and make "early" and "late" appointments during their office & lab hours, which seem to be 8 a.m. through 4 p.m., by heading downtown on an early train or grabbing a cab up to NMH then getting the bus back to the train station during the p.m. rush-hour, for a late afternoon appt.
4) This is a biggie: Because I was immediately referred to the bariatric program by my PCP after getting my new dibetes dx at the start of December 2009, and then had my first bariatric appointment by the end of December, thereby immediately starting the march toward WLS, I'm in the pipeline and this is "counting" toward my insurance-requirement of a 6-month program before surgery approval. (I'm hoping for an early June 2010 surgery date.)
I've already hit, and paid for, a lot of the evaluations (bariatric doc, dietitian, health psychologist, WLS seminar, 1st nutrition class) at NMH. And, it's become obvious to me that one hospital's/surgeon's program will not accept the work and record you've created in the pre-op program of another institution, and substitute it for its own pre-op program. Dang, I'm worried that one institution might not even welcome WLS post-op folks from another institution into their support groups. (I don't know what WLS post-ops do who move to a new city or have surg far from home --- how do they join face-to-face WLS support groups?! --- I'm thinking that maybe they visit OH a lot! :)
The advantages LCOM has for me:
1) It's about 8 freaking blocks from my house (BUT, that's not going to mean much for appointments unless I can get evening appointments --- note to self: will need to check on the availability of evening appts).
2) I really like the bariatric program director's practices --- he seems experienced, responsive, informed, pro-active, and very thorough. I believe he runs a tight ship that's very patient-centered.
3) The RNY-only post-surgery support group's monthly meetings are at 7 p.m., making it very easy and likely that I would attend, after getting home and eating dinner. (The group meetings at NMH mix all types of WLS and don't seem to be offered every month. They also let out at 7:15 p.m., making it hard to get to the 7:40 train home--- the next train leaving would be 8:40. I'd also have to eat dinner downtown before the meeting. And wouldn't get to see my 11yo daughter, as I'd be getting home after her bedtime. In fact, I'd probably wind up ask my husband to pick me up at the train station and she'd have to get up to ride along - can't leave her at home alone for various reasons.)
4) Perhaps I might have a better chance at finding a WLS buddy or two down here on the SW side of Chicago if I hook up with LCOM.
5) LCOM staff might have a better idea of resources in my home community (places to exercise, vitamin sources, etc.). --- You know how the Northside is clueless about the Southside, right? Northside-centric people think Chicago's south border is, basically, Hyde Park.
6) I'm not sure where I would be directed to go in case of a post-surg emergency --- LCOM? Christ Advocate, down the street (the nearest hospital in my Cigna insurance PPO network)? LCOM and the surgeon there are NOT in-network for me. (Right now, my biggest problem is trying to figure out my likely out-of-pocket costs for each different provider: NMH v. LCOM. It's a bit confusing for me.)
7) LCOM has a clear physician-monitored exercise program in addition to the physcian-montiored nutrition program --- and Cigna requires both parts: 6 months of an EXERCISE & nutrition program. --- I'm actually quite concerned that the NMH program doesn't have the exercise component, and didn't alert me that the exercise element might be important and that I should double-check. If I hadn't recently read the deep details of Cigna's requirements for approval of bariatric surgery, I bet I would have looked up six months into the effort only to have my surgery approval rejected b/c of the missing "exercise" part. I'd have been SOL. This feels hinky to me.
--- So, what do you guys think? Any pros/cons I'm missing? Ideas on ways to make a decision? I'm feeling that it might be NMH that gets the business, mainly b/c 1) I'm in the pipeline, 2) I'm comfortable there already, & 3) they're in-network. What do you think?
BTW, I guess this is a good problem to have!
It's interesting to see how the two programs approach things differently --- of course, the bariatric surgery programs are situated in two very differnt medical institutions. One's a small community hospital, the other is a major medical center/teaching hospital.
Us folks in the audience seemed the "same" at both.
At NMH, one of the surgeons presented the seminar. At LCOM, the program coordinator, an RN, presented. Both focused on only the RNY & LapBand surgery options. Those two options seem to be pretty much what insurance is willing to cover; therefore, it's what's offered, so I've heard. The surgeons at both hospitals have "enough" RNYs under their belts (experience-wise). They're both Centers of Excellence, and take the approach of providing patients with full pre- and post-surgery programming and protocols for the long-term.
I'm looking for the RNY, btw. And I'm also trying to figure out which of these hospitals/surgeons to ultimately go with. It's like figuring out whom to marry when you've got two "suitable" suitors you love. (Help!)
The advantages NMH has for me:
1) Most my med care is there and so I have providers I know along years of med records available to all the NMH-based providers.
2) I know my way around there already, and they did NOT kill me during my giving child-birth or my hysterectomy.
3) It's downtown, and I work downtown --- so, it's relative easy for me to schedule and make "early" and "late" appointments during their office & lab hours, which seem to be 8 a.m. through 4 p.m., by heading downtown on an early train or grabbing a cab up to NMH then getting the bus back to the train station during the p.m. rush-hour, for a late afternoon appt.
4) This is a biggie: Because I was immediately referred to the bariatric program by my PCP after getting my new dibetes dx at the start of December 2009, and then had my first bariatric appointment by the end of December, thereby immediately starting the march toward WLS, I'm in the pipeline and this is "counting" toward my insurance-requirement of a 6-month program before surgery approval. (I'm hoping for an early June 2010 surgery date.)
I've already hit, and paid for, a lot of the evaluations (bariatric doc, dietitian, health psychologist, WLS seminar, 1st nutrition class) at NMH. And, it's become obvious to me that one hospital's/surgeon's program will not accept the work and record you've created in the pre-op program of another institution, and substitute it for its own pre-op program. Dang, I'm worried that one institution might not even welcome WLS post-op folks from another institution into their support groups. (I don't know what WLS post-ops do who move to a new city or have surg far from home --- how do they join face-to-face WLS support groups?! --- I'm thinking that maybe they visit OH a lot! :)
The advantages LCOM has for me:
1) It's about 8 freaking blocks from my house (BUT, that's not going to mean much for appointments unless I can get evening appointments --- note to self: will need to check on the availability of evening appts).
2) I really like the bariatric program director's practices --- he seems experienced, responsive, informed, pro-active, and very thorough. I believe he runs a tight ship that's very patient-centered.
3) The RNY-only post-surgery support group's monthly meetings are at 7 p.m., making it very easy and likely that I would attend, after getting home and eating dinner. (The group meetings at NMH mix all types of WLS and don't seem to be offered every month. They also let out at 7:15 p.m., making it hard to get to the 7:40 train home--- the next train leaving would be 8:40. I'd also have to eat dinner downtown before the meeting. And wouldn't get to see my 11yo daughter, as I'd be getting home after her bedtime. In fact, I'd probably wind up ask my husband to pick me up at the train station and she'd have to get up to ride along - can't leave her at home alone for various reasons.)
4) Perhaps I might have a better chance at finding a WLS buddy or two down here on the SW side of Chicago if I hook up with LCOM.
5) LCOM staff might have a better idea of resources in my home community (places to exercise, vitamin sources, etc.). --- You know how the Northside is clueless about the Southside, right? Northside-centric people think Chicago's south border is, basically, Hyde Park.
6) I'm not sure where I would be directed to go in case of a post-surg emergency --- LCOM? Christ Advocate, down the street (the nearest hospital in my Cigna insurance PPO network)? LCOM and the surgeon there are NOT in-network for me. (Right now, my biggest problem is trying to figure out my likely out-of-pocket costs for each different provider: NMH v. LCOM. It's a bit confusing for me.)
7) LCOM has a clear physician-monitored exercise program in addition to the physcian-montiored nutrition program --- and Cigna requires both parts: 6 months of an EXERCISE & nutrition program. --- I'm actually quite concerned that the NMH program doesn't have the exercise component, and didn't alert me that the exercise element might be important and that I should double-check. If I hadn't recently read the deep details of Cigna's requirements for approval of bariatric surgery, I bet I would have looked up six months into the effort only to have my surgery approval rejected b/c of the missing "exercise" part. I'd have been SOL. This feels hinky to me.
--- So, what do you guys think? Any pros/cons I'm missing? Ideas on ways to make a decision? I'm feeling that it might be NMH that gets the business, mainly b/c 1) I'm in the pipeline, 2) I'm comfortable there already, & 3) they're in-network. What do you think?
BTW, I guess this is a good problem to have!
I am going through NMH program, I have been seen there by my rheumatologist for years. I have all the confidence in the world for that hospital. My hospital stays there have been the best I've ever had (and I've been in several unfortunately).
Ultimately it's up to you and what works for you financially and time wise, but like you said, you've already started with alot of NMH's docs in the program so since you're already in the 'pipeline' do you really want to possibly have to start over?
Good luck in your decision and if you pick NMH maybe we can meet up there some time! Crazily enough, I drive 2 hours from Ottawa to go to NMH.
Ultimately it's up to you and what works for you financially and time wise, but like you said, you've already started with alot of NMH's docs in the program so since you're already in the 'pipeline' do you really want to possibly have to start over?
Good luck in your decision and if you pick NMH maybe we can meet up there some time! Crazily enough, I drive 2 hours from Ottawa to go to NMH.
I would opt to go to an in network hospital. The reason is, if by any chance you have complications, Cigna will pick up more of the costs. They could be quite prohibitive otherwise. I too travel 2 hours to get to my surgeon. I looked at the qualifications of my surgeon and also if we had a good rapport. That is so important. As far as Cigna's exercise component, my PCP just documented on my monthly visits what exercises I was doing and that was enough. It was not a formal program. I go to a support group here in town.
Cat Lady
Most Active
Recent Topics
