did my online seminar.

I completed my online seminar at Duke on Friday. I got a call today that the lady who does the insurance stuff is out so it will take them a week to verify and put all my info in their system. What does all this mean? What can I expect? What has everyone's experience with Duke been like?

Thanks. Sorry for all the questions:-)

It has been 4 years since I had my surgery at Duke Durham and 2.5 years since my husband had his there. There have been a lot of changes since then, so I don't know that our experiences will match whatever process they currently use. You are welcome to look at the early part of my blog to see what that process was like for me; I think that I talk about what happened as they submitted it for insurance... Know that once your package is ready and submitted to insurance, that you and Duke have to sit and wait for the insurance to do their thing and that varies from one insurance policy to the next.

Re: wanting to know what to expect. One of things I did was call them and ask them to talk me through what the process would be and to give me an idea of what the timeline looked like. That helped me level expectations. We did that again when my husband had his surgery because it was a couple of years later and of course things had changed. I don't know if that might help you as you go through this process. Also, if you go to their monthly support group meetings you can usually talk to the staff and other patients that are going through or have recently gone through the process and they can give you their experience and perspective.

I hope that helps and wish you all the best as you embark on this fabulous, life changing journey.  

Thanks Barbara! Reading your blog was very helpful! I am thinking about starting my own even:)
I have another question though regarding the pysch evual, is that an ongoing thing or do you meet once and thats it?

Thanks

Hi Kim,

I'm glad that the blog helped and I encourage you to start one just so you have a record to reflect on later. It seems like you would never forget all of the trails, tribulations and celebrations that you'll encounter on your journey, but just like moms forget exactly how old their kids were when they started crawling or saying something cute, we also forget some of these things and the blog helps. It's a great help when you reach maintenance. If you haven't done so already, I suggest that you take all of your measurements and get photos of yourself in front of a doorway: front, back and profile. It will be helpful as you make your way down the road. 

Re: the psych eval. The actual eval is generally a single visit and it is done so that they can evaluate your readiness for undertaking such significant and stressful life event. Don't be 'afraid' of the psych eval. It is done to make sure you have all the tools you need to support you in this journey. Once the eval is done, you will be seeing the psychologist in group settings, but that may or may not be the same one you saw for your evaluation. At Duke, they had us see them in the group setting once before surgery, once 3 weeks post op and then at 3 months, 6 months and 12 months post op.  

I hope that helps. 

Thank you so much for all your help! :-)

Anytime! You are most welcome.

 Kim - I am scheduled for surgery 10/3 through the Duke center.  I started the process in May with my online eval and got a call 5 weeks later scheduling my appointment(s).   I saw the surgeon, the psych, the nurse for labs and they even sent me to the hospital for my barium xray that day.  Be sure to ask them to schedule all for the same day to avoid making an additional trip if you live a ways away like I do!   The psych eval went well - I was worried that they were going to run me through the wringer but really, they just spent an hour talking with me, making sure I knew what I was in for. Four weeks after that (4th of July holidays held it up a couple days)  they had all the test results and called the insurance company.  Thankfully I have BCBSNC and they approved me in just a couple days.  They called to schedule my surgery for August but due to work constraints, I had to schedule in October.   Be patient with the center - they have had issues with returning calls but they are SOOOOO busy.  To me it is worth it knowing that I'm going through this process with such a great group.  Good luck to you! Cherie

My daughter submitted hers on-line apprx 4 weeks ago. About week 5 or 6 she got a call but has been playing phone tag with the person since. We expected the 4 week wait because they let us know that up front at the seminar, but the phone tag for the last 2 weeks has been a problem.
Hope everything moves along smoothly for you.

Thanks snshine:-) stinks your daughter has been having such trouble!

I have one more question. For Co-morbidities does intracrancial hytertension, or PTC count? Thanks