Wait times geting a bit longer at Madigan
In my monthly call to the clinic I found out that I will be another 3-4 months (last heard November) and that I should be getting another letter of explanation. She said that they lost some providers recently and haven't heard of any replacements yet. It sounds like they are maxing 30 cases a month now. My number on the lis has dropped which is good.
I don't have the option of using a civilian facility because Medicare doesn't cover the sleeve and Tri-care will only cover what Medicare covers. At Madigan I wouldn't have to worry about that cost ($10,000-$15,000).
So I'll wait some more.
When I went for my first orientation/big group session in March, they told us that some of the Drs were preparing to deploy, which was going to make the wait times longer. Don't get discouraged though. I was told that I wouldn't start the pathway until Aug/Sept with surgery for Feb/March of 2010 and got my call for July, and am expecting to have surgery in early November. Once you start on the actual pathway, it will go by very quickly.