Update - Approved! Surgery Date is March 7th

Well I have to say that all the times I saw subject lines like this one I often thought I can't wait until the day that I can write that. Well today's the day It wouldn't have come this soon without all of the wonderful people and advice here at OH. Of course as I have mentioned in other posts I really had to push and push to get things through. I'm sure my surgeon's office will breathe a big sigh of relief when my surgery is done. I've been pretty much calling them daily. Last Friday I was very disappointed after hearing from them that the insurance company was now saying they wanted six consecutive months of documented proof from my Dr. that I had been on a supervised weight loss program. They also wanted proof that I was morbidly obese 5 years ago. I was able to work get the documentation from my doctors this week. I had made an appointment for Wednesday so that I would have four consecutive months out of 8 total (but not six consecutive). Here's my best advice on this - write up the documentation yourself for them to sign. My Dr. thought it was ridiculous to have to send six separate reports and the nurse told me he wasn't going to do it; but fortunately I had taken care of that for him. Just had them fill in the weights and blood pressures for six office visits and he signed them. Since my current Dr. has only been my primary since last year and since the primary I had five years ago is deceased I thought I'd had a tough time and was getting worried again. But fortunately I remembered that I have had the same OB/GYN and sure enough was able to get the 'actual office notes' from 2000 and on (another specific from the insurance company - had to be 'actual handwritten notes'. That info was faxed to them yesterday and I know they've been responding to any paperwork sent within 24 hours each time - to get me the responses that they wanted more info. Well this was the last of the 'more info' they required. I called my insurance company and was told the case was still pending so I asked if I could talk to the pre-auth department and they said they would for me and put me on hold. Well, hooray, when they came back on the phone they told me that they were told the surgery was being approved today but the system hadn't been updated. I ended up calling with a question later in the afternoon and at that point they said that the system did now show all was approved. So.... of course now I'm very excited, anxious, nervous, etc. My surgery will be on 3/7 and I'm taking off 2 weeks from work. I'll be spending the weekend paying lots of more attention to all of the advice for what to bring to the hospital, post-op foods and hints, etc. Again I want to say thanks to everyone and I'm happy that I'll be able to share my experiences with the people who may be reading this and are in the same position I was a few months ago. Susan