Hi Marcy! Welcome to the ND board. This is the most activity its had since I joined OH! Just let your anesthesiologist know you are nervous. I saw someone suggest requesting an anti anxiety med in with the anesthesia-doesn't hurt to run these things by him/her. My dh was so worked up, he woke up in recovery in the middle of a panic attack. my hospital gives you some drug that knocks out your memory so I have zero memory of anyone putting me under. Hang in there, you will be fine!  congrats on the upcoming surgery, make sure you let us know how it goes!! judi j

Lori, glad to hear your home and on the mend.  I think the scariest thing about this surgery is the chance of getting a leak, it's nice they acted on it and checked you out so you didn't have to worry.   Judi, good luck on getting 1/2 your staples out today.  I hope it goes smoothly for you.  Keep up the good work gals!!

Hi Loretta, Do not give up.  Let me tell you something that happened to me; at least with my insurance (NDPERS - BSBCND).  They will cover this surgery with a bmi under 40 with UNCONTROLLED comorbiditiies.   This one almost tripped me up.  My bmi was 39, but I had been diagnosed with sleep apnea two weeks before this was submitted to my insurance company.  I got a CPAP, and for a while, it seemed to help.  As soon as the insurance company saw that I had sleep apnea but it was controlled by CPAP, they no longer counted that co-morbidity.  Same goes for high blood pressure, high cholesterol.  If you have been diagnosed, you need to be on medication and have the medication not work.  So, I got denied, and they denied the appeal.  That was last August.  I had surgery on July 2nd (yup, 5 days ago).  I kind of gave up for a while and went on to living my life, then in March, I decided to try again.  I made an appointment with the doctor who diagnosed my sleep apnea, as I clearly had uncontrolled sleep apnea and was not tolerating the CPAP well at all.  He wrote a letter to me, copied my insurance company, indicating that my sleep apnea was getting worse and that it was uncontrolled.  Two weeks later I was approved. Keep on fighting, and good luck.

I am home, as of 3 pm yesterday (the 5th).  I was supposed to go home on the 4th, but had a minor setback. Surgery #1 went very well, and I was well on the road to recovery, walking the halls, started my "diet" at the hospital.  They were bringing me broth and milk, protein shakes, then onto tomato soup.  Tuesday night during the night I spiked a temperature, from normal to 103 in about an hour, and they feared a leak.  I was back in surgery Wednesday morning at 6:00 a.m.  That one only lasted 30 minutes; they took a look inside to see that all was well, using the same incisions.  The worst it did is make my incisions a little more tender, and I stayed one extra day in the hospital. I am doing well, and trying to figure out how I can possible eat and drink as much as I am supposed to.  How are you doing Judi?  I've been thinking about you too!

How do you feel? Did you get home before the 4th?  Hope it went ok, enquiring minds wanna know! judi