Approved for surgery

Okay, I am putting this back. I don't mean to be a drama queen. I was really angry and I should have waited just a teensy bit longer to post anything. But I was excited. I am going to have surgery. I am approved by my insurance company. It happened it record time. The lady who does this stuff at the doctor's office was amazed. She told me to expect six to eight weeks of waiting before I even heard. It took them four days to approve me. They didn't ask for any supporting evidence, blah blah blah.

So yeah, I was excited. But then we started digging. By the time I pay my deductible and out of pocket expenses, it would be cheaper to tell the insurance company to eff off and put my monthly premiums toward surgery as well. I would literally have money left over. This is what Obamacare has done for us. Huge premiums, small coverage. I would have to get really really sick or have a catastrophic injury to break even on what I am paying for the privilege of keeping the government off my back.

Aside from that, I am looking forward to surgery. I can see from reading here it is no picnic. But I am determined to push through with it. I was prepared to pay cash anyway just because. I made the mistake of getting excited thinking my insurance was actually going to be a factor.

Because inquiring minds want to know? Whatever it is, I hope it goes well!

Thank you. I have gotten over my ire and reposted my OP, although it is significantly different now. I am excited about surgery. I am less so about the "approval" from my alleged insurance.

I felt very similarly about the "approval" for my sleeve surgery. I think after deductibles, co-pay maximums, out of network anesthesiologist etc. I nearly paid what the cash price would have been. Luckily for me, my sleeve surgery was in February so I got lots of things done that year that I "didn't pay for" since I met all my co pays and deductibles with the sleeve. My whole hiatal hernia surgery was paid for late that year to the penny. So if there is anything else you need taken care of, get it done the same year!

and surgery is no picnic, that's for sure. I'm one of the unlucky ones as far as complications, but at 10 weeks post op I am finally feeling like the results were worth it even if it was hellish.

Yeah, really! It almost makes me want to get sick or something so I can get my money's worth. I have been blessed with very good health, beyond being extremely fat. Before surgery I had no real comorbidities beyond being at the low end of diabetic. I had lymphadema in my legs, but they didn't consider that a problem. I don't take any pills on a regular basis but one. And other illnesses have not shown up like they did when I was fat. I used to get bronchitis once a year. Nothing since surgery. Colds are rare, and I avoid doing stupid things so injuries in my shop are exceedingly rare.

I am glad to see things are improving for you. I hope it continues even more rapidly. I've been lurking here reading, not really knowing if I would go this route or not. My wife has been very supportive and encouraging. We'll see how she is once I'm a big baby post op. Haha, she was a huge help post op for my sleeve. She has an idea of what's in store.

I'm seven weeks post op. No picnic AT ALL but beginning to feel like it was all worth it. I have to have a revision and I'm absolutely going to get that done in this calendar year since I've met all of my deductibles and out of pocket co-pays.

Good luck and as long as you have your wife to help you, you'll do fine.

Thank you. My wife is great. We've been together for almost 36 years, married for over 34. I'm going to as much stuff done as I can this year also.

Hi LittleBillJr,

Forgive me I am confused, I know you had the VSG, are you talking about plastic surgery? What are you getting done? Sadly, with most insurances it really doesn't pay much if at all. Have you thought about going to MX for PS? I have seen many members post they did so and were very happy with the results?

Good luck to you and let me know if there is anything I can do to help

I am. I am going for a flapectomy (my word). The doc calls it a panniculectomy. I've only had the initial consultation so far where he described an inverted T operation. I've got a pre-op appointment in two weeks. I think there will be more details then.

My main complaint is paying for something for which I am receiving little value. What really galls me is being forced to buy something at a high price by government thuggery. We've had this insurance for all of three months now. Every time we've tried to use it, we have had trouble. Lots of trouble. So when they told me I was approved, I thought we'd finally had a breakthrough. I guess I should be happy they're paying some of it. But it is just one more in a list of frustrations that we never had before. We were with our former insurance for over 34 years. There were problems from time to time, but nothing on this level of frustration. I don't think I would have gotten so angry had it not been for some ongoing crapola with my kidney stone. That in itself has served to shorten my temper somewhat.

As for helping out, that would be great! You don't happen to have an extra 10 grand lying around you don't really need, do you? Haha, I was expecting to pay for it myself anyway so I'm set there. I'm just feeling like a line from a movie once. I don't even remember where it came from, but it went like this. "Don't pee down my back and tell me it's raining." That's sort of how I feel about this insurance company. They keep telling us how great our coverage is, but it pales compared to what we had until just recently.

I hear you, when my insurance denied me I was crying for days. Then I got mad, took some really big color photos of all the open sores and the rest is history. For me the Plastic Surgery was just as important as my weight loss. It's been key to me not gaining all my weight back.

Once you have the surgery give it a least a year before you look in the mirror and see exactly what you are going to live with. Good Luck and keep us posted!