In search of a date

It has been a week now since I knew I was approved. On Friday, I got two letters from TriWest. Apparently, they have changed the forms. Now instead of sending a letter that gives you all the info you need like an authorization number, they just say "Surgery--approved". Or, in the case of one of my letters, "Surgery--denied." So, I had one approval and one denial. There was no indicationa what I was approved for and denied for. And, there was no reason why I was denied. If I had not talked to the rep on the phone last Monday, I would have been confused and cranky all weekend long. Ok, so I called Dr. Weber's office this morning to see if they had received their letter. I am not sure who I was talking to, but she said Pam was on the other line, but they had not received the letter yet. I told her that I had received my letter Friday, so hopefully their letter was in the mail. She said that I could fax my letter to them if I wanted to go ahead and get going on with it. Great, except the letter they sent me is so lame that it is useless. She said they hadn't opened today's mail yet, so maybe they had it. At 2 this afternoon, I received a wonderful call from Pam. She was really nice and congratulated me. I wasn't home, so it is on my answering machine to enjoy over and over. I'll skip all of the annoying details and just let you know that we are looking at either July 20 or 27. They said they would try for the 20th first. They were going to try and work out all of the details and give me a call back late this afternoon. They didn't call. But, I can wait one more day to find out that real date.

Wow, those are close dates! I finally have an appt. for my psych evals. The 16th! I told them to schedule me and I'll just pay for the extra hrs if the auth. doesn't come through in time. I'm just tired of this taking so long! Then all I have left to do is the nutritional eval, which I plan on scheduling when I go for my next Dr. visit. Is there anywhere else I can get this done except for Stevens Hospital or the one in Ballard? Anywhere in the Bremerton area I can get it done. Those w/Dr. Weber, do you really need to go in for another visit after all your ducks are in a row? I figured I'd ask to just mail everything, including the exercise journal. That way, if I'm approved then I'll just have to go in for the pre-op appt.

I have only met with Dr. Weber once one on one. And, it is a good thing that I didn't have to met with him again before I was approved because the initial referal approval expired. I couldn't get anyone on the phone to get an extention. So, I would have had to have gotten a whole new referal. I just kept in touch with them by phone and faxed in my paperwork. I didn't have any additional questions. So, there was really no reason to see him again. ~Hat

Hat Box, Congratulations on the surgery date. I know it's been a long jorney for you, but it will be well worth the wait. Good luck and we'll see you on the other side of loosing soon. Calvin