[insert witty subject line here]

Apologies for the lack of subject line. I'm just really tired and didn't want to come up with anything witty or interesting. :-)

I just mostly wanted to share an update regarding surgery and the mad dash to get it done before the end of the year. As I may've mentioned in a previous post, my insurance carrier is going to be changing in January. I really want to get the surgery done before the end of this year for a couple of reasons. Thing 1: changing carriers would mean jumping through another set of hoops that, while likely similar, still would be a new set of hoops. Wolves hate jumping through hoops just to jump through hoops, so doing that would make me cranky. Thing 2: (this is the big thing) my insurance will be going from an HMO to a PPO, meaning I'd have to come up with the deductible and co-insurance making surgery nearly cost-prohibitive for me. So, it behooves all involved to get this done before the end of the year. Because said end of the year is rapidly approaching, I emailed the insurance "guru" at my surgeon's office to see if this is even a realistic possibility.

I told her that, basically, all I have left is my last "6 month" visit and getting off the 15 pounds. She responded by saying that, once she has all the documentation in hand, she sends my file to my insurance carrier. She then has to give them 30 business days to respond, but that it usually doesn't take that long (people on my message boards have said that the same insurance carrier has responded with an approval in three days, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed). Once we have the approval letter (and I -love- how she's just assuming it will be approved), they'll check my weight and either go ahead and schedule the surgery if I've gotten the 15 pounds off or have me do the liquid diet and then schedule surgery. She said she'll do everything she can on her end to get me scheduled so I can have the surgery before the end of the year. She seemed pretty optimistic, so I'm taking a page from her book and will be optimistic, too. I'll keep doing what I'm doing and hope that my body doesn't hold out on me and have a gain again.