I'm Approved!

Well, I was one of the people who gets quick approval! After submission late on Tuesday, which meant Wednesday, maybe Friday and today, I got a call from my surgeon's office telling me that my insurance had approved my surgery! Now we are playing phone tag to try to schedule my post-op education class (which I have to take prior to surgery) and the surgery itself. Woot!!!! While I may be able to get the rest of the 15 pounds off, "may" is the operative word so I told her I'd go ahead and do the liquid diet so we can go ahead and schedule my surgery. She's trying very hard to get me a surgery date before the end of the year, so keep your fingers crossed for me. :-)

In the meantime, I'm keeping on keeping on and am following my pre-op behavioral plan. I'm so excited!!!! (as should be obvious by my mis-use of the exclamation points)

*tick tock*

Had a voicemail from the insurance specialist at Dr. C's office yesterday evening telling me that she'd gotten my file off to the insurance company yesterday. She followed up by answering the email I'd sent on Monday. (Have I mentioned how much I ♥ this practice???) In the email, she gave me more details in that she said she'd gotten my psych eval from the psychologist, which I'd assumed otherwise she would not've been able to send my file to insurance. :-) Unfortunately, this email left out the number of days the insurance company says they have to give her a decision but based on a previous phone call, it's 30 business days. *gulp* Thankfully, she said she follows up every two weeks until she gets an answer. I'm wearing out my knees praying that I'm one of the people who gets a quick approval because we are rapidly running out of year and 30 business days pushes us into January, when I won't be with that company anymore.

So, please join me in prayers that I receive quick approval so that I can get scheduled and start my liquid diet so that 2011 will be my losing year!

In regards to school... almost done. I've got some playbacks to listen to this weekend and a paper to write and a final to write and that's all she wrote... as it were. ;-)

Updates 'r' Us

School Update: This morning I had the presentation for my individual project in my Information Technologies class. I think it went well. It is more difficult than you'd think to give a presentation over VoIP where you can't see your audience. :-) Now, I just need to write the paper (due December 3), which I'm going to work on over the Thanksgiving holiday. Hey, if I'm working on a paper, I won't be as likely to eat leftovers, right? ;-) Our group turned in our last assignment for Organization of Information on Saturday, so all that's left for that class is our take-home final (due December 9). I still need to make a couple of discussion board posts. I hate it when discussion board posts are required and have a required number of words. I'm usually good at posting things, but when I have to? Not so much.

Surgery Update: I received an email this morning from the insurance specialist at my surgeon's office. She told me that she'd received the documentation from my Internist's office so now all she was waiting on was the report from the psychologist. She also told me that it sometimes happens that he forgets to copy them on the report. While I'm a little grumpy that he forgot, I'm glad I'm not the only person it's happened to so that she was able to re-assure me. :-) She's put a note on his desk for him to get it to her tomorrow. Once that's done, she can submit to the insurance company. Hopefully I'll know by Thanksgiving that I've been approved and what my date is! That would truly be something to be thankful for. :-)

Have a good one, y'all!

I'm comin' to join you, Elizabeth!

Seriously, it's the big one! My Internist's nurse actually responded to one of my phone calls, on the same day I left the voicemail! She told me she'd actually already sent off the 6-month diet paperwork to my surgeon's but to let her know if they didn't get it, and she'd send it again. So I emailed the insurance specialist again and told her to be on the lookout for it, and if she hadn't received it, to let me know and to give me the appropriate fax number. So NOW all we're waiting on is for the psychologist to be in the office to sign off on my psych evaluation and she can send it off to my insurance company. I did ask her if it were unusual for him to not have signed off when our visits were in July. I'll keep you posted.

Now, to learn Access... Okay, scratch the surface of Access. :-)

A Real Update This Time

Finally! After playing phone tag for a while, I decided to take one more stab at calling the insurance specialist back. She happened to be the one who answered the phone this time! What she was calling about was a follow-up to an email that I'd sent after my last 6-month visit. Apparently, she'd sent me an email that is now floating in cyberspace somewhere because I've not received it. She wanted to let me know that she'd not yet received the documentation from my Internist regarding my diet, so I have left a message with his nurse to get that sent ASAP. She also gave me my options regarding pre-op requirements for weightloss. She said that, based on my BMI, I can keep trying to get the weight off on my own or I can do the liquid diet. I'm planning on trying to lose the weight on my own until we have insurance approval, and if I've not got it off then, then I'll do the liquid diet. She said that, if I decide to do the liquid diet, then I purchase the stuff from them upon approval from insurance and she schedules my surgery, and I start the diet 2 weeks before the date. My only concern now is that the psychologist hasn't yet signed off on my evaluation. I saw him back in July and he -still- hasn't signed off? Is that weird? He's out of the office this week, so it'll be next week at the soonest before she can get the paperwork sent off to my insurance company.

So, I'll really stay buckled down for the next two weeks (hopefully we'll hear something by then) and see if I can get the rest of the 15# off (I have about 5# left). I'd like to have a good cushion, so I'd like to do 20+# if I can in case my body decides to hold on to some fluid when I get weighed. :-) My body? Surely not. ;-)

Keep your fingers crossed for me, everyone!

Phone Call Update (or Lack Thereof)

Still no word from my surgeon's office. I don't know if she called me by accident or what. :-/ I left her a voicemail on Tuesday morning. Her greeting says that all calls are returned within 24-48 hours, which means I -should- hear something back today. As an added precaution, I emailed her to let her know I left her a voicemail. :-) Paranoid, who me? As soon as I hear back from her in any regard, you all will be the first to know.

In the meantime, I'm just keeping on, keeping on. The semester is rapidly winding down and I have an exercise due on Saturday in one class, my final individual project presentation next week (paper due 12/03) in the other class, and the final for the 1st class is due the week after Thanksgiving. Then classes are done for a few weeks. I'm ready for a break, though I'm still loving the heck out of being in Grad School. :-)

Next semester, I'm taking Resources and Services for Young Adults and Public Library Management. That should be fun, especially the YA class since we get to read a lot of YA fiction. I don't know how fun I'll find PL Management especially since I work in an Academic Library, but I know that some skills will translate. Enough about -next- semester. We'll discuss that more in another month or so. :-)

Phone calls sans messages

You know what I hate? People who call me and then don't leave a message. Especially when I get "missed call" notifications. I know you called me. Why don't you tell me why? In normal circumstances, this is an annoying enough process. When I see that the missed call is from the insurance "guru" at my surgeon's office? Nerve wracking! I tried to call her back to see if she could elaborate on why she called me in the first place, but she was on the phone when I called. I left a message. Which she has not yet returned. Grr. Now I'm left with wondering if that was the "Congratulations, you're approved!" call, "You're denied, now we ____." call, "We need more information" call or what.

In the meantime, I keep on keeping on and hope it gets worked out soon. *gnaws nails*

Gah! Why can't we all just get along?

By "we", I mean me, my scale and my doctor's scale. *le sigh*

Doc's scale had me at 287 this morning. How in 9 kinds of hell does my body know when I'm going to the doctor? Why did it decide after three weeks of mostly behaving itself to hold on to that much fluid? Blargh.

Regardless, I'm finished with my 6-month medically supervised diet. I don't know if finishing it with 4-ish pounds to lose before I hit 15# means I'll have to do the liquid diet regardless of how much I'm able to crack down and lose between now and insurance approval, or if my cracking down and getting the rest of the 15# and then some will mean I don't have to. Either way, it's fine. I just would rather prove to my self that I can, in fact, banish 15 measly pounds. Gorram it!

So, this is me, cracking down. Prepare yourselves for a whiney Winter Wolf. There's a cranky storm a'brewin'. Just sayin'.

Nerves are setting in

I probably shouldn't already be nervous, but I am. I go tomorrow for the last of the appointments for the 6-month medically supervised diet. I've not lost what I would've liked since I've had some gains here and there. I only hope those don't cause me to get denied. :-/ The past few days, I've been really working on getting my protein and my water and on walking as much as I can. Unfortunately, I'm in a bit of a flare this week thanks to the multitude of sleepless nights over the last couple of weeks. Unless my body has an overnight WOOSH!, I won't hit the 15# mark tomorrow, but I feel pretty comfortable that there won't be a gain. I'm beginning to think that having to do a liquid protein diet for a week or so wouldn't necessarily be the worst thing, as it would get me used to how I'll have to "eat" post-op for a few weeks. It would also help me start getting used to the much-reduced amount of calories I'll be able to ingest. I don't know. I guess I'll just have to see how I do in the AM. I'll HAVE to have be below 280# by the time my surgeon's office goes to schedule my surgery. If I don't (and I likely won't) hit it in the AM, I will do everything I can to hit it in the next week or so. I'm soooooo close! I'm back up a smidge due to fluid, but I'm still within 5# of making my goal. If I can keep my carbs ultra low, push my liquids and make sure I'm getting my protein, I'll get the 15# off, and then some. But this up-and-down nonesense is getting on my nerves - especially since I know it's mostly fluid. You don't gain three pounds of fat overnight. Darn it.

I boxed up a bunch of library surplus today, so I burned some calories. Since it's cool out, I'm going to walk some after work. If I feel up to it, I may walk all the way home from the transit center (about 2.5mi). That should help.

Wish me luck!