1st Consultation - Dr. Bright

I am so encouraged.  I had my consultation appointment with Dr. Bright today.  He reviewed my health history, talked about options and did an exam.  He said that because I'm healthy, my upper abdomen was relatively small and my liver was way up under my ribs that I wouldn't have to do much weight loss prep.  The main thing is going to be jumping through the insurance hoops, otherwise he'd be able to do the surgery in a few weeks. There are a lot of hoops to jump through before I can have the surgery.  Insurance companies are sure a pain.  If the doctor says she thinks I should have the surgery then that's all there should be to it.  But...hoops it is.  Psych eval, a medically monitored weight loss program and I can't remember what else.  Then there's the pre-op work-up that Dr. Bright needs to make sure the surgery is safe...cardiac work-up, possible sleep study, labwork, nutritionist to work with me on the pre-op prep diet.  The pre-op diet is 2 weeks of modified intake then 2 weeks of liquid to prep the gut for surgery.  It's going to be tough but at least I don't have to have a minimum weight loss like my friend Donna did. Best news of all is that he's going to try to set it up so that I can have my surgery at Deaconess instead of Sacred Heart.  Now that Rockwood clinic and CHS have a relationship it would make a huge financial savings.  All the hospital charges would be covered 100% and no deductible vs 80% after a $2500 co-pay.  I would still have to pay 20% on non-hospital charges (surgeon, anesthesia, all the pre-op stuff etc.) but I may even be able to pay everything with my MedFlex account and save the life insurance money to pay bills, or help support us, or help with the boys' college expenses.  It's not a guarantee yet.  They've never done bariatric surgery at DMC before and it will take awhile for them to get the instruments he wants but I've got 2-3 months of hoops anyway.  I've been fat a long time.  Waiting an extra month or so to save about $8000 is not going to kill me.  Keeping my fingers crossed and saying my prayers! The other good thing is that he said I may only have to be off work for 1-2 weeks.  That's huge since I'm the only income now that Allen's passed away and I don't get sick time.  My loss of wages has to be covered as well as the cost of surgery.   Exciting! He said the surgery takes about 2.5 hours on average.  He wants to take out my gall bladder at the same time because I have documented stones even though they don't bother me.  It was interesting.  I never understood why they often take out the gall bladder.  Now it makes sense.  When stones develope they go endoscopically through the stomach and intenstine to get to the gall bladder.  Once you have the surgery the route to the gall bladder is no longer there so they want to remove the problem before it becomes a problem that's difficult to fix. After the surgery I would be in the hospital about 3 days.  The first day is IV's and clear liquids.  The 2nd day I'd start ambulating and go to full liquids.  Day 3 is a soft diet and discharge home.  Piece of cake.  It's actually starting to feel real.  I may actually get to do this.  I'm so excited!