squeejlueej
Hi, I have been overweight ever since my first child was born in 1983. Never did get all that weight off before I had my 2nd one 3 years later. Then had to transfer out of my state in 1997, away from my friends & family due to a plant closing. I've gained about 65 more lbs. since I've been away from everybody. Sad but true...
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Getting The OK From My PCP
Saturday, June 21, 2003 (BMI: 45.5)
Went to my PCP and saw his P.A. earlier this month. It was really a follow-up appointment for the Zoloft she had me on for my heart palpitations. I decided I was going to approach her with the Weight Loss Surgery question as that is the real reason I am mildly depressed. I was really anxious because I had asked the prior P.A. & she said, “Absolutely not.” When this one said, “Sure, we can do that”, I nearly fell off the table. She took the name of the Dr. I had written down & clipped it to my chart.
Insurance Confusion
A few days later I called my insurance company, Anthem BCBS (PPO) to inquire about which Doctors were covered and found out that the name I’d left with my PCP was no longer on their list. So I checked the internet & found that Dr. Linda Patterson in Cleveland WAS on Anthem’s list of providers. I called my Doctor’s office to leave her name & number instead & was informed that I couldn’t be referred to anyone until I had my blood work done again. I just had it all done 4 weeks prior to that but they wanted it done again because my liver & kidney numbers were off a bit. So the very next day, I left work early to get my blood work redone.
My tests came back better the second time around. One was in the normal range & one was almost there.
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Wednesday, July 2, 2003
Received phone call from the nurse at my Doctor's office. She said she had called the Cleveland Center for Bariatric Surgery to make an appointment for me and they told her I could call & make my own appointment.
I called and was told they were not a participant with Anthem PPO so I called Anthem and asked them what the official name of our insurance is, thinking that maybe I shouldn’t have said “Anthem PPO”. She told me it was Anthem BCBS and that Linda Patterson WAS on the list of participating doctors.
I called CCBS back and talked to yet another lady that said they did not participate with Anthem BCBS but registered me for an educational seminar on July 15th anyway. The class starts at 6 p.m. and lasts about 90 minutes.
I called Anthem back and talked to Ann (in Columbus). She was very helpful & actually called the Cleveland Center for Bariatric Surgery & talked to Andrea. Andrea said they DID participate & for me to make a note of her name. She said there was a lot of confusion in their office as to which Anthem programs they deal with. So now I will wait for the seminar on July 15th.
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The Seminar
Sunday, July 20, 2003
This past Tuesday I went up to Middleburg Heights (Cleveland) to the Bariatric seminar. There were at least 130 people there (some were support people for the obese person). It was cool in the room & the chairs weren’t all squished together. That’s a good start!
The seminar was very interesting & enlightening. Although I knew a lot from searching the web I didn’t understand the actual surgical procedure until the seminar. I also found out I would be a candidate for lap surgery. They take into consideration how many abdominal surgeries you’ve had and your BMI. I’ve only had a tubal ligation and my BMI is 45.5. I would much rather have 5 small incisions than a scar from my naval to under my breasts. But if it doesn’t work out that way I will take whatever I can get. Lap is my preference. I became educated on the different procedures & found out the Band surgery which I thought I’d prefer is not very good & they don't think it will be around for long.
Wednesday after work I called CCBS and they set up an appointment for me to see Dr. Aviv Ben-Meir. My appointment is at 4 p.m. on August 15th. Not very far away. Meanwhile I must call Anthem BCBS & triple check that I am covered for the procedure. I’ve called twice & they really aren’t very knowledgeable there so I feel like I need to check one more time. I will also ask them what their criteria is (for ex: psychiatric evaluation, etc.) and if that is covered. Then I must find out where to get one of those & make an appointment for that. I also need to talk to the nurse at my PCP's office & see if they have records of my diet history. I’ll start on these calls tomorrow.
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Sunday, August 10, 2003
Received my referral & diet history from my PCP the other day. They also sent my Echo results for me to take to Cleveland with me. I’m totally finishing up my paperwork today so that it will be ready to go Friday. I’ll have to leave work about 1 p.m. I’m supposed to be there 45 mins. early and you never know about the traffic situation between home & Cleveland. I also called Anthem for the 3rd time. She basically told me to go to my appointment & see if I qualify then do what I have to do.
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Psych. Evaluation
Sunday, September 14, 2003
My insurance company wants a psychological evaluation so this past Tuesday, Sept. 9, I took a vacation day & went to my appointment with Dr. William Friday. His office was pretty easy to find. I sure like Columbus better than Cleveland but my insurance only covers CCBS. From what I’ve read, CCBS is the best so maybe that’s a good thing. I filled out papers at Dr. Friday’s office for literally 3-1/2 hrs. - lots of questions & little circles to fill in. Just like those big tests back in high school where you had to use a #2 pencil. They told me it would take him about 3 weeks to get the test scored & then they’d send me a copy of what they sent CCBS. So I will wait…
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Friday, September 19, 2003
I had a message on my machine today from Dr. Friday’s office. They seem to think they didn’t get a copy of my insurance card (they did, I remember her taking & returning it). So now I have to scan, enlarge, print & fax it to them. Should try to do that now so I can take it to work tomorrow & see if they can fax it for me.
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Sunday, November 9, 2003
Since my last update I've received the results from my psych. eval. All is good in that department.
Someone from a Sleep Study Place called to say I needed a Sleep Study done so I went to Cleveland one Friday evening & spent the night. The amount of wires I was hooked up to was phenomenal.
CCBS left a voice mail on my cell phone informing me that they'd received a letter from my insurance company & for me to call them. By the time I noticed this message it was too late to call on Friday evening. So I had to wait all weekend, wondering, worrying that something had gone wrong. After all, it had only been 3 days since they had faxed all the info over to my insurance co.
I'M APPROVED!!
At 9:00 Monday morning I called CCBS from work. I had been approved!! I couldn't believe it - so Fast!
One day last week I had a message waiting on my answering machine at home. It was CCBS asking me to call them back. They had some dates for me. I returned the call immediately & got a voice mail. It was too late, she had gone home. The next morning I again called CCBS from work. They registered me for the Pre-surgery class in December, gave me a date for my Pre-admission testing & a date for my surgery - January 15, 2004. I can't wait for my new life to begin!
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IT'S TIME!
Friday, January 23, 2004
On Friday, January 9, CCBS called to tell me they had an opening on the 12th and asked me if I wanted it. I called my parents to see if this would be OK with them since they would be coming from another state to stay with me awhile after my surgery. My dad said, "Let's do it!"
So they left for my house Sunday morning & early Monday morning we drove up to St. Vincent's. I was getting over a cold but still had a slightly elevated temperature so the anesthesiologist was concerned. When Dr. Aviv Ben-Meir came into the room he was ushered over to talk to me to decide if he wanted to go ahead with the surgery. I was on the downhill side of the cold so he decided to go ahead. WHEW!!
I knew what time I had to be at the hospital but I didn't know the exact time I was scheduled for surgery. Afterwards, my parents told me I was scheduled for surgery at 7:30 and the Dr. came out to see them at 12:24. I spent some time in recovery and they finally got to come to see me in a room at 3 p.m. My back was killing me even though I asked them to put pillows under my knees because of the protruding disk in my back.
At 7:45 that night I took my first walk down the hallway. I was so proud that I was standing straight up & walked all the way to the end and back. I now know it wasn't too painful because I was on a morphine drip!
At 10:30 that first night I began experiencing a rapid, irregular heartbeat. I have had this a million times but only once did it last more than 5 or 10 seconds. This time it lasted 25 minutes and the nurse was able to get an EKG while it was going on. I was extremely grateful for this because it was hard for me to explain to doctors what was happening & now they had it recorded. They couldn't believe I hadn't been instructed by a Dr. in the past to wear a monitor for 24 hrs. or longer. They are supposed to be sending me a copy of the EKG but it looks like I'm going to have to pursue this. I had to spend the night in Cardiac Intensive Care. Surprisingly, I slept really good there.
The next morning, around 8 a.m. they whisked me off to have my leak test. I was dying for a drink, as it had been since midnight before my surgery that I had one. After the leak test they brought me ice chips - YUM - and took me back up to my regular room where my mom had spent the night while I was in ICU.
I was released on January 14th & am on a medicine to regulate my heartbeat. The cardiologist thinks I won't need it after 30 days (I disagree since I've had this going on since my kids were small & they're 17 & 20 now). I also take Pepcid AC twice a day, 2 children’s' chewable vitamins & drink 2 protein shakes a day. I've been on a full-liquid diet since coming home. Today is the first day I can go on pureed foods so I am trying to figure that out. As of this morning (Day 11) I've lost 10 lbs.
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Upper Endoscopy
I had been having trouble eating since about week 3 & it seemed to just be getting worse. I had a lot of pain & ALL KINDS of noises coming from my chest whenever I had the tiniest nibble of food or even a few sips of liquid. I'll call the noise gurgling, LOUD gurgling. After talking to a nurse at CCBS they scheduled me for an Upper Endoscopy on Tuesday, February 17th (5 weeks out). After checking things out they decided to use "the balloon" to stretch things out. I still have a little gurgling but things are going down much better now. I think the little bit of gurgling I still have is going to be normal for me.
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6 Weeks Post-Op
Thursday, February 26, 2004
It has been slightly over 6 weeks since surgery & my first day back at work. I have to pull myself up onto & get off a forklift numerous times a day so Dr. Ben-Meir kept me off this long.
LOSS TO DATE - 25 lbs.
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15 Weeks Post-Op
Sunday, April 25, 2004
I cleaned out my closet today for the 2nd time since surgery. That is SOOO much fun. I'm getting more & more room in my closet for new clothes when I finally break down & go shopping. I've got a lot of clothes in smaller sizes yet so it'll be awhile. Seems I saved almost all of my clothes when I grew out of them but that's good 'cause I am using them now although I'm finding I need to take in a lot of my tops under the arms. I guess that's actually the boob area. They are the winners in my losing dept!
In addition to the 2 multivitamins I take every morning, I also take one sublingual B12, 2 actigal (morning & night), calcium citrate and am down to 1 pepsid AC per day.
Friday, May 28, 2004
Recently found out I don't need to take the pepcid AC anymore.
Saturday, July 10, 2004
I just finished a month-long "challenge" at CURVES to lose 4 lbs. or 4 inches from June 2-July 2. Guess who the GRAND WINNER was? That's right, it was me! Even though I felt I was cheating because I had weight loss surgery, they still counted me as the winner… ok.
Wednesday, October 6, 2004
At 6 months I went down to 1 multivitamin.
Monday, January 04, 2010
One year ago, my primary care Dr. took me off the B-12. because she said my blood work results showed it was WAY too high. It’s time for my yearly blood work again & I am very interested to see the B-12 numbers after being off of it for a year. I thought you were SUPPOSED to be on it forever. I really should go to a support group meeting. They have them somewhere in Mansfield now so I wouldn’t have to travel to the greater Cleveland area just for a meeting. My BMI is currently 28.1, which still puts me at the higher end of overweight, but I don’t care. I’d have to lose 19 more lbs. to be in the NORMAL range. I can’t see that ever happening & I am totally happy where I am. I am very sad to say that the beautiful lady that was scheduled for her weight loss surgery on the day that I ended up taking, January 12, 2004, has passed away. She had many, many health problems over the past years. I knew her from one of the early meetings at CCBS & kept in contact with her via email. (Something made her ineligible on her date of 12Jan04 so they asked me if I wanted to move from 15Jan04, which I did.) Frequently people tell me that I look great but surprisingly, I wish they wouldn’t. I think it has to do with wanting to forget (and wanting everyone ELSE to forget) that I ever DIDN’T look ok.
Friday, March 19, 2010
I finally made it to a support group meeting at the Med Central Wellness Center last night. The young man at the desk sent me into the wrong meeting. Luckily, I could tell that as soon as I walked in the door. It was a weight loss seminar. Glad I don't have to go to one of those and start all over again!
*Surgery January 12, 2004*
February 11, 2004 -21 lbs
March 12, 2004 -31 lbs.
April 12, 2004 -42 lbs.
May 12, 2004 -54 lbs.
June 12, 2004 -62 lbs.
July 12, 2004 -73 lbs.
August 12, 2004 -78 lbs.
September 12, 2004 -82 lbs.
October 12, 2004 -84 lbs.
November 12, 2004 -85 lbs.
January 4, 2010 –101 lbs.
Hospital Reviews · (Cleveland, OH) - St. Vincent Charity Hospital
Product Reviews Ø Myoplex - Myoplex Low Carb (they’ve since discontinued these protein shakes so I’ve resorted to “Body Fortress 100% Whey Protein” which I purchase at WalMart. January 4, 2010 - I’ve pretty much gotten out of the habit of doing protein shakes every day but need to start back up. Ø Twin Labs - Chewable Calcium Citrate Wafers
Surgeon Info:
Surgeon: Aviv Ben-Meir, M.D.
Cleveland Center for Bariatric Surgery has an excellent record & are pioneers in their field. Dr. Aviv Ben-Meir has a reputation for being very good at his job (laproscopic).
Insurer Info:
Anthem BCBS
My Dr. faxed all my information on Tuesday & received a faxed letter of approval from the insurance company on Friday of the same week. WOW! I didn't have to deal with the insurance company at all. Doesn't get any better than that.