Monday, July 19, 2010

Is my surgery date!!! Reserved my spot this morning and will go for pre-op appts in 2 weeks (ish). ackkkkk now I'm freaking out again.

But this all depends on a CT scan I have to have tomorrow. Possible kidney stones. Fun times.

Luckily I'm not in any pain just yet so I don't know what they'll do, if anything. Find that out Monday. With my first stone the pain knocked me to the floor, literally. And made me throw up. Don't eveah want to go thru that again. Oh and NO pain meds, found out I was 2 weeks pregnant seconds before they turned on the xray machine. Good timing. The Urologist did praise me on the strength of my urine tho. He was all happy and I was soooo proud. Diluted urine. The stuff dreams are made of.

And o.m.g. I'm already worrying about what I'm going to eat in the next 4 weeks. Cause you know I'll never be able to eat again. Nothing but broth for the rest of my years. WTF?

I'm a nutcase.

On a happy note..... DD got her grades, a B, B+, C+ and C. whoo hooo first year of law school is done! But now she is thinking of changing schools (hers is a little lacking on the having it together front. Great professors, crappy admin). She's looking at Jacksonville FL. That's a 3 DAY drive from here! good gosh I'm tired of moving her stuff. But she's in law school so it's all good. :)

Anybody from the JAX area?

oh and I don't do humidity.

at all.

Over and out so I can go dream of my last meal (or 28 meals)...............

Good news / Bad news kinda day

First I want to thank you for the comments on my last 2 posts. I'm now leaning strongly toward self pay, I will explain more why below. And while I agree with Jacquie that self paying is a big motivator, it's still stressful as you all well know. It also makes me feel better that everyone else stresses about all this too and it's not just me lol.

As for my PCP it does really annoy me they feel this way. But unfortunately I live in a fairly small town without an abundance of good doctors. It's hard to find one you like. If I had other good choices I would seriously think about changing. But I like her other than this and Mexico is not an option right now anyway.

So my news.... I had an appointment with my accountant and attorney this morning and asked the accountant about the advantages tax wise of self pay. Bad news. Elective surgery is not deductible he says. So darn. But did I mislead him when "I" called it elective? Maybe with a doctor's recommendation it wouldn't be considered elective? Something I didn't think of until after I was on my way back to the office. Altho I did tell him what it was for so I think he would have mentioned that if it was an option. He also personally knows of 2 people here in town that have had it done with wonderful results. So that was good to know.

Good news? I talked to DH about self pay and he was ok with it. So that's what I'm going to do. woo hoo! So now I just have to make a decision about a surgeon. Right now my options are Dr. Smith from Ft Worth, he goes to Albuquerque once a month and his staff at the seminar was very nice. Plus it's only a 3 hour drive. BUT it's $15,500 ughh

2nd is Denver, a 6-7ish hour drive or can fly. 2 good doctors there, one of them the cost is $9900.

3rd is Phoenix. DD lives there so could stay with her, but a 6.5 hour drive. Cost is $15K-ish (can't find my notebook grrr)

So all good doctors, all good hospitals. DH says Albuquerque because over time it wouldn't really save any money when you consider the travel costs. Plus should something happen that I need to see someone fairly quickly 3 hours isn't bad. I guess I'm leaning toward Abq for now. More obsessive computer time to come.....

Now I'm having a hard time settling down to work! I might be banded in the next couple of months!!!!!

Banding in Mexico

Jacquie's comment on my last post brings up another question. If you've been banded in Mexico do any of your docs have a problem with it, or do they even know? My PCP straight up told me that if I go to Mexico to be banded they will no longer see me. For anything.

I don't really have any desire to go there, I would rather do it in the States if possible, but dang I can maybe understand not doing any follow up on the band but not at all?

I guess that's what happens when you live in a small town without many doctors to begin with.....

small update...

The surgeon's office has heard from my insurance. It is possibly a covered procedure, BUT.....

6 months supervised diet with my doctor, WW or any of those won't count. I asked if the fact that we talk about my weight everytime I see her counted and they didn't think so. Then I have to loose 20 pounds. After that they will "review". So 6 months from now they could still say no.

I was going to call the insurance company today and try to talk to someone that could give me details about how to get approved. Will my past appointments count? If not do my appointments need to be billed with a certain code? Anybody have any thoughts on other questions I should ask?

Then Thursday we have a meeting with our accountant and I'm going to talk to him about the possible tax advantages of self-pay. My estimated cost with ins will be $2500, selfpay cost $15,500. So we'll see ...

BUT a big problem with self-pay.......................... I'm completely totally 100% terrified of failing yet again at loosing weight and spending $15K to do it!! This fear is a big part of what stops me from trying, and yes I realize how stupid that is. My bff has been trying and trying to stop smoking and just can't seem to. But I tell her all the time she hasn't failed until she STOPS trying. As long as you are trying there is hope.

So why don't I listen to me?????? I'm as bad as my kids! lol

oh and tomorrow I'm having lunch with a lady from LBT that lives near me! Can't wait to meet my first "internet person" lol. Remember when something like this was a bad thing? Internet people were scawwy! :) I remember being scared to go in a chat room for the first time 9 years ago!

So we'll see what the insurance peeps have to say tomorrow. I'm not holding out much hope that they will say anything tho, it is insurance after all!