OMG....I Have a Date!

I went to my intial appointment with Dr. Nicholson today and was very impressed with him.  He was very patient and took time to answer my questions and never made me feel like he was rushing me.   At the end of the appointment, he sent me to this lady who was going to tell me what to do next.  Little did I know that she would ask me if I was ready to schedule surgery.  It caught me off guard, but I went ahead and threw caution to the wind and did it.  May 29th is my date.  At least for the moment.  I'm already off work that week.  It's just a week I scheduled to use some of my 6 weeks of vacation.  I do need to check and make sure it will be okay if I'm off the following week too.  Oh, and I just spent 2 weeks up north in another one of our offices training on a business we are now handling in our office.  Right now, I am the only one in my office who knows how to do it.  Since it is time sensitive, I also have to make sure someone is trained to handled it and will be okay with it in my absence.  But for now, I'm on for May 29th!  After my appointment with Dr. Nicholson, I met with the representative with Bariatric Advantage.  Ugh!  This protein shake and non-pill vitamin thing is going to be TOUGH!  I have to keep reminding myself the taste of that "junk" won't kill me and it is only temporary.  I'm hoping at some point in this process I become acclamated to sugar substitute so that I don't mind it so bad.   

On another note, I have my sinus surgery on Wednesday.  I am SOOOO ready for it.  My family has been saying for a long time I needed to see an ENT and I just kept putting it off.  Now that I finally did and now that I know I need surgery, I've can't wait for it to happen.  I'm tired of sinus headaches, swollen sinus passages, fluid filled ears and most of all, the 5+ sinus infections I get every year between October and March.

Back to Self-Pay I Go

Well, as the title says, I'm back to self-pay.  I am now 200% sure my insurance only covers 50% of approved charges.  I'm not worried about the doctor's, anesthesiologist's, etc. approved charges.  They will be well under the cash pay price.  However, I have been told by the hospital that the approved charges for the sleeve gastrectomy are $20,000 plus.  I just couldn't belive that so I called my doctor's office to see if they could give me any insight.  I didn't tell them about my conversation with the hospital.  The insurance girl at Dr. Nicholson's office who has been there for "forever" told me that she recently had an experience with a gentlman who had the same insurance I did who was given the wrong information about his coverage like I was so many times.  However, he never got to anyone who clarified his benefits.  He only had 50% coverage like me and he ended up with a $20,000 bill at the hospital.  Since I'm getting very similar stories from both the hsoptial and the doctor, I think this information must be correct.  Therefore, my out of pocket would be more than paying the cash price.

Now, that being said, there are some advantages to cash pay.  The major one being I won't have to jump through my insurance companys "hoops" to get approval. 

So, here's to cash pay.

Protein Drinks

Ugh!  The thought of these just makes my stomach curl!  Anyone who knows me knows I am a SUPER PICKY eater/drinker.  I eat/drink NOTHING with any type of artificial sweetner in it.  I can't stand the stuff!  This part of this whole process gives me so much stress.  I've tried those premade Slimfast drinks--DISGUSTING!  I tried some other natural flavored protein powder that this nice lady at Vitamin Shoppe suggested--YUCK!  I've tried Chieke, two different flavors--Gross!  I've tried unflavored Unjury--It wasn't good either, but was the best of what I've tried so far.  I'm waiting on some Jay Robb powder I ordered the other day and the Syntrax Nectar I ordered tonight.  Please, please, please let one of those be better than the Unjury.  Otherwise, I'm stuck just having to hold my nose and get the Unjury down.  If there is a "bright" side to this, someone made a post about adding a drop or two of candy extract to the shake to help with the flavor.  I ordered several flavors of it too tonight.  ANYTHING to make this part of the process better.  I just wanna go to sleep two weeks prior to my surgery and wake up 6 weeks later so that I can begin using food (or at least maybe only 1 protein drink a day plus food) to get my protein in!  Anyone know if they make a pill for that?  He! He! 

~Amy