Last Group Meeting

Tomorrow will be my last group meeting. Hopefully, I will then be scheduled to see the dietician, start my 4 week Optifast diet and weekly nutrition groups. I will also have to have an EDG and IVC filter placed before having the surgery. I think that covers it all :).

Some are lucky with what they have to do, but I'm with Humana Medicare and I've had quite a few things to get done before having the surgery. First, I had to attend an information seminar at Bariatric Solutions. I had already decided that I was going to do the program so after the seminar I signed up and paid the $100 fee. Right away I had to start attending group meetings. They require us to attend 2 meetings a month and there are 5 that are required. Surgery 101, a surgeon led, psychiatry led, dietician led and RN led. They have been pretty easy to get done although this month I've had to be careful because of bad weather. 

Once I completed the 5 required groups I was able to see the psychologist for clearance but because I'm bipolar they had to get my records from my therapist. That took about a week and then I was cleared. Next I had my appointment with my surgeon who is fantastic. She went over a lot, helped me decide on what surgery I want and answered my many questions. Then I saw my pre-surgery coordinator to go over everything that I've done and what still needed to be done. They then filed with Humana and I got approved in 2 days!! I still needed to get cleared by cardiac and vascular though. I needed vascular because I had a PE in April, 2014. They decided that I will have to take Lovenox and get an IVC filter put in. Then I needed to do cardiac because of my age (48). I had to do a nuclear stress test which showed abnormalities and because of that had to have a cardiac cath. It showed no blockages so I'm now cleared to have the surgery! I'm hoping I'll have good news this week.