PreOp Day 9 and 10 (of 14). Saturday 10/17 and Sunday 10/18/2009

Here is another picture of my grandson, Caden. Great kid!



The weekend was..... the weekend. I am oncall this past week and this weekend, and that keeps me pretty close to home and available should the system have issues. I am continuing to enjoy the wonderful soup that my sister-in-law Lisa Jones made to meet my PreOp requirements. Add some hot sauce, and you have quite a meal. Well, quite an improvement over the cream of mushroom and cream of chicken soups I have been having..... Thank goodness for sugar-free gelatin!




Four days to go till surgery.



Sat 1210 calories; 183 carbs, 87 protein.
Sun 1055 calories; 130 carbs, 92 protein.



Part 2 of background material.


After I attended the informational seminar and filled out a questionnaire, I got a call from the staff at Obesity Solutions. One of the first considerations is who will pay for the procedure. Obesity Solutions has a price sheet for the gastric bypass at two different hospitals - at NGMC in Gainesville the facility fee is $15,500; the anesthesia is $1200; the surgeon $8000, and surgical assistant $700, for a total of $25,400. Lapband surgery at NGMC is $14,500. At Northside hospital in Cumming, the bypass surgery goes for $17,186.00. A good bit of the detail is covered at the Obesity Solutions web page, which is here.


I received a very large mailing early that next week (april 2009) that contained all sorts of documents that had to be filled out, signed, completed, notarized - you name it! When I spoke with the staff at OS, the nurse encouraged me to complete this application as quickly as I could, for it could take months to do. I thought that was somewhat comical - months? But in all reality, it took three months for me to get the applications "complete". Not all of that was my time, but waiting for others to get things done, too. It was a timely and laborious process.





The documents that I had to complete included

• a demographic and insurance info sheet (3 pages)
• Medical History (very detailed) 5 pages. I had to document attempted weight loss - as far back as I could remember, but for at least the last 10 years. 10 years! My family physician was a big help with this (more later).
• Insurance Verification (who did I talk to, when?)
• Authorization to share health information
• Type of surgery and hospital preference
• Contact information
• PCP Acknowledgement (to be signed by my family doctor)
• AGreement to pre-surgery criteria
• Agreement to pre-surgery screening
• Alcohol consumption warning - no alcohol of any kind for at least a year
• Agreement to the Plan for Success
• Insurance Verification continued (document in-network and out-of-network costs and deductibles)
• copy of drivers license front and back
• copy of insurance card(s) front and back
• document family history
• frequently asked questions
• sleep study (sleep apnea?)
• psychological test info
• need two letters of understanding, one from me, one from my support person/group
• need for nutritional counselling
• attend support groups

It took about three days for me to fill out my part. I had undergone two sleep studies over the past 10 years, the latest one less than a year ago. I scheduled the psych test and the nutritional class (2 classes), and found out about the support groups. I contacted my family doctor about my medical history and he said he had records on me back to when I first began to see him in 1988. That is a good thing!

I'll post Part 3 in a day or so. the psych test!

have a great week, all. three days till surgery! Amazing.