I called to let my care coordinator know that I had attended a WLS support group and got another surprise. She asked me if I had gotten any of the other preop testing done, and I told her I didn’t have any of the referrals yet. She told me she would check for me and fax anything that was approved so that I could book my appointments. Lo and behold! I got faxes for 3 referrals shortly after hanging up with her: The endoscopy with biopsy, the echocardiogram and the abdominal ultrasound.

Bad news:

I got sick as a dog today with a fever and chills. I felt like I was coming down with something on Sunday and today started the full-fledged symptoms of the flu.

Now for the good news:
I got my loan from 401K plan to get my car fixed. Woohoo! The reason I went to work despite feeling like I had a fever was 1) to pick up my car from the repair shop after work and 2) to attend the WLS support group. I wasn’t going to let a little sickness keep me from achieving two of my goals today.

I called up the insurance company to find out why my surgical consult would not be covered when I was authorized by Blue Cross to have the consult. I spoke to Pat who was very nice and she told me very quickly that it was a mistake since she could see that the visit was authorized. She told me it would be adjusted. Whew! My faith in humanity is restored.

4/16/07
So far I’ve had two disappointments in my process:

Shocker #1
I waited patiently for a little more than a week, then I called about a week ago to find out if there was anything else I needed to be doing and to find out what needed to happen to get referrals for the required upper gi with biopsy and abdominal ultrasound that the surgeon recommended.

3/28/07
I was half an hour late for my dietician’s appointment. Little did I know, it takes 2 1/2 hrs (instead of 2 hrs) to get to L.A. from Glendale during rush hour. Fortunately, the dietician was very, very nice, and let me see her anyways. She went over the pre-op diet, in-hospital diet and post-op diet. I’m expected to get in 80 grams of protein. Wow! That’s a lot of protein. I’m pretty sure I’ll be getting some of that from protein shakes. She said after a while, maybe 6 months, they might be able to cut down on the protein.

3/26/07
I saw my primary care physician for a follow-up, mostly for a check-up on my headaches and blood pressure. My blood pressure was normal as I expected. She didn’t really scold me for not starting a diet and was actually pretty nice. I gained a few more pounds. No surprise there. She offered to refer me to a dietician but I told her I already had an appointment with a dietician in a couple of days.