Azpoohbear

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  First, I need to catch up on what has been happening before this last week.  

Had my first surgical appt with Dr. Monash on July 10th.  My husband and my mom wanted to come to see how things were to go.  That went very well.  We all agreed that the RNY would be the best for me.  Not that anyone besides myself and the Dr. have a say in this.  I then had to go see my PCP to get the letter of medical nec. for the insurance.  I was worried about this part, because my PCP is a little old school.  He had only had patients that had the lapband.  He did not really believe me, when I told him that the rny can be done via lap now.  So I wrote a letter to him, explaining why I wanted the lap rny and that I was aware of all the complications for this surgery (with the list).  I also included all the problems, I had been having (that I felt that he was ignoring....I did not mention that part to him, just listed the probs.) I turned that over to the PCP office on July 11th.  I had an appt with him on the 16th, for a totally diff. reason. He had not looked at my letter he had it in his hand and asked what this was all about. I went over the whole thing with him, again.  He then told me to let the "girls" upfront know what I needed, and they would see to it.  Did that,  was told that they would have the letter by the 22nd.  I called on the 22nd, "Oh, I think it has been dictated, but it is not back yet."  I reiterated that I needed to turn this in asap to the surgeon, "I see that you have an appt on the 25th...It will be ready then".   On the 25th appt, the office could not find the letter.  I waited for about 40 min after my appt for them to get it.  It was in a sealed manilla envelope.  I opened it up, on my way to the surgeon's offce to turn it in...and it was for a LAPBAND!  Ok, do not get me wrong,  lap band is just not for me.  It too is a wonderful tool,  but I need the malabsorption big time.  So, I turned myself around, and took it back to the PCP's office.  They had closed early!!! Ok now, I was a little miffed to say the least. That weekend, I had my sleep study done,  that was interesting to say the least.  It is hard to fall asleep in a foreign place.  Then they woke me up to put the cpap on me and that was a whole new experience. Now it was Monday the 28th, and I took the letter back to the pcp.  I explained very nicely, what was needed to be changed,  along with all the spelling issues.  I had also written this out very simply and clearly.  I told them that I need this by the 4th at 5 pm. I was told it would only take a day or two.  Needless to say it took them till Aug. the 5th, at 10 am. I learned my lesson and read it there in the office before I left.  They all, including the Dr. were watching me read it. 

Now that brings me to this last week... The 5th of August 2008, I had my psych and my nut evals done at my surgeons office.  Back to back, that was nice. I turned in the letter from the pcp.  The evals went very, very well.  The surgeon's office said they would have those forms by the 11th.  They wanted to wait till I got my sleep study results on the 7th, to see if there were any other items that might need to be done before submitting to the insurance.  I went to my first support mtg on the evening of the 5th.  boy was I tired out at the end of that day.  The 7th, I met with a pulmonologist.  He said that I have sleep apnea, no big surprise there. Gave me a script for the cpap machine. ( I can get it discounted at work.) Then he told me he wants pulmonary function tests, and a     
2d-echo done.  He was wanting to make sure everything is alright, because I had apneic episodes on my left side, while sleeping.  Those are scheduled for the 12th.  He also wanted a chest xray, which I did on Friday.  My next appt with the pulmonaologist is the week after this one coming up. Part of me can't believe that this is going so fast and part of me wants it to go faster.  TTFN