I have been asked if I will share what the process of getting
approved for surgery by the doctor and insurance has been, so I will. Please
know that this varies for each individual. If you choose to go to the Cleveland
Clinic, it will be somewhat similar to get the doctor’s approval but your
insurance company may have different requirements. My experience will at least
give you some idea of what to expect. I’m going to post it in chunks because it’s
a bit lengthy otherwise.
The process begins by attending a free Weight Loss Surgery
Informational Seminar. You can do this in-person or on-line. I did the on-line
version at the end of April, 2012. The online seminar was a series of videos,
approximately 45 minutes long, followed by questions to make sure you really
watched the videos. After that, I completed an On-Line Health Questionnaire.
Once those two things were submitted, I was told it would take a couple of
weeks for a nurse to review my questionnaire to see if I potentially qualified
for weight loss surgery. So I waited…and waited…and nothing came. After almost
a month, I called to check the status of my file. I was told it was on the
nurse’s desk and I should have something within a few days. I didn’t. I waited
another week or so and called again. Again I was told it was on the nurse’s
desk and I would have something in a few days. At this point, I decided I
wasn’t going to call again. If I got something in the mail, I would move
forward with it. If not, I would take that as a sign and let it go.
In the meantime, I went to lunch with a friend whom I had not seen
much of in about a year. He was excited to share some new things in his life,
one of which was that he was going to have, as he put it, the “fat surgery.”
OMG. “So am I.” Unbeknownst to each other, we had started the process at the
same time. We were both waiting to hear back from our initial request.
Finally, in June, I received a packet of information from the
Cleveland Clinic Bariatric and Metabolic Institute, including a list of
appointments. There are several color-coded “pathways” to weight loss surgery.
Mine was green. Since I had no significant medical issues, I had the least amount
of special appointments and tests that needed to be done. My friend was a
smoker, so he had a few things to do that I did not.We both received our info packets within days of each other and our appointments were set up along the same timeline. We even had the same surgeon!
My first day of appointments was on July 12. I had blood drawn, a
chest x-ray, ultrasound of my gallbladder, and an ECG. All of this is necessary
to check for general healthiness. Then I met with my surgeon, Dr. Brethauer,
and his team. Dr. Brethauer is very friendly and is just a few years older than
me. He talked about each of the surgical options and we decided the gastric
sleeve was the optimal choice for me. I’ll write about that decision another
time.
I left the Clinic that day feeling overwhelmed. I had just been
poked and prodded for hours and had discussed cutting off most of my stomach
with a stranger. At this point, very few people knew about my decision to
investigate the surgery. I felt very alone and didn’t have anyone to talk to
about it, but that was my choice. My advice to anyone considering the surgery
would be: tell someone you trust from the very beginning. Take that person with
you to your appointments. It’s helpful to share the emotional and informational
load. As a single person, I tend to do too much on my own. It has always been
difficult for me to ask for help. In hindsight, I would have shared this sooner
and included more people along the way for my own emotional well-being. Honestly,
with even those that knew, I didn’t “share.” I would simply say, “I have an
appointment on Tuesday” and that was it. I didn’t talk about the excitement and
stress and fear and everything else. I kept that inside and I shouldn’t have
done that. Lesson learned.
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