Cussin' included - not for those with sensitive ears and eyes

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!

Just got a call from the surgeon's office letting me know that my request for surgery has been denied because they say it's not covered by medical plan. What. the. FUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKK.

right now I hate this FUCKING insurance company more than anything in life.

I called and demanded an explanation and the woman is supposed to call back with a time for an appointment for me with one of the medical directors. Who knows if this will make any difference. I'm going to get a copy of our health plan from work today to see if I can figure out what the deal is.

They won't cover my fucking lapband procedure, but when i don't get this under control they'll be willing to provide high blood pressure meds, surgery for heart disease and diabetes? FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

I have worked my fucking ass off for the past 3 months and now this?!?!?

Let's just say this is NOT a good day. Not fucking at all.

I need your advice please

Here's the deal. Surgery is scheduled for September 22, but I still don't know if insurance company is going to cough up. I'm HOPING my case was submitted by the surgeon's office this past Friday when they finally got the nutritionist's report.... tomorrow I'll call to confirm.

I'm a bit make that very annoyed that the submission to the insurance company is so late. I feel like I've done my part and jumped through all the hoops, the least I should expect is that all my docs should have done their part. And I'm annoyed that the surgeon's office wasn't on the phone badgering the hell out of them all especially when I called a week ahead of my surgeon's appt to advise that due to work travel I had a very small window of opportunity to have this surgery otherwise we'd probably be looking at scheduling it for next year!?!?!

Anywaze..... now that I've gotten that off my chest..... here's my dilemma that I'm hoping you can all weigh in on (pun intended).

If surgery is indeed going ahead on September 22, I need to start my mandatory 2 week liquids-only diet on Wednesday coming. I told my nutritionist on Thursday that there was no way in HELL I was putting myself through that ordeal if I didn't have confirmation from the insurance company first.

She said she thought i could and should do it and felt that regardless of the insurance company and surgery, I'd be thrilled with the results..... I think I was just seething about the fact that because they all slacked off, I was in this predicament in the first place and said hell no! Especially since I'll be travelling for work from the 14-18th while doing the liquid diet.

A couple days later, i'm wondering if I should just bite the bullet and go ahead with it just in case regardless of whether we have the go ahead from the insurance company before Wednesday. If they come back and decline me, I can always stop the stupid liquid diet before I go away the following Tuesday.

Those of you who've done liquids only (and unless I'm mistaken, my doc means this will be 2 weeks of clear liquids (essentially a fast).... what would you do if you were in my position??????

an award and other things

1. Post who gave you this award

Thank you Christine from Phoenix Revolution

2. State 10 things you like:

1. Sushi
2. Puppy breath
3. Power naps
4. My Kindle
5. Early evening power walks and catch up chats with a friend
6. Days on the beach
7. Traveling the world
8. Christmas
9. Playing with my super duper juicer and vitamix blender
10. Closet shopping

3. Give this award to 10 other bloggers and notify them with a comment

1. Fluffy who's been banded for 5+ years
2. Pie who's doing AWESOME
3. Grace who's so strong in spite of the challenges she's been facing of late
4. Catherine whose blog was the first I read from start to finish and inspired me to take this step. Oh yeah. and she has a fabulous bungi (she should know what this means!)
5. Cindy who should continue to post regularly even if she doesn't think she's got something to say. There are some of us out here hanging on every word!
6. Miss Vickie who welcomed me so early on and shared my blog with her friends
7. Liz - Lizzle - Libby Lou who always manages to make me smile
8. Jennifer who has kept a smile on her face and persevered despite having a helluva time with her band. Oh and she cut her hair for locks of love. Awesome!
9. Carmen who seems like a cool chick I'd love to hang with sometime
10. Roo whose adventures in the middle east always seem so exotic and exciting!

Last night I went for sushi with a couple of girlfriends. It was a last supper of sorts. I love sushi and am a bit concerned that my band won't let me indulge..... it was lovely and we had a great time. i explained all about how the band works and what my eating habits will be once i'm banded. I even (GASP) told them how much i weigh, weighed at the start of the process in response to the 'you don't want to lose 100lbs though...) query. both were shocked, saying they'd never have imagined i weigh that much. "you hide it well' said one of them.
I wore a pair of lane bryant right fit jeans that I mentioned in my blog here on August 13. They fit, but were creating serious muffin top. 3 weeks later they are getting quite baggy. wow. i haven't really lost much weight in that time period, but glad i'm documenting these little things here so i can track my success in other ways!

An NSV to finish up the month

Since I started working out at the wellness centre I've been mortified that i've been physically unable to grab my foot from behind to stretch my quads. I hate hate hate that i always have to have my trainer 'give me a leg up' so to speak. I've been determined to do it myself.
and today i did it! well only with my left leg. but i did it. felt kinda pathetic to be so excited about it, but as terrell (trainer) said, it shows progress.
spent much of my torture training session today with terrell (who's a physiotherapist) doing deep tissue massage on my left knee. when he had me doing lunges i was getting a sharp pain in the muscle running along the upper inside. ouch. he worked it out. we figure the pain was from saturday morning's insanely rough boatride to the exuma cays for the start of the kayak for cancer event. it was BAM! BAM! BAM! for an hour and a half. ouch!!! the next day i was so sore i wondered if i'd actually done the kayaking!
btw - i'm super proud of my dad. he and his partner finished the 32 mile course in about 9.5 hours. to call it grueling is not doing what they accomplished justice. best part is my dad alone has raised more than $8,500  in sponsorships for the local cancer society. so proud!
ok ladies. send lotsa positive vibes that i get the right answer from the insurance company... should hear from them by monday.

I'm getting healthier!

After my torture training session this afternoon, I asked my nutritionist (she owns the wellness centre where I work out) if she would do my body composition again.

I have lost about 30 or so pounds, but I was curious to know if my body fat percentage had changed much. When I started mid-June, I was over 42 BMI. Today I was 37. something. That takes me out of the morbidly obese category.

When I started, my body fat percentage was 45.7%. Today I am 41.6%. Doesn't seem like a HUGE change when we're aiming for somewhere between 25 and 30%, but according to Dr Patty, that's MAJOR progress that she doesn't usually see in such a short period of time. As she explained, fat is the hardest thing to actually lose.

I walked out of there on cloud nine!!!

Ok... I've packed my stuff up, have my bathing suit and stuff at the ready for my 3am wake up call. Tomorrow is the kayak fundraiser. My dad is one of a number of people kayaking from Ship Channel Cay in the Exumas to Nassau. I am going on a support boat and dock call is 3:30am. good lord what have i gotten myself into????? We are likely to be on the water for about 10-12 hours. Those of you who pray, please do. Those of you who don't, send positive vibes :)

Set for Sept 22

To get my band! Well, that's the date the surgeon and I have set. Please, please, please everyone send positive vibes that the insurance company comes through and approves my surgery.
Just found out at my appt that my insurance company just denied another woman, saying she needed to do a year long programme. W.T.F.!?!?!?! If someone is diagnosed with heart disease do they say go off for a year and treat yourself and then we'll approve your quadruple by-pass?
Anyway, I work in news and so we're hoping that, and the fact that the ins company recommended this other woman work with my nutritionist, not realising she's part of the lapband programme, will work in my favour.
So fingers crossed.
I do have my hospital form - diagnosis is morbid obesity. Oh dear lord how I HATE that term!
Anyway, assuming all goes well, I will be checking into the hospital at 9am on the 22nd and surgery is scheduled for 10am. Great thing is my surgeon says I don't have to stay overnight in the hospital unless there are any complications. My mom will take much better care of me than the hospital nurses will :)

oh... and we didn't set a date, but my surgeon recommends I go out and have a meal with the patient advocate to really get an idea of what eating will be like post-op..... chew, chew, chew... the length of time it takes to get through a meal... the tiny portions. I think it's probably a good idea, besides, I like her.

oh.... and I did ask the patient advocate if they shave your lady bits for this surgery and she said yes, that i can go ahead and do it myself if i want. i made her laugh when i told her i was going to get waxed because i don't intend to be dealing with crotch itch along with all the other post op pains!

oh.... and turns out my doc is a stickler for the 2-weeks nothing but liquids before surgery rule. so guess who's going to have a sucky trip to atlanta! I'm going the 14-18th... just before surgery! Ah well. I also asked what his post op food protocol is and it's 1 week clear liquids, 1 week full liquids, 1 week pureed foods, 1 week soft foods and then on to regular food. so that's 6 weeks of no chewing for this chica. just gotta keep my eye (and mind) on the prize.

I have a date...

with my surgeon. this afternoon. to hopefully set my surgery date!
So hopefully later today I will be posting the date I'm set to get my lapband. Feels like I've been waiting on this forever, even though i only started the journey in mid-June.
Of course I realise that Dr D and I can set all the dates we want, but if the insurance company wants to act the ass, ain't nothin happenin. I still don't understand why my doc waits until after we've had this appointment to start submitting everything to insurance. wouldn't it be better if i walked in today and was told 'great news, they've approved it, now let's look a a calendar'????? ah well.

Thanks Catherine and Christine for responding to my last post about giving clothes away. At least I know that I'm either a) not crazy, or b) not alone in my craziness! I think once I've had the surgery I'll feel more comfortable getting rid of too big clothes.... that and another 2 sizes down :)

My work trip to Atlanta has been set for September 14-18. I've told my boss I'll let him know if I can go on the October 17 trip once I get my surgery date squared away. Ideally I'll be having surgery the week of the 20th September so I have almost a month before needing to travel again. Also would like to have it then because one of my bff's who happens to be one of my biggest supporters in this whole journey is having some eyelid surgery on the 21st and will be down and out for 2 and a half weeks too. I'd have someone to play with while I'm recuperating.

Saturday is going to be interesting.... up at 3:30am to get on a boat and go to the northen tip of the Exuma Cays to spend about 10 hours in a very slow moving boat. My dad and a friend of mine are participating in a 32-mile kayak event from exuma to Nassau to raise money for the Cancer Society. My mom, a friend of mine and I are going along in my dad's boat (captained by another good friend) as one of the support fleet. Pray the weather's not rough! Whenever we get back (they figure they will be paddling for about 10 hours and it's a 1 1/2 hour boat ride down there) there's a beach party to raise even more money. All for a good cause.

So tonight I'm joining my parents and my dad's kayak partner, his wife and kids for their big carb loading dinner at a nice local italian restaurant. I, of course, won't be doing pasta, but will find something else to eat.

Ok. enough rambling. Will post surgery date and official doc's scale weight later today. this morning my scale was 226.4 - down 36.1 in 10 1/2 weeks with no band yet :) Not too shabby