It's Real

I haven't gotten a surgery date yet. I called the surgeon's office the other day to ask about the status of my insurance approval. I was told by the surgeon and the front office staff (girls about 19 years old, I think) that the dictation would be complete the next day and mailed to the insurance board right away. Well, I spoke to a nice lady named Cami, who is in charge of the insurance approval process at the office. (What a horrible job THAT must be.) She sighed, and said something like, "I wish they wouldn't say that." She then explained that the dictation was made that day (2 weeks before), but it went to India or China to be transcribed (I can't remember which), and a week later or so it arrives back, has to be verified by the surgeon, and THEN goes to her desk and she can send it to the insurance company. In other words, instead of being nearly DONE with the approval process, it actually hadn't even really started yet! I was a little freaked. But then she added, "It's okay, though, Blue Cross is really quick about approving it, and you don't have to meet any conditions, so it should be very quick." So, after all that, I guess this coming week I should expect a call from their office to schedule surgery.

That is the same approximate time as my OHSU interview, by the way.

Anyway, in the meanwhile, to distract myself from what's not happening yet, I have continued to seek out great blogs from other WLS vets. Right now I am poring through a lovely blog called Attraversiamo, and came across a list (or the reference to a list) of things to bring to the hospital with you. At first (ever the RN) I thought, you don't need to bring ANYTHING, the hospital has all the crap you could need for 1 night. But then I thought of a couple things, wrote them down (in MS One Note, thanks honey) and realized: Whoa, it's real. I'm going to do those things, and actually have surgery, and actually lose weight. And in all likelihood, keep it off.

That's heavy, man.

Here's the list so far:
List of things to take to Good Sam
1. Uno
2. Magazines
3. 1 book
4. iPod
5. Earplugs
6. Robe
7. Picture of hubby

We're gonna make it after all! (with apologies to Mary Tyler Moore)