Allow me to present a brief bit of backstory before I get into the tale of said disasters. I first broached the subject of a gastric bypass to my wife in the spring of 2009. She had just recovered from major surgery that had put us near our health insurance policy's catastrophic limit for the year, meaning I could get the operation and have it covered at close to 100%. She thought this was a good idea, so I began looking into the matter.
The research and scheduling process took quite a while, partly due to work schedule issues, partly due to my own procrastination, but mostly due to red tape. I had to start over at one point since the doctor I initially chose was a "participating provider" (i.e., one the insurance company would cover in full), but the hospital he worked out of was not. I finally found what I thought was the right combination of doctor and hospital, but it took most of the rest of the year to do so. The surgery was set, with only a couple of weeks to spare before a new insurance year began.
BE WARNED: If you plan on getting a bypass or any other gastric surgery, allow yourself plenty of time. You'll have to go through more screening processes than you ever thought possible, fill out enough paperwork to sink a ship, and deal with so many nurses, office assistants, and other administrative personnel you'd think you were being audited. Do yourself a favor and type out as much of your medical information as you can in advance. That way, you can just put "see attached" on the forms you'll receive.
(To be continued...)
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