Tag: ROSE procedure


Gold Digger

22
September

My great and wonderful appointment today was pretty much a waste of time. I spent all night fasting, only to find out that I needed to pay $75 to the retail-ish (looked more like a store than a medical office) office before I could have a test done to find out if I even needed the surgery. The test is to see if my pouch has been stretched, which I know it hasn’t from the endoscopy done in 2009. The only part of the whole thing that is stretched is the stoma (the part that connects it to my intestines) and I don’t think that a capacity test could figure that out. If I couldn’t afford that, then I could pay $30 to see the nutritionist.

I found that funny because according to Medicare:

Medical nutrition therapy services are also covered for people with diabetes or renal disease when referred by a doctor. These services can be given by a registered dietitian or Medicare-approved nutrition professional and include a nutritional assessment and counseling to help you manage your diabetes or kidney disease.

How often is it covered?
Medicare covers three hours of one-on-one counseling services the first year, and two hours each year after that. If your condition, treatment, or diagnosis changes, you may be able to get more hours of treatment with a doctor’s referral. A doctor must prescribe these services and renew your referral yearly if continuing treatment is needed into another calendar year.

Who is covered?
People who have diabetes or renal disease (people who have kidney disease but aren’t on dialysis or haven’t had a kidney transplant, or for people who have kidney disease [but aren’t on dialysis]) with a doctor’s referral up to three years after a kidney transplant.

I haven’t been fully diagnosed with either, but I have been advised to tread lightly when it comes to my kidneys. I can’t have certain procedures done because I might end up with kidney failure. So, who knows?

Anyway, I can’t afford paying either of the charges, so either I’m not going to get the revision procedure or I’m not going to get it done by the doctor I had do the original surgery. Either way, I’m confused, hungry, and tired.

Comment » | Sickness and Health

Epic Sucking, Extra Beating

3
September

My dad and I went to Walmart last evening (Wednesday) and we shopped for groceries. I had checked the online banking site before we left so I knew how much money I had that I could spend. I also knew that my SSDI check would come in at midnight, though the bank doesn’t always make it available to me right when they get it. I figured that I could pay for around $240 for groceries, but when I got up to the cashier, it was denied. It was denied more times than Jesus. (It got denied around 6 times.) And the CSM from Walmart was not exactly very nice about it. He was acting like I was trying to defraud the store or something. The whole thing was embarrassing, and I really just wish that it hadn’t happened at all…including that I hadn’t gone shopping. I now have to go shopping tomorrow. I really dread that because going to get groceries once a week just about eats up my energy reserves for the week, but going twice (and those 2 times being in consecutive days) is going to just about kill me.

Speaking of killing me, I got a call from my cardiologist’s office. They apologized for not having called sooner. (Of course, when they finally did call, they got the busy signal because of the phone/DSL problems.) The nurse said that other than the fast rhythm my heart rhythm generally looked healthy. She said there were some extra beats in it, but that the cardiologist didn’t really have a suggestion for slowing the rhythm or helping me from nearly dying when I move. So, I don’t know that I’m any better off now than I was before.

I called the bariatric surgeon on Tuesday. I got rescheduled for appointments to see if I can have the revision procedure done. My mom has been trying to convince me that this is a bad thing. She even tried to tell me that she thinks it would kill me and that that would ruin her life. (She does this with a lot of different things…ranging from health-related to recreational things. It’s basically the guilt trip that has been passed down from generation to generation.) I know that she’s afraid that something bad will happen, and the thought has crossed my mind, too. All I know is that I have to do something so that I can get to a weight that wouldn’t make all of my health issues that much worse. If I have the procedure, then it will help get enough weight that maybe I will be able to actually exercise without having my heart shoot up to some intolerable level.

Comment » | General, Sickness and Health

     

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