That's a Lot of Hoops, Part II

After the surgeon's consult, I still had a bunch more hoops to jump through.

First, they wanted a letter from my primary care physician stating that I was healthy enough for surgery. (Also, it lets the surgeon's office know that I have a regular doctor and that I actually see him more than once every ten years. But I digress...)

The surgeon's office has someone responsible for helping run down all this stuff, and she contacted my regular doctor. This is a good thing, because my doc's office had evidently ignored my request when I'd called to ask the same thing the week before. He came through with a letter of approval, though, pending a cardiologist's evaluation.

A what?!? I'd never had a heart problem in my life! Remember, no high blood pressure? No high cholesterol? No heart problems? Yeah, that's me. So it was another CYA hoop that I had to jump through.

Fortunately, the same lady who badgered them for the letter called one of her friends at the cardiologist's office and managed to wangle an appointment for me. The cardiologist had a 2-month waiting list, so I was really beginning to like the woman at the weight loss office.

A couple of weeks later, I got up at the crack of dawn to go see the cardiologist, and he cleared me after an EKG. I had to fax his note to the weight loss surgeon, and then I was all set, right?

Nope. I couldn't even make an appointment for surgery until I paid them. Now, I understood why, but it still irked me. So I transferred money from savings and wrote a very large check to the surgeon's office.

(This is a good time to mention that our health insurance has a specific exclusion for weight loss surgery. I love Marie's company, but they're not very sympathetic about weight problems. But again, I digress...)

So the lady at the surgeon's office called when she got my check, and I finally made my appointment for surgery.

But wait, there's more!

Yes, stay tuned for Part III of this saga.