That's a Lot of Hoops, Part III

Okay, so I had my surgery scheduled, and I figured that would be the end of it except for the waiting part.

Unfortunately, I am very naive.

Before surgery, I had to attend a 4-hour pre-op diet class. So, once again, I got up at the crack of dawn and drove to Knoxville. I was running my usual 15 minutes late when I got stuck in morning traffic behind an accident at my exit. Joy.

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.

That's a Lot of Hoops, Part I

Okay, so now you know why I had surgery, but getting here was a lot more work than you'd think.

Back in January or February I started thinking about it seriously. I talked to Marie and we decided to look into it. I'd already mentioned it to my primary care doctor, and he said I was a textbook candidate for surgery. So... where to begin?

I called the surgeon's office and tried to schedule a consultation. But it turns out, you can't even schedule a consult until you attend their once-monthy informational seminar. Okay, when can I do that? The next evening, as it turned out, so Marie and I braved the pouring rain to go to the meeting. That was back in early March.