have questions about the surgery

Well, there are two approval processes that I went through.  Last year I started in January, went through approvals, and was told they could fit me in sometime in March.  My insurance denied my request because they didn't cover elective surgeries, which I did not know at the time.  Fast forward a year later, different insurance, I started at the end of January and had surgery in August.  I was ready at the end of May, but they were booked up until August.  Word of advice, if you choose to use Dr. Ryan for Pulmonary (Pulmonary and Sleep Physicians of South Jersey) be a pain in the ass about appointments.  They dicked around with me for clearance and it took her 2 months to clear me, including 2 sleep studies and 4 office visits.  When I made my initial appointment I had to wait nearly two months to be seen.  I made the appointment mid February and wasn't seen until April.  I was hoping to have surgery in May/June because I would need to go back to taking care of my nieces at the end of August.  Obviously that didn't happen, my surgery wasn't until August 20 and my brother had to hire someone else.  Anyway, my point is, be your own advocate.  Good luck!

 Dr G didn't say anything about a pulmonary visit, just the Cardio and Endo & phsyc. Did you make your doctors appts at the start when you went to the neutritionist?, or did you wait a month just worried that the insurnace will come back if I make them now and get them done that they are out of date and need to be done again. 

Also, I went with the cardiologist from Penn (listed on the clearnace sheet) and that was the easiest, non stressful, appointment I had during the whole process.

 Hi Anne I misread the page and yes I Have to go see the type of dr you spoke about I am going to call tomorrow to see if they can get me in, in Nov. spoke to Tina and she said to have the test closer to the end of my 3 months so I figure if I call now they should be able to get me in sometime in Nov. But I don't think I will be calling the doctor you spoke about lol. Have a great night. Michele

I went to my first nutrionist appt. at the end of January (needed three months of nut. counseling).  I called about two weeks later to schedule all of the other appointments, but had to wait two months to see the pulm doc.  Cardio was easy and so was psych eval.

 I need the 3 months also, have my first appt Wed going to call the other 3 tomorrow to schedule the cardo and pul for November and see if I can get the psyc for Oct I think that should be ok. Talked to Tina at the meeting tonight and she said it shouldn't be a problem with the insurance since she knows what they want I now just want Dec here :)Thank you for all your help 

I say this as someone who's BMI was 55.  I did not like being classified as Super Morbidly Obese, yet the cold are facts are that I was SMO.  With the lap-band, I could expect to lose 50% of my excessive weight.  Then I would have been just Morbidly Obese.  Additionally, I live 75 miles from my surgeon.  Frankly, I can't imagine how many trips I would have had for fills/unfills until the magic place of ideal restriction was reached. 

I wish I could say my recovery was sunshine and rainbows.  I had no real complications, just weeks of vomiting and generalized malaise.  I'm quickly approaching four years of living with the DS and can't imagine having any other surgery given my high BMI.  I don't even think the makers of the lap bands recommend them for the SMO.  If they do, they're full of excrement.

It's possible I would have had the same results with the RNY.  However, when I compared the DS to the RNY, the DS was much more suited for me.  There were several things, but the biggest was the use of NSAIDs  with the possibility of an ulcer that in an area that could not be scoped.

Would I get a DS every year if needed?  I'm not sure. If I could be guaranteed a better recovery than the first one, I might.  But why deal in the hypothetical when one DS has been enough to make me a much healthier person than I was 4 years ago?

 You've definitely come to the right place, and bravo to the doc for getting you away from the band.  If you've not discovered it yet, check out dsfacts.com for more information, and questions answered that you haven't thought of yet.