How long does it take?

The waiting has begun. I am waiting to hear back from Dr. Hess's office with the list of my testing appointments. I am wondering how long it will take until I recieve these dates. See I have an idea. I am wondering if I call each appointment daily to see if there are any openings than maybe I will be able to save some time. I have finally decided 100% that I am doing the rite thing and I am very anxious to get things going. Kelly

Congratulations on your decision to have the surgery. My Dr's wait was one year. I know that it seems like a long time, but it shows commitment to the program and that this is a life long change of lifestyle. Every doctor is different and has different expectations. Some require compulsive eating classes, a loss of %5 or %10, and/or other hoops to jump through. Some require nothing I hear. My best freind who works as a Dr.'s receptionist says that this would only irritate her no end if someone made a call every day. The last thing you want to do is irritate the person who makes the appts. Good luck at whatever you do decide to do though. Lisa

Thanks for the advice Lisa. I defenitly dont want to annoy anyone. I am going to have to be patient.

Hi Kelly! I am also a patient of Dr. Hess and I live in Quincy as well. I think it took about 2 months before I got the initial listing of the first round of appointments, but once you get that they are all scheduled pretty close together. DO NOT get discouraged - it will happen. And everyone at all of the testing places is awesome - especially Frank at the respiratory/breathing test at Quincy Medical - he is a riot! My boss is also having the surgery and she has her surgery date already for Feb 6th. We go to the support group meetings every two weeks in Boston as well. Make sure you holler with any questions you may have!

Hi Kelly, I am also a patient of Dr. Hess. I had my first consult with him on April 25th 2003 and got my appointments for all the pre op testing in July. I didn't have my first appt until august 12th. I finished all my testing on October 3rd. And on November 4th I recieved my surgery date of March 12, 2004. So it took me almost 1 year from first consult to a surgery date. Hang in there, once you get your appointments time will start to go by fast. Good Luck! Kelley