Can anyone tell me how much longer? . . . . .

So October 15th is my day for my appointments with all the specialists.  And I just got a letter saying that my consultation appointment with Dr. Chris Andrew will be November 22.  Does anyone want to give me a guesstimate of how far away from surgery I might be?

Yay bonnie, i would think that you would be going pretty quick.maybe by end of January.just make sure you tell andrews that u can be ready anytime that might speed it up for you.we will have to do coffee again soon

sondra

Is that your first appointment with the team or the second one?

October 15th will be my first round of appointments with the team. So far I've only been to the orientation back in June.  I have started keeping my food diary to bring to the October 15th meeting as I understand that is something they want to see.

Not sure how that will work then. I had my first set of appointments in June, second in August and consult with the surgeon on October 25th. You usually see the team 2 months after your first appointment and then you get your referral to the surgeon. I didn't have to return to work on any goals as I met them all in the timeframes given..I was supposed to see the surgeon last Friday but it was postponed as the Dr took holidays.

When I asked when I might have surgery I was told Nov/Dec.

Karen

I had my first set of 4 appointments  September 26th. I go back in November for my second set of appointments and my letter arrived last week for my consultation with the surgen  on November 29th. They told me in the first set of appointments that I am doing very well so far and have lost 26 pounds. I have to complete the cravings change course before any surgery dates are set. So I am assuming you as well will have to do that too. Not sure if we all have to do the same things. I have read on here that some have been waiting a few years and others skip along getting surgery much quicker.  

My understanding is we all jump through the same hoops to get to surgery. The reason I am saying that is I waited over 3 years for my orientation (due to criteria being tight and then expanded) and was already doing all the goals they asked for and had lost 45 pounds. I have not moved any faster than my cousin who had her orientation the same day as I did.

You do seem to be getting your consults earlier than I did. I waited 2 months after my second set of appointments to see the surgeon and it was then moved to late October so I have another 3 weeks to go.

Can I get more information on the "cravings change" course or any other requirements there may be?  I figure if I can get a bit of a jump on anything it might help speed the process up at this point.

So if I am understanding correctly, it sounds like these appointments can . ..

a) be a little erratic, as it appears most people have two sets of appointments at least with the team before meeting with the surgeon, but for whatever reason I have my surgeon appointment before my second set of team appointments?

b) be sped up a bit by a patient's compliance with their guidelines (hence my desire to find out what will be expected of me ahead of time)

Does that sound about right?

Craving change can be taken through your local rha. Depending on where you live depends on where you take it. In Winnipeg you can take it through the program once you met with the team once. 

The way the program was doing appointments changes every so often depending on what the team thinks it is working best and also depending on the schedules of team members. It was orientation then 2-3 months later 1st team meeting aka goal setting, then 2-3 months later 2nd team meeting progress on goal meeting then you either go in 2 directions a)meeting with surgeon or b)another 2-3 months of goal progress.

Now it seems that last week a large group of people got letters with their meeting with the surgeon so make be things have changed. I have my 2nd meeting with the team next week so maybe they will enlighten me as to the process of the appointments now. 

That's weird how a bunch of us got a surgeon consultation before our second  set of meetings. Maybe there are getting the meetings done because someone else might be going on holidays? Got to be a reason right?