What to do first?

I have not yet started the whole process yet and was wondering which route should I take so that I can get a surgery date as quickly as possible. Should I first turn in the application, go see my PCP, or what? And about the letter from the PCP, will I get it the same day or will I have to wait for that too. Do I need a refferal to get the psych eval? What about the sleep study? SOO many questions I know but I appreciate any and all responses. If it helps, my surgeon is Dr. Gandsas at Sinai and I have Lifebridge BCBS insurance. I'm actually an employee at Sinai, where my surgery will be performed. I'm a little anxious about the whole thing. (Can u tell?)

First I would say get a referral from your PCP to the surgeon, the surgeon was the one that set up all of my testing and gave me my insurance requirements. I can tell you that BCBS requires a 6 month supervised diet. I have found with BCBS nothing is quick, good luck to you.

I agree with the other poster. Go see your PCP and garner his/her support. I'm not sure if you're in a plan where a referral is required or not. I suspect from your original post that you are. I have a BCBS PPO and I did not need a referral. I went and had a complete physical and had the results sent to the surgeon's office. The surgeon then sent an information package to me listing what was needed for his office. You may want to contact the surgeon's office first to see if they have an information package. They can get that out to you and you can be working on it. I initially made my appointment (in April 05) to see the surgeon at the end of May 05. I had my physical with my PCP in May 05 and wound up having to have a stress test and 2 sleep studies. I pushed everything once I made up my mind to have this surgery, NOTHING was going to keep me from having this surgery. I got the information packet from my surgeon and saw both the nutritionist and had my psych consult prior to seeing the surgeon for the first time. My surgery date was initially scheduled for 7/7/05 but I had to reschedule due to the 2nd sleep study and resultant need for a CPAP machine (I had to be on the CPAP machine for a minimum of 3 weeks prior to surgery). I had my surgery on 7/28/05. I think that's pretty good, initial consultation with surgeon on 5/30/05 and surgery on 7/28/05. Good luck to you as you being your WLS journey Take Care, Terry

You might want to call Dr. Gandsas' office and let them know you work at Sinai and what the steps are. There are a lot of Sinai employees who have had surgery with either Dr. Li or Dr. Gandsas...they might be a resource to you too. Best wishes, Lisa