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I spoke with Dr. Savoie's office last week and they have about 400 referrals right now. I have to call at the end of September to see where I am within those referrals.

And how long have you been on a waiting list already?

Can't be long as Dr Savoie just started doing surgeries in spring of this year.,

I am waiting for my first consult.

My referral went over at the end of April.

Holy Moses jjbuster, that was really really fast.  Once you have your first consult, don't you usually get surgery within a year?  WOW.

Colleen, the waiting is really hard but you didn't become obese overnight. You must have been this way for a number of years. Unless you have the money to self pay, it is a waiting game. It is a fustrating game but the years go by reguardless if you are waiting, not waiting, considering wls or just happy to stay overweight. But it is a long fustratung waiting peroid.

If you read back throught this board you will find most of us with Dr. B. waited anywhere from 5 to 7 years. When I called Dr. B.'s office in 2004, I was told it would be a 10 year wait. He changed his policy in 2007 and began to see more N.B. patients first so I got in faster. If he had not, I would still be waiting. Also back then you had to see an endocrinologist to get the referral to Dr. B.  When I first saw my endocrinologist, he sent a request  into medicare to pay for the surgery and they denied it. I  became diabetic and then tI had a heart attack.  He sent in an appeal to medicare and was finally accepted.

A lot has changed since. You no longer need to get a referral from an endocrinologist and your wls doctor sends in the request to medicare.

Oh yes I've been struggling for my whole adult life...been thinking about WLS for years. In fact I first joined this site two years ago, but never really made up my mind to do it until now...wish I had made up my mind a lot earlier.

Yeah, I hear you. I started thinking that I wanted wls back in 1999 but did not ask my doctor for a referral until 2003.  I iust wish I had gotten the process underway sooner.

It may not have helped though because medicare did not approve me until I after I had become diabetic.Then I had a heart attack before I got into Dr.B