1 Year Waiting...

for my first consult. I know that many of you have waited longer but I can't help but feel frustrated. Hopefully it won't be long now at least to get my foot in the door.

I hear you. My referral was just sent to Dr. Beausoleil last week so I knnow I still have many, many, many months to go. I am trying to tell myself that it is a great time to start adapting some of the habits that will help me to succeed with my surgery. Here's hoping anyway.

I was about 14months - from the time my consult was sent - until my first appointment. DO call them. Sometimes it DOES make a difference!

It may not be fair, but out of province and self pay don't wait as long. NB'ers can't self pay in the province.

I just got off the phone with Dr. Savoie's clinic.  I'm getting impatient and decided that I can call once in a while...LOL.

Anyways, the wonderful lady said that they are almost done November and should be starting December shortly.  What does it mean, I've no idea....she said that he only has one clinic day a week.  So I imagine he only sees new patients on that day.  I don't know if he does fills in his office or not.

She's got my referral stamped as December 5th and she said my wait is almost over.  I am done holding my breath...whenever it happens it will.

I'll keep you posted. 

When I called 2 months ago they were working on November 2008.

As far as out of country/province,I wish I could afford it but unless I win the lottery....

Stay positive...that's one year closer to your first consult. When I made the comment about out of province etc. I was talking to Mary in Nfld.  Which Dr are you waiting for?

I wasn't self pay. My Newfoundland Health insurance paid for the actual surgery and hospital stay. The travel, accomodation, and other related costs over the years was funded by me. I qualified for approx 240$ per year towards any travel costs from my own health insurance plan. Not much - but it's something. Only because bariatric surgery is not done here - and it is an "approved surgery" as far as our MCP (our insurance) is concerned. I did have  to submit documents etc to them to prove it was medically necessary for me to have the surgery though. Strangely - they will not pay for the lap band to be done out of province. Or at least up until a few years ago they didn't. It wasn't something I was looking for anyway - too much travel etc for fills and stuff. No one here in NL does fills. I kinda feel bad if I got my surgery done quicker because I was out of province. If that is the case - I think it's unfair. I think surgery should be prioritized based on MANY different variables - and by that I mean people with serious life threatening problems which are due to obesity - who just can't survive a longish wait - who are medically cleared to have surgery - should have a shot at getting it done sooner rather than later. But - those determinations are made by Dr. B. - and him alone. And - unfortunately, how long each person waits is always too long - at least from our point of view. I didn't know until after my surgery - but a lady I know in my area - who had a similar BMI, similar co-morbidities to mine etc etc - sent her consult to Dr. B. around the same time I did. Her surgery was done a year before mine. Why the difference? I have no idea. But - I ALWAYS feel - everything happens the way it does for a reason. Maybe because of what I do for a living, I always make sense of things this way.

My "opinion" why the out of province and self pays get in faster because they don't cost the NB government money and is outside the number of surgeries  they allow.  I believe they do control the number of necessary but elective surgeries a surgeon can perform.

My referral is with Dr.Savoie.