Newbie with questions about length of time betwen first visit and surgery date

  I posted this in the main forum but am also posting it here. I am in Wilson, NC. I went to a class, that cost $200, about weight loss surgery at Nash Surgical Weight loss. I was told I would get my referral appts, nut, cardiologist, etc in the next month but when I asked how long before surgery would be I was told six months. My insurance does not require a wt loss or exercise program before approval.
I guess I should have asked the PA that did the class but didn't realize it could be done quicker than that until I started reading some people's posts.
I don't understand what will happen after the consults that would take five months before surgery is scheduled. Any one here know?
And I don't know if I would even be ready much sooner, due to work and time off issues but just wondered what took that long.
Thank you for responding. Jackie

Jackie

The average time from beginning to surgery date is usually 6 months. It takes a while to get all of the appointments done. They will not schedule all of them in 1 week either.

My insurance did not require the 6 months supervised weight loss either but it took me 6 months to get all of the appointments done. Also there is a lot of information that you have to submit from your primary care physician. I had to submit at least 5 years of medical records showing that my BMI was over 40 for 5 years. I also had to show a history of trying several diets and how my weight had changed. THey want to see that you have tried to lose weight.

Tamara

It kind of depends, also, on how busy your doc's office is.  Are you going through Southern Surgical?  My wife and I both did and the wait time was a little less than six months.  My wife had her first appointment in September and had her sugery in late November.  Mine was longer, but it was due to my own preference and conflicts at work. 

The biggest issue with us was getting the preop appointments in.  Most of the places where you have these done are very busy.  Especailly the psyc. visit.  If you are having to see the cardiologist and/or pulmonary doc. they are actually in addition to what we had to have, which could explain the six month estimate you were given. 

I know it's easy for me to say, but...be patient.  The preop tests are there for a reason.  You don't want you or your doc. going into this without the best information he/she can get.  You'll be on the losing side in no time!

Best of luck.

Jason

 I just had my surgery in January and I started in September. There was a delay for about 2 weeks  because of a problem I had and also because of the holidays.  I had BCBSNC and that went well. No need for me to have 6 month diet with MD all I had to do was submit weight for the last 5 years.  I also went to Nash. All of my appointments were done quickly.  I saw the pulmonologist in Kinston to spead things up.  I also had to do a stress test.   I think the patient load has really picked up at Nash and so the surgeries may take longer.  In my first class there were only a few of us and now I've seen so many people coming to the information meeting. 

It will take some time but it is worth it.

Good Luck,

Deborah

Thank you for replying. I know I need to be patient and take one thing at a time. I am waiting for my appts for the consults. They should come next week. I just hope I can go on a Tuesday or on a Friday afternoon. That may slow me down some if I have to change the appts, but I work in a doctor's office and I can't just take off anytime. But things will work out the way they are meant to. Good luck with your continued wt loss and recovery. Jackie