Newbie with a question

Hi everyone. Sorry if this appears as a duplicate post, I mistakenly put it in the wrong forum the first time so I'm doing it again lol.

I've been lurking for a few weeks now and thought I'd introduce myself. I'm a 46 yr old female from London. I'm also a dialysis patient so I'm not sure how this will work for me, my nutritional needs are very different and my fluid intake is quite restricted.

I have my orientation appointment in Windsor on April 3rd. Can anyone tell me how many more appointments before getting my surgery date, assuming I'm approved? The travel could prove to be a financial hardship so I wanted to try and plan ahead.

I know with Toronto Western after the orientation there is 5 before you see a surgeon to book a date. Then after that you have the pre-op and then the surgery. So in total 8.

However they can do some of the appointments through Tele-health if that is available in Windsor.

Good Luck!

The number of appointments can vary for everyone. You have to be approved by the nurse, social worker, nutritionist, and in the case of Guelph a Dr. of internal medicine, then you need to meet and be approved by the surgeon. Each one of these approvals may take more than one appointment. There are also appointments for meeting the surgeon, pre-op at the hospital, post-op nutrition classes (done pre-op). There is also the cost of Opti which is around $100/week that you have to be on it. Because you have different dietary restrictions you may require more appointments. Speak to them about trying to combine as many appointments as possible in one day to avoid additional travel.

Hello GreyHoundGal,

My mom is a dialysis patient as well, and she has been curious if this type of surgery would be beneficial for her with her fluid intake restrictions. She is hoping to lose at least 100 lbs so she can be put on the transplant list. I look forward to following your journey, so I can advise my mom about your experiences. All the best, and let us know how it goes :)

Hi Candi, please feel free to pass any info along to your mom! If she would like as things progress more we could chat! Tell her to talk to her team about it. My dietitian was telling me she attended a 3 day seminar on gastric bypass last year for dialysis patients so it can be done for us as well!

everyone is a bit different and there are some telehealth options but you have to ask for those. At the very least you will have orientation, meeting with nurse, 2 meetings with doctor, meeting with social worker, meeting with nutritionist , nutrition class and surgery class. Sometimes they can book more than one appointment on one day. In my case, the social worker wanted me to see the psychologist, and so I had that extra appointment, plus I saw the social worker 2 more times and the nutritionist 1 additional time ... ask about the telehealth options.