I'm getting banded!!!

Rhonda A.
on 4/25/07 9:22 am - North Providence, RI

OMG..Dr Giovanni's office called me today. My surgery is scheduled for May 18...I can't believe I am almost there. Oh the anticipation is killing me...LOL I start my shakes on May 4...Yippee!!!

islander
on 4/25/07 10:27 am - Middletown, RI

Wow, that's great! Not much longer to go indeed. Eileen

Caroline2915
on 4/25/07 12:49 pm

wonderful, i've got my first meeting with dr. beth ryder on 5-11. just starting the process. i have united health, ri state worker, anyone else who has been through them who knows what they require? :-s

Kristen *
on 4/26/07 3:08 am - Jamestown, RI

RNY on 04/20/06

fyi: you can call the number on the back of your ins card and ask them what their requirements are. the only way they can know for sure, is by your policy # - because every company sets up their policies different.

hope that helps! kristen*

Laura M.
on 5/3/07 3:15 am - Providence, RI

i'm being banded by dr. ryder on the 14th. she's super nice, i think you'll like her. i don't know about your insurance specifically, but her office is pretty on the ball with letting you know exactly what you need to do. i had my approval in three days, with an HMO. be for-warned, her secretary can be a little snarky...it's easy to get annoyed with her haha. i had my initial consultation in the beginning of january, and it took me until april 30th to have everything in order to set my date for surgery. the longest process is the sleep study....they book you a few months out because they are so busy...and there's NO getting around it. believe me, i tried haha. the best advice i can offer you is to ask everyone about being on cancellation lists. i got in a month earlier than planned with the sleep study because i was VERY polite and kept asking about cancellations. good luck!

Caroline2915
on 5/4/07 5:09 pm

Thanks for the info. i'vealredy had sleep studies and am on a cpap machine so i hope i will not have to go through all that again. what other teswts etc. do you need to have had. i think i must have had just about every test so far in the last two years. hope they will be able to use those. good luck on the banding and i hope all goes well.

Laura M.
on 5/4/07 11:16 pm - Providence, RI

oh man, every test in the book! i actually got to skip one or two because of my age (25) and my lack of health problems. lets see. there's the mandatory psych eval, which will cost you about 300...they only accept it from two different psych offices...one is 600 if your insurance doesn't cover them, the other is 300 and doesn't accept any insurance. then you'll need to meet with the nutritionist...again, if your insurance doesnt cover it it's about 100 bucks. i had to have my thyroid checked, a chest x-ray, an upper GI, an EKG, a pulmonary function test (they take an arterial blood gas test for this which is so not fun) and finally the gastric banding bloodwork. i hope you're able to avoid some of these if you've had them recently. if not, it's really not THAT bad, just annoying.