APPROVED!!!!!
Congratulations! That is great news. By the name of your surgeon, I assume you will be at UT Knoxville. They are starting a really good program there and I hear Dr Mancini is great. A real dear friend of mine is a surgical nurse at UT and she plans on having the surgery in the spring! I would like to invite you to my house on October 11 for a low country boil at 1 pm. I live in Sevierville. Several folks are coming from Knoxville, and Nashville so we will have a nice group and hopefully it will be the beginning of an east TN support group. Again, congrats!
Marilyn
Marilyn
Smoky Mountain Obesity and WLS Support Group
1/17 6:30 LeConte Medical Center
Sorry for all the questions, but I am pretty serious about having the surgery - but I want to really like/trust where I go. Thanks!!!
Thank You, nocomo! Dr. Mancini is with the Tennessee Weight Loss and Surgery Center at The University of Tennessee in Knoxville. I absolutely love their office. They are so friendly there and they really act like they know their stuff. I looked around, like you did, and I also wasn't impressed. I didn't even know that there was a program at UT until the first of this year! My gastrologist was actually the one to tell me about him because he knew that I was looking for a surgeon, but hadn't found one that I liked yet. I didn't know that he was located at UT, but I was so glad to find out that he was because I would prefer to have the surgery done at UT because that is where I have had alot of my surgeries and the nursing staff are awesome. When I was 12, I had to have a tumor removed from my stomach, and when they went in to get it out, they found cancer. When both of the doctors came out to tell my family, they cried and prayed with them. During that whole stay, I was treated with kindness, and any other procedure that I have had there it has been the same. They also have the lowest program fee for the class that you have to take. It is $570.00. I am scheduled to take my class on the 30th of October. I did have to do a 6-month program where I was on a diet, and I lost some weight, but I was like 10 pounds short of my goal. I thought that I had to lose 10% of my weight, which is what the insurance said, but when I asked the doctor, they said that if I had gone to the doctor for 6 straight months and had been weighted and it had been documented, that they could use that and send it into insurance. Ask all of the questions you want. This is a big step and I completely understand. I have been considering this surgery since I was15. I tried to get it approved when I was16, but the insurance wouldn't approve it because I was under 18. Actually, I am kind of glad that it wasn't approved at that time because I don't think at that point in my life, because I was younger, I could have done all of the stuff that this surgery requires. I turned 18 this past February and I have completely quit pop, I don't eat sweets anymore, and I actually look at the nutrition label on food. Getting prepared for this surgery has changed me so much. Lord, it doesn't bother me a bit for you to ask questions because I was full of them too, and I am glad to help in any way. I am sure that if I can answer your question, one of these wonderful people on this board can. I am sorry that this post is so long. For the first time though, I get to answer the questions and not ask the question. Thank you & God bless - Ashley
