This is my first post

Hi Everyone, I'm in the process of getting financing for my surgery.  Just got confirmation and just need to finish up the paperwork then I move on to the next step.  Consultation with Dr. Srikanth.  I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. Can anyone tell me how to put a ticker on my posts?  I've figured out how to create one but I don't know where to put it once I do.    Any help would be appreciated. Thanks for your help,

Never mind on the ticker question.  I just figured it out. Chris

Since you are close, will mention that we hve supp;ort groups here Sept 11 &12. I'm not far from Costco.

We have a support group meeting/ BBQ/ Pool party on the 11th. Call me for details! 253 939 8865 Merrilou

Congrats and welcome! Dr. Srikanth is my surgeon as well. I think he's great! Which surgery are you going to be having, or are you deciding at your consult?

I'm going to have the Lap Band.  Still waiting on the Finance Company...Seems like they take forever.  Do you know how far out Dr Srikanth schedules surgeries once the consultation is done?

Awesome! We can be lap band buddies!

I'd say it's about a month-ish to get a surgery date once all your stuff is scheduled- Here's kind of the breakdown for me:
July 17: Dr's office wrote in for approval
July 23: Consult
August 8: Got approval from insurance
August 13: Nutrition Class and all of the tests
August 15: Psych
September 7: Final pre-op apt. and Surgical pre-op w/ hospital
September 18 surgery

The biggest delay I think was just getting scheduled for the consult and pre-op since they are so busy. I think it was 3 weeks to get my consult.

Since you have your consult scheduled and are self-pay, things should move along fast. You will still need to get all your labs and tests done, and psych consult, but they will schedule all of those for you if you want them to. For me, all of the doctors and the hospital for the tests were in my insurance network, so that is what I did. I definitely recommend going that route if possible. They all know exactly what you need and why, so you don't have to do a bunch of explaining to doctors unfamiliar with the procedure. You also have to take the nutrition class before surgery, and those are every other Monday I think..

The only other advice I can give you is to just be persistent and don't be afraid to call the dr's office to move things along. I was pretty proactive about calling them and scheduling my appointments, rather than waiting for them to call me. They are great, just super busy.

Also I'm not sure if you have been to a seminar or not, they will want you to have done that before you get a consultation appt. They have one online you can watch, if you are in a ru**** gives you a preview of Dr. Srikanth, and basically the whole thing you would have seen in person. I did this because I had already been to the seminar by Dr. Oh and didn't want to go to another one.

I'm probably too late to wish you good luck on your surgery because you've probably already left for the hospital but my thoughts and prayers will be with you today.  I hope all goes well and we hear from you soon.  Chris

Welcome, Chris! Don't forget to check out the lap band forum here, too, if you haven't already.  Here's a link: http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/lapband/a,messageboard/boa rd_id,5359/ There's a great group of people there, too! Lori

Hi there!! Just wanted to welcome you......