Time.. How long from the time you thought about surgery till the day you actually had surgery ?

From my first surgeon appointment to surgery will be about 8 months. The main hold up has been insurance requirements - 6 months of nutrition counseling.

I called to make an appt with the surgeon once I thought I wanted to do it. It took 6 weeks just to get an appt.

I was self-pay, so didn't have insurance requirements to jump through, but the surgeon's office still had their list of requirements and appointments to go through. All good things; we need a baseline of health to work from and to know that we're healthy enough for surgery. I had a lap band causing me grief, so that was part of my motivation to get it done sooner rather than later.

From my first meeting with the surgeon to my surgery was 2 months.

For me, it was almost exactly six months. I attended an informational/intro session with a weight management doctor to discuss options. I started the six month program (it was required), not convinced I would have surgery but it was easier to start the process and decide not to do it than the other way around. It wasn't until I found this site that I decided to go through with surgery!

My timeline from consult to surgery was short. I had a consult in Late February, surgery at end of April. I think part of the reason it was so fast is that the surgeon was new at the hospital and trying to build a patient base; that and me having a BMI over 50.

16 years. My sister had bypass in 2000.

I went to the information seminar in March and I had surgery November, so 8 months. I fought having the surgery for the past 20 years. I kept telling myself I could do it on my own with the latest fat diet. It was a vicious cycle and lots of $$ spent. I have no regrets!! I should of had this surgery years ago!

Less than 3 weeks, but it was the olden days (2004) and it really was not that common then. I had a nutrition class, pre op testing, Psych Eval all within those 3 weeks.

At least I didn't have time to get nervous lol. I sailed through the surgery and recovery and have really not had any complications.

I will say, though, I am very compliant with my labs and vitamins and my levels are awesome. I track trends and tweak my regime as necessary. I went for my annual physical today and my doc says I'm a model patient (which I know I am).

I started my process in September 2016. They said it would take 4 months, and me being a smartbutt, thought I could do all of it in three lol. In the end - it was 4 months and my surgery was 1/23/17.

My insurance was a quick turnaround so that helped a lot.

Good luck.

-Jan

4 years. I had to wait to have insurance that covered WLS because I could not afford self pay.

Edit for math error

I joined OH on 2APR08 and started learning. Had surgery after graduating school on 11AUG08.