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

I attended the info session at the very end of September and had my surgery January 17th. I did not have a supervised diet, but my bariatric center had a lot of classes to qualify you and most were offered only twice per month. So after you completed one milestone you might have to wait 2-3 weeks to move on the next one and so on.

I was diagnosed with stage 3 kidney disease and met with a nephrologist who I immediately liked very much. He was straight forward and told me that if I did not get some weight off that I would be looking at dialysis in a very short period of time. He asked me if I had ever thought about weight loss surgery. He stated it was a good time for me given I was still very young. I was 50 and in very bad shape with multiple comorbitities including diabetes., severe gerd, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, kidney disease, sleep apnea. I also have hypothyroidism, osteoarthritis of the spine and Psoriatic arthritis which is autoimmune.

So, I was a mess. A nurse at my doctors office told me I had one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel. Ugh.....I was scared and immediate looked into it.

That was December 26th, 2013. My insurance was very strict requiring several hoops to jump through. I had to choose a Bariatric Center of excellence, BMI of 40 or 35 with at least 2 comorbitities, 6 month supervised diet, nutritional meetings, and I had to pass a physcologist test. The center of Excellence also had a long list of requirments including never missing an appointment. You had to prove you were serious about it.

So for me, it took 9 months to the day. I had surgery on 9/26/2014 and I swear it has given me a whole new lease on life.

I am now 30 months post op, have lost 152lbs. It took 18 months for me to lose my weight post RNY. I had RNY because of the gerd and I have not had a single episode of heartburn since.

I began body contouring in July of 2016 and just went through my second surgery 6 weeks ago. I used to wear a size 26 on top and 24 on the bottom. I now wear a size 8 on the bottom, 10 on top or a large. I never even considered that I would care about clothes and sizes when I stared but my health got better almost immediately and it was fun to see my body change so much.

Best of luck to you!!!

Did your renal disease get better as well?

Losing weight slowed my disease and is presently slowing my twin's disease(we share this bad gene).

You had a bunch of co-morbidities. I'm glad you got your surgery and are feeling better.

Yes, within 3 months my renal disease improved. As did all my other comorbitities, it took 1 year and 100lb loss before I was able to get off bi-pap but even that went away.

I am so thankful for weight loss surgery. It is not a magic pill and i have to fight twice as hard in maintenance but I know what I have to do to remain healthy and lean.

That's great news.

There is no magic pill/surgery or I think we would have all signed up for that!

There is a specfic renal disease that really responds to weight loss FSGS. I read a German study. It was really a marked improvement.

Congratulations on your success.

3.5 years.

I had a few doctors to convince.

After I finally got my act together and went to a dr public meeting - 6 weeks. But I had no health complications and PLENTY of failed med supervised diets to satisfy the ins co. I had tried everything else and this was truly last resort for me.

Thank God that I live in this place and time so that RNY was available to me.

I also think in the last 2 1/2 years since I had surgery that ins co maybe making it more difficult (or making sure that people are really ready for it.)

You only get one BEST try with WLS, so you are really better off waiting if your chances of success are low due to other life issues.

I attended an info session at my surgeon's office in October 2015 and didn't have surgery until July 2016. From seminar to surgery, it was roughly nine months. I had to do a six-month pre-op diet, and I couldn't start it until December because my PCP did not have any appointments available between October and December, so December 3rd started the pre-op diet, and it ended in June.

My surgeon's office told me I would need seven PCP visits because the insurance does not typically count the first visit because the diet technically hasn't been in effect until the second visit, but near the end of my pre-op diet, an insurance rep told me that I only needed six visits, so my wait time could have been cut from nine to eight months.

I was finished with my diet on June 13, paperwork submitted the same day, approved June 14, and surgery was scheduled for July 5. I was in disbelief when the nurse from my surgeon's office called to tell me I was approved. It was a fast turnaround.

The time between seminar and surgery will vary greatly depending on your policy. I hope it's not too long for you! Sometimes it seemed like I'd be waiting forever!

About 10 years really. I was considering the lapband back in 2007. I knew I wasn't ready mentally. Then I had my first consult with a physician at the weight management clinic maybe in 2010-2012? Still wasn't ready. Then my dr wondered again in 2015, if I'd like another referral. I said sure, but I still wasn't convinced. Somewhere between that, and the first info session I attended in January 2016, I had my come to Jesus moment, and I haven't looked back.

surgery was sept 8, 2016. Exactly 6 months today!

Well, I thought about it for over ten years!

First consult with surgeon was on 9/7/16. Insurance didn't require much. I jumped through all of the insurance and surgeon's hoops, got approved, and they wanted to schedule surgery on 10/31/16, which was the Monday after I got insurance approval. I opted to wait another month to fit the surgery into my schedule at work and at home. So, two and a half months after my initial consult.