The life of a bariatric cooridinator

Have you ever looked at someone's job and said "NO WAY COULD I DO THAT?"  That is how I feel for poor Jen in Dr. S's office.  Can you imagine having a job dealing with the 1% of obese people who are willing to go after this surgery.  I mean we are a strange breed.  We are more than willing to take on our insurance companies, research methods, read medical journals, and scour evey nutrition label.  I mean we are the same people that have tried every diet and had success on most of them.  We are the strong, the tenacious, the INSANE!! We travel all over the valley to go to support meetings. We interview surgeons.  We come to doctor's offices with our files tabbed.  We create excel spreadsheets with nutrition needs and lab results.  We know everyone dealing with our case by their first names.  WE CALL WITH EVERY QUESTION.  We wake up early in the morning to get on-line to see if anything in the world of WLS has changed. And who is on the front line dealing with all this?  THE BARIATRIC COORDINATOR.  Maybe we need to establish a support group for them.  They could have speakers to address topics such as "The denial letter resulting in someone going postal" or "the patient who can't get in their water" or "how to deal with the patient who didn't go the nutrition meeting and now worries about malnutrition!!" HORRAY we have them!!  'Cause heaven knows, we aint' changing!  We'll just be a thinner version of our neurotic selves!!!

LOL.....this was a funny read!  It's SUPER TRUE though.........they do jump through some pretty tough HOOPS to get us approved. (I'm in process)    And yes, I totally agree with you, Jen is very good at her work......and it is WORK!  Besides working as hard as she does.........She's always made me feel like she REALLY CARES.  You don't get that very often in this BUSY, busy world!

Oh my gosh!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE this!  You totally rock!    And so does Jen!                                                                            ....Having been in the "biz" for a few years myself; I am delighted to see a POSITIVE posting on a Bariatric Coordinator!!!  .....  It is definitely a job that requires passion.  The truly greats are usually weight loss patient's themselves and understand completely the emotional roller coaster that we ride to the surgery table!!!!  ....  AND, though you're thinking "NO WAY COULD I DO THAT"....some may actually wish they could.                                                    ................sooooooooooooo.......O.H. is considering having a workshop at the upcoming O.H. event on "Careers in the Bariatric field and how to pursue them".  Let us know if that would be of interest to any of you?

I'm interested Joyce!   I have always been interested   I think it sounds like a great idea for a workshop!

I would be very interested in the workshop Joyce.

Yes, That is a great idea. I would like to do this.Just let me know......

I am a newbie but thought I would make my first post to this thread.  I have recently met Jen and have begun the plite of insurance approval with all the evals and letters needed.   I just wanted to thank Jen for her compassion and her help and look forward to talking with her further.

Jen at Dr Schlesinger is one of a kind. She has a great persaonality for yhe jbo. She really wants people to get there insurance approve if it was hers's. She is a great asset to Dr Schlesinger's office. She has even has the lap band and her husband does to. If I can work someday again I would love to work in a Bariatric surgeon's office. I am a patient and I have the medical back ground and experience. Medicare when you on disablity your not to work over so many ours or make so much money. I really don't care about the money but I want to be happy what I am doing.