Newbie! So glad to be here...

Hello! I am so glad to be here... only because it means that I am finally on the road to beating my weight problem once and for all!

I also have a higher BMI and would really like to get down to the 160's again... a few years back I lost 100+ pounds and got down to 147. Only to gain it all back and then some. Now I'm tipping the scales at 300 and it comes piling on no matter what I do!!!!!

QUESTION: How long did it take, from your first seminar to get a surgery date?!

Just wondering what I have for time frame here. I have my seminar on Friday... so excited to finally get the ball rolling.

Seven months. But a lot of it has to do with your insurance requirements. If I had had more time to take off I would have been able to have surgery sooner.
Take care

Congrats on starting the process!! It really depends on your insurance carrier. Some require a 3 or 6 month diet prior to approval. If u are self pay, it could be faster however there are still tests that ur doctor will require and some of those can take time to schedule and complete.

It took me a year and a half because I stopped in the middle of my process... Just don't be like me and you'll be better off!

welcome , im pre op and did half of my 6 month diet , plus I need to lose 12% of my extra weight (50 lb)

there are lots of test , sleep study(everyone fails), blood work,  stress test , camera down your throat

physical therapist

it is best if you go through the long program and get ready for the rest of your life , people that go to cheap crappy doctors

 that don't have much support don't do as good as people that get support

 go to the best surgeon you can, if you are self pay and need to go to Mexico , go to one of the top guys not the cheapest

bring someone with you to the seminar thee will be a lot of info there, its best if its you caregiver (husband ,wife, lover ,kids)

 they will have to live with your decision also, and will help you remember all the info

ask what surgeries he does, what kind of support they have , how many wls he has done

if he has a support group  go to a meet or 2 to see how the other patients are doing

 what surgery are you thinking of getting ??

 good luck

 

 

Why does everyone fail the sleep study?????? I have no signs of sleep apnea at all... in fact, for a morbidly obese person I have been relatively healthy up until my last pregnancy. I was walking 3+ miles/day at 275 lbs... and really didn't have any co-morbidities, definitely not sleep apnea. However over the last year I have developed dangerously high cholesterol and severe GERD, and put on even more weight with the pregnancy. (I'm 5" 1", so 300lbs on my short frame is pretty high)

I have picked out my surgeon, he is very progressive and passionate about what he does. His practice is one of the best in the area. AND he takes my insurance. WOOHOO!

I'm thinking about getting the VSG... as long as much surgeon agrees that it is the best for me!

I also felt like I had no signs of sleep apnea at all.  I never really snore and I wake up feeling refreshed and don't feel tired all day long.  I also felt like a healthy fat person and that I would just breeze through the sleep study... well, when the results came back, I was told I have moderate sleep apnea.  I was really upset because I was told I would need a pulmanologist visit before I could get a surgery date! Ugh, I was really upset and almost decided to give up but I finally calmed down and went to see him and it was fine. 

I have learned sometimes in this process, we find out issues that we would have never known we had. I know its so tempting to try to hurry the process and I was the number one person guilty of that! But it will come and try to just enjoy your time preop and learn as much as you can now. Do you have the book Weight Loss Surgery for Dummies? My original surgeon asked all his patients to get it and it is wonderful! I read it before my surgery and now I am reading it again and its right on target. It explains so much of the process exactly how it occurred for me. Just a thought on something you might want to pick up! Once its here and the surgery happens, it will seem like the previous time FLEW by!

WOW! Ugh... wtf, I hope I don't have it... 

What is the purpose of the sleep apnea test anyways, doesn't it have something to do with how you will handle anesthesia? I was just under total anesthesia back in September and didn't have an issue. I hope to not get snagged up with something like sleep apnea... I know back home (I moved across country), they let the pre-ops do "at home" sleep study kits.... I wonder if they do that around here? See, I know all of the procedures back home... but I'm "not in Kansas anymore" and since I don't know anyone here I'm just sort of trying to see what is most common practice across the board. Does that make sense?????

Does that book have an electronic version? I will check amazon for the kindle version....

 

Hi and welcome.

I have BCBSIL PPO and they are friends with WLS. They require no waiting period and no weighing in prior to surgery.

I had my seminar on Jan 30 and had my surgery on Ap 16, 10 weeks later. The reason it took 2.5 months is because the Pulmonologist would not send in his consult paperwork on time. He and I did battle due to my sleep apnea. Ultimately a month later he sent in the ok after I had another appointment with him and talked him into it. He was concerned because I did not wear my apnea machine at night. But, finally agreed after I pleaded with him. 

In all, I had to have a surgeons consultation,  a psyche evaluation and testing. cardiac consultation, ekg , stress test and echocardiogram, pulmonary consult and a breathing test, I immediately started scheduling all my consults right away. I had all test and consults done within a month. All my tests were normal. After the psych eval which BCBSIL requires, the surgeon sent the paperwork into BCBS and by Feb 10, I had an approval from the insurance. 

I was lucky this time. Everything went very smoothly.

Where are you in the process?

Sharon

That's awesome!!! I really hope I have good luck like that. Fortunately I have a really open schedule (laid off!), so I can be flexible for appointments. 

I have scheduled an appointment with the surgical practice for the information session and have already registered with them as a patient. I will go on Friday to meet with one of the surgeons, and from there will be making the  first appointment with MY surgeon and move forward from there... sooooo... no testing or anything yet... 

What do they have you do for the stress test? I have only ever had non-stress tests in the past. 

My insurance had a hard exclusion so I knew going in that I'd be cash pay. I could have had it done within 2-4 weeks. However, I wanted to wait until June (my initial consult was in March) because hubby is a teacher and I wanted as much time with him home to recover and get into a grove. So, I chose to wait a few months.

Honestly, I'm kind of glad I didn't have to deal with insurance. Yeah, I make a payment to CareCredit each month for the portion I financed, but it seems like some folks have this whole big fight with insurance. I didn't have that stress. LOL