Having Surgery and PCSing.....

Is it true that you will not be giving medical clearance to PCS within a year of having gastric bypass surgery?

I don't know if Tricare has a time line. But, it does make sense becasue they want you at a stable weight for a while and let your skin shrink as much as possible on its own. Diana

I don't know for sure, but I want to know the answer myself. I just had surgery on July 6th and we just got orders to PCS to Fort Bragg, reporting NLT 25 Nov. I knew we'd be pcs'ing sometime after hubby gets back from Iraq. But we were thinking some time in march because hubby didn't think he'd get the Nov class (PSYOPS) date. He is suppose to get in country on Nov 7th, be at Fort Riley, Kansas for 5-10 days. So he figured they would give him the next class date in March. But nope. If hubby has to spend the full 10 days at Fort Riley we'll have just over a week to get from Oregon to Fort Bragg, NC. Oh, what fun! I don't think Tricare has anything to do with PCSing. You have to re-enroll at each new duty station yourself, it doesn't follow you. Unless maybe a dependant is enrolled in the EFMP? Are we supposed to be enrolled in EFMP after surgery? Andi

I had my gastric bypass in September while we were stationed at Ft. Polk and we PCS'd to Ft Leonard Wood in January, not 5 months later.

From what I understand in order to not PCS you would have to qualify for EFMP, exceptional family member program... but if the military base that is receiving you has medical facilities that can accomidate your medical status then the PCS is a GO! Most of the facilities have a surgery clinic that can see you for WLS, even a Primary Care Manager could do it with some help on what to look for. So dont count on not having to PCS... In my opinion it would just end up him PCSing by him self and you left behind at the old post. I would call the new post surgery clinic and see if the provide WLS and ask them if they will be able to start seeing you for follow up right away. Maybe you can get a phone consult with the surgeon on that post, you may want to also hand carry a copy of your surgery medical records to the new post. Good Luck. Now if a service member has the surgery then who knows what the rules would be