What is a medical program?

Hi all.

To those who live in Toronto, Ontario, have you ever been referred to a medical program from your surgeon? What is the program all about? What was the process like? Was it successful?

I'm not sure about Toronto, but I do remember a bit about Ottawa as I looked into it before surgery.  It includes either 3 or 6 months of being on Optifast then slowly re-intigrating real food.  During the 3 (or 6) months, you are required to attend classes to basically relearn how to eat and activity.

I have never actually participated in the program, so I don't know about it's success.

Cathy

I participated in the Ottawa program in 2001 and lost 22% of my excess weight.  It is the Optifast program with MANDATORY weekly group sessions for 3 or 6 months.  I managed to keep the weight off (plus a bit more) for a year after... but eventually, it all came back on and now I am waiting for RNY surgery.

The medical program is intended for people who have not really tried a regulated weight loss program (like WW or others).

Again... this was for Ottawa so may not be the same as in TO.

I actually only recently became aware that this program even existed.  HRRH does it.  My understanding is that there are two streams one which is 12 weeks and the other is I think 24 weeks.  The 12 week is attending weekly meetings with dieticians and social workers (I believe) to discuss eating habits etc.  Kind of the same stuff you do pre surgery.  The 24 weeks is about 12 weeks using the Opti and then 12 weeks of what I mentioned above.  That is my understanding.   I have searched for more info and have been unable to find very much information about this program here. I do think that it really should be part of the surgical process to.  I am sure it would really help with keeping the weight off and learning more about eating right.  I do not believe that you do this as part of the surgical process as someone said it is in Ottawa.  Each centre seems to do things just a little bit differently.  This program also has an information session to attend similar to the surgical process.  I am actually signed up to go on Jan 26.  My understanding though is that you cannot do both processes (medical and surgical) although I would think the medical would help with the surgical in the end.  That is my understanding of what the medical program is.  I am sure it can work for some people but not for everyone. 

I've done the program in Ottawa twice (2002 and 2012) and kept the weight off for a year both times before I started regaining on maintenance even though I was following my regime...then after weight kept going up I gave up somewhat. In 2012 I was ready to go through surgery process but Dr. Shiau convinced me to try the Optifast program one more time. (It was definitely improved from 2002.) I had also done almost every program/diet out there (WW x 3, Nutrisystem, Atkins, Scarsdale, grapefruit, cabbage soup) with the usual outcomes.

I can definitely credit the program with helping me to develop healthy habits (drinking water, eliminating processed foods from diet, hardly ever eat out) and focusing on behaviours (I'm an emotional eater but not so much in past couple of years) and coping strategies.

I hope this helps. If you have questions, please feel free to message me privately. :)

My bmi is 37, I am afraid I will not be approved for surgery?

Was your bmi under 40 as well?

By the time I had surgery I think my BMI was close to 40. But if it is between 35 and 40 they also approve if you have co-morbidities like sleep apnea, type 2 diabetes and/or high blood pressure.

Good luck!

Tammy :)