Born yesterday, please advise! LOL

Please give your letter a close read. Usually it is the medical weight loss program that has a year long waiting list. For surgery their goal is to try and have it performed within twelve months of orientation.

My original letter was for the wrong program. It is a different orientation but it was an easy fix. I just called the centre and they switched the referral and rescheduled me for the right orientation.

You can see the timeline in my signature. I had orientation on January 29th and my nurse consult on February 26th. I got all of my approvals (social work, internist and dietician) by May 28th ... 4 months. Now I'm just waiting to meet the surgeon and the pre-op class.

One piece of advice, book an appointment with your family doctor ASAP for after your orientation (mine was the next day.) That way you can get all the necessary tests booked right away. Unless you have had a sleep study in the last two years, you will have to have one. It is mandatory if your BMI is over 50. Try to get that referral as soon as possible too, because that is often the biggest delay.

Good luck!

Oooooh girl good call!! I'll double check the letter when I am back at home.

Thanks for the heads up, I'll be sure to. How many appointments per month would you say (I understand they likely varied) that you were/are attending?

You must be excited and well done!! It sounds like they have something close to a well oiled machine now for the process. I know about a dozen people who have been operated on under the (not so much anymore) new process, none too recent and all had twisted paths lol.

The appointments do vary. Do you live in Windsor? They try to schedule multiple appointments on the same day if you have to travel.

My busy month was April. I had Social Work follow up, Nutrition consult and sleep study April 12th, follow up with the sleep doc on the 18th, and the Internist on the 26th.

I don't but I'm not terribly far, I'm in Chatham.

Thanks so much for the comment on correct programming, it isn't the surgical orientation they have me down for. I called and left a voicemail for them.

My last sleep study took a long time to get an appointment.. if I were to call and ask my GP to send me for one asap instead of waiting, would they accept it do you think?

Definitely call your GP right away. When the sleep clinic knows it's for bariatric surgery they will sometimes fit you in faster, especially if the doc has seen you before. I went to Dr. Rajkumar and had my study at Met Hospital. He arranged for a split study so I didn't have to do two separate ones.

In Ottawa they do. Ask your doc to book the appt with the clinic with the shortest wait time.

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond folks.. may I also ask about the psych aspect of the process?

What exactly is their purpose in the journey? What things would they find cause for concern?

In Windsor you see social workers, not Psych docs. Once you have been around the site awhile, you will see people say that they operate on your stomach and not your head. None of us got to our sizes by having a healthy relationship with food. In order to be successful, you have to work on your food issues and triggers.

Primarily the social workers are looking to see that you completely understand what you are getting yourself into. You need to demonstrate a willingness to make changes. You need to show that you understand (and take responsibility for) how you got to where you are.

If you go to the Hotel Dieu website, the have a lot of PDFs available to download, including some of the homework they will assign to you. If you start on it now, it may ease your mind about the appointment.

It's nothing to be stressed about. You just need to be honest. They are there to help you.

They will also ask about your support system and your finances. There are a lot of expenses and they want to make sure you can afford it. (Vitamins, OptiFast, hotel stays, parking, travel expenses, time off work ...)

I started putting $40 a week into a WLS savings account right after orientation. I've saved almost $800 towards expenses, so they don't all hit at once.