Hey Everyone.

I just want to introduce myself to everyone on to everyone on this board. My name is Jonathan and I am 16 from NYC. I've been working on having the surgery since this past June. It took me a while to get the ball rolling because at first I could only find one surgeon who would take my insurance and they would only do Lap Bands on teens. Now I have found a surgeon and I am hoping to have surgery at least by next Christmas. I don't know if this is unusual but my surgeon sent me for the pre-op tests before we tried to get insurance approval. I had like 5 different tests and a sleep study but we haven't filled for approval yet. Is that unusual or have any of you gone through the process that way? I am prarying that I am approved because I really want this done, I've been overweight all my life and I want to be able to live normally for once.

Hey Jonathan, 1st off Good Luck with everything. To answer your question about tests before insurance approval, I to did testing before I was givin approval...unfortunately the first time I went through it the insurance denied me. I now have a new insurance who has approved it, but yes, I also had to do testing before approval. I think it's the insurance's way of making sure everything is decent before they approve something they don't think you need...insurance is a pain...if you do your testing through your insurance coverage it gives u an idea of what they will say...if they deny paying for your testing, the chances are you're in for a long appeal process...trying calling your insurance company and asking if they cover it just to be sure. Good luck! if you want to talk to you can email me at Cutecrazyangel@msn.com or my AIM is TiGeRsPiNkiN

Welcome to the board Jonathon! I have not had my consult yet so I don't know what is required yet. I do know that I need to have a psyc evaluation and see a nutrionist before the consult. I am not sure about the tests. Well good luck on your journey, sounds like everything is going well so far.