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 [email protected] 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.