Dr. Min  in kirkland  came to our support group and he impressed us all. Understands wt loss
surgery, went to med school with one of our bariatric surgeons.  good luck
Jay

Hi Mary!

Congratulations on taking your first steps.  I am over 1-1/2 years out now and have been at my goal weight for about 7 months.  I had type II diabetes and a pretty severe case.  This is why I had the surgery.  My blood sugars have been normal since the day after my surgery and have been ever since.

I've been in the U of W support group for about two years and what I've found is there have only been about 2 people who haven't had complications from their lap bands.  Granted, there are many more who have had gastric bypass but it appears that this seems to be the trend.  It also appears that people with gastric bypass will lose more quickly and a greater amount of their excess weight.

Is there a certain reason why you want the lap band?  Have you been able to attend any groups and talk with those who have gone this route?

I don't mean to sway you at all.  The decision is deeply personal and I wish you the best of luck.  Whichever way you decide to go, you will feel so much stronger and healthier!

Keep us posted!

Nancy

Stephanie, There is a very nice group that meets at the Auburn Hospital the 3rd Thursday of each month. Call Roberta Christian at (206) 353-8146 for any questions you might have.

Merrilou

Hi Stephanie,
I am a member of SPS (South Puget Sound) WLS support group.  We are a fairly new group and our leader is Karrie Lynn Massotti - she was recently certified as a group leader.  We are a small very friendly group - looking to expand.  We meet generally twice a month.  On a Thursday evening and also on a Saturday.  We do not cater to any one particular surgery - we are open to all surgeries and also people searching out the various surgeries.  We discuss anything and everything members want or need to discuss.  Our next meeting is on August 12th, at 6:00 p.m. at HD Hotspurs, located in the Kent Valley off of Washington Street.  Some people may think it's strange that we meet at restaurants, but we all still love to eat, and eating has been and will always be a part of life!  We'd love to have you come join us and if you'd like further information about our group you may contact me at:  [email protected]  or check out the SPS site on OH or also on facebook.  We meet at different restaurants or different places for each meeting to make it fair to people that come from different locations.  We are always open to new meeting suggestions, topics, and new faces.  Please come join us as my guest.
Sincerely,
Donna/ragadolly

My PCP is going to refer me to Madigan for surgery, but this morning neither he or his nurse sounded too confident they knew how to go about it since he's a civilian doctor. We live out of state and we have Tricare Reserve Select.

So maybe this is a stupid question, but how do they refer me to an MTF surgeon? I thought I read that in some instances the referrals go through the actual tricare website and you could even track the referrals/authorizations. But since he's not part of all that, the referral would have to go directly to the bariatric clinic there right? Where do they send this referral? The nurse did say to me before I left today, "Well if you can get me a contact or a phone number it would be helpful and speed this along." That's when I was like - oooooh hell, this isn't looking too promising! I'm just afraid they are going to be fumbling with this for weeks/months on end.