PANIC MODE! Please help!

Hey OH fam!  Ok as I explained before in another post I made, I am a newbie to all this WLS experience.  I am now a little concerned about another requirement.  I went to my educational seminar on Friday and it went excellent.  I left there feeling that this was the beginning to the rest of my new life.  I took home the binder full of information they gave me to get some good reading in.  I noticed some of the things I need to bring for my first consultation (by the way I was able to schedule mine for Monday the 15th of October), anyway I noticed they wanted me to bring a list of diet history from my physician and a psych eval if I had that.  This put me in panic mode because in all honesty I havent been to the doctor a lot in my life because I've always been pretty darn healthy.  Well heres the deal, I dont have an "official" or documented list that says what diets I have been on and their results.  I mean I could come up with a list that everything I have tried but nothing on "official" paper.  This worries me so much now!   Is my surgeon going to say no?  Will I get disapproval from the surgery team because I dont have this item?  That would just kill me!  Seriously.  Any suggestions or comments would be much appreciated!  Thanks OH fam!

Take a deep breath, Sweetie.  You're going to be just fine :)  Jot down everything you've done in your life to lose weight.  If you've gone to the doctor regarding losing weight, note that as well.  There doesn't need to be an official documentation unless your surgeon requires it.  I would call them on Monday and get their official word on it :) My surgeon wanted all the history- whether it was physian ordered or I did it on my own.  The only thing I got from my pcp was a general referral and my blood tests.

I dont think the doctors will turn you away if you don't have medical records of your past diets but you might have problems with getting insurance approval.

Thanks ladies for your help!  I will definitely call Monday and ask my surgeon if this is a requirement.  In their packet they just state to bring any diet history from my PCP or dietitian??  That doesnt sound too specific to me, but Ill find out.  I'm hoping they just need a list from me and then a referral.  That would be nice, but we'll see.  Also, how did go about getting a referral from your PCP go?

They also could have had that in there just so there would be more information to turn into insurance.  For me, I had extra stuff that my insurance didn't require... but I wanted to make sure I left no stone unturned.  I had a cardio exam (1st surgeon required that because he heard a slight murmur), well woman visit, nutritionist, and a phyc eval all done before my consult.

My surgeon wanted what diets I tried, dates and how I did on them... I did it all from memory.

First what you need to do is find out what your insurance requires - some insurance companies require a 6 month supervised diet - sometimes it has to be done by a Dr othertimes they accept stuff like Weigh****chers. They also typically require a certain number of years of medical records that show your weight each year to prove you have a history of obesity - my insurance required 5 years of medical history that had to include 1 weight a year. Some require less, some require more. As you stated you havent been to the Dr much so I would call the insurance first thing Monday so you can work on meeting their requirements.

Most surgeons are pretty flexible on what they will require from you, what matters most is your insurance company's requirements.....You will need to call them and ask exactly what the rules and regulations are for your specific policy terms. They differ not only from insurance company to insurance company, but also depending on your particular policy. In my case, I had United Healthcare and the requirements were: 18 years of age, 5 years at a BMI of over 40 and that was it. To substantiate the five year weight history, all they asked for was my highest weight from each of the last five years which I self-reported along with my doctor's contact info in case they wanted to verify it. If you haven't seen your PCP at least once a year over the past five years, any visit to any doctor like an OB/GYN for example, should have resulted in a weigh-in that was documented somewhere...I'm not sure what they do in the case of someone who hasn't been to any doctor during a calendar year. But before you get too worried, make sure you will even need this by calling them.... As far as the PCP refferall, there is a sample letter you can bring available for free from OH, you can use it or just use it as a guideline in crafting your own...Here is the link: http://www.obesityhelp.com/content/lettertopcp.html And, if you're PCP is not supportive, as they sometimes aren't, then find a new one! A good place to start would be the local state forum on OH for your home state. Just ask some of the locals for the name of a good "WLS freindly" PCP, you should have no trouble getting a good recommendation from someone who has been there. Good luck!

Hey, my surgeon didn't need any "official" documents of my diets, just wanted to know each thing I'd tried and for how long and how much I lost and how much I gained back after.  They actually had a check-list of common diets on a form I filled out.  I didn't need any sort of PCP documentation...as many of them were just like low carb, weigh****chers, atkins, ect...things I tried on my own and didn't even tell my Dr.  I did have a prescription for Wellbutrin which my PCP told me would help with weight loss and I wrote that down...they didn't ask for any other information other than just seeing I tried many other ways to lose weight.  

sometimes making a few things up is ok:)  ahem, u didnt hear that from me;)