meetings and meetings before scheduling

I'm depressed. I thought that my appt this morning with the doctor at the weight center was to book my surgery. Nope. He interviewed me with pretty much the same questions and then scheduled a stress test. I did get an appt to be introduced to my surgeon but was told that before booking the actual surgery I need two meetings with the psychologist, two group nutrition and one one-on-one nutrition appt, one blood test and consult with same doctor and then preadmission.

I am an accountant and cannot take off the first two weeks of every month so I was hoping to schedule the surgery for mid August which would give me a little over two weeks for recovery. But now.....................it's doubtful that I will be able to fit in all these meetings before then.

Just venting. I guess it's good that they are so thorough and it will happen in God's time not my time but just feel like someone popped my happy balloon 

Oh and I gained 6 pounds since my last appt and honestly I have been so good! He said it's a mix of the insulin, menapause, my neurontin and my paxil.

He also told me that since the rny has the malabsorption issues I'm a better candidate for the sleeve, especially with all of my adhesions from past surgeries. 

I just have to re program myself for all of this change. 

I had surgery a few years ago and everything changes BUT that sounds very normal.  We were told it would be a 6-7 or more month process to jump through all the hoops and get everything done.  I didn't have to do a 6 month diet, many insurance co require it, but it still took 5 months.  We had to do 12 nutrition sessions before the surgeon, then a month of preop diet and classes before surgery.  Breathe deep, it will happen, it just takes a while.

Be sure your insurance will cover a sleeve. Mine would not, BCBS of NC back then. 

In the meanwhile, stick around, read everything you can and get prepared.  Welcome to the dark side!!!

I have BCBS of MA and they sent me a booklet setting out all of their requirements. I don't have to do the liquid diet thing and these are the procedures that they cover:

    Open gastric bypass using a Roux-en-Y anastomosis

 Laparoscopic gastric bypass using a Roux-en-Y anastomosis

 Sleeve gastrectomy

 Open or laparoscopic biliopancreatic bypass (i.e., the Scopinaro procedure) with duodenal switch

 Laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding  

Thanks for telling me the wait is normal! I thought maybe I had done something wrong, i.e. scheduled things too late and the way the dr was talking at orientation they were just starting to book in Aug and Sep. No mention was made of the stuff I had to do to get from point A to point B!  Of course this is all a mute point if I don't pass the stress test. With my luck I'll have a massive coronary on the treadmill and I won't have to worry about any of this!   I just feel sad now. I've been getting excited thinking that for once in my life I won't have to shop at the fat lady store. I've been drooling over Ann Taylor's website and daydreaming about hiking in Eddie Bauer gear. Now all I see is my big roly poly body in the mirror.   I can't wait to get this done and over with but then I think I'm wishing my summertime away. We wait all year in the freezing cold in Boston for summer and now I'm wanting it to pass quickly.   Breathe in and breathe out.

We had to do 6 months of physician supervised diet/exercise plus 6 months or counseling or support group meetings(could do them both in the same 6 months) for insurance coverage.  It had to be a center of excellence and there were a few other requirements we had to meet.

My surgeon required you attend a support group meeting, meet with the nutritionists and she required you keep a food journal for 2 weeks and study the papers she gave you and then meet back with her to go over the food journal and we had a test over the papers that we were suppose to study!

I did the 6 months with a trained psychologists and am glad I did because I think he helped address some issues that I need to have addressed.

Your time line seems about in line with ours.  Good luck, it will happen before you know it.

Linda

For me, there were insurance requirements and Dr requirements and they were not the same.  Even if my insurance didn't require XXXX, if my Dr did, I still had to do it.  And for insurance I had to go to a Center of Excellence and those were all (all 2 of them) at least 1.5hr away.  but it will happen, just maybe not when you had hoped for.  Chin up and keep on keeping on.  You have the rest of your life to live with the results.  Hurray.