Question:
What can I say to get my doc to refer me?

My doctor has told me that he will refer me after a few months af him following me. I think he want to see how motivated I am to follow the after surgery plan. I have lost a little weight but I now find that I am just too depressed to keep trying. I am sick of faiure and I KNOW that with the surgrery and the hunger under control than I will succeed. I just don't know how to tell my doctor to get a rush on! I've only been to one of the three appointment that he want me to attend. The next one is in about two weeks and when he sees that my progress is non existant I am afraid that he won't want to refer me because I am not motivated. Help, please suggest something. Thanks in advance for your help.    — Crystal D. (posted on June 28, 2001)

June 28, 2001
I would maybe look on the bariatric surgeons society page and show him that it is part of their training to evaluate how motivated they are. As a matter of fact, many offices will have you undergo psychiatric evaluations, meet with a nutritionist and diet before hand. Maybe if you show him some of the information from the offices near you, he'll let them take care of it. I go to a very strict office, I have been dieting for two months and my surgery date isn't until December. However, weight is not the measurement of my progress. I keep a journal of my habits and exercise which is more important for long term weight loss, NOT WILLPOWER. Good luck! Meredith
   — Meredith P.

June 28, 2001
Hi Crystal, my PCP had me attend a 10-week Weight Management program before she would consider referring me. Some docs are very conservative and take the hard line. Probably what you don't want to hear is that it will be to your advantage to do as he asks and attend the 3 meetings, whether you've lost weight or not. Most insurance plans have a lot of hoops to jump through in order to be approved for this type of surgery, whether you have a high BMI and co-morbids or not. I balked at the 2.5 months of classes I had to take but it went faster than I thought. And I surprised myself by losing 7 lbs. My doc saw how I could stick to a program and I know it helped with my being referred to the approval committee. Being referred after a "few months" is actually good. Lots of us here on AMOS wait months and months just to be referred. Hugs, Joy
   — [Deactivated Member]