changemylife

Hey everyone! I have blue cross anthem. I was wondering if anyone knows a PCP that will refer me for VSG here in the SF BAY AREA. I live in Vallejo, CA. I have two insurance policies (mom and dad). My kaiser PCP won't refer me and tells me to just work out. -__- I'm looking for a PCP that will refer me to get a VSG. Any ideas anyone?

Ohhh! I see about the fatigue. Yeah, Nina told me I may be tired but that some people return to work immediately and its easier if you job is mostly sedentary. When I get back (if I get approved), I will have class from 0900-2000. So yup. I hope she's right. And I will have to look up Arnica tablets. Hmmm... Thank you!

I agree with this. I went through medloanfinance.com and they charge you an arm and a leg just to get a credit card you could have gotten yourself. I think the only benefit is that they do this shotgun blast of credit applications all at once, but really you could do this yourself and save a chunk of change.

I had surgery on a Tuesday and flew back home on Friday. I went from San Diego to Atlanta to Savannah. It was draining but after a good night of rest I was moving along. I went back to work on Monday. I have a desk job and the worst part of it was the fatigue. I got off at 5 PM and went to sleep with the baby around 730 - 8 every night.

As for the keloids, I would ask Nina about it and she should be able to get some information for you on it. I took Arnica tablets before and after surgery. They are more for bruising than scarring. I talked to Nina about it to make sure it wouldn't cause any issues during surgery. She said it was likely unnecessary before surgery but it wouldn't hurt for me to take them if it made me feel better mentally. LOL!

I just put my personal pics from the trip in my gallery so you can take a look if you want. For me it was more like a vacation that happened to have a surgery in the middle.

HI! I went to Dr. Aceves and went through medloanfinance.com......I was NOT happy with the finance place...I thought I was applying for a loan, but it just turned out to be a credit card...which would have been fine, except I get those offers in the mail all the time, and instead of paying the finance company $265 to get me a credit card, I would have just sent one of the offers back with a "yes". That was my only gripe with the finance company, and with Dr. Aceves and his staff...I have no gripes! Good luck to you!

OMG thank you that was really great infor about medloanfinance.com...I had no clue. I've been searching for reviews all morning.

The hospital is modern, sterile, with wonderful staff. I am thrilled with Dr Aceves and the whole experience was wonderful for me.

My surgery was Saturday morning, Monday afternoon I drove back to Los Angeles (5 hour drive in heavy-ish traffic) , Thursday I went back to work (I have a desk job). I am at work today, actually - Saturday - catching up on stuff.

My scars are small, the largest 2 are 1/2 and 3/4 inch long. (I just measured them using a ruler

You will not regret this decision. Good luck!

Thank you so much! I am so excited to get the ball rolling. I am actually calling for financing on Monday morning. Let's cross our fingers for my approval! Congratulations to you by the way!

There is always Mexico for about 5k to 7k out of pocket...

Yes, I'm planning on going with Dr. Aceves.

So, after 4 months of research I have decided to go with Dr. Aceves. Nina tried to call me a few minutes ago (SATURDAY!) but we had a bad connection so she's going to call me back in a few minutes hopefully. I know my insurance won't pay for the VSG here in Northern California so I have decided to look for Self Pay in Mexico. Nina suggested to get medloanfinance.com or cosmeticcredit.com for my financing needs. Does anyone have any experience with them and going to Dr. Aceves? I don't know if I will get approved and that is the only scary part to me, really. I am sooo sure I want VSG. I wish there was a checklist of things to do. Do I first get financing? Or do I speak with Nina?

I just spoke with my mom, she's an ICU nurse that thinks she knows everything, and she asked if I was crazy to go to Mexico to get surgery. I looked at the photos of the hospital..BEE-YOO-TEE-FUL! So clean looking! And the hospital staff seem so accessible. I like that. All the testimonials on this forum and all over the internet, I truly did not find one thing bad about Dr. Aceves.

Another question I have is: after my lane touches back down in SFO/OAK, how many days before I can go back to school (nursing student)? I only have class twice a week and I am planning to be done with my preceptorship/clinicals (working on a nursing unit) before I do this surgery because I know I shouldn't be doing any kind of hard labor or heavy lifting. But do you think going to class will really be excruciating for me?!

One more question (sorry): I am a keloid (raised scar) former. Will the laparoscopic incisons most likely cause severely ugly scars? Just asking if anyone has had any experience with this or would be willing to show me pictures of their scars or incisions. And if you took measures to prevent dark scarring, what were they out of curiosity. Thank you:)

Nice....I just checked my email and my doctor said this:

"Unfortunately any gastric bypass surgery including gastric banding and vertical sleeve gastrectomy will not be approved unless you have a BMI of 40 without comorbidities or BMI of 35 or more with at least 1 comorbidity. <br style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><br style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">If you want to see a clinical educator for counselling on die/exercise, call the call center and they can schedule an appointment for you.<br style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">I understand that this can be very frustrating for you but unfortunately, there is no magic treatment for it. You've been able to lose weight with diet and exercise before."

What is not mentioned here is that I've lost anywhere from 20-40 lbs and gained back 30-50 more than 12x in the last 7 years. lovely. i feel like crying.

Hello! My name is Kat, by any chance did any of you have a BMI <40 with no comorbidities? If so, was it difficult to get a referral to bariatrics? I emailed my PCP and originally asked for Lapband. She referred me to the sleep clinic because of my BMI (36) with no comorbidities to see if I have sleep apnea. After turning in my take home sleep apnea watch test, I was notified by the pulmonologist that I have no sleep apnea=( After much more research I decided I would rather have VSG because I don't want fills or a port seen through my skin, etc. I am 23 and I'm tired of wearing big girl clothes. I'm tired of being depressed and tired. I ahve been dealing with weight issues since I was 14. I just emailed my PCP to ask about a referral for VSG but I have a feeling she's going to try to turn me away again.

I research Dr. JOssart at CPMC (formerly with lapSf). His office called me abck and said total for self pay would be $19000 plus without dietitian, psych, etc... I don't think I would get approved financially for that.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can get this to happen? I go to Kaiser Vallejo. (norcal) My dad works for Kaiser so I have insurance under him. My copay for visits/ meds is $5. I still need to find out how much a surgery would cost and if they would even cover me. I'm so sad. I don't have $19000 to pay for surgery. Diabetes, heart disease, etc are on both sides of my families. I don't want to spend the rest of my 20s this big.

5"5

217 lbs