preciosahope

My surgery is May 18 with Dr. Lutfi at Mercy Hospital. I am excited.

Hello everybody. I am new to the forums here . I have been a lurker for awhile now and just recently decided to come out of my shell. My name is Hope . I am 30 years old and live in Illinois. I have been battling my weight all of my life. I believe the fat gene runs in my mom's family though because they are all big like me. My Family Doctor recommended the Lap Band for me. He called a Bariatric Surgeon here where I live and made an appointment for me. Today was my first consultation. It was nothing like I expected. He told me that it will be a long process and take 6 months. Wow, that is a very long time to wait but I guess I have to be patient. I told him about researching the surgery here on this forum. He really didn't have much to say because he said that if he covered everything today then I would forget it all by my next appointment which he made in 3 months from now. I have an appointment on the 20th of this month for the seminar so he told me to go to that and then go from there. I have called my insurance which is Medicaid and asked them if it was covered and the man told me that it is as long as it is medically necessary. I spoke with the woman who made the appointment for me for the seminar and asked her if the surgeon accepts medicaid because I have read a lot on this forum about Doctors not accepting it, and she said yes as long as I live in the same county. I was so excited about it until my consultation today. I guess I should have just went to the seminar first and then went from there. Can anybody tell me what to expect in a seminar? What do they do? Anyways sorry this turned out with me venting at the end. Anyways, I am glad to be a part of this forum. :eek: I hope to get to know some of you better on here.