I see my Dr. for the first time this Friday and am so glad I found this forum. I was originally checking into RNY until I did more research and found this forum and I think the VSG is the way to go, but I was wondering...

I am paying cash, but what happens if you have a leak and you are a cash pay. Could you end up with an astronomical medical bill? At one point does you insurance cover side effects. I am thinking what if 2 years down the road you have some scar tissue and have to have something done about it?

I saw my doctor this past Monday and he told me if a leak is going to occur it is most likely to happen within the 1st week post-surgery. I get sleeved on the 11th of this month and I'm extremely nervous! I just want to get it over with.

Thanks for that. You are close ... next week will be a month. Now I'm looking forward to February 27th. Yeah!!!!

I saw the doctor today and he said they have only had 2 patients with serious complications that the insurance wouldn't pay. He said he worked out a deal with the hospital to forgive the charges on those because he does so many surgeries there. (These surgeries were not sleeves)

He said for infections, gallstones, etc. they are coded that way and insurance will cover those things.

He also said he has not had 1 leak yet.

So now I am getting excited because I scheduled my consultation with the dietitician and the counselor and on Monday i will get my surgery date. (Probably for this second week in March.)

I am also self pay and when I was looking at surgeons I found that several of them offer catastophic insurance that is typically an additional $500 and covers all you post op complications. Its definitely worth looking into.

The Dr. said they looked into offering that coverage, but since they had only had 2 serious complications on cash pay, they felt is wasn't worth it to charge that when they could just work it out with the few that might have a problem.

He does a lot of WLS, but his numbers probably don't compare with those in the larger cities or even Mexico. I am sure those that do would offer the insurance.