i'm with kaiser so cal in los Angeles. i've completed the options program and am now jumping through myriad pre-surgery appointment hoops in order to get my surgery referral.

i just wanted to give everybody with kaiser so cal a shout out to say THEY ARE NOT IN CONTROL OF THIS PROCESS. be aware that you will need to be extremely pro-active in terms of your bariatric journey or an already long and involved waiting process will be made even longer and more involved.

also be aware that kaiser is farming surgeries out to ancillary facilities because they can't handle their own bariatric surgery load. this adds further complication to an already overly complicated process. i was given two choices for my surgery venue: kaiser west l.a. and an outside partner facility. i chose the outside partner facility because they have their act together and they have a considerably shorter waiting period, at least as of this moment.

my experience so far with this outside partner facility is that they are much more in control of their process than kaiser is, and kaiser has no real idea about how their outside partner facilities operate, even though they try to provide this information (which is usually inaccurate). all you really need to know is what your kaiser doctor needs in order to refer you for surgery, and what the surgeon at the outside facility needs in order to schedule your surgical consultation. my outside facility is requiring me to attend a 90-minute seminar, in which i will be given instructions and paperwork to fill out. between this seminar, paperwork, and my kaiser pre-surgery tests, i should be good to go.

with kaiser, you're going to have to steer your own ship, if you know what i'm sayin'.

Edited July 25, 201016 yr by kristykreem

Hey Kristy! I wonder if we were in the same Options class at Kaiser. I also finished on July 8 in the 5:30 class. Was that the one you were in? I would love to reconnect with some classmates.

So far since the class, I have been contacted by Dr. Alskalf's office and was sent in for a myriad of blood tests. I was shocked when they took 15 vials of blood from me (perhaps I've just been watching too much True Blood, since my first thought was that they were going to sell it on the black market! :thumbup:) I also went in for a chest x-ray and ekg. I still have to schedule a psych eval and I have an appt with Dr. A in 2 weeks. Hopefully that is when I will get my surgery referal.

I chose to do the surgery at the Lancaster facility since I live in Santa Clarita. They gave me the option of going to LA or San Diego, but I didn't want to drive to San Diego and I had no idea when or who I would see in LA. The Lancaster facility has 1 doctor, Dr. Yadagar, and all the reviews I could find for him were glowing. I was also unaware that the surgery required an in-patient stay. I was under the impression that it was a 1 night stay. Is it really 3 nights? Yuck! Well, I guess the good part about that is that they can give you more pain meds if you're not feeling good. I'm glad the classes are over now, although I did find them informative. It would have been nice to have ALL the info though!

hey, dcokequeen! yes, we were in class together!

so, yeah, i asked THREE TIMES during our 12 weeks of options classes for a definitive answer about how long we'd be in the hospital, and all three times i got the same answer: outpatient.

once i'd gotten the real lowdown from pacific bariatric, i told dr. alskaf's office that i was told several times by the options staff that the vertical sleeve was an outpatient procedure, and they were horrified and said they'd speak to the options staff. that's kind of a gory detail to get wrong. anyway, yes, the sleeve is major abdominal surgery and we'll be in the hospital for three days. i believe it's three days, two nights, without complications but i'm not 100% sure about that.

from what i've been told by people i know who've been sleeved, the first two days are challenging (possibly awful), but by day three things start to get a lot better. the big deal is that the surgeon has to make sure our staple-line isn't leaking.

it's all kind of surreal.

Wow! That seems like a pretty major detail for them not to disclose!! Hopefully Dr. A will give them the correct info for future classes. I see him in 2 weeks so I will ask him about it as well. Thanks for the update!

pacific bariatric called me today to schedule my full day of pre-surgery appointments, which includes the consultation with the surgeon, a psych evaluation and an internal medicine exam/review. i'm going on the 23rd, which means i'll most likely be having surgery in mid to late-september.

this is starting to happen fast! woohoo! i'm sooooo ready.

Horray!!!!! I'm so happy for you Kristy!!! Keep us posted on what happens.:001_tongue:

do you know how long the wait for surgery is at lancaster?

I'm not sure yet. I have an appt with Dr Alskaf on 8/18. I'm not sure if that's when he sends the referral to Lancaster. I did tell his nurse, Wenda, that I wanted to go to Lancaster, so hopefully that will start the process. She told me that it's usually about 4 weeks to get a consult appt and then it could be anytime after that for surgery, assuming all my tests are good and I complete my psych eval. I've already done my blood work, chest x-ray, and ekg, and I have an appt for the psych eval the week after I see Dr. A.

excellent. i'm seeing dr. alskaf on monday, but his office has already referred me for surgery, so wenda probably already referred you, too. i'm interested to hear how this plays out for you. when they told me the wait time for west los angeles, i basically freaked and chose san diego. it sounds like lancaster is much less of a wait. it's so unclear how this all really works. for me, having surgery asap is the priority and distance isn't an issue. i need to get this show on the road!

Hey girls- Joan here- another from the Options classes that ended 7/8. Read alot of your posts gals. I have met with the surgeon in WLA. Was not a good experience at all. Left balling my eyes out. BUT I did lots homework on the various support sites I frequent since then and I am taking the power back. Found out that the dr. is not accurate i what he told me. Has to do with my Crohn's. Really do not want to get my surgery with Dr Kayak any longer. Having to have Upper GI and Colonoscopy for my Crohn's Disease tomorrow, but after that lets roll. Time is of the essence for me. Good luck ladies. Keep me posted.

hey, joan! i was going to email you this week. wtf happened with the west LA surgeon? i know it's a long haul, but have you considered having your surgery in san diego? so far, they've been fabulous. that said, i'm not meeting with the surgeon for two more weeks, so he could end up being a total dick, but i don't think that's how it's going to be. what's the deal with dr. kayak? how many surgeons do the sleeve at west LA?

west LA used to be my base kaiser facility and they sucked sooooooo hard that i fled to panorama city. i LOVE panorama city. love, love, love it. but at west LA, i had nothing but bad experiences. it's like a ghetto kaiser -- i'm talking about the one on cadillac/la cienega. i went there initially because my primary doc was a friend from high school, but the facility was so bad that she wasn't enough to keep me there. so, when i was given the choice to have surgery at west LA i wasn't happy. they're freaky over there.

I think 3 days in the hospital isn't needed unless you have large incision surgery. I stayed overnight, went home the next afternoon, and felt fine throughout. Everyone is different on this account, but if things go well you have just as much of a chance of feeling just fine, like me, so don't go into prepared to be miserable.

that's awesome!!! where did you have your surgery, donna4545?

Although I lived in LA for years, I couldn't get through the Kaiser process, so it wasn't at a Kaiser. I live in North Dakota now, and my surgery was at St. Alexius Medical Center in Bismarck. I really did feel good after surgery; there were no problems at all. Even being the hospital was fine. It sounds weird to say this, but my surgery was actually a really good experience. So don't be scared. Part of what made it such a good experience was the staff's expertise with bariatric patients. For example, ask for a scopolamine patch behind your ear to prevent nausea (ask when the anasthesiologist comes to see you), which is a common post-op complaint, and totally unnecessary. Walk around, sip you fluids when they let you, sleep on your back, and you will do fine.

donna4545, i've heard from several people that they had very good experiences, so i know you speak the truth. i'm expecting everything to be fine and i'm really excited about having surgery. i'm viewing it as an adventure. it's the kaiser bullsh*t that's driving me nuts, which is why i'm going to pacific bariatric. their staff comes very highly recommended and scripps mercy hospital is da bomb. hearing about your positive experience makes me even happier that i'm getting close.

how have you been since surgery? you're just a few weeks out, right? how do you feel emotionally?

It all comes down to me having Crohn's Disease. If it were such a freakin problem- why was I even allowed in the program. I left the surgeons office feeling very defeated and hopeless. But like I said I am taking the power back. Thanks for the 411 on Kaiser LA @ Cadillac. I believe that there are 4 surgeons who perform that surgery there. A referral for Harbor City is being put in. Gonna call Wenda tomorrow. I would do San DIego, but I have no $$ to do that. Feeling frustrated.....