Hey everyone feel free to introduce yourselves here, don't forget to add where you are in your journey, and where you are stationed

Are you going the self pay route with civilian doc?I had my sleeve done at a Military Hospital so Tri Care was not and issue bc the funding comes from Tri Care still but in a round about way where they don't need to do individual approvals if the patients meet the Hospital's requirements...

I am using my civilian insurance, which has a $1800 co-pay. I started with the civilian doctor's office early last year. The insurance coordinator was 100% confident Tricare would cover the sleeve. Even after I spoke with them myself, she was adament they would cover it. Long story and much frustration later, (of course) Tricare still won't cover the VSG, only the band and RNY. I was going to go through DDEAMC (our MTF) when my husband transferred from AGR back to regular active duty. During the time lapse, I submitted my civilian insurance to see if it would cover and surprisingly, it did. We will be PCS'ing sometime this summer, so I didn't want to get through most of the pre-op for the MTF and have to start all over again at our next station, IF the new MTF performs it. After going through all of the pre-op hoops last year, I am just ready to move forward with it. We have had Tricare since 1996, I should have trusted my guy (no pun intended...) and known not to waste those months with trying to get it approved.

If I had to start the whole process over, I would have known to go straight to DDEAMC and stay out of the civilian process. Hopefully it will all work out well. My doctor has a good reputation and I have less than a week now until I will be in surgery (8am next Monday!).

Hello everyone!

I just joined VST. My name is Sheena, and my husband is in the Navy. We are stationed in Washington DC, but we live off-post in northern VA. I will be getting the VSG in March and going the self-pay route. So happy to have found this group!

Hey Everyone, My name is Sharonda we are active duty Army, stationed in Fort Bliss (20 years in the army). I just made the decision in January to have the sleeve done. although it is something that I have been thinking about for a while. When the high BP was added to the mixed I decided enough is enough! Since starting the process I feel that everything has been moving really quick. I have my pre-op appointment tomorrow and hopefully I get a surgery date then! I am really nervous, I mean really nervous. I have never had surgery, I have only been in the hospital to birth babies!!! I think I am starting to overwhelm myself! Nice to meet everyone!

Hey Everyone' date=' My name is Sharonda we are active duty Army, stationed in Fort Bliss (20 years in the army). I just made the decision in January to have the sleeve done. although it is something that I have been thinking about for a while. When the high BP was added to the mixed I decided enough is enough! Since starting the process I feel that everything has been moving really quick. I have my pre-op appointment tomorrow and hopefully I get a surgery date then! I am really nervous, I mean really nervous. I have never had surgery, I have only been in the hospital to birth babies!!! I think I am starting to overwhelm myself! Nice to meet everyone![/quote']

You will do fine:) I am happy to report I have been off my BP meds since I started my pre op diet and my doc wanted me off bc it was a diuretic.My BP has been great since surgery!

Hi Ladies, I am 3 weeks out doing great dowm 17 pounds and loving it. How are you ladies doing?

Hi Ladies, I am 3 weeks out doing great dowm 17 pounds and loving it. How are you ladies doing?

...I am on day 2 of the pre-op diet and I have to say day was the hardest but doing well! Thanks for asking, Fair2bslimlady!

You will do fine:) I am happy to report I have been off my BP meds since I started my pre op diet and my doc wanted me off bc it was a diuretic.My BP has been great since surgery!

I started my pre-op diet and it is not a all liquid diet I have been still talking my BP and my Bp has been doing well, so not sure if I will be taking off of them...but time will tell! Can't wait til the 4th, well I can just excited!

Hi everyone.....

We are stationed in San Diego. Hubby has orders to Norfolk, but we are considering that he do an unaccompanied tour there so that his chances of returning back here are greater.

Nice to "meet" everyone!

Hi everyone.....

We are stationed in San Diego. Hubby has orders to Norfolk' date=' but we are considering that he do an unaccompanied tour there so that his chances of returning back here are greater.

Nice to "meet" everyone![/quote']

Hi Kulita:)

Hi All!

My name is Daydra, and I just left a ridiculously long introduction on the 30something group, so I won't do it again here.

I have been a Navy Wife for nearly 15 years and we are stationed at Bangor (Washington State). My husband is on shore duty currently, which I am, of course, extremely excited about. We have managed to stay at the same duty station since we were married in 1999, which is extremely fortunate for us, since we've always been tied to the area by my family and by owning a home here. I am an Environmental Health Specialist (an inspector for local Board of Health regulations relating to solid waste, sewage, food, and Water quality.) and have been doing that for about the last 5 years.

I am currently working on fulfilling all of the requirements for my insurance and am pretty early in the process, but I did a "practice run" nearly a decade ago, so this is only new in that I'm planning a different procedure. I have my own insurance through my employer, so fortunately I have Tricare as my secondary insurance and should be well set up to choose where I go and not have many out of pocket costs. (I'm super thankful for that!)

Looking forward to getting to know all of you and can't wait to hear about all of your experiences!

dd

Hi Daydra!

Hi, my name is Melissa. I just found this group this morning and am so thankful for it. We have been in the Army for 10 years and are currently stationed at Ft Carson, CO we have been here for 2 years and I just had my sleeve done on the 25th of June so I'm still new to everything. My surgeon was Dr. Robert Wilcox and he is amazing. I had my surgery done on post and have had no issues what so ever with Tricare covering the whole thing. I have high cholesterol as well as PCOS. Nice to meet everyone!

Congrats and Welcome!

Hi everyone- I'm Denise and we are stationed at Fort Bragg, NC. I had my surgery at Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Bragg on 6/4 by Dr. Perkins who I LOVE and everything has been going really well except for one of my incisions that is still not healed, but I consider that to be minor.

I'm Al, married to a retired Air Force vet (Lori) and then again I too am a retired Air Force vet. We live in Olympia WA and I got my sleeve done at Madigan on Ft Lewis (JBLM) Jun 7th. I'm civil service working on McChord Field for the Air National Guard. Gained over 200lbs when I retired from active duty, so now I need to loose all of that (and then some) so I can have a healthy retirement with my spouse.