My husband is stationed in HI and I just got a referral from my pcm on friday. He told me that it will take a week or two to hear from my surgeon fir my first visit. I know the process is a little bit different since I don't have to go through insurance because im getting it done on tripler army hospital. Has anyone gone through the military to get it done and if so what was the timeline like?

Hi dear Welcome,so glad you joined. I hope that you can get different opinions here =)

I have talked to three people who got the vertical sleeve through the military. They get put on a waiting list for their surgery date after the pre op process.

Yes, I had mine done on 2/27/12 at Moncreif Army Hospital at Fort Jackson. I was a lap-band revision, so I did not have to go through too many ropes. I had to see the NUT, had an upper GI and EGD, echocardiogram. I saw the surgeon on January 31, 2012, and was scheduled for surgery on 2/27/12. Very easy process for me, we are tricare retired, but I did not have to go through tricare at all. I called the surgery center and they took care of the everything. I will pay 34.05 out of pocket for the hospital stay. I am two weeks post op, and feel great, some acid. You will love your experience, they treat you real nice.

For the lap band it was about three months before surgery. This was a civilian doc in Atalnta. I had to see a pscyh, Nut, Lung specialist, sleep study, and I had already worked out for months to lose. My PCM knew this and passed on the information. This was tricare approved, because we were still active duty in 2008. My doctor at Fort Jackson told me that since I had the lapband already, it would be a shorter wait time. If you are new to WLS, it will be probably about a 2-3 month wait. Tripler may have a longer wait time, because of more patients and not as manysurgeons. My mother-in-law and father-in-law live in Guam and my father-inl-aw has been to Tripler for surgery a couple of times. I don' think your wait time will be that long.

I was sleeved at Portsmouth naval. There is a waiting list that you go on after you finish all of the prerequisites and the length just depends on the installation. Tiffykins is the Tricare guru on here!

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There is a thread on here titled "Tricare Advice" by Char, and it is very informational for retired and active duty. It helped me when I sought to revise, and I followed her instructions, and it was smooth saling from there. The thread is called Tricare Advice and it is about a year old.

Just google "tricare gastric sleeve", for some reason I can't find through the search on here.

Since your going to the mtf with tricare it can take from a few months up to a year. They will give you a check list of tests and classes that need to be done. Out here in San Diego, ca at NMCSD I had to get a psych eval(3 visits), sleep study, upper GI, chest X-ray, EKG, labwork, pap smear, nutrition consult, bariatric surgery class(2 days), healthy weight class(3 days) and at least one support group! It took me 9 months but I knew it would be at least 7 because they wanted me to be at least a year postpartum...then it took another month because the nurse practitioner that did scheduling was on leave but I finally got my date for 3/26! One of the ladies in our support group had her surgery out there and looks great now Oh, and if you have tricare prime they cover all of it 100% I haven't had to pay a thing. Good luck on your journey!

Well I went to the initial visit. They said on average it takes anywhere from 4-6 months depending on how proactive you are in getting everything done.

@tonyswife ~ we're stationed in HI as well and I tried to contact Tripler numerous times to see how I can get into that program. Unfortunately, no one has returned my calls. How did you go about getting yourself into the program?

I am getting a band to sleeve revision done at Tripler tomorrow. The revision route is a lot faster. I went through the program for the band about 3 years ago. I started in Feb and it was done in Nov. That was about average for that time with one surgeon who got deployed. Now there are 3 surgeons doing the procedures so I'm sure it's faster. Their pre-op program is pretty comprehensive. Although I lost about 40# with the band, it has not worked well for me. I can only eat soft (usually higher cal) foods or I puke. I needed better nutrition so I decided on a revision to sleeve.

Yvette, the bariatrics nurse, is really in your corner, so use her!

Anjelika... go to a PCP and have him do a referral. When I went initially, it wasn't even MY PCP... any one can see whether you would be a candidate and put in a referral. It's not up to the PCP to decide, the bariatrics team has the requirements. The PCP just puts in the referral and gets the ball rolling.

Ho to ur pcm and ask them for a referral. And then they give you a call for the initial visit.

What surgeon did u have at tripler?

I appreciate your input. I actually left a message on the yvette's phone, but didn't get a return call.

Anjelika,

Yvette isn't good about answering those calls! I've been trying to reach her that way for a month! I did find out that she did what I asked about on the message I left (my documents for medical leave). She is very busy. Start the process with a PCP and then you will be in her system. Good luck!

Anjelika,

Yvette isn't good about answering those calls! I've been trying to reach her that way for a month! I did find out that she did what I asked about on the message I left (my documents for medical leave). She is very busy. Start the process with a PCP and then you will be in her system. Good luck!

Thank you so much!

How long did it take to go through the revision process? I had a band put in in may 07 and its not working still. tried everything. wanting to go through tripler since my husband is active duty. thanks

I had my surgery with Dr Payne on Thursday and it went very well. It was a little ironic that when I awoke in my room my nurse was Nurse Panic.... Dr Payne, Nurse Panic... I see some sort of theme going here! (Her name was actually "Paneesh" but it read Panic on her name tag!)

I had my band done in Nov 08 and went to have a re-eval done in Jan 12. I probably could have done it sooner but my life wasn't ready for surgery.

I am feeling great. Feel slightly like I was hit by a Mack truck but am moving well and only taking tylenol now.

This was an easier seeming surgery to me. I think I was in better shape than the original. I was up and walking every 2 hours and in little pain... thanks to the PCA I had little pain the entire time.