Hello Everyone, I am completely new to the whole process of sleeving. To let you know a bit about where I am at, I have just had my first visit with the sergeon who has explained to me how much the surgery will help me personally and that his staff would help me with the remainder paperwork. I have had blood work done, and was informed that I would need to go through a 90 day process with a dietician, and since my BMI was 42, I will only need pre-op routine exams, (ekg, xray, etc) a eval from a psych, and afterwards my paperwork will be submitted to Aetna for approval. I have checked with my insurance and saw that I do meet all the criteria for the procedure and that the steps the physician told me were accurate. What I need to know is what can I expect to happen during the psych eval, the nutrition consults, and possibly a time frame of how long it takes once I have completed the required steps as listed above. Your input is greatly appreciated.

Update # 2..... Completed all required documents, test, proceedures etc for Aetna on May 28th. Documents submitted on May 29th, Approval via phone given on today!!!! Whoo Hoo!!!! I had my initial appointment with physician on January 18th and five months later we have and approval. Waiting now to schedule a date for sleeve procedure.

I have Aetna and I only had to do 3 mos of a supervised diet wich was meeting with the Nut 3 x and going over what I eat etc. I didn't have to do a pre op diet. It was all so easy. The time frame was 11 mos from consult to surgery date.

Thanks for posting Rycherchick, My journey seems to have been very similar to yours. My initial visit was on the 18th of January, I had my EGD done about two weeks later, I had my Psych eval done and initial Nut visit in Febuary and three more followed approximately 30 days apart from one another for a total of four appointments. It ended on May 28th. In the mean while, My doctors office clerk was working behind the scenes getting the other information that would be needed which was a two year history of being overweight. Since I had already been seen by another physician a few years back and was on Phentermine for a while, I had that taken care of. So all in all, it does seem to be a smooth transition. I can say that I have a great group working for me. (I also have nurse co-workers that had the same proceedure who are helping me through the initial process and helped me know what to expect. It is great to say that they have also become a great support system for me and while I will be in the hospital, one nurse has opt to be my personal nurse/coach through the healing process! I am so blessed throughout this whole ordeal. I can't wait to be beautiful again!

UPDATE: I had recieved a date for July 22nd for surgery, but now it has been moved to July 29th! Hey, I am not gonna complain. I will take it! I have come a long way from my initial post and I am still trucking until that day I change me forever. I am SOOOO excited! I am not telling everyone though, because there are always some nay sayers and negative people that have everything to say about it, and none of it is going to help my situation. So only my husband, parents, grandfather, oldest son, and a few co-workers know. Now, it seem like father time is on tons of sleeping pills?