Hi everybody,

I'm 18 and a college student and I've made the decision that I'm going to have the lap-band, and my mom, stop the presses, is actually willing to go along with it.

I've been overweight my whole life, but it's only gotten this bad recently. I was 230 pounds and an adult medium shirt size when I started high school, and 3XL and 300 pounds when I graduated this past May.

I currently weigh 316 and diet and exercise just isn't working. When I started dieting and biking 5 miles a day, I went from gaining 5 pounds a week to only gaining 2 pounds a week.

My mom, who is a lap-bander herself, said to go to my doctor and start the yearlong process, and if I qualify, then we'll go from there. What's the process and can it be done with a general MD?

Welcome!

The best place to start is actually a free seminar near you. If you want to use the same surgeon who banded your mom, find out when his next seminar is. There, you will not only learn about the band but there will people there to help you start the process. A good surgeon has staff who can literally walk you through the whole process from start to finish.

Good luck!

My mom lives on the other side of the state. I can't afford/don't have time to drive 160 miles one way to see him, and I really don't care who does the surgery as long as I get the surgery done. I'm a college student, so my transportation options are a bit limited. The hospital that's 15 minutes from me has a bariatric department, but all it talks about is gastric bypass, something I'd rather not do. I did see a couple personal websites of surgeons that do Lap Band that say they practice at that hospital, but the hospital's website says nothing about it.

Collegebio,

I am going to assume you are covered by your parent's health insurance. One of the key parts of getting medical care, is to understand your coverage. Some plans require you go to your primary physician who will than need to refer you to a bariatric specialist. Others allow the patient to schedule an appt directly w/ the specialist bypassing the primary physician.

Once you figure that out, either get your referral or call the bariatric office of your choice. Most have websites that will stipulate whether they want you to attend educational seminars prior to making an appt. If that's the case, attend the seminar. These usually address all the wls options helping you make an informed decision. After the seminar, you make an appt w/ the surgeon. The first meet is a q&a health and physical assessment, and than a discussion on what steps need to be taken for you to qualify. Some of these are the burden of the docs and some of these are stipulated by your insurance company. Together with your surgeon you'll go through the steps of addressing these prequal requirements. Examples include nutrition classes, psych eval, cardiac eval, sleep study, blood work etc. These varies greatly based on the insur. carrier you have. Once you complete these items, your doc submits the paperwork to the insur. co to get approval. Than it's time to schedule the actual surgery. Some docs require preop diets, but again, it's all highly individualized.

Not sure why it's a year long process. Most can get this done in under 4 months. Some insurance companies require a 6 month supervised diet component, but many of these companies are dropping this requirement recently. Again, contact your insurance company (or go to their site) and figure out what their minimum qualifications are for the band.

Good luck

I called my insurance company some time ago and they said that if I had gotten the ball going back in September, I could have had it done by December. For some reason it took my mom a year to get the Lap Band pre-op process done back in 2010-2011. The local hospital has a seminar on November 9, so I'm headed up there for that. I've got it on my calendar.

As the mother of an obese male, good for you!! When my son, now 35, graduated high school he was at least 400. My son is now doing something, again, about his weight. He cut out all sugars and diary. He was at least 10 cupper a day of hot and iced coffee with cream and 6 sugars.

Just remember to follow your doctor's rules because he/she is different than others. Keep us posted.

What college are you going to, or you can keep it to yourself. Good luck with school.