Well, after searching high and low I have finally found out that Kaiser does cover the lap band surgery. :clap2: My PCP referred me to the bariactric surgery center and I am now waiting for my appointments to start. They set you up for all the necessary stuff like physc evaluations, nutritionalists, etc. According to what I was told by the referral coordinator it will take 4 - 6 weeks for me to get into my first appointment and surgery will be approximately 3 - 6 months out. Now most people would be upset about the time table for surgery but considering I was going to have to change my insurance to CalPERS BC PPO and wait to even get started until after Jan. 2008, I'm pretty pleased. My daughter also got her referral from a doctor who was not really happy about giving it even though her BMI is 47 with LOTS of comorbitities. She had to get pretty graphic about what living as a super morbidly obese person was like. So Mom and daughter are on their way. Anyone wanting answers to Kaiser can contact me. I will be happy to share as I go on my journey.

Well, I've had a tough time with fills, so I am currently unfilled. I will probably go for a fill within the next few weeks. When I was filled, I couldn't really eat breakfast. Maybe a protein shake. Then I would eat a Lean Cuisine or soup or some chicken salad for lunch. A snack of yogurt or string cheese. Dinner some fish and veggies, chili, etc. I think I am one of those people who has pretty good restriction without fill, but I am going to try .5 this time.

Oh, I forgot to add that bread was the biggest problem for me. I can't even have a tiny bit or I plug up completely. Mostly I can eat the same foods, just less.

mammatee - Yes my orientation is at 8:30 a.m. on the 5th of June. My husband and I are discussing going down the night before. Traffic will make for a LONG morning commute. But either way I'll be there. I see you have a friend going with you. Are they from around our area? It's really great having someone like my daughter and your friend to go through it with us. I am like you in the fact that I'm so excited I want answers right now. Oh, maybe you can answer me one...did you just go in for your blood work and did you just drop off your paperwork to your PCP or did you need an appointment? I've had a chest x-ray and a full on stress test in March. I have emailed my doctor and asked if the stress test would do in place of the EKG. I would think it would. I'm going this weekend to get my blood work done. I hear we have to loose 10% of our body weight between orientation and surgery. I'm making plans for doing that too. I would love to get this scheduled for this summer.

I have a friend getting a VGS done on the 18th of July and will be out for 2 weeks. We work together and unfortunately they won't let both of us off at the same time. So, I will have to have it done either before or after her. Hopefully they will give us an idea of how long it takes to until we have surgery. I wonder if we have to go to the bay area for fills and if they do them on Saturday. Also, I wonder if we can do our psych/nutritionalist appointments up here.

I wanna be a loser!

Vicki J- I just walked in to the lab and handed them my slip, it's all you need for blood work. I then dropped off my other slip for my Dr. to scedule the x-ray and EKG, by the time I got home his nurse called and said she entered the info. and I could go right over any time (walk-in no appt. ) I'll try to get there on Monday. As for the Psych/nutrition and appt. w/surgeon(3 more) they did tell me they will try to schedule them all in the same day. Probally one full day. They also said these appt. are scheduled fairly quick end of June early July. Said as for surgery that it varies on the person, probally if you have to loose the 10% or not. Do you know if that is mandatory for everyone? As for the fills, not sure, like you, I can only hope it to be local. Not sure if my friend will go thru with this or not, so it's nice to meet others that are local. I want to be completely ready so I can get going ASAP, maybe a swimsuit this summer!! LOL HA HA keep me posted! Thanks for all the info.

Socalgal3 one more question for you, did you still feel hungry with the fill or crave the foods you were used to eating?? My friend is so afraid she'll have all these cravings and blow the whole procedure by eating. IN other words, did you have to be on a "diet" wanting what you couldn't have? My understanding is that your stomache is smaller and you just don't get hungry like before and when you do eat you fill up quickly. Can you enlighten me some more so I can try to help her along. Thanks so much.

mammatee - Thanks for the update. I plan on going to the doctor for another reason on Friday so it will be a fasting day in order to get my blood/urine work done at the same time. The refrigerator will probably get mangled when I get home but I figure it will be great practice for loosing the 10%. I don't know if this is mandatory for everyone. It stated it in some papers that my daughter was able to get ahold of from someone who had been through orientation. That woman is thinking about not getting the band because of this. I think she's just not completely confident that she wants to make the commitment yet.

I'm sure glad they'll try to make all the appointments in one day and that we're looking at getting them in late June/early July. Woohoo. I have a period where I absolutely cannot get the surgery because a co-worker of mine has scheduled her WLS and will be out of the office from July 18 thru Aug. 6. So if they can schedule it before that it will be cool. If not then I wait. I'm ok with that because when I started this I was looking at MAYBE March of next year.

As far as your other question about foods we can eat, from what I have read you can probably eat most anything you want. Different people have problems with different foods. Of course, if you eat the junky empty calories you will be shooting yourself in the foot because it will cause either less or no weight loss. Some people have even gained weight because they don't follow the instructions. I have to say once again that this sounds like someone who might not be ready yet. No matter which WLS you get there are ways around them. You do have to change your eating habits to eat healthy and the band will help with the proportions.

Keep me posted if you hear anymore on the proceedures. We'll see you on the 5th.

Vick! Gahhh I was denied. It's an exclusion, so they say. What are my first steps to appealing?

Sorry I didn't catch this sooner! I would contact obesitylaw.com and see if they have any suggestions. Otherwise I would contact patient assistance. From what I've read if there is an exclusion it's pretty much a done deal.

I have read where people went to their employers and pleaded their case. Some of the people got their employers to delete the exclusion in the policy which gave them the green light to get the surgery. If you are self-pay on the Kaiser plan, contact whoever is your agent and get it changed.

Good luck.