I'm thinking about getting surgery and have my first appointment in Feb. I was wondering what your timeline from first visit to actual surgery. If there was a delay or anything like that also let me know too. Thanks so much!! :-)

Had my first visit with the surgeon on December 14th. Had endoscopy on Dec 22 and Sleeve on Dec 26. Returned to (office) work on Dec 28.

Flew to Europe for 10 weeks on January 8th. I am now back in Houston and finding that most of my clothes are way to big. Love it!!

Hi. I had my first visit end of July, 2017 and was required to have 3 months of nutritional counseling but the nutritional counseling was normally 6 months so I had 2 nutritional appts/month. I called all doctors (pulmonologist, cardiologist, gastroenterologist, mental health nurse practitioner - I was already seeing her so she wrote my letter) and set appointments. All were set pretty quickly except the pulmonologist whose staff I later discovered were rude and unprofessional. The pulmonologist first requires a PFT test. I couldn’t get my second visit with her until a month later. Major delay. Then, her staff advised me that they’d have the sleep center call me to set up a sleep study. No call. I kept checking in with their office for 3 weeks. When I called the sleep center, nobody picked up the phone nor was there voicemail. It was all strange. I explained the urgency as I’d everything done by my next surgeon’s visit except this bc I was losing time waiting just to schedule the sleep study. The office staff’s excuse was the center was waiting on insurance. I called my insurance, not true. The sleep center had never requested pre-approval for the sleep study in early September. Now it was the end of September.

I wrote a complaint to the BBB. And I scheduled with my nearby hospital. The pulmonologist staff refused to work with the hospital staff! It was not true either. They are supposed to. Oh, and they also wanted me to pay full-price for my visits upfront. Over $150 when I have a $40 copay which I pay with a FAA card.

The BBB lit a fire under the sleep center’s a**es bc I got a call a week later. They were willing to do a home study in 2 days. I didn’t want to initially bc they were lousy but I wouldn’t be able to get everything else done before the end of the year which was important financially. They also got me in to see a different pulmonologist the following week. It was clear that I wouldn’t have this done by the end of October bc of the mistakes of the first pulmonologist and this sleep center.

I pushed hard...constant calling to get my paperwork done. Many times I’d hear, “I’ll call you later today.” Or, “I’ll have that done tomorrow.” It was NEVER true.

My surgery was 12/28/17 but it would have been in November if the original pulmonologist and the sleep center didn’t screw up so badly.

*FSA

So, I lost one month from when pulmonologist did my PFT to when my second appt was, one month apart and another approx. month from second visit to when I discovered the sleep center never requested a pre-approval from my ins. And, by the way, my PFT was perfect. Why not give a sleep study slip the day of the PFT?

Later found out that staff was abrasive and unwilling to work with hospital bc the dr has a financial interest in the sleep center! This was never shared with me up-front.

Please know that you do not have to go to exact dr your doctor refers you to. Ask dr. if you’re unsure. I expected top-notch care as this was a referral and was in dismay. Believe me, I told my surgeon this too.