I have had my first official appointment for my 6 month diet. I called Optum yesterday and got signed up with them. I have United Healthcare Choice through my husbands work. They are requiring 6 monthly visits to include weight, bp, discussion of food, exercise, and a food log from me. I am required just one psych consult, and it has to be a Bariatric Center of Excellence. Those are my requirements per my insurance. I am hoping for an August date for surgery. If I cannot do August, I will have to wait till late October (Sept & Oct 15th deadlines are horrible here). I am optimistic that I can get paperwork finished for a late August date though.

Hi! I started my 6 month wait on Monday February 16th. Hopefully, I will have my surgery in August; however, they said they are usually booked two months behind unless someone cancels. Ugh. I really don't know how to make this time go by. It drives me nutty. It's all I'm thinking about!

Hi! I started my 6 month wait on Monday February 16th. Hopefully, I will have my surgery in August; however, they said they are usually booked two months behind unless someone cancels. Ugh. I really don't know how to make this time go by. It drives me nutty. It's all I'm thinking about!

OMG I KNOW!!! It has basically consumed my every waking minute. I fill the days with lists, recipes, Pinterest, and research. I read everything I can get my hands on. I read as many people's stories and blogs as I can. I want to read it all, The good, the bad. And I also started blogging about my journey too. I am posting a lot of detail about the insurance and the actual happenings that will get me from here to surgery date because for a year I had a hard time finding someone blogging their story about how it all works, in detail. So I wanted to do that. Pinterest was already like crack to me... now it's even worse, LOL

• Ok WOW!!! I feel better I thought I was the only one consumed with this surgery. I am with Kaiser and I have to take a 12 week course start 3/27/15, so that leaves me an August date. I am excited and ready for this change!

There is this one chick on YouTube who has done a lot of cute and informative videos about the surgery. I love watching and reading whatever I can get my hands on.

My first appointment is tomorrow. I have Avmed insurance through my husband but the requirements sound exactly the same as yours. What is Optum?

Optum is like a nurse/healthcare support. I have a case manager i have to talk to every month