I have just began my journey. I have attended a seminar and I have my 1st apt April 8th to talk to surgeon. Can anyone tell me what happens next?

A whole bunch of stuff! It all depends on your insurance co if your trying to have them pay ect as to what comes next.

It was a very long process for me. First, my insurance company wanted me to complete a 6 month long weight loss/management class, then I had the surgical evaluation, then I had to attend a four hour class about the different operations, an exercise class, a psychological evaluation, I had to write a paper about why I wanted the surgery, I had to have an overnight sleep test, a EGD scope, a surgical re-evaluation and a manometry test. All the while I had to keep a food diary and exercise log. I didn't think I would ever get the surgery! Oh, I quit smoking AND I had to give up coffee. Fifteen months all together.

But I got my sleeve on the 24th of this month!!

Edited March 28, 201511 yr by VickiCat

It has been a long process for me as well. I had my seminar on Sept/2014. I had to do three month of weigh-ins with my PCP before I could even get a referral to go see the surgeon. It ended up being four months because my dr told me that they could use my previous drs. appointment as a weigh in and apparently she was wrong but no one bothered to call me so I ended up having to do another month and that last month she wanted me to log all my calories.....sigh. Finally got the approval and seen the surgeon on March 20th and he sent in my stuff for my insurance to be approved right away. The surgeon gave me three referrals. One for the Cardiologist, one for the Psychologist and one for the Pulmonary consult. The Pulmonary office had me to a pulmonary function test the following Monday and my appointment with that dr is 4/20. My Cardiologist visit is scheduled for 4/20 (the quickest they could get me in) and I just had my Psychology evaluation today. After that I have to take a four hour nutrition class and make a second visit with the surgeon and THEN FINALLLY someone will call me and schedule the surgery. Hang in there it seems to be a long bumpy ride for most of us

It will all depend on your insurance and surgeon requirements. My insurance requires a 90 day medically supervised weight loss and I have two appointments left to go.

I had a psych eval already. I have a class I have to take in a couple of weeks, followed by an endoscopy the following day. And then once my 90 days is up (early May), the surgeons office will submit to insurance and upon approval, I will have a blood test and chest x-ray prior to my surgery.

I would recommend knowing your insurance coverage and from there you'll get a better idea of what the timeline will look like. Good luck!