I've got a followup appointment in April with my bariatric doc. I was self-pay and had visits included in that cost out through 1 year, but April is going to be about $60 since I am well over a year out now.

I get nothing from the visits at this point. I am OCD about what I eat (record every bite of food every single day), exercise (training for a 5K currently, yoga, bodyweight), still losing weight but not at my goal (it's gonna happen this year, but not soon).

My doc wanted this coming appointment because he felt I was still not a successful WLS patient in his eyes, so the way he made it sound, this appointment is to hopefully get the success box checked off as far as weight lost (he wants to have all patients lose 70% of their excess weight to consider them a success, and I'm technically just 5 pounds away from that right now). But he's also not good about the fact that muscle weighs more than fat and discounts my measurements compared to actual poundage lost. Which is a bit discouraging considering I am really proud that I've lost so much fat and gotten some lovely sleek muscle stuff going on now.

And it's been mentioned every single visit about how he considers the patients that come in regularly for the rest of their life (like 2-3 times a year) to be more successful than the ones that disappear after 1 year (but then, how would he know if he never sees the ones that disappear?) But in any case, he's been setting up the keep coming in for checkups thing since the beginning, which if my insurance covered it and/or I felt I was really getting value out of it, I could see, but I don't have a checkmark in either of those categories.

I am still working towards my goal. I am consistently losing weight, albeit slowly, but I'm putting on quite a bit of lean muscle too. I am still tracking everything, not letting stuff slide or neglecting anything. I don't care a bit about the surgeon/NUT approvals or "atta-girls" considering I'd have to pay for the privilege.

So do I really need to go? Is there any reason I'm not thinking at this point other than wasting my time and money to get approval or non-approval depending on what arbitrary level they think I've achieved?

Well...

Do YOU really need to go?

Will YOU get value for your money/time/effort?

If yes, then yes...

If no, then...

Well...

I'm sure you get where I'm coming from...

I'm thinking I'll be cancelling the appointment come Monday. I do not think there's anything else I need from them at this point. I can always go back if I need a refresher and can't find answers out on the interwebz.