Hi, new to the site and enjoying the start of what looks to be a great support.

Getting VSG on August 8th at Magee Hospital in Pittsburgh,PA

I would really love to increase my support network in the area!

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I'm in PA and considered Magee for my choice of surgery. I'm also considering Dr. Ramanathan, is she requiring you to lose weight on your own before she'll go surgery?

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Im from pittsburgh as well getting mine done at magee! Dr. Ramanathan. Dont have a date yet. Still have to lose 40 more on my own

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Hi there! Awesome! Excited to have others in there area to share support!

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I'm in PA and considered Magee for my choice of surgery. I'm also considering Dr. Ramanathan, is she requiring you to lose weight on your own before she'll go surgery?

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Hi! I have only met once with Dr.Ramanathan and he was very nice. He was also very positive which was helpful. I had a slightly negative experience with a nurse or it could of been a physician assistant...she was a little more challenging about my history with my emotional eating and eating disorder in general.

No, I was not asked to lose a specific amount. They were happy with my weekly weight loss of about .5 to 1 pound and total of 20 pounds I was able to do during the 6 months with the nutritionist. I recommend seeing nutritionist Kim E. If you are going good to continue at Magee. I have UPMC insurance and they required at least 5 months medically supervised weight loss.

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I live about 3 hours from Pittsburgh, and have a doctor in my hometown I've been going to see, and will need to see a nutritionist for 6 consecutive months before surgery. Is it ok for me to find a nutritionist around my area that's closer to me? I don't want to have to travel so far every month

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I live about 3 hours from Pittsburgh, and have a doctor in my hometown I've been going to see, and will need to see a nutritionist for 6 consecutive months before surgery. Is it ok for me to find a nutritionist around my area that's closer to me? I don't want to have to travel so far every month

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Yes, it really depends on your insurance. Magee requires either 6 months medically supervised with a nutritionist or pcp as they have paperwork they need to complete. Once you complete that they require a nutritional assessment and I'm not sure if it has to be done there. Then they will require a sleep study, ekg, chest xray, endoscopy and bloodwork (maybe some other stuff too it just depends on your medical history and so forth) once you get all of that done they send it to insurance for approval and then you get a surgery date! I am going to my pre-op appointment next week which I was told is 3-4 hours long with overview of surgery, post open and more education. Only thing left after that is getting pcp to clear for surgery (require you to have that Within 30 days from surgery). It's a process but it makes sense as it gives you time to shift your eating thoughts/patterns/behaviors to prepare for surgery.

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