I feel like I am hitting a bit of a wall. I have been to so many appointments in the last three months and I’m starting to feel overwhelmed, because I’m missing a lot of work to go to all of the appointments... and I really need my job. I think I’ve had around 14 surgery-related medical appointments since January? Is that normal?

A little excessive unless you aren't required to do 6 months supervised dietician appointments, and surgery is soon.

Most are spread out - cardiology clearance is usually early and 1st dietician appt, then psych eval, sleep study, then the last month is EDG, labs. In between is a monthly dietician appt.

Really depends on the program. The first one I was in (for nearly two years) made me see my primary care physician, a nutritionist, a physical therapist, and a nurse practitioner or bariatrician every month, plus a social worker occasionally. (That is PART of the reason I switched programs -- it started to feel like they were just after my money from the co-pays.) The program I'm in now only required one visit each to a nutritionist, physical therapist, psychiatrist, and nurse practitioner (granted, by the time I switched to them, I had already surpassed my insurance's six-month requirement, so I'm not sure if that would have made a difference, but all the program itself required was one visit to each).

My insurance requires 7 months of nutrition visits, an abdominal ultrasound, cardiology clearance, a sleep study, upper endoscopy, 3 month check in, blood work, and a psych evaluation. I’ve completed everything but the psych evaluation. It does get a bit overwhelming at times and some of the places required more than one appointment (consult, study, results). Hopefully your job is understanding. Best wishes and good luck!

It is good that this period of time must elapse. This way you can study about its physical impact, the emotional changes you will go through. You weigh the positives, the negatives, then you make the decision for yourself. Is it worth the time, effort, commitment I must make to ensure success? Each,of us must make the decision for it is Your Body and the person you must satisfy is You! If like Martin Luther you can say "Here I Stand, I Can Do Naught Else" I would say you are ready for what must come until you reach your weight loss journeys end.[emoji14]

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My program is pretty light I only needed 2 visits outside of the 7 in my actual program. The 7 visits in the program are the first with the surgeon and 6 with the nutritionist and at the final visit it is nutritionist surgeon and I take a test to make sure I am prepared for the surgery I also pick my surgery date and my office does this cool 3d body scan to see how your weight is distributed all around your body. The only other things my surgeon required of me was a letter of support from my Pcp a psych eval but and my cpap compliance and sleep study. The last requirement I can do by phone because my cpap has a modem in it and they can just pull the data off of it from the office even while I sit in my house

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15 hours ago, insta_adventurer said:

I feel like I am hitting a bit of a wall. I have been to so many appointments in the last three months and I’m starting to feel overwhelmed, because I’m missing a lot of work to go to all of the appointments... and I really need my job. I think I’ve had around 14 surgery-related medical appointments since January? Is that normal?

Yes. :-)

I guess it just depends... in total I've had... maybe 9 or 10? Since October.

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The program I am in states it is a 6 month program but it has taken me 14 months to complete everything. This is mainly because it takes so long to get an appointment with certain specialist, such as the sleep medicine doc, and The GI specialist.

but it’s all for a good reason, we need the clearance to make sure we are making the right decision and are prepare for this life changing event.

Not sure if it helps, but maybe let your superiors know about this difficult time for you. And it’s ok to take longer in the programs, maybe just take one day off and go to some appointments or space them out so it doesn’t seem like you’re taking off so much. I am lucky that my job is flexible and I can work on weekends. Kudos to yo and hang in there!

I look at it as: it took a while to add this weight, it will take a while to subtract it. Short of having someone slice it off of me like fat off a pork chop, there could and would be a lot of work involved. Knew that when I started but I am taking every chance to learn as much as I can on this journey. And as I learn and the calories burn I'm making deposits into my Healthy Account, and it will serve me well in my future days. It will mean more to me for the work and time I have put into it than if I had been hit by a lightening bolt or did it over the weekend. And I can live strong and vibrant until death, that will be when it comes but there is no longer any hurry to get there.[emoji304]

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