I am meeting with family Dr this morning and want to ask him for a referral for surgery. So nervous he will say no. How did you approach your Dr? What did you say?

Hi! I see you are from Ontario...so I printed out the fact sheet from the OBN website, handed it to my Dr., and said “I want this”.

...and he said Yes.

So long as you have a BMI of at least 40 (or 35 with at least 2 co-morbidites), you’re all good ❤️

I just went straight to the surgeon, didn't get a referral from my primary care doctor. The surgeon offered free seminars about WLS and you just attended, then applied, then went through the process.

I am meeting with family Dr this morning and want to ask him for a referral for surgery. So nervous he will say no. How did you approach your Dr? What did you say?

I'm just went to my primary care doctor explain about all the different diets that had been on still unable to lose weight and keep it off. Told her about how my feet hurt my knees hurt and all of this and said I wanted to think about weight loss surgery and she set me up with an appointment to meet the surgeon and go through all of the process now I'm just waiting for a date.

I also just went straight to the surgeon, my BMI is 36.4. I don't have any comorbidities but would if I didn't do this now. My argument (if he had said no) was going to be 'but this will save everyone money in the long run as I won't get type 2 diabetes, it will help lessen my back pain and hopefully the meds I take for it, it saves a LOT of referrals to specialists in the long run' BUT I didn't need to, GO FOR IT, they might just say yes

I went from my oncologist (who had been trying for 2 years to hammer home that I needed this surgery), to the surgeon. And then I simply told my PCP what was gonna go down. He was only semi-jiggy with it, but skeptical. Oh well...good thing he didn't get a choice in it.

Yeah the general doctor tried the whole diet speech but I said dude I've got 20 years of experience with diets and I'm over it plus I'm getting older and not getting any better I need to do something serious to help me and kick start my butt into gear

Plus my surgeon has his own doctor who does his referrals anyways so WIN WIN ?

I just went to my doctor and asked if I could be referred . She didn’t try to lecture me or anything , just asked me if I realised the appointments would be in London , and referred me .

Edited August 2, 20197 yr by PEGGO

6 minutes ago, PEGGO said:

I just went to my doctor and asked if I could be referred . She didn’t try to lecture me or anything , just asked me if I realised the appointments would be in London , and referred me .

as in London, Ontario? Are you out of the GTA? (I had a choice of Humber or Toronto Western...chose Humber: better parking options)

My insurance required a referral by my primary care doctor. The surgeon gave me an example letter for my doctor to follow. She had a friend who had a lap band and did awesome so she wrote up a real good letter after our meeting. Then I went back and took it to my surgeon. Let us know how it goes.

i’ve had so many drs tell me i need the surgery in the past and it was me saying no .... so when i needed a referral i just said to my GP that i need a referral for weight loss surgery and she wrote one and didn’t say anything else about it. I switched drs soon after to one who says a bit more that’s helpful

hope asking goes well for you

I was really lucky since the bariatric surgeon and my PCM are in the same organization and it was as simple as asking him for the referral and he said I met all the criteria so it happened quite easily.

I also first went to my surgeon to get a game plan. Then I let my PCP know the what/when/how things were going to go after that was settled.

Hope things go well for you!

1st Surgeon and Facility were a referral from PCP, he believed since their facility was both a Center of Excellence and a Catholic institution they would be more likely to go the Extra Mile. Bad error- filled gameplan, instead I turned" the other cheek" got double the emotional bruising and a refusal to perform surgery.
Went instead to my State LandGrant university, which I really wanted from the beginning , Kind people, Wonderful skillful surgeon and everything was on the up and up there.
FYI I have no bias against a religiously owned healthcare system, I have been treated in Methodist, Baptist as well as other Catholic facilities, all wonderful facilities to be at . But remember Satan when he was Lucifer, he was a bright shiny angel until he got envious and tried to a stage a take-over from GOD. Even angels are capable of being "too Big for their Britches" to quote one of my family sayings.
And I located my Final surgeon myself, facility # 1 dumped DR Satan on me, trust your gut, believe you are not stupid, if you ever get poorly treated and always Do what's best for you and Your Future. Your Life may depend on it!

On 8/2/2019 at 7:23 PM, PEGGO said:

I just went to my doctor and asked if I could be referred . She didn’t try to lecture me or anything , just asked me if I realised the appointments would be in London , and referred me .

m.sss, No , London in England ! Sorry , I didn’t realise there was another London !