Anyone have surgery in Charleston, SC...my first visit is 2/21 ...trying to estimate a timeline

Timeline i would guess would be different depending on if you are using insurance or doing self pay.

it's hard to say because it's dependent on a few things - and now you can factor COVID surges into the mix (a lot of surgeries have been delayed/rescheduled the last couple of years when we've gotten hit with a surge and the hospitals are full). The above comment is correct - if your insurance is covering it, it'll likely take longer than if you were self-pay since insurance companies often have you fulfill requirements above & beyond what the surgeon requires.

A lot of insurance companies require a six-month supervised diet before surgery (supervised by a PCP or registered dietitian). Surgeons, on the other hand, often require sleep studies, endoscopies, blood draws, classes, and sometimes (cardiac) stress tests.

mine was covered by insurance, but I did my six-month supervised diet before I formally joined the program. I joined in early January (2015) and could have scheduled my surgery as soon as late March, but since I worked in education, I waited until June. If I hadn't done the diet beforehand, then I wouldn't have been able to do it until the summer *anyway*.