male only Waiting, waiting, waiting . . .

[Jonnycat1 0]

Hello all. I'm a 34 yo male in the Portland, OR area. Found out recently that my insurance will cover the lap band procedure if I meet the criteria. I clearly meet the criteria, have had the initial seminar required, filled out all of the necessary paperwork, met with my doctors and had them send over all the information. My file is currently under review by the Bariatric Surgical group at OHSU so I'm in the waiting game. I have scheduled my psych eval. for tomorrow to get that out of the way to expedite this process. Can anyone give me any advice on how long this may take? I have been told that my case will pretty much be a slam dunk through the insurance, as the surgical group has a premiere relationship with my insurance company, once the file has been approved and they start scheduling me, what's after the nutritionist and psych. eval? A meeting with the surgeon? Then scheduling the surgery?

I don't know anything about how this works, so I'd like to find out from someone who has done this and roughly what kind of time I'm looking at here. I just get up every day wishing this was all over and I was on the way to getting back in shape and dropping weight. It's so hard to keep trudging on at a snail's pace. I know it fill finally come, but seriously. How much longer??!!

Thanks.

[DavidB 0]

Had mine done last year and can't remember exactly...thinking around 6 weeks. I was self pay so it might be longer with insurance.

At least you are on your way and that is the good news.

[dwrd73 0]

My first visit with the surgeon was on July 2nd. I knew I had to see my cardiologist so I did that ahead of time. I still had to go back and get a cardiac clearance which I was able to squeeze in really quickly. My psych eval and nutritionist appt was the same day on July 5th. It took a week for the psychologist to get her report in. I didn't understand why it took so long because her report was the last thing I needed. I had all my pre op testing completed in about a week and a half. My paperwork was submitted to insurance on a Friday afternoon. I was approved by the following Tuesday. However, I am still waiting for the surgery. My doctor only performs the lap band on Mondays so his first available is August 25th. I really can't complain. It will be less than two months from my first consult until surgery. That's pretty quick compared to some people, especially since I am NOT self pay. The first hospital I looked into had a six month class (which did not start again until August) and then about a month wait after the class. If I would have gone with that hospital I would not be getting surgery until at least the end of February or March. I'm glad I switched hospitals.

I meet with the surgeon again on August 14th to go over the procedure and pre op diet. I have to do a two week pre op diet starting on August 11th.

So that's my story. Everyone is a little different, but it does sound like you are getting things done. One tip to get this done a little faster is to ask your doctor's office to pencil in your surgery on the schedule once all your pre op testing and appointments are finished. My doctor's office would not do this until I was approved by my insurance. However, they did it for my wife after they saw how quickly I was approved by the insurance.

Anyway, you are on the way and soon you will be banded (maybe even before me). Good luck and keep us posted.

[ElusiveQuality 22]

Mine took about 4 months. The group I went with intentionlly slow rolls the process to make sure you're ready mentally for the surgery and want to do it, not just a desparate grab at a solution. I didn't need to do any supervised dieting, the process was just that slow.

I started off with the informational seminar then set up an appointment with a doctor (2 week wait). Got his approval and then had to do psych, pulmo, diet, etc. All set up by me and nothing had a quick lead time. After that, I had to wait for formal insurance approval (3 wk) then I got to do the ultra-sound, blood work, ekg, etc. Once all that was cleared I got a surgery date a month out.

I started out in late March and got banded on July 18. Your experience will likely differ.

Edited July 31, 2008 by ElusiveQuality

[jpell1275 0]

hey man ,

First congrats from making such an important life changing choice. Im 32 years old and was just banded 7/21/08 ...... following my docs directions to a tee i have already lost over 40 lbs. I was on a liquid diet for 2 weeks pre-op and lost 26 lbs.... then banded and have lost the other 14 in 11 days.... its easy if you are ready to make the changes needed. Now, they say everyone loses differently and every doc has different diets to follow so do not expect the loss, it will come.... as far as being ready, i dont think you can mentally prepare yourself to only eat 2 tablespoons of food and feel full but if you eat slow enough it helps. I just think about being able to eat solid foods in 4 more weeks. My best advise is to have a positive attitude, follow the diet to a tee and dont push the food intake at all. Eating to much can cause vommiting and until the surgery is completly healed they say can cause slippageof the band, then its useless. 2 days after my op , i started walking 2 miles a day, im sure thats helping. If you havent started the process of seeing all your docs it may take a while. I guess some insurances take longer then others to approve it , but the day i got my list of what i had to do ... i called every doc and got the soonest appt. so i was done with my pre-op appts within a month and obviously showed initiative and was banded faster. if you have anymore questions you are more then welcome to post them and ill do my best to try to answer them to the best of my knowledge. i really found that talking to people that have gone through the process helped me out alot sofar. Good luck