Hi everyone! I have been working on getting all of the Dr. appointments, tests, paperwork and aproval done for 7 months now for the surgery. As of yesterday I completed everything and I am now waiting on them to call me to set the date. As so many say, I am excited but I am sooo scared! I will have to go on the liquid diet 2 weeks before the surgery, and that seems like it will be hard. But I am so thankful to have a very wonderful and supporting husband and family. My husband and 5 others of my family have volunteered to go on the 2 week diet with me to support me. Between the Lord and them I am very blessed! :w00t:

That's great that you have such a supportive family! My friends and family have been very supportive as well. Like you I have been going through all of the pre-op red tape. It is a lot of work but I am hoping that it will all be worth it. :w00t: I am meeting my surgeon for the first time tomorrow so I not really sure what to expect but I am hoping all goes well. Keep us up to date as to when your surgery is and how you are doing!! :biggrin2:

Wow....you are blessed!!! That is awesome!!! I cant wait either! im taking care of all the appointments right now. Good luck....you will do great!!

hi. welcome to LBT. best of luck to you.

Melboyd, How did the appt. go with the surgeon?

Melisa1, Have you got a lot more to get done? Have you met with the surgeon yet?

MeMommy~I have my appointment with the nurtitionist on Monday. I have attended the seminar and a meeting on nutrition. (both required). I had an upper GI that will count for the surgery. Other than that i still have to have the other tests done and meet with the surgeon. Then i guess they submitt to the insurance. Today im gonna make my psy appointment and get that out of the way. I have a feeling once this the nutrition meeting is taken care of the ball will roll fast..im hoping anyway. Just hope i dont run into any obsticles with unsurance.:smile2: I have good insurance though that covers 90% and its ppo so. Yeah from what ive heard the surgeon goes over everything about the surgery. He will at that time answer any of your questions and tell you all the risks involved so you are aware of everything. He will talk to you about the importance of diet before and after surgery and what could happen if you dont follow it. Every surgeon is different though in their requirements. Good luck...:ohmy:

Melboyd, How did the appt. go with the surgeon?

I met with the surgeon, Dr. Jiser, this morning and it was just a brief meeting (about 10 mins) he just went over my history and notes from the nutritionist and therapist. He was pleased with my weight loss so far (27 lbs in about 6 weeks ) he asked why I chose Lap Band over Bypass and I explained that I wanted something that was not going to change my anatomy. He said that he just wanted to know that I had thought about my decision. He answered all my questions and was very straight forward and professional. I have another followup with my nutrionist and therapist on the 18th and at that time I should be able to submit my papers to the insurance and have a surgery date for September according to him. Unfortunately I need to wait until the end of the month because I am a teacher and will have just gone back to work, so I need a few weeks to get things settled before I can take time off. I was hoping to have it done over summer vacation but I didn't get started soon enough:thumbdown: Oh Well..

Melisa1, Good idea to go ahead and get the psy. app. I had to wait 3 weeks for that appointment. I had that done this past Tuesday. It was unreal. There were almost 600 question on one of the test. It took me almost 2 hours just for that one test. I was there for almost 4 hours for everything that day. They were suppost to have all my paperwork graded and sent to the surgeons office today. They will set my appintments for the blood work and gi during my 2 weeks diet before surgery. I am ready for a date now!! 7 months has been a long time working on this.

Melboyd, That is one of the same reason I chose the band. Also, I am diebetic and I don't like the risk of the other because of the complications of healing. I want to lose weight not kill myself. Good job on losing the weight too. I have lost 12lb. and I am so ready to lose more.

I cant IMAGINE it taking 6 months!!!! I think i would have found another psy if they said three weeks to wait. lol i get very impatient though....i cant wait for everything to be DONE. as soon as they give me the green light to have this stuff dont it will be done asap and back to back! Ive only been researching since july 15 and feel like everything is going smooth and pretty fast so far. im goint to call in about 30 min to make my psy appointment but if they cant get me in within this next week i will move on to another one. Thanks for the heads up on the test uugg.

I started with the siminar in Jan. and then to my insurance the next day to see if they would cover the surgery. My insurance required a 6 month weight management progess before they would cover the surgery. So I made my appointment with the surgent for 6 months out. Then in the mean time I worked on all the other test and process that I had to do. I also have heart problems and I am diebetic so they required me to have more test than normal. I would have had the psy evualtion already done but I thought the surgents office had to do that, and did not find out until I got to the surgents office that I had to do that myself. But then not all psy will do the testing required for the weight loss programs. I went through 7 before I found one that could do all the test required and that was the fastest they could get me in for the testing. So I have not been able to rush thing, combined with the fact that I live in a little town and I have been having to go 2 hours one way back and forth for most of the testing. I has been a long process for me to say the least. But I am finally there! Just waiting on the call now. ( and I have already called both Dr. offices today to make sure the paperwork is getting there!)

:thumbup:Well good luck with everything...im glad you are finally getting there!! I hope everything goes smooth for me...we will see.

Isn't your psych and nutritionist connected with your surgeon? Mine is all through one center and they have set everything up for me: a pre-op diet, psych visits, and all my pre-op testing and I only have to go to one office to see them. I know that different insurance plans have different requirements but did you have to find different doctors? I'm just curious, it seems like everyones path is different.

The nutritionist is connected with the office. They gave me a number of a psy i could see that does alot of visits for them but i can choose whoever i want. And as far as all of the testing...im not sure yet. I will find out this monday if i go through them or my pcp for it? Im hoping its through my pcp because the surgeon is an hour away but we shall see. :thumbup:

Yeah its weird how when you talk to different people all over things are done differently.:thumbup: Take care and good luck!

I am going through the Weight Loss Center at the hospital in Chattanooga. But my insurance requires a psychological evaluation performed by a psychologist or psychiatrist not associated with the surgical program. Which includes 1. Documentaion of the individual's willingness to compl with both the pre and pos operative treatment plans 2. Interview and evaluation 3. MMPI 2 4. EDI-2 or EAT - 26

Everything else is through them. But I was not aware that I had to get the psy Dr. myself. They give me a list of 3 that I could contact that they could recomend, only one of them accepted my insurance but they were so booked up that I had to wait 3 weeks. It was orriginally 6 weeks but I had them put me on the cancelation list and they called me and moved it up. I even tried calling several out of the phone book, but most of them did not do the testing that I needed done or would not accept my insurance. Anyway I finally got it done and hopefully he has sent in the result to the surgeons yesterday like he said he would.

I live on the state lines between NC, GA, and TN, so my insurance gets complicated alone with the medical Dr.'s being able to cross the state lines. :thumbup: Like I live in Murphy, NC but my insurance will not cover me at the Murphy hospital or the NC Dr.'s. ????????? I have also had to have surgery approval from my lung Dr., heart Dr. and diebetic Dr., and they have required alot of test of their own to give me their approval. I had all of that ready when I got to he surgeons visit because I knew that I was going to need that. I am a very high risk patient for surgery.

Boy this has made me tired just talking about it! hahahaha I am really glad that all of it is over now. Now I am ready for the surgery! :thumbup: