I am attending the free seminar in Maine next Wednesday. I also have a doctors appointment the very next day to talk about a referral with my doctor. I was wondering if you some of you could share your stories about how long it took after the application process, before the surgeon called and then how long after until your date was scheduled?

Depends if you are cash pay or insurance..

Either way, my doctor had a date opened 2-3 weeks after I was approved by my insurance. I had to do the pre-south beach diet 10 days before surgery. Most doctors, depending on your size, do require some type of liquid or south beach diet before hand to shrink your liver up. Since I was insurance, my process was longer.. 6 months of dr. visits and then a few days for approval.

For me it was quite a long process. I started back in Novemer of 2007 and I wasn't banded until July 3,2008! I had to do with my insurance carrier. BCBS Illinois wouldn't approve the surgery until you had 6 mos supervised diet with a Dietician. Once that was all out of the way, it went pretty smoothly. You can do a lot of your other pre-op stuff during your wait.

Waiting that long was agony though, I'm not going to lie. But, here we are all these months later and I've been banded!!! It's all worth the wait!

From my first dr consult to my surgery date was about six weeks. I was very fortunate!

What insurance do you have. Did you have comorbidities?

Harvard Pilgrim Health

I don't know if they are considered co-morbidities; sciatica(lower back pain), soft tissue damage in my feet, heart burn, and I am always tired.