wow i am so excited.. I just got back from the seminar... My husband had to work .. so i brought my brother. They went over everything as far as weight loss surgeries... Going in i was all for the band ..and i still am. The others seem to permanent and scary for me. So now i have my first consultation on thursday :eek: I AM ON MY WAY!!!!:thumbup:

It is exciting, isn't it? I love my band and I'm still in mushies! It's so wonderful to finally have hope of achieving permanent lasting weight loss!

your so right... I cant belive that i am really going to do this. I cant wait until thursday.. because that is another step closer. He gave me a complete folder of drs i need to see with the Rx's... is this the norm??

yes, I think so. My surgeon is attached to a local hospital (his offices are in the hospital etc and he is the director of their "Bariatric unit") so his office staff scheduled all my preop tests for me, at that hospital. Had he been just in an office, he probably would've turned me loose to do my own scheduling. All require slightly different tests but I had to have: Upper GI/Barium Swallow, Psych eval, Nutrition Consult, Chest X-ray, Abdominal Ultrasound, Blood draw (5 vials), an ecg...and I had to bring in urine on the day of my surgery (that was to make sure I'm not pregnant. LOL that ship has sailed but they still test for it to be sure) Had my ecg been the least bit dicey he told me he would require a cardio consult and clearance but it was fine.

The tests are tedious but all for a good reason! :thumbup:

Hi, I just attended my seminar last week and was also given a packet that listed all the testing I have to complete. Because I am self paying, I don't have to do the psych eval or the nutritionist eval. The only tests I have to complete are blood test, chest X-Ray, and EKG. I take these Rx to my primary doctor and have him order them for me. Once completed and I have all the results I take the results to my surgeon and if all looks good, get my surgery date. Yeah !!!!!!!!! :thumbup:

how long did it take from start to BAND...?

how long did it take from start to BAND...?

This is a difficult question because you'll see that it can take anywhere from 1 month to over a year! There are so many variables that come into play to determine when you'll get a surgery date. The only suggestion I have is to just keep on top of everything yourself to make the process go as quickly as possible. Double check, triple check and quadruple check everything that you are told is going to happen. Good luck.

My insurance is tricare standard and because I am so obese, I didn't need comorbidities. Since my doc is in the hospital and all the tests were done in 1 or 2 visits, etc my Seminar was 7/10 and 1st surgery scheduled 8/11. That's pretty fast, especially for "insurance". Self pay moves along more quickly. (and I did a bit of schmoozing and begging to get mine done then) When I couldn't get the band because of my liver, it took another 2 1/2 weeks, but that's on me, not the doc.

Good job on taking the steps to get things rolling. I started my journey (1st seminar) on my birthday November 23 2007. I was approved about a month ago. I think total, start to surgery is 10 months. It goes super fast!! Lots of appts and I had to do the 6 month supervised diet per BC/BS. Tamara

My journey was very fast. I attended a seminar at the end of May, but I didn't call the office for a consultation until June 24. Insurance approved it June 26th, preop July 3rd and surgery July 14th. It was a whirlwind. I didn't really have time to get nervous.