:smile:

Dr. Schwartz banded me on May 26,2009 at TMC Hospital in Tucson Arizona, just want to give him a shout out on this website for helping me out and changing my life, Thank you very much Doc.

hi there! i saw that you had Dr. Monte Schwartz! i just was approved to see him! WOOHOO. i was wondering if you could tell me a little about him and what you had to go through. i know some of the things i have to do but not all. do you HAVE to bring prof of being on diets like WW and south beach?? or can you just let them know? is he nice? thanks so much for all your help! im just waiting for them to call me with an appt to meet him. thanks again. ( i do know that tricare does not requier you to do a diet program before the surgery)

karen

Dr Scwartz is "different". He does not talk much. Between my pre-op, day of surgery, post op and first fill, I estimate I've spent about 10 minutes total talking to him. He gives you a lot to read, so you have the info, you just won't have long conversations. I did see him smile once though - as he was swinging around with syringe in hand to give me my first fill. But.. I should add, I have had no complications from my surgery to include very little post op gas pain. If he's a great surgeon, I don't care if he's a great conversationalist or not.

The more info you take to him from your prior doctors, the easier it will be to get through tricare. He will also require that you get a psychological consult. Even if you have to pay out of pocket, I recommend going with the psych he recommends in Tucson. She knows exactly what questions to ask and how to write it up to improve your odds of getting approved.

If you go to his website, it will tell you a little bit about his requirements. If you do a search on this website for tricare, you'll find what others had to provide to get approval.

Good luck!

Oh i hope he lets me get the surgery!!!??? i called their office and they said if i could to bring in my med. records from the last 5 years. i went in today and filled out fourms to get them. hoping to get them tomorrow! im just waiting on a phone call for an appt. but i dont think i can do blood work or see the psych tell i go in and see the doc first!? what did you have to do before your surgery??? thanks so so mcuh!

karen

I thought I responded to this, but I don't see it, so forgive me if I manage to respond twice.

You will also need a letter of medical necessity from your primary doctor. If you take that letter, with your records, you will be ahead in the game. He will give the info about the other evaluations you will need. For me (based on insurance), I just had to do psych eval. Then they submit all the paperwork to insurance. Once it's approved, you'll go back to Schwartz's office for a presurgical appt. Then they will give you the info for blood work and xrays and all the info for the preop diet.

Let me know if you have more questions and I'll try to help.

Good luck in your journey!

got one more q for ya! did you do all your tests like blood work and all that their at their office. or do you have to go all over the city to get stuff done. thanks so much

At the pre-op appt (after Tricare has approved the surgery), he will refer you to various places and give you your surgery date. It's very fast from this point forwardd. For me, it was a nurse practitioner in Tucson for the pre-op consultation and EKG, an Xray place in Tucson and blood work at whatever lab you want to go to (I used the lab in Sierra Vista).

The X-ray place is two driveways down from Dr. Schwartz's office, so I went to that immediately after the pre-op appt. You need to get the lab work done before the visit with the nurse practitioner, so I scheduled those at my convenience. The pre-op with the nurse prac was one week prior to surgery.

Feel free to ask any questions you may have and I'll try to help. Schwartz will answer questions, but most of the info you'll get will be from his staff.

thanks so much! sorry for buging you so much! that helps out allot. thanks again

Good luck with your appointment today. Let me know how it goes!

thanks! im on my way now so ill let you know soon! (fingers crossed)

Let me know how it went!

it went great! LOL i got lost on my way there ( thanks mapqwest) so i was on the phone with them forever so by the time i got there they already knew who i was LOL. Dr Schwartz was very nice and said that he will do the surgery! so the next step is to see the psych on the 11th then they will sent off the info to tricare to see if they will approve the surgery!! im going to see the psych that works at their office. i have no clue what comes next! cant wait!

I'm glad you were able to get your surgery done through Dr. Schwartz. My experience with his office was a nightmare. I must have given his staff everything at least twice. I'm sure glad I made copies of everything. In the end, his staff member who was in charge of calling the insurance company for approval, carelessly left my records locked in her desk while she went on vacation.

Finally, I bid that office goodbye and switched to Dr. Stephen Burpee. His staff is terrific and the hospital where he performs the surgery is a "center of excellence", which my insurance now required. All the prelim stuff is the same but his office was much more competent than the Schwartz's.

You should be aware when going to Dr. Schwartz that, once you've had surgery, you will likely never see him again. He does only the surgery - his Physician Assistant does all of the fills. My experience with the clinic - in general - has NOT been a positive one.

I have been battling my weight all of my life. Fortunately being fat has been my only health problem until this spring when I was diagnosed with high blood sugar and high blood pressure.

I've decided that drastic measures are called for!

My insurance does not cover the surgery so I am going to

give myself the gift of lap band surgery for my 58th birthday.

I have an appointment with Dr Schwartz on July 26.

I chose him because of his affiliation with Tucson Medical Center, because he has two surgeons in the operating room and for all the post-op resources that he offers.

A good friend of mine was an emergency room nurse. She always told me that the best surgeons were not very sociable. I guess they spent their time studying instead of honing their social skills?

Anyway, all I want is a great surgeon. Also, I like it that this is all they do.

I am very excited anda little nervous. I'm sure I'll have more questions as I go along.:cool: