hi everyone. my name is Delores, my husband Brandon and i live in washington with our beautiful son Jet. Brandon is in the navy.

i have been over weight all my life. and it's time for a change.

my motivation is my 9 month old. i want to live long enough to see him grow and see him have his own family. i want to be able to keep up with him when we go out and play. i want to be able to do everything my husband can with him.

i hope and pray that i will get approved to get the surgery. :mad:

Edited September 8, 200917 yr by dwilkienson

Hi Delores! My name is Brittany. My husband is in the Army and we are TriWest as well. I went to see my PCM to get my referral for a surgeon last week and still haven't heard anything. :thumbup: I log onto the TriWest website everyday hoping for some results. I've read on here and have been told that TriCare is very good at approving you as long as you meet their requirements. I meet the 200% over my ideal body weight. So my PCM said I was a good canidate. We will see! I hit my breaking point when I couldn't keep up with my 14month old. So we have something in common! Anyways I just wanted to say hi and congrats and goodluck on your journey!!

I hope everything goes well for you! I have TriSouth and I am not so patiently waiting for Approval also. I also meet the 200% requirement. My Surgeons office submitted all the paperwork last Thursday, and this wait is torture! I am so excited and nervous!

When I went to my PCM for the initial referral I wondered why it had taken so long for tricare to approve. After 2 and a half weeks of waiting I called my PCP and turns out they had not sent it in! Once we got everything figured out they sent it and it was approved in a couple of days.

So you might want to double check with your PCM to make sure they sent it to tricare.:thumbup:

Edited September 9, 200917 yr by jenn79co

i meet the bmi and the 200% requirements, and i have other medical issues that also is in the requirements.

does anyone know how long does it take from the point you get approved to when you get the surgery?

My surgeon said once I get approval the process goes along pretty quickly. But I think they are all different.

It took me patiently waiting for 3 weeks before I called my PCM and it turns out they never sent my paper work in. Now I'm just waiting till the 15th of Oct. for my first class. My surgeon (who I haven't met yet) makes everyone do a four month program before surgery. I learned that even though TriCare approves you, you still have to meet whatever requirements your surgeon wants. So I have to go to a physc eval and see a nutritionalist, plus all these weight loss classes and go on supervised walks! Its CRAZY!!! Starting to consider flying to my home state and having it done there. I know it would only take about a month or two in Alabama. Instead of waiting 5 month here in Hawaii. But I think yours will go way smoother! Tricare has been pretty good from what I can see with approving people! SO goodluck!!

TriSouth didn't give me any hassle at all, but we had a great surgeon putting together a program to help as many people as possible at Fort Hood. We did the pre-op class and screening as a group and got our psych eval sent in and they pretty much put us right on the waiting list. Did mine back in April, was banded 25 Sept 2009. Hang in there, keep calling and making sure they are doing their part on their end. Good luck. :smile:

Delores, Keeping my fingers crossed for you!

Best of luck to you, Delores

I have Tricare and they took less than one week to approve the lap-band®. This was in mid December. I could have had surgery on January 4, after my pre-op diet but I decided to put it back one week so I can at least enjoy Christmas dinner. From my initial visit with my primary to ask for the referral, to my surgery date, it only took about 1 1/2 months. It happened so fast that I didn't even really have time to let it sink in. I guess that is a good thing.

Edited February 6, 201016 yr by _Dawn_

I have Tricare South and was approved in 48 hours! I go in for my surgery next Wednesday (Feb. 10th) and was just approved on the 4th... Hope yours goes as well...

Good Luck! I hope they approve you as well! I am a Navy wife and I too, will soon be doing the tricare tango. I have tricare standard tho, So I have no idea what I will be getting myself into. I am making my phone calls Monday =)

I am still waiting to hear from TRIWEST....I know my stuff was faxed to them on Thursday afternoon....Waiting is killing me though.