can anyone tell me how long of a process it is before you can actually get the lapband procedure done.

After reading many posts about this, I think everyone is different. It depends on many things. Do you plan to use insurance? If so, it takes much longer.

I was self-pay. It only took a couple weeks from day one, which was a consult, to surgery. The only reason it took 2 weeks is because I had to go on a no carb diet to make sure my liver was not too thick.

It is different for everyone. For myself I met with the NP and she submitted my paperwork to the insurance company. I received the approval in about 3 weeks and scheduled all my pre-op procedures. (chest X-ray, Nutrition, Psych, upper GI, EKG, blood work and sleep study) I was able to complete all my appointments in one month.

I met with my surgeon on Sept 30th and have my surgery date for November 12th.

Good luck!

I have to agree, everybody is different. I started with the info session back at the beginning of August and I don't have my surgery date scheduled yet. I just got insurance approval this past Thursday. My husband was approved a week before that. But the insurance coordinator at my surgeon's office said that sometimes they can get insurance approval back in a week, and they will perform the surgery three weeks after approval. So it just varies.

I haven't gotten my approval yet I still have to go to the psych and nutrition visits next week, but I have a tentative date for Dec 2009.:wink2:

Hi Gizg-

It really comes down to you, the doc and insurance.

After having researched quite a bit here is what I know.

Most PPO insurances require a 3 month supervised diet with psych eval - take on the original seminar and pre op visit/test you round out about 4 months if insurance is quick on the approval.

Most HMO insurances require a 6 month supervised diet with psych eval so that ends up being close to 7 months.

Each doc has different requires about having weight loss before surgery or not and if so how much.

And of course each insurance policy is different.

Good luck-

t