[Justmesweetpea]

How many stupid doctor's appoints to I have to to go to!?!?!?!? I am going crazy trying to keep track. I know it is best for me to know everything that is going on inside me before I have this life changing surgery, but ENOUGH already! 7 appointments so far this month & 1 more next week. Then in August 5 already scheduled. I just want to get approved and get started. Ok thanks for letting me vent.....I think I fell better....maybe I should post more often. Thanks for listening. Have a great rest of the week.

[cleeclee]

dang I only had 3 including my psych eval- But as I go through this and now 2 months out I wish I had been more informed

[mj2903]

It seems to go in spurts, but as I was waiting for approval, my husband was in the hospital and off work for nearly 2 months, his appointment schedule was awful, I think there were some weeks where he had 1014 appointments, he had physical therapy every day - even weekends, his surgeon, home health, family doc, wound care, infectious disease etc.

I had a terrible time keeping track of them for him and accidentally double booked him a time or two.

These visits are nothing in comparison, and I won't complain about the process of getting ready to submit everything again.

But as much hassle as it is at times, it will be worth it in the end, most surgeons offices have enough experience to know how to get things submitted and approved and the preparation you get through the appointments with the dietitians etc will be very helpful later.

Good Luck!!

[SummerBreeze]

Whatever tests they want you to do is all in how healthy you are..i had several tests done and called back forn more cause they wanted to make sure my heart wasn ok..turned out i didnt even have congestive heart failure 5 yrs ago..so it can be a good thing they are double checking things at times or digging deeper...good luck

[djpoutie]

just take a deep breath and try to go one day at a time. You will look back and be sooo thankful for this blessing. And you will hopefully think back to all these difficult milestones you had to deal with and know how strong and committed of a person you can be Hang in there!!!! You are not alone! Good luck with everything!!

[Tiffany1020]

I'm going through the same thing. Had my first two appts this week and got the list of all of the classes and appointments I have to go to before they will approve my surgery. I wanted it done like.. yesterday!! LoL But I am nervous and excited all at the same time.

[Perfesser]

I didn't need a sleep study, but had a cardiac stress test ... then another ... but I made them shut the treadmill down 'cause they got bored waiting for me to die, and I wasn't gonna give 'em that satisfaction!!

My wife needed a sleep study, but no stress test. Same surgeon, same hospital. The difference was that I was already using a CPAP, so I didn't need to find out if I had apnea. She had gone through a couple of major joint replacement surgeries in the year or so previous, so they knew she was strong enough for anesthesia. (Turns out she had sleep apnea, too, but we had no idea ...)

They'll test you for anything they think you might need. There have been quite a few folks here discover life-threatening conditions that they had no clue of. The testing is worth whatever hassle you go through if it picks up on a potentially fatal condition while it's still treatable, and that has happened more than once this year.

You can't fight it, so you might as well say "thank you" when they're done.

CT

[chantelc]

It will all be worth it....the day you are sitting in pre-op you will be saying "I can't believe it's here ALREADY!!" ....it's the weirdest thing because it feels like it's taking forever to go through the process but then all of a sudden it's time and it feels like it all happened so fast! ) It will be nice going into the OR knowing they've checked you out from head to toe!

[DocSanae]

Looks like the ball is rolling, I'm sure you'll be fine in the end. (((HUGS)))

[judijo]

heh.

It was 14 months from my PCP saying, "Why not investigate WLS?" to my surgery date. My medical group required 6 months of classes, which fulfilled the "6 months of supervised weight loss", and in that time I had to see my PCP 3 times. Oh, and I had to wait 5 months for the next round of classes to start.

I was over 50 so had to have all the labs (for everyone), a mammogram, and cardiac clearance. THEN I got the referral to see the surgeon. Psych eval, 2 dietitian one-on-one appts, pre-op appt w/PCP, pre-op appt w/surgeon, pre-op labs/chest xray.

All in all, this is a major surgery and if not properly prepared it could be a disaster. Do what your docs and insurance company says, and "play the game". It is all part of the process.