New to WLS concept
I am new to your group and a little nervous. My doctor thinks that I
am a good candidate for WLS, which I’ve been considering for quite a
while. Before I give him my decision, he wants me to get online and
do some more research to further clarify what we discussed. That is
how I found this wonderful website. I have decided to go for it, but
have several questions that weren’t answered in my research. What
better way is there to find out how things really are than by asking
the EXPERTS (those of you who have gone through and are still going
through the process)? I know that my first step is to fill out an
application with Kaiser Permanente, my medical provider. But after
that I have no idea what comes next. What other steps are there
leading to the actual surgery? Kaiser does the RNY procedure, but I
don’t know if it is laproscopic or through an open incision. Who
decides which is appropriate? I don’t anticipate any insurance
problems as my Kaiser doctor recommended the surgery. I would expect
blood tests, but are there any other tests that need to be taken
prior to surgery? How long does this process take before a date is
set for surgery? What is the usual recovery time before I can return
to work? Looking forward to hearing from members of the group.
Thanks…. Carol in CA
March 28th, 2005 at 8:07 am
Dear Carol in CA: First of all realize we are have or are where you are right
now. So do worry about it. Everything will be fine.. How are you doing today.
Your tomorrows will be much brighter once you have made up your mind to have the
surgery. Most important is to follow your Doctors advise about everything.
After care is extremely important and must be followed precisely. I’m not sure
by what you say about your doctor saying it would be good for you. Do you mean
your PCP, (Primary Care Physician), or do you mean the surgeon? Did you get a
referral from your PCP? If not call him and tell him you need one to present to
the surgeon. Have you found a surgeon yet? Other than filling out your
personal information on the insurance form, I would leave the rest of the form
for the surgeon’s office to fill out. They have a long list of reasons to
explain why you need the surgery and have to give codes. Unless they give you
different instructions. Most surgeons offices will process the form and talk to
the insurance company for you, in order to get the approval through. All
clinics that the doctors have will require to attend their support meetings at
least 1 or 2 times before the surgery. Actually, it is best for you to plan on
attending at least monthly and more often if you can. Depending on the Surgeon
you see, he may require a sleep study, pulmonary testing, Cardiac testing,
Psychiatric testing and probably more. I haven’t been to the other side yet,
"I’m in waiting" The ladies and gentlemen in our chat room are very friendly
and very knowledgeable. You can ask them anything. There are many more areas
on the Obesity/Help web site that you will want to explore and learn as much as
you can. It will take you some time so take a break once in a while and come
back and search some more. If you don’t have a surgeon or your PCP has not
referred you to one. Check our listings, we have surgeons from every State in
the Country and then some. Once you begin to fill our your profile and
physicians questionnaire, you will begin to get information from other sources
outside the ObesityHelp Web site. Other sites that are good are www.asbs.com
(American Society for Bariatric Surgery. There are very good doctors listed on
this site, plus they have very good diagrams with explanations of the different
types of surgeries being offered. One more good site is www.sabariatric.com .
At any rate if you have questions for anyone to answer, just do what you just
did. Go to the message board, sign in and lay it on us. Welcome aboard! Best
of Health to you for the future.
In WLS Love,
Pat Cannon
March 28th, 2005 at 4:45 pm
Carol in CA,
Congratulations on deciding to possibly go for WLS. It is very important
that you do your research! Some people jump right into it and don’t really
know what to expect.
As fas as the insurance goes, every company is different but from what I have
seen, most required the following: Psychiatric testing, Thyroid testing, a
letter from your doctor stating that you have been on a Medically Supervised
Weight loss program (some require 6 months, some 1 year), a history of your
weight loss attempts. Then the surgeon may required more test, EKG,
Gallbladder ultrasound, Upper GI, blood work etc.
Once the insurance approves the surgery, it is up to the surgeon’s schedule
as to how soon you can have the surgery. Some surgeon’s are the very best in
their cities and schedules are booked for months in advance, some having a
waiting period of 4-6 weeks. I have a friend who had her 1st consult and
insurance approval and surgery within 5 weeks. I on the other hand, from the
time of my visit with my PCP to get the referral to the surgeon, was 4 1/2
months.
Have you been to see a surgeon yet? If not, make sure you ask what kind of
surgery schedule he has?
I totally agree with the other poster about the aftercare, you MUST do what
you surgeon tells you, the support group and Obesityhelp.com is GREAT,
however, everyone’s surgeon has a different opinion about care after. Some
doctors have you eating whatever after 6 or 8 weeks, some have you on a very
limited diet for 6 months. Some have you taking all kinds of protein
supplements, and other don’t want you taking any at all.
I can only tell you from my experience, that this is the best thing I EVER
DID!!
Good Luck and get us updated.
Sharon
Jacksonville, FL = Open RNY 05/13/02 = Dr. Eric Thoburn Gainesville, Fl
5′9" 310/250 - 60bs in 3 months
March 28th, 2005 at 10:06 pm
Carol, jump, don’t toddle, over to
www.obesityhelp.com
They have more answers than you’ll know you have questions for.
Usually docs decide lap or open, and mostly based on their own
experience. You want to have a doc operating on you who knows what
he’s doing, so that’s a good thing. It’s also based on your particular
circumstances - some people are not good candidates for lap because of
prior surgeries and scarring, etc.
Your doc will ask for blood tests and an EKG, as usual for any surgery.
YOu may be asked for a psyc eval (they usually want to be sure you’re
not too severely depressed and also that you’ll be compliant with the
aftercare), a sleep test for apnea, an endoscopy if you have reflux or
stomach pain. Each doc/insurance carrier is a little different. Dates
can be set early or late. Mine is 4 months away. We get people on this
list and on the GastricBypass-InfoCentral list who get dates a couple of
weeks out. A lot depends on how far out your surgeons schedules, whether
he wants you to lose weight first or not, etc.
At obesityhelp you will be able to look up patients who’ve had your
insurance and also probably, your doctor! It’s an excellent resource.
They’ve got a page that gives you all the steps from "just thinking
about it" to "done" <G>. You’ll need to enter the public page - then
click on The Association for Morbid Obesity Support.
I am new to your group and a little nervous. My doctor thinks that I
am a good candidate for WLS, which I’ve been considering for quite a
while. Before I give him my decision, he wants me to get online and
do some more research to further clarify what we discussed. That is
how I found this wonderful website. I have decided to go for it, but
have several questions that weren’t answered in my research. What
better way is there to find out how things really are than by asking
the EXPERTS (those of you who have gone through and are still going
through the process)? I know that my first step is to fill out an
application with Kaiser Permanente, my medical provider. But after
that I have no idea what comes next. What other steps are there
leading to the actual surgery? Kaiser does the RNY procedure, but I
don’t know if it is laproscopic or through an open incision. Who
decides which is appropriate? I don’t anticipate any insurance
problems as my Kaiser doctor recommended the surgery. I would expect
blood tests, but are there any other tests that need to be taken
prior to surgery? How long does this process take before a date is
set for surgery? What is the usual recovery time before I can return
to work? Looking forward to hearing from members of the group.
Thanks…. Carol in CA
ADVERTISEMENT