Doctor's Appointments

When I started to seriously consider the surgery, I contacted Medicaid to see what I would need to do. They told me I would need six visits with my primary care provider in order to qualify. I completed my visits over the course of a year only to find out that the visits had to be in consecutive months. I had to start over. It was pretty discouraging, especially since I had to change primary care providers. In the end it's been good because I like my new doctor better.

After my six months were completed, in February 2014, I attended a seminar on March 11 put on by the bariatric center where they explained more about the surgery and the process. After that, I had to wait for them to call me. When I didn't hear from them, I called back and learned that they hadn't found my paperwork. After a few more calls between the different doctors, the bariatric center realized they had misfiled my information. I should state at this point that I have been very proactive throughout this entire process, which is not usually like me when it comes to medical procedures.

So, after six months and a few weeks of waiting, I finally got to schedule my first official visit with the bariatric surgeon. The first opening was more than a month later - April 26. The agony of waiting! That visit went well and I got more basic information about the surgeries and decided which to have. Lap band usually only results in about 50 pounds of weight loss, which wouldn't be enough for me, and Medicaid doesn't cover the gastric sleeve, which leaves me with bypass.

After this initial visit, they set me up with five additional doctor's visits: cardiologist, nutritionist, behavioral consult, gastrointerologist and psychologist. Whew! I have to see all of these people and then all my information gets sent to Medicaid. Once they review everything and give the okay, I can have the surgery. I asked the nurse practitioner about how much time it would be from the initial visit until surgery and was shocked when she said about six weeks. That would be sometime in June.

Wow! Faster than I anticipated.