My consult on July 30th went pretty well, though I did feel that the doctor was kind of pushing gastric bypass. His reasoning was that patients see better results from the bypass than they do with the band. I told him that I wanted the band and I would never get gastric bypass. At the end of the appointment I was given a list of things to do before they would request authorization from my insurance company. I was told that my insurance requires patients to have 6 months of nutrition classes before surgery and they only pay for 3 months, which irritates me. It will be at least January by the time I am banded, if I even get approved. I was really hoping it would be sooner. Back in May I attended a seminar for the program that denied me and the new program is making me attend theirs as well, which seems a little pointless to me, since I have met the doctors and nurses and am pretty well informed about the procedure already. I was planning to attend the August seminar, but so many different things made it so I was unable. And the nutrition classes are on Fridays, which I usually work, I have been scheduled for two so far and have had to reschedule. It seems that I won't be able to get any pre-op things out of the way until I attend the seminar and at least one nutrition class. The next seminar is in September. This is all making me so impatient and frustrated. I want to start working on the new me already!