Hi cari, my name is cynthia and i just joined lap band talk tonight. i am very new at this computer stuff so bear with me . I just had my band put in on Nov. 10th2010. and will be getting my first band fill dec 13th.It took about 5months for ins. to appove my surgery. I live in az. and had my surgery in vegas. So far everything is going great. I had no problems. I might not be the right person that you want to hear from seeing that i just had the band put in, but i say girl just do it. I know for me i am so ready to feel healthier. I am a good 100pds over weight, and my body hurts ,my knees are killing me,etc. etc. I will say the procedure was really a breeze.no pain and they have you walking the same day a few hours after surgery. I did stay over night in the hospital,my ins allowed that. I don't know if you have talked to your dr. about it, but for me i had to see my primary dr.every month and had to go see the surgeon every month for 5months. your ins. company will want you to have other test dont, to see how your frame of mind is like if you deal with depression , have a stress treadmill test, blood work, sleep test,. Thats what mind did your ins, might be different. so i hope that i have helped a little bit ,and that you get this message ,like i said i'm new at this computer. lol take care and hope to talk again some time