Bluesea71

I was approved for surgery with only a BMI of 35 because I have PCOS. Do you have any comorbidities? Diabetes? Sleep apnea? etc. If so, you can qualify with a BMI under 40. Otherwise, if you are an otherwise "healthy" chunky person, 40 is the major number!

Great Job!!! You are such an inspiration

Congratulations - well done!

Hi Jules <3 I too have PCOS and I noticed we have the same surgeon - Dr Khayat at SSF Kaiser. I am scheduled to have sleeve surgery April 16th 2014. Would love to stay in touch and compare experiences!

My sleeve surgery is scheduled for April 16th at the SSF Kaiser. It will be fun to follow everyone's journey! Am I the only one feeling scared, nervous and excited all at the same time? All normal feelings in my opinion when one is considering such a life altering decision as WLS!

My surgeon isn't requiring me to loose any weight before surgery nor follow a pre-op diet outside of the typical no food/drink after midnight the night before surgery. Surgeons seem to have their individual protocols, but I think a lot is determined by your starting BMI and and how much weight you carry in your mid-section which may make it difficult to use the laparoscopic tools. I met other patients in my Kaiser pre-op classes with the same surgeon who were asked to loose 20 pounds. So I guess it's on a case by case basis. My BMI is 36 but I qualify for surgery because I had PCOS.

Hi Monique! Any updates? I thought I would check in. I attended the nutrition and lifestyle class last week. I had my appointment with my surgeon moved up to 2/28 and found out I was able to schedule my surgery as soon as my surgeon had an opening in mid April! What? What?! What?!? I was expecting him to tell me to loose weight first. Nope. The 5 pounds I've lost since orientation was enough! There is no pre-surgery liquid diet to follow except the normal pre-surgery no liquids/food past midnight the night before. So the whole experience from my PCP submitting a referral to the surgery is just a little over 3 months. Crazy! My BMI is at 36 and I don't have any comorbidities except PCOS, so that might be why I don't have to loose weight and am being fast-tracked. Wow. I wasn't expecting all of this to happen so soon. I'm still kind of in a state Of shock!

It's good news you don't need a CPAP machine! I'm curious though, if it isn't sleep apnea, what co morbidity then qualifies you for the bariatric program? They had me do a bunch of blood work at the medical evaluation last week. Everything came back normal except..... My vitamin D levels are really low! Normal range is 20-79ml and mine was 11. So I was prescribed 50,000 units of vitamin D to take once a week for 12 weeks! Not sure if I have to complete the cycle before surgery. I guess it's a good thing I wasn't planning on having surgery until June!

Congratulations! Take a deep breathe, the committee has reviewed your chart and said YES! The hard part IS over! The only set back is they may require you to get your sleep apnea under control before they will allow you to have surgery. I remember Terry asking people during the orientation how long they had their CPAP machines stating a period of time (a few months?) needed to pass before they will allow surgery. Regardless, time is going to pass anyway. You are one step closer to your goal! Hooray 4 you!

I'm glad I could help, Monique. To clarify, I did ask if I could sign up for any other required classes at the time they called to schedule the orientation. I think most people sign up at the orientation as there were sign up sheets at the orientation prompting attendees to sign up for the nutrition/lifestyle/medical evaluation appointments. I plan my work schedule weeks in advance, so it was helpful for me to be able to schedule everything ahead of time. Keep me posted about your progress. From what I learned from the bariatric staff, you may have a delay with the process if you need further assessment for your sleep apnea and/or require a CPAP machine first. According to the pre-operative criteria sheet in the booklet they gave us at orientation, it states, "a BMI 35-40 with a serious obesitity- related health problem such as type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, or severe sleep apnea (will consider severe HTN, DJD or increased lipids) It's up to the Bariatric staff to determine whether of not you qualify. I will keep my fingers crossed that you do! I know that waiting was the worst! I did some research on my own and hoped having Polycystic Ovarian Syndrom would help me qualify due to insuline resistance and weight gain. Turns out it was enough!

Hi Monique! I am a newbie too! I've been lurking on this site for about a month now but this is my first post! I am also going through the South San Francisco Kaiser Bariatric department. I can share with you what my experience has been so far and my understanding of the process. I knew attanding an evening information class was required before my PCP would submit a referal to the bariatric department, so I attended that class on 1/13/14. I then had an appointment scheduled with my PCP on 1/17/14. I came to my apointment well informed thinking I would have to work hard to convince my PCP to refer me. Turned out not to be an issue. I had a history of being overwight, but my BMI is around 37-38. I have PCOS and mild asthma during the winter months, so that was enough for me to quality even though my BMI was under 40. My PCP submitted the referral electronically from her office. I received a call from the SSF Bariatrics department on 1/28/14 (11 days after it was submitted.) Once a referral is submitted, a team reviews the request and looks over your medical history. If you meet the criteria, they call you to book the orientation meeting. The orientation meeting is offerred every Tuesday from 8:30-12:00. Here is where I will give you a bit of advice to speed up the process. When I spoke to Terry to schedule the orientation class (She teaches the information class, so you likely met her) I asked her if it was possible to schedule any of the other appointments I would need ahead of time. In addition to the orientation class (which I attended this morning 2/18/14), I was able to schedule the medical evaluation with John "Kirk" Phillips today right after the class. This appiontmrnt lasted about an hour and he took my vitals and reviewed my medical history. I was also sent down to have blood work done. I also scheduled the two other required classes Nutrition 101 (offerred every Monday at 9am) and Lifestyle class (offered Mondays at 11am) ahead of time to do back to back on 2/24/14. To clarify, You only need to attend each of these classes one time. At the medical evaluation today, they scheduled two more future appointments for me: a visit to the bariatric psychologist and an appointment with my assigned surgeon (Both for 3/26/14.) Whomever is assigned to you, is the surgeon who will perform your surgery and provide your post-care. While everyone is different, it seems likley that they will require you to loose some weight prior to surgery. How much is determined by your assigned surgeon at your appointment. Kirk predicted that the surgeon would require 15-20 pounds from me. I think they want to know that you are committed to making the lifestyle changes that will be required for long-term success. Regardless, it's best to start this process now. Your first recorded weight from your PCP when you were referred is what they use. So it is possible to be at your goal weight when you meet with your surgeon. The process seems to be quite speedy at the SSF Kaiser. Because I don't have any complicated comorbidities (uncontrolled diabetes, undiagnosed sleep apnea, etc.) Kirk thought I could have surgery in 6 weeks! YIKES! I am choosing to wait until mid-June as it works better for my work/family schedule. I also want to lose 20 pounds on my own to prove to myself that I can make the long-term lifestyle changes that will lead to my success. One thing I have learned from lurking on this board, is all of us will lose weight with WLS. The real definition of success is keeping the weight off. I want to increase my chances that I will keep it off 5, 10, 20 plus years from now. Good luck with your journey and keep in touch! K To summerize the process: 1) Attend Information meeting 2) Request PCP to submit referral 3) Bariatric department calls you to schedule Orientation class (offered Tuesdays 8:30-12) 4) Attend Medical evaluation with John "Kirk" Phillips, Nurse Practitioner 5) Attend Nutrition 101 (offered Mondays at 9) 6) Attend Lifestyle class (offered Mondays at 11) 7) Psychiatric evaluation 8) Consultation with surgeon 9) Surgery