jimsgirl624

I feel very much like the author of the post. I am doing this all on my own. The band, after 6 fills provides no restriction. What was the point of it all, when I again am doing this alone? To have a surgery and pay someone's salary? The lapband is a huge dissapointment and I totally regret it.

pcp, means primary care and guess what...They don't "normally" understand ANYTHING about lapbands. When it comes to questions and answers, you will be looking directly to your surgeon and his staff. I had my lapband done at UCSD, for those who don't know, a major hosptial here in San Diego. They have a large staff, who is very involved. I feel and have felt that is the best way to go. Very reputable and worth their weight in gold, information, help etc. If your working with a smaller staff, that's ok also. I just know what I know and that my pcp does not, has not and doesn't plan to practice weight loss surgery and doesn't understand the lapband and any problems that arise from it.

My insurance didn't require a pcp either. I only had to do a two month diet and had great results. Six months seems like a long time.

Well, I just had an unfill. They took out half of what I had. I went from 7.5 ml to 3.75. I've had some serious should pain, slight vomiting, etc. So the office felt it may be best for now. However, they say that I have go back on a 2 week liquid diet. I was like...ugh....THIS SUCKS. Two weeks? I ate some rice and soft chicken lastnight and everything went down fine. I think they have a blanket suggestion and it's really based on the individual.

I also wanted to mention that my doctor said that the shoulder pain that most patients felt was the exact same feeling that people feel when they are having a heart attack! ~crazy Scary~

According to my nurses, everything went well. However I did tell the anaesthesia that I was very sensative to the drugs. they make me hurl. So after a quick outpatient surgery I was sent home. Only to land myself back in the hospital that night. I couldn't stop throwing up, which worried us because of band slippage. The doctors said it was due to ...the anaesthesia!!! The hospital releases me the next day but now I can't get rid of this constant left shoulder pain. This surgery did not make me very happy, and I can't stand pain. :thumbup:

I am doing better. I know EXACTLY what you are feeling. You posted awhile ago, so I am thinking that you are doing better as well. I think that days 6-7 I really turned a corner as far as pain went. I hope that you are feeling better. Sorry it took so long to respond.

This is week three post surgery and everything is going well. I've lost about a pound and a half a week since surgery, which is fine by me. I think that most of my friends expected there to be a more radical weightloss. :thumbup: Like they were going to wheel me out looking like Barbie. I've dumped about half of my closet, going from a size 22 to 18 in a matter of weeks really surprised me. I want to be honest. The first week absolutely sucked. I had so much shoulder pain, and throwing up from the anesthesia it was rediculous. I hate to complain, but a little heads up on the doctors part might have made me feel like I wasn't being set up.:thumbup: I was also surprised that after having my insurance to spend $16,000 on the surgery that there was little to no follow up from such a major medical group. Don't get me wrong, they are nice and all. But seriously, they could have called at least once:confused:. My friend says they just take your money and run. Ok enough. I have my first post meeting tonight , entitled "Why we get stuck". lol

This is week three post surgery and everything is going well. I've lost about a pound and a half a week since surgery, which is fine by me. I think that most of my friends expected there to be a more radical weightloss. Like they were going to wheel me out looking like Barbie. I've dumped about half of my closet, going from a size 22 to 18 in a matter of weeks really surprised me. I want to be honest. The first week absolutely sucked. I had so much shoulder pain, and throwing up from the anesthesia it was rediculous. I hate to complain, but a little heads up on the doctors part might have made me feel like I wasn't being set up. I was also surprised that after having my insurance to spend $16,000 on the surgery that there was little to no follow up from such a major medical group. Don't get me wrong, they are nice and all. But seriously, they could have called at least once:confused:. My friend says they just take your money and run. Ok enough. I have my first post meeting tonight , entitled "Why we get stuck". lol

According to my nurses, everything went well. However I did tell the anaesthesia that I was very sensative to the drugs. they make me hurl. So after a quick outpatient surgery I was sent home. Only to land myself back in the hospital that night. I couldn't stop throwing up, which worried us because of band slippage. The doctors said it was due to ...the anaesthesia!!! The hospital releases me the next day but now I can't get rid of this constant left shoulder pain. Because of the pain I am second guessing everything that I did. It did not make me very happy, and I can't stand pain. :thumbup: It's just really hard to see a silver lining at this point.:thumbup:

According to my nurses, everything went well. However I did tell the anaesthesia that I was very sensative to the drugs. they make me hurl. So after a quick outpatient surgery I was sent home. Only to land myself back in the hospital that night. I couldn't stop throwing up, which worried us because of band slippage. The doctors said it was due to ...the anaesthesia!!! The hospital releases me the next day but now I can't get rid of this constant left shoulder pain. This surgery did not make me very happy, and I can't stand pain. :scared2:

Prime is different from Standard. Standard allows you a little more freedom to seek care from outside help with the knowledge that you will pay something out of pocket. It also means that for the most part you no longer need referals. I think that is where Dr. Jacobson's office is getting confused. There are so many different insurance's that and most require a referal, so they apparently assume that everyone needs a referal. No so with Prime. I am going to call Tricare tomorrow and settle this once and for all. Thanks for your help.

I have Tricare Standard and his office is telling me that I need a referal from a primary care doctor or else I will have to pay $1,000 out of pocket. Do you have Tricare standard? I thought that with standard it gave you the option to see who you wanted without a referal.

PCM M.D. San Diego I am jumping through the lap band hoops..haha..I made a funny. ~Anyway~ I have a serious question. I am hoping that someone on here has had the Lap Band surgery in San Diego using Tricare Standard and can provide the name of a PCM to give me the referal that I need to UCSD for the initial consult. In a nutshell, if you can answer yes to the below questions and then still have an aswer for me, please respond: -Did you go through the lap band process?:smile2: -Do you have Tricare Standard?:crying: -Does your PCM know how to do the referal to Tricare in a timely manner? -Could you please tell me who your PCM was? Thank you, Mahalo, Gracias..etc diane

I have copied and pasted a whole bunch of stuff off of the internet from the actual Tricare website and forwarded it to that secretary. Hopefully tomorrow I can call Tricare and get an answer (and a name) for them so that I can get seen without a provider referal. I know this is so weird because I never had to do this before.

This is the actual email that I got from the lap band surgeons office: Hi Diane, This is a reminder that you need to contact Tricare and establish care with a Primary Care Physician (PCP) and have them obtain an authorization from Tricare for an office consultation with Dr. Garth Jacobsen. Please have your PCP's office fax us the referral to 619-543-7785. If we do not receive the authorization before your scheduled appointment on 10/20, we will need to reschedule. If you have any questions, please call our office M-F 8-4:30pm. Thank you and look forward to seeing you soon. Catherine Dooley

I went to the seminar and then made the appointment with the surgeon. The surgeon's office called me and told me that they had called Tricare (just to be sure because the inital 3 hour office consult is $1,000 out of pocket if you don't have insurance). Tricare told them that I needed a referal from my Primary Care doctor, even on standard, before I could see the specialist. I had a feeling it wasn't going to be as easy as I though it might be, just switching to standard, and it appears that it isn't. Now I am trying to locate a doctor that "understands" what being obese is like, rather than one that will just insist on me seeing their dietician and giving me a meal plan. Hence my initial question Does your PCM know how to do the referal to Tricare in a timely manner?

I am jumping through the lap band hoops..haha..I made a funny. ~Anyway~ I have a serious question. I am hoping that someone on here has had the lapband surgery in San Diego using Tricare Standard and can provide the name of a PCM to give me the referal that I need to UCSD for the initial consult. In a nutshell, if you can answer yes to the below questions and then still have an aswer for me, please respond: -Did you go through the lap band process?:w00t: -Do you have Tricare Standard? -Does your PCM know how to do the referal to Tricare in a timely manner?:thumbup: -Could you please tell me who your PCM was? Thank you, Mahalo, Gracias..etc diane