swishbc

Hi, I'm Christine and I'm just starting the Lapband process with Kaiser, Richmond. My 5 hour orientation is tomorrow (11/25) and I'm so excited to get the ball rolling and be on my way! Just wondering if anyone else is currently going through Kaiser and how your experiences are so far. They have told me that it's about 6-12 months from orientation to surgery, but if I'm able to call and take cancellation appts and lose the required wait that I could be as soon as 4-6 months...I'm hoping for 4! Anyway, I look forward to meeting you all!

That's not too bad I guess, but now maybe it'll get changed to BEFORE Dec 30! That would be so cool.

They'll give you LOTS of info about the 1200 calorie diet and it includes vegetarian options too. Most of Richmond is a bad area, but luckily Kaiser is pretty easy to find. When you take the San Pable/Barrett exit turn right at the light. Go down about 4 miles, it seems FOREVER but it's okay. You'll see Kaiser on your left, it's an older building and doesn't look like a hospital. Turn left and then the next right and it'll take you right to the parking garage. Just don't take ANY turns for about 4 miles. That's where I went wrong. :rolleyes2: Stay on Barrett.

Oh that is a bummer. When was your original appt supposed to be? When you call just ask if they have ANY cancellations, I bet they will! Hopefully it'll work out and you'll get one while on break. Good luck to you, keep us posted!

The surgeon appt was about 15 minutes. I didn't have to have a gown on or be examined. We just talked. The psych was about 30 minutes and she was really sweet. I think if I set my mind to it I could lose 100 lbs...I've lost 50 before. I just don't think I could KEEP IT OFF. That's why I'm having lapband surgery. :rolleyes2:

That's great! Good luck! BTW--I TOTALLY got lost in a really really bad neighborhood, so make sure you give yourself plenty of time to find it.

That's great news! It's so nice to be done with orientation and really feel like you're on the way. It is an early day but they let us out at 11:30am and time went really fast. It'll be nice to be done with it before Christmas too and will keep you motivated to be good with your eating. My surgeon appt was at 11am and the psych appt was at 9am so they weren't too bad. I have Dr. Fisher and REALLY liked him a lot. Why are you hoping for him? Have you heard good stuff about him? I didn't get 2 appts in one day, but I had them a day apart and I hear that's really lucky and pretty unheard of. Good luck to you! I'm excited to hear about orientation next week. :rolleyes2:

Hmm, that's weird. Dr Fisher told me that it's 30% filled at surgery...maybe it depends on the patient? I don't know why he'd say that if it wasn't true because I'd never know how much was in there in the first place! :wink2:

Wow BandedPrincess, you're almost there! What a long wait for you, I bet you're so anxious to get this done with so you can start this new journey. I have Dr. Fisher and I really liked him too, although I bet all 4 surgeons are amazing. I'm sorry you've had such a tough year and such a long wait. I hope everything works out great, you heal fast and are healthy and skinny soon! Keep us posted, okay? :wink2: p.s. Does case manager start with an L, end with a Z and have an I in the middle?

Riley--Dr. Baggs was the surgeon at our orientation. He went over the 2 surgeries and talked about how they work, the risks, etc. He seemed very "down to business", not that that's a bad thing though! I have Dr. Fisher, he was one of two people that founded the bariatric dept for Northern CA Kaiser. He was very warm and friendly and he kinda reminded me of my dad. I'm sure all 4 surgeons are incredibly qualified and I'd be happy to have any of them cut me open. :wink2:

swrktp---At my surgeon appt yesterday, Dr. Fisher told me that the Lapband they use at Kaiser is put on and filled to 30% capacity at surgery. He said it gets started at a faster pace and then they'll do a fill at 10 weeks post-op. Personally, I'd much rather have a removable, sterile, foreign object in my body than to have a VERY vital organ cut apart in a way that can NEVER be undone. That freaks me out big time. I figure there are so many objects implanted in people's bodies to help and serve as tools: stints, pacemakers, knees, hips, BOOBS...:wink2: just kidding about that one. Anyway, that's the logic I used when trying to decide which surgery to have. Another thing: what if in 10-15 years it turns out that gastric bypass and the irreversible damage to the stomach ends up being a real bad idea, then what? You can't undo what's been done. With the lapband, if there ends up being a better technology (which there most likely will be) or a problem with the current lapband, it could be possible to remove the lapband and replace it with something else. I just like the fact that the lapband is not so FINAL. Anyway, don't know if that helps, but it's the way my thinking has been going. :crying:

InsideOut--who is your surgeon? I have to lose 17.5lb more before I can call and get a surgery date and do my pre-op tests. We're almost there! Now all we have to do is lose the weight...isn't that a great feeling? It's all in our hands now. We should have a little race/contest to see how fast we can lose our last few pre-op pounds. Maybe it will help us stay motivated, especially during the holidays. Whattaya think? Swrktp--I was in Richmond today and while waiting to meet the psychologist I overheard them talking about the system being down! Definitely call back tomorrow and DON'T leave a message if you get the voicemail, just keep calling until you reach a live person. That's the advice they gave me also. Good luck! I hope you get that orientation date really soon. Keep us posted!

That's so weird that they're not giving you time on the phone. That's how I got my orientation date so quickly. I called 2 business days after my PCP sent over the referral! I had my surgeon appt yesterday and it was great. TODAY I had my psych appt and it went great too. I'm NOT crazy and I'm officially approved for surgery! All I have to do now is get down to 270 and then I'll be scheduled for surgery. I'm hoping to do it super quick!

It was AWESOME!!! I LOVE LOVE Dr. Fisher. I'm so glad he's going to be my surgeon. According to their scale, I have lost 9 lbs in 2 weeks. (since my orientation weigh-in). He was very proud of me and told me I'm doing great. He wants me to lose 15 more lbs before surgery and I'm totally cool with that. He told me I don't have to attend the lifestyles/nutrition 5 hour course because I'm doing so well and he knows I'm on a great course to surgery. YAY! I was going to get an appt for the psych for 1/5/09 and before they scheduled it I asked if there were any earlier cancellations and she said there was one for 9am TOMORROW MORNING!! So, I'm headed back to Richmond tomorrow morning for that. Then I'll be done pretty much! He's not assigning me a case manager, he just set it up so we can email eachother and he told me to see psych tomorrow, then lose the rest of the 15 lbs. When I've done that I'll go to my local Kaiser center and have them weight me so it'll be on my record, then email him and let me know. He'll send my labs over to my Kaiser office that day and I'll go get my EKG, chest xray and bloodwork done. When that's done he'll schedule my surgery and that'll be about 4-6 weeks out from then. SO!! If I can kick butt and lose this 15 lbs fast then I could be in surgery by Feb! That's my goal. It really couldn't have gone any better. He was totally in agreement that Lapband was ideal for me and not gastric bypass. A cool compliment I got was that he said within a few minutes of talking to a new patient he gets a really good idea if the patient will be successful or unsuccessful with the Lapband. He said with my motivation and determination he knows I'll be a success with the Lapband. That made me feel really good.

I think that you're pretty much approved if you've been scheduled for orientation. The only way that would change (what the told me) is if you didn't pass the psycologists evaluation or if you had some medical reason as to why you could not be under anesthesia or endure a surgery. You can bring someone to the orientation. I didn't because my hubby is a worry wart and I didn't want to freak him out. Plus, I kinda feel like this is my journey and I wanted to go on my own and feel independent. At the orientation the go over lots of info about gastric bypass AND the lapband. The go over the things you'll need to do Pre-op AND post-op, nutritionally and physically. It's really informative and I learned a lot there.

From my understanding, the Kaiser location is assigned according to where you live. I'm in Woodland and have been assigned to the Richmond location. It's a little over an hour away, but it sounds like from start to surgery it'll only be about 5 visits. Of course, after surgery I'll probably have to go there for fills, unless a location closer to me starts doing them. If I were you I'd call your PCP and find out which location has your referral. Then I'd call that location and make sure your referral "made it there." :angry_smile: Just play dumb! Hopefully they'll schedule you for orientation right there over the phone...that's what they did with me. Good luck!

From what I understand, that timeline looks right. I'm seeing the surgeon before the psychologist though.

You can always call the bariatric dept at 510-307-2915 and be REALLY nice and ask if they've received your referral and when you might be able to attend orientation. If you kill them with kindness they are so helpful, that's what I did. I called on a Monday and asked about the referral being received and I was at orientation the next Tuesday. Then when I received my surgeon appt I called a few days later (this was their advice to me!) and asked for an earlier appt due to a cancellation. I was originally going to see the surgeon 1/8/09 but not I'm going 12/10! It saved me a whole month. :angry_smile: My appt is at 11am but I assume they schedule them at all times of the day...my original appt was going to be at 3:30pm. The traffic coming back to the Sac area should be fine as long as you leave Richmond around 4pm and there are no major accidents. It may slow down some at the bridge and at the 680/80 junction but it shouldn't be bad. We lived in the East Bay for about 6 years with family living in Davis...I know that drive really well! My advice would be to be proactive and call them for cancellations. Be flexible and willing to take any appt available. Good luck!

I can't tell you guys how many times I've heard this! I hope to be saying that soon as well! :angry_smile:

I had my orientation on 11/25 and I meet with the surgeon this Wednesday. He'll examine me and talk to me about the surgery and risks, etc and then let me know how much weight I need to lose before surgery. Then I'll meet with a psychologist and do a nutrition/lifestyle 5 hour class and have a few tests done before my surgery date. I'm hoping to have surgery sometime in Feb or March!

Yes I have Kaiser. I'm with the Richmond location though. From what I hear, they have a pretty similar way of running things.

I think So Cal might do it, but Nor Cal doesn't. Those 2 Kaisers operate so differently, I don't know why...but they do.

At my orientation they told us that the surgery is about 45 minutes to 1 hour long. Good luck to you!

Geez, with the rate that you've been losing weight you'll probably be at 50 lbs before your meeting on 1/8!!!

Where are you going for your orientation?