How long?

[mollystarshine 1]

Hi! Just curious - where are you from, where did you/are you planning to get the surgery, and how long did it take from your first appointment to your surgery? I'm in Canada and so discouraged to hear it's a 3-5 year wait. I'm a university student so I can't afford to self-pay even to Mexico right now, so it helps with waiting to hear y'all's stories!

[cutiepieinchi 158]

Wow a 3-5 year wait is a long time! I had my first appt about a month after I first inquired about surgery and the entire process took about 3 months. I have a friend who lives in Canada who had the surgery and she had quite a wait as well .

[JBarger 0]

From information session to surgery will be about a 7 month wait with all my insursance stuff. Before that, I tried a different program but the insurance was an issue there too. All-in-all, it's been about 14 months since I made first contact with the first program. I know how hard this has been for me so I even imagine how you're feeling. Hang in there!! Until surgery, you could always try the Protein Drink Meal Replacement. If they are as gross in Canada as they are here, that should help you loose some weight.

[pupichupi 124]

Holy Cow, 3-5 YEARS? Thats nuts, I was in within a couple weeks for my first doc appt, and in 7 months I had my Surgery, and after 4 years I just had my 2nd surgery cause I had the band and now I have bypass, and this time I had my surgery after 4 months after my first doc appt? I would do some more investigation into Doctors and stuff like that, I have heard of countries saying you can start the process but you won't get the surgery for a year after you start seeing the doctor, and I live in US? I would call your insurance company and see if they can help you!!! Good Luck!!!

[mollystarshine 1]

Holy Cow, 3-5 YEARS? Thats nuts, I was in within a couple weeks for my first doc appt, and in 7 months I had my Surgery, and after 4 years I just had my 2nd surgery cause I had the band and now I have bypass, and this time I had my surgery after 4 months after my first doc appt? I would do some more investigation into Doctors and stuff like that, I have heard of countries saying you can start the process but you won't get the surgery for a year after you start seeing the doctor, and I live in US? I would call your insurance company and see if they can help you!!! Good Luck!!!

Well that's the thing, there is no insurance company. The surgery is publicly funded by Canadian Health Care which is why it takes so long. A lot of Canadians go to Tijuana for $5k.

[pupichupi 124]

Oh wow, but there is no emergency cases, cause I have talked to people from canada on here before and they didn't say anything about a 3-5 year wait? That is crazy!!!

[jtickle 295]

3 to 5 years!!! From my first appointment to surgery will be 114 days. Only cause I had to pay my cell phone bill, so I could not do it in May. I didn't have the money to buy my supplements then. Which sucked!! However, I went and paid for everything today so I am good to go on the 25th of this month.

[AlighterLisa35 7]

Yes it is indeed a 3-5 year wait here in Canada and it's first come first serve type of deal... Don't matter what your condition is you just have to wait till your name reaches the top of the list.

I did hear that the list are getting shorter cause people go to TJ Mexico instead of waiting. I was one of those people, I didn't even bother with trying here in Newfoundland, just didn't want to wait. Myself and a friend went to TJ on May 9th and are now on the losers bench !!! I'm 4 weeks out and I'm down 28lbs !!

[mollystarshine 1]

Yes it is indeed a 3-5 year wait here in Canada and it's first come first serve type of deal... Don't matter what your condition is you just have to wait till your name reaches the top of the list. I did hear that the list are getting shorter cause people go to TJ Mexico instead of waiting. I was one of those people, I didn't even bother with trying here in Newfoundland, just didn't want to wait. Myself and a friend went to TJ on May 9th and are now on the losers bench !!! I'm 4 weeks out and I'm down 28lbs !!

Who was your doctor? How was your experience? I feel like I'm going to have trouble convincing my family that Tijuana is safe...

[AlighterLisa35 7]

We went with A lighter Me !! Dr Ortiz and Dr Morales !!

May 9th- flew from Newfoundland to San Diego( long day when your starved and everyone everywhere was eating) lol. Got picked up by our driver Orlando and drove through the Mexico boarder.( don't have to show anything to go into Mexico and just had to show our passports and answer a couple of questions on the way back ) went straight to the hospital for our pre op testing. Left that and was taken to the hotel where we had to check in ( you do need a credit card for the deposit but everything was put back on my card). Relaxed for the night.

May 10- we got picked up by Abraham at 7am and taken to the hospital for our surgeries !! Before noon both my friend and I were back in our room recovering. ( we both got a discount for sharing the room). The hospital was clean, nurses were great and on top of our meds. Most of them speak very good English but there is some that don't speak much English at all and that was a little hard. You can absolutely tell your not in a Canadian hospital when it came to bedside manners( holes in blankets and bed sheets lol, we had to go look for toilet paper and towels, no help when we took our first showers) but never once did I feel unsafe or like the didn't know what they were doing !!

May 11th. Spent the day walking the hall and resting !!

May 12th. We were discharged around lunch time and driven back to the hotel where you have to check in again. We sat in the lobby while they gave us our care packages( pain meds and some Malox type drink, Gatorade, Alm drink bottle, bandages , tape and our lab test and a cd of our leak test to bring back to our doctors )

We rested in the room for an hour and met in the lobby for our driver to take us shopping !! We went to two little shops. ( I took US cash with me for this).

May 13th- this should of been our second night in the hotel but because our flight left so early in the morning on the 14th we went over to San Diego and spent the night there at Motel 6 ( they have a shuttle that will take you to the airport for $5 and the hotel only cost us $68, we both got another $50 discount to help with this room )

The Doctors we great and explain everything so well and made sure we were totally comfortable !!

All the A Lighter Me staff were great as well !!

All the hotel Staff were awesome and very attentive. We never opened a door for ourselves while we were there. You get free bottles of Water,homemade Popsicles and Soup broth.

Overall my experience in TJ was great and I never once felt scared !!

What part of Canada are you in??

[mollystarshine 1]

We went with A lighter Me !! Dr Ortiz and Dr Morales !! May 9th- flew from Newfoundland to San Diego( long day when your starved and everyone everywhere was eating) lol. Got picked up by our driver Orlando and drove through the Mexico boarder.( don't have to show anything to go into Mexico and just had to show our passports and answer a couple of questions on the way back ) went straight to the hospital for our pre op testing. Left that and was taken to the hotel where we had to check in ( you do need a credit card for the deposit but everything was put back on my card). Relaxed for the night. May 10- we got picked up by Abraham at 7am and taken to the hospital for our surgeries !! Before noon both my friend and I were back in our room recovering. ( we both got a discount for sharing the room). The hospital was clean, nurses were great and on top of our meds. Most of them speak very good English but there is some that don't speak much English at all and that was a little hard. You can absolutely tell your not in a Canadian hospital when it came to bedside manners( holes in blankets and bed sheets lol, we had to go look for toilet paper and towels, no help when we took our first showers) but never once did I feel unsafe or like the didn't know what they were doing !! May 11th. Spent the day walking the hall and resting !! May 12th. We were discharged around lunch time and driven back to the hotel where you have to check in again. We sat in the lobby while they gave us our care packages( pain meds and some Malox type drink, Gatorade, Alm drink bottle, bandages , tape and our lab test and a cd of our leak test to bring back to our doctors ) We rested in the room for an hour and met in the lobby for our driver to take us shopping !! We went to two little shops. ( I took US cash with me for this). May 13th- this should of been our second night in the hotel but because our flight left so early in the morning on the 14th we went over to San Diego and spent the night there at Motel 6 ( they have a shuttle that will take you to the airport for $5 and the hotel only cost us $68, we both got another $50 discount to help with this room ) The Doctors we great and explain everything so well and made sure we were totally comfortable !! All the A Lighter Me staff were great as well !! All the hotel Staff were awesome and very attentive. We never opened a door for ourselves while we were there. You get free bottles of Water, homemade Popsicles and Soup broth. Overall my experience in TJ was great and I never once felt scared !! What part of Canada are you in??

Edmonton, AB!