Soon to be banded in Richmond

[marywalker20 0]

Thanks thenewme and ja9va! Yeah I need to be patient. :confused: The doctor I am seeing is Dr Brengman. Anyone else use him?

Stay cool!

Mary

[TheNewMe1964 0]

Yes, Dr. Brengman is my doctor ! Good choice :confused:

[LeLee 0]

Hi Everyone!

Here's the update ... received insurance approval ... completed psych ... completed nutrition class. Whew! I called Dr. Brengman's office to inquire about next steps, etc. I'm awaiting information to be mailed to me (I assume it's pre-op instructions.) The surgery coordinator informed me that the surgery will be in October ... no firm date though.

[marywalker20 0]

Wow, you are ahead of me. :tea: I got the approval, had the psych eval, went to the classes. I called and left a message for Joyce asking what I need to do next, and i am still waiting for her to return my call. Judging by your schedule, it looks like I will have my surgery in Oct or Novemeber. If I am lucky I can schedule it while my kiddo's are home from college for Thanksgiving! Ahh the waiting game....

[ja9va 0]

Mary,

Hang in there! When I got the call in late March and was told my date was June 7, I was not happy. I could not beleive it was so far out. But the date came and I am banded! The positive is you will lose weight over the holidays!!!!

[marywalker20 0]

Ok, I am trying to be patient, and I know it's going to be months before I actually get banded and that is fine. But I am starting to feel like maybe I need to find another surgical group. I have called and left various messages for my nurse and have not gotten a call back. I called today and pressed the appointment option and the nurse that I have been trying to get a hold of answered. She had no idea whether she had my stuff from the insurance company or not. I told her that I got the approval letter and faxed her a copy almost 2 weeks ago. She told me that she was really busy and hadn't gotten to it and will try to do it next week. Should I continue to be patient or maybe look for another surgeon? I say all this because this isn't the first time i have felt alone in my lap band endevour. When they first submitted my paperwork the insurance company denied me because my BMI was under 40. I have 4 comorbidities and lots of recommendations from my doctors. When i called the office the same gal told me that there was nothing they could do and said "sorry". On my own, I appealed their decision and was approved. Since then I have had to fax the info to their offices, call about my classes, tests and everything else. I am getting the feeling that she is really overwhelmed in her job, or for some reason doesn't like me. Really, I am a very likable person and have never gotten upset with her. What would y'all do?

Thanks so much for your help.

[LeLee 0]

Mary,

I understand! I've had similar experiences with the staff at Richmond Surgical. I'm viewing it all as a test of my patience. Hang in there. Have you spoken with Joyce (the insurance coordinator)?

[marywalker20 0]

Joyce is the one I spoke with on the phone today. Seemed really busy and unsure when she would get to me. But you are right. Patience is the key. Guess my other doctors have spoiled me. Even in the medical field we should still expect some good customer service. Look at how much they are getting paid!

But even with this, I know my lap band will be well worth the agravation.

Have a great and cool weekend

[ja9va 0]

Mary I feel like it is when one person goes to a Ford dealership and has a wonderful experience and then another has a terrible experience. I know several people who went to your surgical group and had a good experience. I would hate to steer you to another place since you are so far into it. However, having said that, I went to Commonwealth Surgeons, and they a pateint coordinator( not sure that was her title) but she was the gate keeper of everything, she mailed all the informationt to you, she recieved information, set up all your appointments, submitted to the insurance, answered phone calls and mainly emails. and scheduled the surgery. I never talked to the doctor or nurse until I was into the process. But even then, she set the appointments and processed the paper work. She was extremely helpful and informative. But that was my experience. who knows about the patient behind me? You have to do what you feel is right.

Good luck,

[marywalker20 0]

I have been thinking about this, and trying to be objective. I just need to give her a break. She is probably going through a really busy time in their office (everyone wanting to get it done while school is out), so she is probably just overwhelmed. I am sure I will stick with Richmond Surgical. Sometimes I think it just takes me venting a little to feel better about it. Thanks for listening to me, and for all your thoughtful insights.

P.S. Commonwealth sounds like a well run office!!

[TheNewMe1964 0]

Mary,

Remember when you went to the informational meeting? I'm sure there were lot's of people...... I know there were at least 75 in my meeting. Those people as well as those from all the other meetings are all trying to get to the same goal. I don't mean to sound harsh but I'm going to reiterate patience. It's good to practice it now because you'll really have to put it into practice after your banded. It's one of the hardest things I had to learn. Trust me, I am with you as far as having certain expectations from those we give our money to and put our trust in. I'm glad you decided to give them a break.

I have been treated with respect and kindness at Richmond Surgical.....in fact, 3 days before my surgery I was told it might not happen due to an abnormal EKG. Joyce called my cardiologist and made a special appointment to get things resolved so I could keep my surgery date.

Hang in there and vent all you need to!

[thinner1 0]

Hello All,

I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up with your posts! I got so busy this past month that this is the first chance I've had to even pull up lapband.com. (Ok I probably really wasn't that busy but it sure felt like it!). Luckily the Richmond airport is wireless and my plane is 2 hours late, cuz it gave me a chance to read your posts!

I had my surgery on June 1st with Dr Shroder at Richmond Surgical. I went to the seminar last Nov. In Dec I made an appointment with the psychiartrist in Dec for Jan. Then I had my first meeting with Dr Shroder in early February also. Richmond Surgical sent in all my paperwork to my insurance co (Blue Cross). About two weeks later I got a letter from Blue Cross approving the surgery. I waited a week and didn't hear anything from Richmond Surgical so I called them. They told me it may take a couple weeks. About a week later I get a letter from Richmond Surgical telling me my pre-op lab test date and my surgery date of April 23rd. I was going to be on a cruise then, so I called the office and told them I needed a later date. They asked me when I wanted it and I told them May 30th or June 1st. So they scheduled me for June 1st and resent the letter with my revised dates.

So as you can tell I had no issues, so my guess is that they have gotten really busy. I had my first fill a little over a week ago. I was in the office three weeks prior to that and Dawn wanted me to have a fill asap. She wanted to do it two days later and she had another nurse call Blues Cross while I was there and get approval for the fill. Then when she came back she told me all this and I told her I was going to be out of town Thurs. Then she was out of town the following week, so then it wasn't until three weeks later that I could get an appointment. But it was really nice that they tried to get me in right away!

I really like Dawn. I had always seen Dr Shrolder and then one day he was out and I had to see Dawn. I like her straightforwardness. She told me point blank that I was eating too much! She also did my fill. First she explained what was going to happen and then she totally distracted me when she put the needle in and took it out. And then afterwards she showed me the xray of my stomach. The whole thing took just a couple minutes. They took 2 cc out and put 3 cc in.

I keep missing the lapband group meetings! This week I am working out of our Illinois office. I may try to go to the general meeting next Tues.

Oh, my plane is here now. I will try to be better about keeping up with this thread!

Good luck everyone and try to be patient!

[marywalker20 0]

Dear Thinner1, thanks so much for sharing your experience about Richmond Surgical. It's good to know that things do run smoothly, and that i am probably just an exception. These things happen and the more I think about it, the more I think I just over reacted.

Since I have to wait until October for my surgery, I have decided to be proactive and start on the slim fast/instant Breakfast diet right away. Losing a few pounds will definately boost my spirits and do that liver shinking thing too. And having the diet as a distraction will make the time go by a little more quickly.

Thanks so much to everyone for their support.

Mary

[thinner1 0]

This working and eating out of town is not a good thing with the band!!! I am trying to control what I eat but it is so hard when you eat out for every meal. Plus I am traveling with 4 other people, 3 of them guys, who want to go to nice places and eat big meals every night. The other night we went to a Greek restaurant and they ordered 5 appetizers plus their meals and I just ordered the appetizer gyro. Of course I ended up eating some of their appetizers and ended up eating half of my gyro meat. I was fine until I got up from the table and I felt soooooo bloated!!! I didn't get the usual pain in my shoulder from overeating like I normally do, but my stomach felt huge and I started to feel a pain in my stomach. I still have the pain in my stomach when I walk around or lie on my side at night in bed! I am hoping it will eventually go away. I don't think my band slipped cuz I think I would have pain all the time with that, but I may have stretched my esphogus. Nothing came back up which I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing! Luckily the hotel has a nice workout room and I have worked at for at least 40 minutes every night. I wait an hour after we get back from dinner and then I head to the workout room. I sure hope that I haven't gained too much.

With my job where I do a bit of traveling this is going to be a continuing issue for me and I really need to learn how to control my portions on the road! Tomorrow I head to my sisters house and then on Sat I head to my brothers house for a couple days before I come home on Monday. I think I will be able to control myself a bit better around them as they all know about my surgery, but it will still be a challenge.... oh and I forgot to mention that I've been sharing Desserts too!!!! Oh lord help me!

Hope everyone is doing good!

Janine - did you go to the meeting the other night?

[thinner1 0]

The good news is that the pain in my stomach went away a couple days later, the bad news is that I gained 4 pounds in that 1 week I was away from home! As of this morning I think I have lost 3 of the 4 pounds. My next doctor's visit is in 2 weeks and I want to be down something by then!

The weight is coming off so slow now! I have been pretty open with just about everyone that I had this surgery. But now it's hard cuz when they see me they ask how much more I lost and now it's only a little bit more, if any!

I decided to change my hair so that is deflecting some of the weight questions cuz now they ask about my hair. It was short layered and I would curl it every morning for past 15 years! Now I stopped curling it and I am trying to grow it out to one length. I think is looks horrible right now as it is growing out, but people keep telling me they like it.

I have been having some intestinal issues. It appears that I am not drinking enough Water cuz the other day I had to go buy some stool softener! This is the first time in my life I have ever been bunched up and I didn't realize how painful it can be! My stomach, back, and legs all hurt! (Sorry if this topic grossed anybody out!)

I am now in-town for the next 5 weeks and am looking forward to getting back to my routine! (except I may go home to WI for an extended weekend in Sept!).

Janine - I'm sorry to hear that the meeting appears to have been a waste of time. I can definately see that alot of the conversation would be surrounded around questions from people thinking of having the band. I may try the Sept 10th meeting just to see if it's any better. If not, maybe we should just meet on our own!

Mary and LeLee - what's happening with you? Did you get a surgery date yet?

TTFN