So many Questions?!?

[cortney.dannell 0]

I have been looking into the gastric sleeve surgery. After I have my first appointment with my doctor how long does it normal take to have surgery?

Is the surgery worth it? The pain? The liquid diet?

[BLERDgirl 6,417]

Do a search on the forums. This question has been answered many times over. Ask 5 people and you will get 5 different answers. It varies from program to program and dependent on insurance.

As for if it's worth it, well I doubt there would be a flourishing community if it wasn't.

[JamieLogical 8,699]

As BLERDgirl said, how long it takes between now and your surgery is up to your individual insurance company and your surgeon's program.

I think the vast vast majority of the people on this site will tell you it is most definitely worth it! It is hard, that is for sure, but it will change your life for the better in so many ways that it is well worth the effort. You need to be ready to make some serious changes in the way you deal with food and the way you cope with you emotions. I would say the bulk of the hardship is in the first few months. Your pre-op diet will likely be miserable. In the first few weeks post-op, you will be dealing with pain and discomfort and constantly struggling to get in your fluids and Protein. Then you will have a big learning curve as you progress through the various food stages and learn what and how much your new stomach can handle. But by 4 months out, you will really have the hang of it for the most part and you will feel like a normal human being again and at that point you will start really feeling confident that you made a great decision and that you really can handle it for the rest of your life.

[bikrchk 1,313]

I had to go through a 6 month dr assisted diet for insurance, psych, support groups and nutrition visit BEFORE I could even be submitted to insurance. After that, the rest of process (1st consult, insurance approval, EGD, pre-op testing) took about 5 weeks. Worth it? My liquid diet was only 5 days, so it wasn't that bad. Absofrigginlutely! 95 pounds gone along with all the health problems and meds I had to take for the health problems caused by my obesity. I'd do it again in a HEARTBEAT!

[Elode 8,093]

I had my surgery 3 month after my first meeting...yes I had some pain the first week, yes it was completely worth it ...to me.