How did you coordinate your care?

[Mlaurant 0]

Hi everyone!

My insurance excludes Bariatric surgery, and I am researching self pay options in Mexico. My mom got sleeved this past September, and when I mentioned the possibility of going to Mexico for surgery she was hesitant. Her insurance covered her surgery here, so all she knows is the process she went through because her insurance forced her to jump through a million hoops.

My question to you is, did you have a PCP and/or nutritionist that you worked with Pre- and Post-Op?

Thanks!

[A_new_sara 136]

I'm not sure if you're asking about insurance coverage here, or Mexico surgery. In my case I opted for Mexico because my insurance 100% excludes it in all cases no matter what. My Dr that I chose has a patient coordinator that works with you closely, answers every question, handles every detail aside from flights.

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[YeaMe 246]

I was self-paid too and chose to have my surgery near my home in the states. It thought it would be more expensive, but I decided it was worth it to have the pre/post-care that I feel is important, and in case something went wrong. I had a friend who went out of the country and she struggles because she doesn't have any post-care. I'm sure it depends on the doctor/facility that you go to as to what type of pre/post-care they offer. It was important to me to sit down with a nutritionist who specializes in bariatric nutrition. I thought I knew everything, but realized I knew very little.

My insurance didn't cover surgery either, but I had a hiatal hernia fixed and they ended up paying almost 95% of hospital expenses, though I did have to pay my surgeon's fee of $5,000. I wasn't expecting them to pay much at all. It was a nice surprise.

[JTHmom 32]

my daughter had the sleeve done in Mexico June 1 2017 she had a great experience said she would go back and have other work done once she loses there weight it was 5500 she spent 2 nights one in the hospital/clinic then they moved her to a 4 star hotel everyone was friendly we are at ease as we had family and friends who had gone down some doing lap band and others doing the sleeve and plastic surgery all had good experiences . She went with Mexico as our insurance denied here . Im considering a revision from Lapband to the sleeve as i have had my bad 10 years and done great9lost 110 lbs) this last year I'm having issues with reflux now have ulcers in stomach and throat and my doc recommends removing my band and my insurance won't cover basically id have to gain all my weight back to get another surgery and its not a guarantee they would cover it .

Edited June 17, 2017 by JTHmom
added more info

[Kristen B. Chaplin 0]

Heyyyyyy guys... hope everyone is doing great in there weightloss journeys. It's been a struggle since for long now.

I didn't realize how much i kept myself from feeling hungry all the time. I find my self getting down and losing a lot of weight.

Monday starts a new exercise program and im getting these few lbs off

Meanwhile..... It looks like i will not be around for some couple of days, because they are planning to move some troop out of Afghanistan and i am among, i have no other option than to give you guys early information.

Miss you guy.... if anyone wants to email me....sgtkristen7@gmail.com ..... .... i check that all the time.

KIND REGARDS
CHAPLIN

[Kristen B. Chaplin 0]

21 minutes ago, JTHmom said:

my daughter had the sleeve done in Mexico June 1 2017 she had a great experience said she would go back and have other work done once she loses there weight it was 5500 she spent 2 nights one in the hospital/clinic then they moved her to a 4 star hotel everyone was friendly we are at ease as we had family and friends who had gone down some doing lap band and others doing the sleeve and plastic surgery all had good experiences . She went with Mexico as our insurance denied here . Im considering a revision from Lapband to the sleeve as i have had my bad 10 years and done great9lost 110 lbs) this last year I'm having issues with reflux now have ulcers in stomach and throat and my doc recommends removing my band and my insurance won't cover basically id have to gain all my weight back to get another surgery and its not a guarantee they would cover it .

Hi! guys... hope everyone is doing great in there weightloss journeys. It's been a struggle since for long now.

I didn't realize how much i kept myself from feeling hungry all the time. I find my self getting down and losing a lot of weight.

Monday starts a new exercise program and im getting these few lbs off

Meanwhile..... It looks like i will not be around for some couple of days, because they are planning to move some troop out of Afghanistan and i am among, i have no other option than to give you guys early information.

Miss you guy.... if anyone wants to email me....sgtkristen7@gmail.com ......... i check that all the time.

KIND REGARDS
CHAPLIN

[JTHmom 32]

We used Linda she is is the cordinator schedules the pick ups surgery and picked my daughter up drove her across the border its also who our friends and family used at first I thought she was flakey because it took time and was hard to get a hold of her but she is pretty busy so we emailed a few times. sometimes it takes her a few days to get back to you. I will get her phone number when I see my daughter today

[BDutchess 17]

I'm in the same boat, bariatric surgery is excluded from our company insurance policy. HR and the insurance broker are encouraging me to appeal it but honestly what would that do right? Even if I would get the insurance to pay (which is not likely), the process would take months, they would require another 6 months of psych/nutritional counseling and I would still be out of pocket about the same amount as the surgery in Mexico costs. So that's how I ended up here. There is a lot of good information out here, my best suggestion is to read through all the posts in this forum and decide which surgeon is the best fit for you. Many of these clinics seem to have staff and nutritionists that assist you throughout the process pre and post op.
Good luck!

[dmdakd 44]

I went to Mexico in Feb, it was great. Prior to surgery I discussed my decision with my PCP, she was fine with it, I hear a lot of them aren't but my PCP is from India and maybe that's why she was open to surgery in another country (maybe she knows the rest of the world isn't killing chickens to cure disease). Anyhow, she was great about it, ran all my blood work and gave me an EKG just so she felt good about me going into surgery (they will also give you all of this in Mexico but I felt better knowing that my Dr. who knows me said she felt good about me having surgery).

As for once you get to San Diego everything is seamless, they take care of everything, you will know right off that your not the first person to do this, they have there system down pat, at least Bariatric Pal MX did.

After surgery the follow-up care is what you make of it. Stacey has answered every question that I had, she also checked in a few times during my first 8 weeks to make sure I was understanding everything. Could they do more? I don't know, maybe, but then again I could ask them to do more. I'm the type of person who don't need a lot of follow-up, I am sure that for every one of me there is a person who talks to the staff every single day and I am sure that they get great service from them. The diet isn't rocket science, everyone who has ever been on a diet knows what they are supposed to eat, having the surgery makes it a lot easier to stay focused on it. I am pretty disciplined for awhile and then have always slipped, I'm 5 months out now and am still able to maintain my discipline, one reason is it's easy to not overeat, you only make that mistake a couple of times, it's really not fun. The other reason is I think when I consider eating bad I just tell myself that I went to Mexico and got parts removed, than normally brings me back to reality.

Finally, my sister had Gastric Bypass in the states years ago, she went through all of the pre and post care, I don't know if she was any more disciplined than I am, probably less so. Only you can decide if you think you can be disciplined enough. Considering you are asking I think you can be, most people who make it this far are pretty committed, and heck, even if you want to eat fried chicken and cake after your surgery, you won't eat much of it

[AK_Bookworm 116]

I was sleeved in Mexico in May... my PCP sees me for my care here (which is just blood work to monitor levels since I didn't have comorbidities prior to surgery)... as far as a nutritionist goes my surgeon has one I can ask questions of but I also have insurance at my job that will cover visiting one locally which I plan on doing

[MandaMcdowell 0]

I had my sleeve done on 5/31/17. The coordinator is also the nutritionist. But I feel like it's a bother to ask questions, since I am sure she has tons of clients. Anyone recommend finding one in my home state? I am so scared of failing and messing it all up. I know we are not suppose to compare ourselves to each other, but I see the size meals everyone is eating, and they have me on a 3 meals of 6oz of soft foods a day. 64 oz of Water. Am I going to mess up or stretch out my pouch?

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