Starting my Journey

[Brad86 6]

Hey guys. New here. On Medicaid only and starting the long road to approval. I’m currently 34, 418 lbs, 6’0. I have high blood pressure, sleep apnea, diabetes (type II), and high cholesterol. I started in January seeing a doctor for my 6 month physician led weight loss attempt and documentation. I was on adipex as well as lipotropic injections through them. My first visit was in January and I was at 413. I hovered 399-413 over the first 5 months, and on my 7th visit in September, weighed in at my highest of 418. I spoke with a physician in Huntsville at the beginning of my journey and they told me to go ahead and complete my 6 month plan, and then come to them for the rest. I called them and was bummed to find they recently stopped taking patients with Medicaid only. I was heartbroken. I had searched for years to find this physician. However, the recommended a doctor to me who ended up being my long term family surgeon. He just recently began accepting Medicaid only patients for bariatric surgery. I got a referral for a cardiology consult and psych consult. Going to psych next week and hopefully cardio as well. Then will get to meet with the surgeon. Praying so hard everything goes well.

[lizonaplane 1,613]

Welcome! Sorry this journey has already been bumpy for you with having to switch doctors. I hope you have smooth sailing from here.

My advice would be to follow your surgery center's advice as best you can and get as much support as possible from friends and family.

Good luck and keep posting and reading!

[NovaLuna 710]

Originally I was also going to use a different surgeon, but they had a wait list that would have made me wait three more months and COVID hit around that time so my surgery would have undoubtedly been delayed so I'm glad I went with a different surgeon. It worked out in the end and I'm incredibly happy with my results. It may be a different choice from your original, but I hope it works out as well for you as it did for me! I hope the rest of your journey is much smoother!

Edited September 30, 2021 by NovaLuna
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[Dave In Houston 199]

I changed surgeons shortly before having surgery because the staff in the first surgeon's office became unresponsive. I was able to have surgery about a month after contacting the new surgeon, who came with strong recommendations from my heart doc and my voice doc.

Try not to get discouraged. You'll be having your surgery before you know it.

[Brad86 6]

20 hours ago, NovaLuna said:

Originally I was also going to use a different surgeon, but they had a wait list that would have made me wait three more months and COVID hit around that time so my surgery would have undoubtedly been delayed so I'm glad I went with a different surgeon. It worked out in the end and I'm incredibly happy with my results. It may be a different choice from your original, but I hope it works out as well for you as it did for me! I hope the rest of your journey is much smoother!

Actually, the surgeon now was an original choice. So I’m very lucky! When my journey started, he didn’t accept Medicaid. Now he does.