Heather from MN

[hsj 0]

My name is Heather, I am a mother of 4 from MN. Just have my first Surgical Consult yesterday for the Adjustable LapBand. I have struggled with my weight all my teen and adult life. My husband introduced me to the idea of a Forum, I have never done this. I am also a nurse, working in Long term care and with Hospice patients. Sure seems like a lot of doctoring for the approval of the procedure. I am both nervous and excited about this whole idea of surgery.

[debbie_7155 0]

hi heather & welcome, here you will find many answers to your questions, & make lots of friends.. good luck on your journey

[Ale78 0]

Hi Heather,

I am from MN as well...Just had the surgery. There are a lot of appointments that you go to but they try to make everything as painless as possible.

What hospital are you going through? If you have any questions throughout the process please feel free to send me a message!

Good Luck!

~A

[hsj 0]

Thank You. I am going through Unity Hosp in Fridley. How big a process did you have to go through to get insurance approval?

[Ale78 0]

Well I went through the Park Nicollet/Methodist Hosp. I did all of the things they required. It took a little over two months to get all the appointments done. I am not sure what of all of that is required by most insurance companies but I had a feeling a lot of it is done for that reason.

I have BCBS of MA. Once my packet of info was sent to them it took only a couple of days to get approved.

then a few short weeks after that i had my surgery :wink:)

[hsj 0]

Thanks for the information. I have Medica. I have a Nurse Clinician appt, Dietician, sleep Study and Psych appt all this month. A Medica Rep. stated it would take them up to 4 weeks to approve once the Surgeon writes a recommendation. Yesterday I met with the Surgeon for the first time. Lots of thoughts raced through my head. Part being, how I let myself get to where I am now. Did you go through that? If you don't mind sharing, what was your thoughts. I am so looking forward to setting up a weight ticker like I see the others post. That is so cool!

[Ale78 0]

Heather...

I am sure we all have had doubts about why we are doing this. I actually started a mostly liquid diet before I was required to and stopped snacking. So I was thinking for about 5 seconds, I can totally do this on my own! But then I remembered, I HAVE done this. I lost 80lbs on my own but then it all came back plus some.

My hopes for the lap band is that it will be a tool that I can use long term. I don't ever want to be this big again. I feel a bit like I let myself down but now I am working on it.

You will go through every emotion you have at least twice :wink:) I was pretty mellow about the whole thing and didn't think I would freak out the day before like some other people had done but I did. Why am I doing this and all the what ifs. It was a stressful day to say the least and now 4 days out that day doesn't matter. I am on a journey to a new and improved me :thumbup:)

My insurance company said it could take 4 to 6 weeks for approval and it took 4 days. So I would say that the four weeks is a max time it would take.

Good luck Heather...Keep me posted!

~A