Time between your first visit to surgery date?

[hlubag 0]

I'm sure this question has been asked before...

How long was it between your first visit with a surgeon to your surgery date?

I'm trying to get a rough idea of the time I am looking at if I still want to move forward with this after the seminar next Tuesday. I understand that each person is different, but I am still curious.

Thanks!

Edited November 18, 2009 by hlubag
Typo

[TN_girl21 1]

I just had my first visit with my surgery yesterday. My surgery is scheduled for December 30th. It could have been sooner, but I chose to wait because of me opening my new business.

[Barble 0]

My consult was on Nov 3,2008/ Surg Sept 18th, 2009. Change of Insurance January 1 2009, Then 6 months of supervised diet. Seemed like forever, but worth the wait.

[oceancity4me 0]

My first appt was in Sept and my surgery date is Dec 3rd. It depends how fast your insurance authorization comes back. Mine came back in 5 days. Federal BCBS is great! Good luck!

[JUKU 1]

June 14th to Sept 30th. But I was self pay, no waiting for insurance

[TSB 1]

My consult was in March. I was approved by the surgeon and my insurance co in late July. Surgery was Aug. 11, 2009.

[Melinco 1]

I called the surgeon's office in late August, found out he was having a seminar the second Thursday of September. I went to that. Which, by doing so, got me a free first consult with the surgeon.

It took me a while after the seminar to finally complete the paperwork and mail it in so we could set an appointment. My initial consult was on November 2. I then had my psych and deitician consults on November 10, and we set a date this week for December 17.

I am self-pay so I don't have to complete any prerequisites that an insurance company may require.

I could have sent all my paperwork in earlier, but I knew with my work schedule, I wouldn't be able to have my surgery until Decmeber anyway, thus part of the reason for the delay.

[melmarlem 0]

I saw my surgeon on the 6th or 8th of January 2009 and had surgery on the 18th of August 2009. But I had to do a 3 month pre-op diet that was required by my insurance Aetna. Also, my surgeon is booked months out to begin with.

[timetobefree 5]

My consult was on 11/3 and my surgery is next Wed, 11/25. I'm self-pay, so it was pretty quick!

Amy

[HolliJ 24]

My consult was June 15th. My surgery was July 28th.

I'm insured.

[btrieger 21]

I've got Aetna and the make you wait 3 months.

My first consult was September 18, 2009. I have my last on January 6, 2009 and at that time the paperwork will be submitted to the insurance company.

[destin2fly19 0]

My first consult was 9/25 and I'm getting banded 11/25. My initial surgery date was 11/11, but I was supposed to go to NY for vacation in the beginning of November, so I pushed it back. I have Anthem BCBS.

[gnortenjones 0]

I made the call for the seminar early January of this year. The next available seminar was 2 months later. I then had 3 months supervised diet/nutritionist/psych evaluations/etc.

I had my first meeting with the surgeon (the official "consultation") after the 3 months diet. They submitted my paperwork to the insurance company, which initially denied the claim, but reversed the decision a month later on appeal. Had the surgery on August 21st.

So approximately 8-9 months from when I made the first call for a seminar to the surgery date. My surgeon said this was fairly normal, and the average time was 6-12 months from start to finish.

[outside*looking*in 0]

I guess you can see that it varies. The biggest factors will be insurance vs. self-pay, health condition (will have have to go through extra pre-op testing for various things) and how soon you can get in for all of your appointments.

I had a consult 11/20/2009, I am self-pay and I have to do minimal testing (Psych, ekg, chest xray and note from PCP). I asked the surgeon if he thought January would be an okay time to do it and he said that would be more than fine.

[ParrotheadCathy 0]

I too was self-pay. My initial consultation was 1/2/09 (I never went to a seminar as my doc offered the option of individual consultations). My surgery was 2/10/09. I had to do EKG and stress test, chest xray, upper GI, and sleep study.