I started my hoops 8/12 and surgery 5/13. Six months working with nutritionist, medical tests on every organ lol, blood draws, psych appt. While you are doing it, it seems like it will never end, but use your time wisely and learn all you can. Once the surgery is done, the more preparation you have done the easier it is to move into your new lifestyle. Listen to what people say at support meetings, take notes. Make sure you really know what you are headed for. We have all seen many people think surgery is the magic fix all, and the post op when the head starts playing games they get buyers remorse.

This is the best thing I have ever done for myself. But I can't eat much of anything. I am one of the few that many foods simply don't sit right. I have days I want to cry for loss of my good friend food, but more days that I sing because I have life again.

Take time and start reading back through the millions of posts. Take notes on the good, bad and indifferent. Make sure you are comfortable with living with the bad forever. :)

Overwhelmed is common. Take a deep breath and move through it a day at a time. Welcome to the family!

I started my journey in 7/13 and got my surgery date 10/1. I'm scheduled for surgery on 10/15. Here is a list of what I had to do before I got my date.
1. Meet with a nutritionist and the surgeon
2.have lab work done
3.see my primary care doctor to verify I was ok to under go surgery.
4.See a Psychiatrist to make sure I was sane enough for surgery lol
5.Submit all paper work to insurance ( took 3 days for approval )
6.Attend a nutrition class for life after surgery,
7.More blood work
8.meet with Anesthesia Doctor
9.chest X ray and EKG
10. meet with surgeon and schedule surgery date!
Keep in mind that steps 6 thru 9 all occurred on the same day
On step 10 I also signed all the concentrate forms too.

Oh my! Lets see...

Info session
Fill out application with a statement of why I wanted surgery
Got referral from PCP
Met with surgeon
Lots of tests! EKG, Endoscopy, heart stress test.... I am sure a few others!
Psy eval
Monthly nutrition appt (1 on 1) for 6 months
2 - 2 hr nutrition classes
Sumbit to insurance (took less than a week!) and got my date
Met with surgeon again
had preop labs and met with anesthesia fella
Had surgery 7-24-2013

I agree with golden... use this time to your advantage! Make changes now you'll need for after as it makes the transition much easier. And work on the head stuff!! This truly is the hard part! There are several reasons there is such a process... one of course is to make sure we are healthy enough to have the surgery, but also because this is such a life changer it helps weed out the folks who are looking for a quick and easy fix, because this is anything but that! It is WORK every single day! :)

Oh, and as for how long... I went to the info session December of 2012 then had surgery July 24th 2013. I has my first official appointment with the center and surgeon Jan 28th, so 4 days shy of 6 months.

I hated the fact it was going to take 6 months... in the beginning at least. But what I realized is that this time was precious to me. A time to get my head on straight, get a therapist to help me work thur the reasons I overate to begin with, and to learn all I could about the life change I was taking on. I'll say again :) Use this time wisely.... Learn learn learn... change your habits NOW and work on the head stuff (yeah, I know I sound like a broken record! LOL!).... The time will fly and one day you'll wake up and it will be your surgery day!

I'm still pre-op so I know exactly how you're feeling. I went to my first appoint in June and met with my surgeon that day. I have to go through 6mos of non surgical medically supervised diet. I got all of my appointment dates and even my surgery date the same day I met with my surgeon. My surgery is set for Jan 30th. In the beginning it seems like it will never come but its going by pretty fast. I was lucky because the center in going to does everything, I just show up for the appointments.

The process for me took a total of 14 months, from the first appt with the surgeon, and finally getting approval from the ins company, and then set a surgery date.

My ins required a 6 mo medically supervised diet which started 10 days after I first saw the surgeon. then when that was done more paperwork to then submit to ins for approval. of course I also had to see a psychiatrist, who by the way had zero sense of humor, a nutritionist, and a physical therapist. There were more hurdles but because of the 6 mo diet I had more than enough time. The hardest part was waiting for that final decision by the ins comp. That took 5 months!!!! It was very hard on my patience, but I do not regret anything. It was all a learning experience which only prepared me for living life post surgery.

All you can do at this point is put one foot in front of the other and do what is in front of you to do. It does come to an end.

Looking forward to welcoming you to the losers bench!!!
pegmarie

Thank you for answering my questions. It is obvious that everyone experience and time that it took ranges from not so long to really long. The reason why I am so confused is because I called my primary care in August and I thought he would make an appointment with me but all he did was send me the info to go to the introductory meeting. I went to that and then called my Dr once again and got an appointment with him and its in the middle of November. Was surprised that I had to wait that long. I have no clue about meeting the surgeon or anything else and i guess thats whats making me overwhelmed. Just hoping once I see the Dr they will tell me what the next steps are. I dont mind doing this because this has finally given me hope but not knowing what im supposed to do is soooo annoying. Thanks again and you all seem like a great group of people and Im glad I found you.