Obesity Discussion Forums

[jblack]

What percentage did your insurance cover and how much did you have to pay out of pocket? Thanks!

[William Wallace]

I have a family member who I believe paid zero for theirs. Nothing out of pocket. I will double check.

[odiej]

I am in Canada so I didn't pay anything for my surgery.

[Merle]

Originally Posted by odiej

I am in Canada so I didn't pay anything for my surgery.

I am so jealous of your health system!!!!

[odiej]

I waited a long time for my surgery tho. My wait began July 2004 and I just got my surgery march 2007

[fr1endly2]

My only expenses was my Co pays to get my surgical clearances
from various doctors. i had to go to cardiologists, pulmonary specialists, pscy., nutritionist....
otherwise it was paid in full!
i really couldnt complain

[jblack]

Another question:

I don't feel hungry, but at the same time I don't really feel all that full after I eat. Is this normal after the surgery? The doc said liquids pretty much pass right through thr pouch, so I am hopeful that is why I don't get that satisfying full feeling after eating right now.

[Merle]

Originally Posted by odiej

I waited a long time for my surgery tho. My wait began July 2004 and I just got my surgery march 2007

Wow, that's wayyyyy to long, what was the hold up?

[Merle]

Originally Posted by fr1endly2

My only expenses was my Co pays to get my surgical clearances
from various doctors. i had to go to cardiologists, pulmonary specialists, pscy., nutritionist....
otherwise it was paid in full!
i really couldnt complain

That is great and you are really fortunate to have received so much assistance! But that's a lot of doctors to have to go see! Did you have to see each one before getting approval?

[fr1endly2]

YES merle...
Gastric bypass surgery is a MAJOR surgery.
AND its important that a patient is in tip
top condition going into this surgery.

PULMONARY is very important because many morbidly obesite people have sleep apena...that needs to be in control before major surgery so that if your treated and while resting you dont stop breathing and scare the hosptiol staff.

CARDIOLOGIST: well we all know a morbidly obesite person is very much at risk for a heart attack. BEST to be sure pre op that your in tip top shape then have a heart attack during your surgery or recovery. MANY
people have taken the phen phen and have heart damage from that alone. BEST to be safe going into.

GALL bladder songram: well many obesite people have damaged the gall bladder and attacks can be triggered by rapid weight loss, this way if your gall bladder is going bad, best to remove during the gastric bypass then have another surgery. MINE was fine and is still in tact. I took meds to keep my gall bladder functioning during my rapid weight loss months.

UPPER ENDOSCOPY: best to be sure there are no surprised the day of your surgery for gastric bypass so this will be sure your stomach is in great shape for redirection. ULCERS, bad acid reflux, stomach cancers
can be known before the day of the big surgery.

PSCY. evaluation: to my knowledge is mostly to be sure that a patient understands in full the risks of this surgery, possibly detect untreated
mental disorders ...and just be sure a person is mentally fit for such surgery. Depression hits post op and or some poeple have pre op anxiety this can help them .

NUTRITIONIST: helps us learn how to eat right clearly we didnt that we lost control ....helps learn the way of eating post op as well.

Also had to have the standard hospitol pre op testing as well that all hospitols do for any surgery big or small,,,,EKG, blood work little physcial.

ALOT of these clearances can vary from surgeon to surgeon and also
will depend on the age of the patient haveing the surgery. I came out of my surgery complication free and i feel being cautaus cant hurt.

[jblack]

Originally Posted by fr1endly2

YES merle...
Gastric bypass surgery is a MAJOR surgery.
AND its important that a patient is in tip
top condition going into this surgery.

PULMONARY is very important because many morbidly obesite people have sleep apena...that needs to be in control before major surgery so that if your treated and while resting you dont stop breathing and scare the hosptiol staff.

CARDIOLOGIST: well we all know a morbidly obesite person is very much at risk for a heart attack. BEST to be sure pre op that your in tip top shape then have a heart attack during your surgery or recovery. MANY
people have taken the phen phen and have heart damage from that alone. BEST to be safe going into.

GALL bladder songram: well many obesite people have damaged the gall bladder and attacks can be triggered by rapid weight loss, this way if your gall bladder is going bad, best to remove during the gastric bypass then have another surgery. MINE was fine and is still in tact. I took meds to keep my gall bladder functioning during my rapid weight loss months.

UPPER ENDOSCOPY: best to be sure there are no surprised the day of your surgery for gastric bypass so this will be sure your stomach is in great shape for redirection. ULCERS, bad acid reflux, stomach cancers
can be known before the day of the big surgery.

PSCY. evaluation: to my knowledge is mostly to be sure that a patient understands in full the risks of this surgery, possibly detect untreated
mental disorders ...and just be sure a person is mentally fit for such surgery. Depression hits post op and or some poeple have pre op anxiety this can help them .

NUTRITIONIST: helps us learn how to eat right clearly we didnt that we lost control ....helps learn the way of eating post op as well.

Also had to have the standard hospitol pre op testing as well that all hospitols do for any surgery big or small,,,,EKG, blood work little physcial.

ALOT of these clearances can vary from surgeon to surgeon and also
will depend on the age of the patient haveing the surgery. I came out of my surgery complication free and i feel being cautaus cant hurt.

Let's see... I had to do a stress test, endoscopy, colonoscopy, MRI, heart and neck sonnogram, and a sleep study before my primary care physician would give the OK for the surgery and write his letter of recomendation. They weren't insurance requirement individually, but a letter from him was, so I had to do them.

And I had to meet with a nutritionist and a psychologist (not Mary Jo from the show, lol), before Dr. Davis would send his letter of recomendation.

[Irving]

Originally Posted by fr1endly2

YES merle...
Gastric bypass surgery is a MAJOR surgery.
AND its important that a patient is in tip
top condition going into this surgery.

PULMONARY is very important because many morbidly obesite people have sleep apena...that needs to be in control before major surgery so that if your treated and while resting you dont stop breathing and scare the hosptiol staff.

CARDIOLOGIST: well we all know a morbidly obesite person is very much at risk for a heart attack. BEST to be sure pre op that your in tip top shape then have a heart attack during your surgery or recovery. MANY
people have taken the phen phen and have heart damage from that alone. BEST to be safe going into.

GALL bladder songram: well many obesite people have damaged the gall bladder and attacks can be triggered by rapid weight loss, this way if your gall bladder is going bad, best to remove during the gastric bypass then have another surgery. MINE was fine and is still in tact. I took meds to keep my gall bladder functioning during my rapid weight loss months.

UPPER ENDOSCOPY: best to be sure there are no surprised the day of your surgery for gastric bypass so this will be sure your stomach is in great shape for redirection. ULCERS, bad acid reflux, stomach cancers
can be known before the day of the big surgery.

PSCY. evaluation: to my knowledge is mostly to be sure that a patient understands in full the risks of this surgery, possibly detect untreated
mental disorders ...and just be sure a person is mentally fit for such surgery. Depression hits post op and or some poeple have pre op anxiety this can help them .

NUTRITIONIST: helps us learn how to eat right clearly we didnt that we lost control ....helps learn the way of eating post op as well.

Also had to have the standard hospitol pre op testing as well that all hospitols do for any surgery big or small,,,,EKG, blood work little physcial.

ALOT of these clearances can vary from surgeon to surgeon and also
will depend on the age of the patient haveing the surgery. I came out of my surgery complication free and i feel being cautaus cant hurt.

this is fantastic information i had no idea there were so many hurdles to being able to have this type of obesity surgery! thank you so much for this wonderful post!

Originally Posted by jblack

Let's see... I had to do a stress test, endoscopy, colonoscopy, MRI, heart and neck sonnogram, and a sleep study before my primary care physician would give the OK for the surgery and write his letter of recomendation. They weren't insurance requirement individually, but a letter from him was, so I had to do them.

And I had to meet with a nutritionist and a psychologist (not Mary Jo from the show, lol), before Dr. Davis would send his letter of recomendation.

so it is really up to the doctor's discretion regarding what tests he wants to have done before he writes a recommendation letter to the insurance company so that they will cover this? that makes sense.

[jblack]

Originally Posted by Irving

so it is really up to the doctor's discretion regarding what tests he wants to have done before he writes a recommendation letter to the insurance company so that they will cover this? that makes sense.

Pretty much yes. And it's for the patient's benefit. I am actually glad my doctor made fully sure that I was healthy enough to undergo the surgery.

Though I could have done without the colonoscopy.

In this case, however, the ends did justify the means.

[Obesity Discussion]

Originally Posted by jblack

Pretty much yes. And it's for the patient's benefit. I am actually glad my doctor made fully sure that I was healthy enough to undergo the surgery.

Though I could have done without the colonoscopy.

In this case, however, the ends did justify the means.

Oh come on, you enjoyed the colonoscopy, admit it.

You're up late!

[fr1endly2]

I think the reason for the colonoscopy is to rule out colon cancer...
last thing you need is for that to be seen during gastric bypass surgery and they stop the work cause of it.
I had seen that happen to someone and thats got to be devastating news to wake up from the bypass surgery to have learned they didnt do the process and then by the way you have COLON cancer.....
so its best to know your all in great health pre op.
I know younger patients dont normally see the cardiologist unless in there weight loss efforts prior they took PHEN PHEN which has left many people with damaged hearts....me one of them but thankfully mild and the gastric bypass surgery went forward. I was in the class action suit that was filed for the phen phen takers. THANKFULLY i only did the meds for 3 months, or my damage could have been far worse.

I didnt have the colonscopy and thankfully i had no cancer noticed
when they did the gastric bypass.

[Irving]

Originally Posted by fr1endly2

I think the reason for the colonoscopy is to rule out colon cancer...
last thing you need is for that to be seen during gastric bypass surgery and they stop the work cause of it.
I had seen that happen to someone and thats got to be devastating news to wake up from the bypass surgery to have learned they didnt do the process and then by the way you have COLON cancer.....
so its best to know your all in great health pre op.
I know younger patients dont normally see the cardiologist unless in there weight loss efforts prior they took PHEN PHEN which has left many people with damaged hearts....me one of them but thankfully mild and the gastric bypass surgery went forward. I was in the class action suit that was filed for the phen phen takers. THANKFULLY i only did the meds for 3 months, or my damage could have been far worse.

I didnt have the colonscopy and thankfully i had no cancer noticed
when they did the gastric bypass.

i am curious why would the doctor not do the gastric bypass if they spotted colon cancer? aren't those two completely separate issues? besides, doesn't losing weight from the bypass help make the cancer surgery easier with less complications down the road?

[jblack]

Originally Posted by Irving

i am curious why would the doctor not do the gastric bypass if they spotted colon cancer? aren't those two completely separate issues? besides, doesn't losing weight from the bypass help make the cancer surgery easier with less complications down the road?

That is a good point. I know on the last episode of Big Medicine, they found out on the table that a guy had horrible cirrhosis of the liver, and decided to go ahead with the surgery.

[fr1endly2]

Well im takeing this from a person that i knew from another gastric bypass
surgery board...
the surgeon did not do the gastric bypass.
WHICh was devastating.
I think people have to have fully healthy
colons.
A common complication that arises in many post ops
is bowl obstructions.....for various reasons.
SO i think they want the colon healthy enough
on a patient.
I think the cyrosis of the liver as seen on
BIG medicine...was a result of a VERY fatty
liver, and the gastric bypass surgery
will help cure a fatty liver....thus hopefully
prevent further liver damage so im sure
thats why they went ahead in that case.
BUT colon cancer could be completely
different thing, depending on how advanced
it was.....im thinkin in the person that i heard
this occur to it was very advanced colon cancer.

AGAIN im not a medical expert just something
i have read in my 3 years of being in the world
of bypass patients.

[Irving]

Originally Posted by jblack

That is a good point. I know on the last episode of Big Medicine, they found out on the table that a guy had horrible cirrhosis of the liver, and decided to go ahead with the surgery.

was this due to drinking alcohol? i do not know if the impact would be the same comparing this to cancer? i wonder if there is a surgery that can help fix cirrosis? i wonder if there is a full list somewhere of things that would preclude people from getting this surgery but it appears to be doctor specific like we discussed

Originally Posted by fr1endly2

Well im takeing this from a person that i knew from another gastric bypass
surgery board...
the surgeon did not do the gastric bypass.
WHICh was devastating.
I think people have to have fully healthy
colons.
A common complication that arises in many post ops
is bowl obstructions.....for various reasons.
SO i think they want the colon healthy enough
on a patient.
I think the cyrosis of the liver as seen on
BIG medicine...was a result of a VERY fatty
liver, and the gastric bypass surgery
will help cure a fatty liver....thus hopefully
prevent further liver damage so im sure
thats why they went ahead in that case.
BUT colon cancer could be completely
different thing, depending on how advanced
it was.....im thinkin in the person that i heard
this occur to it was very advanced colon cancer.

AGAIN im not a medical expert just something
i have read in my 3 years of being in the world
of bypass patients.

i am curious why do the bowels get blocked from this surgery? you would think since you are eating less food that would make it easier on bowels?

i do wonder if the various stages of cancer have an impact of whether a doctor will do this obesity surgery. i think there are 4 stages with stage 1 and 2 being before it spreads. or i wonder if different types of obesity are permissible in some instances where other types of obesity surgery are not permitted?

[fr1endly2]

OKAY the reason that is a big complication and this im takeing from several board people that had surgery when i did 2 years back
and the few that had this happen.

IT happens when someone looses TO much and then there are empty
pockets inside were it used to be fat...sometimes the bowl starts to
turn around in these spots and then block from it.
I have 3 friends that have had this happen and all three
have gotten very "THIN"...
thankfully my body opted to stop looseing at a nice
healthy size...that im very happy with.