newbie with questions..

A little background first.....I'm 46, 5.4,  220 pounds, bmi is 37... low blood pressure.....asthma, borderline diabetic,...insurance is Tricare standard......living in Texas..
My daughter ( babynesh05 - a member here) had her surgery and lost lots of weight.....now I'm wanting to do the same........
anyways i went to see my doctor to get a re feral and while there he explained the different surgeries to me and told me that the doc he is referring me to, likes to match up the patients with the right surgery.....He thinks I'm a good candidate for the lap band, but I told him i wanted VSG......then he told me that VSG surgery involves getting a sleeve put over my stomach and pulled tight..??? I told him that the surgery was getting 85 % of ur stomach removed and he said that that was an old surgery.......Now I'm confused, lol......are there 2 VSG surgeries? Or is he just not informed right??? waiting on my re feral to go through....wait time for surgery is almost 6 months i was told by  my doc...
Also, anyone with tricare standard......what is the out of pocket expense? I most likely will be getting the surgery at  a civilian hospital, ( if approved ) since my doc can not refer me on post......is it cheaper at a military hospital or the same??
also, how do u handle low blood sugar before surgery, when u are not allowed to eat or drink? If i don't eat or drink, my sugar drops so low that i get the shakes and am ready to pass out....that kind of worries me....
Not sure when i will get my re feral to go through so i figured i ask some of these questions here while i wait.......thanks for reading.....

The only pulling tight method I'm aware of is gastric plication where they suture your stomach into a smaller capacity (but from what I've seen the complications aren't worth it).  No idea what he's talking about other than that... I think he probably heard the term and assumed what it was without researching.

Can't comment on tricare or blood sugar, but you'll find a lot of info at this VSG faq that the veterans have put together to help us newbies.

Good luck!

Sounds like your doctor is a little uneducated in this area. I would be tempted to find accurate information on line and then fax it to his office :)
As far as blood sugars go prior to surgery, the dieticians and surgeon are very helpful with putting you on a plan that is going to work for you. Good luck with your journey!

Your doctor is highly ill-informed about VSG.
And Tricare Standard will not cover VSG at all, it's only covered at a MTF (military hospital) if that hospital's bariatric program offers VSG. It is NOT a covered procedure with civilian surgeons. I've been round and round with Tricare for over 2 years, in all 4 regions between myself and fellow military wives trying to get VSG. I've had one go all the way to a congressional complaint, appeals, peer reviews, and still denied. She switched to Tricare Prime and had her VSG approved, and performed at Balboa Naval Hospital in CA. Others have been "pre-authorized" through a civilian surgeon, but when everything was submitted for approval a big fat denial came back. Simply put, it is not a covered procedure, and will not be covered until Medicare covers it 100%. Tricare did the same thing with the band approvals and then had to retroactively reimburse patients that self-paid for the band since it was not an approved procedure and they did not want bypass.

My recommendation is to not waste your time, jump through hoops to get approval on a procedure that is not covered by Tricare. Anything you do with a civilian will likely not be accepted by a mil hospital since it's not within their program (seen that happen as well with a friend go through the 6 month diet, labs, psych and nut consults all to be denied and she had to start all over with the mil hospital and it took her another 4 months to get her VSG).

I'm not sure what part of Texas you are in, but Fort Hood's post hospital and Wilford Hall at Lackland AFB perform VSG and it's a covered procedure through those 2 MTFs.

If you have any other specific questions, feel free to contact me. I've had the band covered by Tricare with a civilian, and then had my revision to VSG at a mil hospital here in Florida. I went through so many surgeons, paperwork, Tricare phone calls, and have yet to meet, speak with, hear of one single Tricare Standard or Prime patient get approval outside of an MTF for VSG.

I call Tricare monthly for updates, and stay up to date with Medicare's "supposed" approval of VSG, but it hasn't happened yet, and the last time I spoke with a Tricare claim manager she said once again "That until the fiscal budget year rolls around 1 October 2011, no one can determine if Medicare of Tricare will pick up VSG as an approved procedure."

so she would need to switch to tricare prime first?! she is near Fort hood but they recommended her to Metroplex. 

Yep. If  she stays on Standard, the referral goes in as a "bariatric consult". She'll get a referral to a civilian, and then they'll offer her bypass or band since VSG is NOT covered with civilian surgeons.

If she switches to Prime, she might have to change PCMs and go through Hood for the referral. Unless she is able to see her civilian PCM for the referral to Ft. Hood. I'm able to see civilian PCM and all my referrals get kicked out to civis, but I had to request my revision consult be put in for the MTF. I've seen it happen too many times for civilian surgeons tell patients that VSG will be approved and then try to switch them over to bypass or the band because VSG gets denied every time.

I think what your doctor is referring to is VSG is actually the first stage for the duodenal switch which is actually old.

Hmmmm, thanks all for replying........guess i will have to go prime to get anything done....