I have another Question!!!

When you go to places like the comp. clinic and they want you to loose some weight, how do they justify the weightloss to Ins. or public aid? Won't the insurance or medicaid say see she can loose weight. I can loose weight, but I regain plus another ton along with it. So how do they handle this? Also for medicaid are they going to want more weightloss documentation than what I do at the comp . clinic? Thanks again Shelli

They use your first weigh in weight before any subsequent weight loss. I cannot tell you about medicaid wanting any weight loss but some main stream surgeons require some weight loss or some type of program to be on pre op. Sometimes the person's liver is fatty and they need to shrink it before surgery so it does not get in the way of the surgeon when the surgery is being done. You do not need your liver nicked during surgery it can be very dangerous and life threatening. My doctor requires all his patients to be on an 8 week diet before surgery. That was not for loosing weight but to practice eating 7 meals a day, taking vitamins, drinking all the water (minimum 6-8oz glasses), the time it took you to eat (30-45 minutes) and how much you ate, plus I had to do a minimum of 30-45 minutes of aerobic exercise a day. My eating and exercise plans were set up by the dietician and the exercise specialist at my first pre op apt. This all started to teach me how I was to eat for the rest of my life. They wanted to see that I could make good food choices and the rest post op. It helped tremendously. By the way I had to write down all of what I ate, drank, exercise, vitamins etc. The doctor just did not take my word for doing all the above, he had to see it on paper. I did much better pre op then my husband who went to a different WLS doctor. He has a lot of problems of eating too fast, so you see being put on a diet or a doctor required program pre op is not a bad thing, you will learn about proper eating when you are post op.

Even my insurance company wanted to see at least the 'attempt' to lose weight with the COMP Clinic. If you do lose weight during this period, it's justified that you are commited to making yourself healthier, and you can handle the restrictions after the surgery - they don't judge and say that 'well, if you can lose weight now, you don't need the surgery' - it's valued very differently. The COMP Clinic will get a goal for you, and you will need to follow their guidelines pre-surgery, or they won't do it. Believe me, my first goal was suppsed to be in March of 2004, but I didn't meet it, and they wouldn't set my next appt for another 3 months. My surgery was in September.

Sorry, correction to my early morning post, it was dark in my family room and I did not see that I put down 7 meals, I meant 6 meals. Chris

Thank you that makes sense to me!! shelli