I had mine at a MTF... mine was performed at Blanchfield Army Community Hospital (BACH) here on Fort Campbell, KY. So far my expierence has been fairly good. There are some parts of the process that need to be fixed but otherwise it has been good. You can read my profile for all of the DRAMA....LOL! My surgeon was very nice, skilled and I could not have wanted for a better one! (Not to mention he is HOT! LOL!) My wait was over a year long and I think that is a bit much. Tricare should really start to route people off post after 8 months, you know?! I used to with them every week about moving me offpost once the wait went over 6 months but they insisted that if I wanted to be off post for my WLS I would have to move all of my care off post. Which would have been STUPID since I live on post! Not to mention my hubby is a flight paramedic so I typically bypass the hospital and clinics and see the docs he works with anyways! I don't know about you but our nutrition department SUCKS when it comes to bypass patients. Our "nutritional packet" is 6 pages long, full of crap you can get off the net on any Gastric Bypass 101 website! And a lot of the stuff contradicts itself too! It has been my expierence that the nutrition dept says "go by what your doc says because everyone is different." Well that is part of the problem, in the military we change docs so frequently! Not to mention most military surgeons don't want to mess with nutrition b/c that is one more thing on their plate! OYE! The one BIG thing I wish our hospital would fix is our support group. After the guys started deploying "back home" the Adult Behavioral Health Department dropped us like a bad habit. They claimed they needed to "focus on the soldier"... yeah well you can't just forget about the WLS patients either buddy.... we can kill ourselves if we don't deal with our eating issues! KWIM? So right now our meetings are being run solely by the patients and we get no support from the hospital (except a place to meet, but even then they give away our room sometimes)! How was your expierence? Where do you see room for improvment? Brightest Blessings for a Wonderful Day~ Jamie M. Weight- 257/234/146 BMI- 44.1/40.2/25 Height- 5' 4" Surgery Date: 1/19/05 No matter what size, we are all Goddesses inside!

I had Open RNY (1-19/05) b/c when I started this process that is the only thing Tricare approved. Although now I hear they are processing Lap RNY again but most military MTF don't do it so you have to be referred off-post. I did not want to delay my surgery and more so I just went for the Open. Which is OK, since I bounced back better than most Lap patients! LOL! My surgeon is really good and my scar is GREAT so I have no worries. Well I take that back, my only worry is that my surgeon is deploying soon and I will not have someone to go to. I am not sure yet what the hospital plans on doing with us post-ops since we do need follow up care. Anyways, I am doing good considering everything. I have already moved to mushy/crispy and since my doc is at JRTC right now he said to go ahead and slowly progress myself to some real foods as I am comfortable with. I am not rushing but I have experimented. Like I am doing really well with shrimp and that Tyson chunck chicken. YEAH! I can't wait to go to a regular diet but until them I am taking it slowly and trying new things here and there. So far I have only "dumped" once and that was because my throat was dry so I took a sip of my hubby's ice tea while I was eating and I did not know it was that sweet lipton brisk crap... UGH! The sugar in that is UNREAL! LOL! So how are you doing? Brightest Blessings for a Wonderful Day~ Jamie M. Weight- 257/234/146 BMI- 44.1/40.2/25 Height- 5' 4" Surgery Date: 1/19/05 No matter what size, we are all Goddesses inside!

I'm all up for that....... ~Tanja -142

Heck, I wish there was more chatting on this board. Some of the boards are so active, it is crazy! LOL! Anyone out there want to chat or same IMs or SOMETHING?! I know there are more Army folks out there! It is just plain not to support each other. Let's , , and each other out. HUGS~ Brightest Blessings for a Wonderful Day~ Jamie M. Weight- 257/234/146 BMI- 44.1/40.2/25 Height- 5' 4" Surgery Date: 1/19/05 No matter what size, we are all Goddesses inside!

Tava, First of all you are not alone and welcome. I'm glad to know that you've done extensive research, because most people think it's a walk in the park. It is a whole new change of lifestyle. It's worth every bit. I also did some very extensive research, I started looking into the surgery back in 1999. But I didn't commit to having it done till 2003. Well I had my surgery in Oct of 2004. I haven't looked back. So welcome and good luck. Monice 10/26/2004 283.5/221