How long until you were approved and got a surgery date?

I started with the Seminar in late October, had a psych evaluation and met with the nutritionist 3 times, had the blood work, EKG, Chest X-ray.  The blood work results indicated that I have h.pylori.  I did 10 days of 2 antibiotics with Prilosec and now I'm waiting to be retested in a couple of weeks.  However, I went for the consultation appointment last week and the doctor approved me for surgery pending the results of the blood test.  So as of right now I have no surgery date.  I'm super sad about this because if the test comes back positive again, I will have to go through another round of different antibiotics and wait another month after that for retesting.  Problem is I have stuff going on in May, my middle daughter is graduating from high school on May 17th and my oldest daughter's baby is due on May 24th and I'd been hoping to have the surgery done sometime in April...I'm still hoping and praying for the best!

First info session: October
Got surgery date: January?
Actual surgery: February 26

I was able to schedule my first nurse and nut visit the same day as my first info session since I am an employee of the hospital and telecommute from a distance.

Things that helped:
I had a fairly recent sleep study
I'd had a recent stess test
I had the full support of my pcp
I get all my health care from the same hospital
I have excellent insurance
My insurance required history of multiple weight loss attempts, but no physician-supervised diet
I was already in a good place mentally and self-esteem-wise
No raging eating disorder, just some disordered eating
I have health problems (sleep apnea, metabolic disease) but nothing really stopping me

Hoops:
Psych eval
Blood tests
Had to make a visit to my hematologist (because I have a bleeding disorder)
Had to collect urine and send in to lab (I have a history of kidney stones)
Had to lose weight pre-op (I believe almost every surgeon requires this for everybody)

I started July 2012 and had to go thru the usual zillion tests plus a 6-month monitored weight loss program.  The day I met with the surgeon's nurse at my final test/wt-loss it was to be sure all the boxes had been checked and all the hoops had been jumped through. 

Surgeon's office submitted my paper work that same day in December, and I was approved that same day!  I was called the next morning with a surgery date (but it was changed 5 times before I actually had it done!)!

 

I started the process Jan 14, 2013. It was submitted to insurance on Friday March 4 & insurance comp called with approval Monday March 4th.

Had my first appointment with the surgeon on Dec 7,2012 jumped through hoops, NUT 2 visits, exercise class, psyche eval, surgeon conference, submitted ins on 1-3-13, 4 days for approval, surgery scheduled for 1-28-13. Had surgery 1-28-13.

4 mon nut, gym, therapist

2 wks for approval after submission.

started journey

oct 23 2012 having surgery april 9 2013

started out March 6, 2012

surgery date  March 21, 2013

it was a loooong year.

So this can go really slow or really quickly. I'm so antsy to have this done, but I don't see my gp until next Friday.

The information session and support group after were amazing. This is absolutely what I want and need to do. I'm not even scared anymore. I was so happy and excited during the presentation that I cried. I hope it doesn't take a long time.