Active Duty spouses

Any active duties spouses on here that have gone from band to sleeve using a MTF? I know tricare won't cover my revision and self pay is not an option right now. 

Also, anyone able to do this while being stationed overseas? Or anyone able to do this at a MTF in Texas? Our families are from Texas so it's a place we visit time and time again. 

Thanks! 

Hello!  I am no longer an active duty spouse (three years ago my dear husband retired from the USMC after 22 years active duty.)  As Tricare will not pay for the gastric sleeve, I am going through the program at Brook Army Medical Center.  I live about two and half hours from Brooke but it's the closest military facility that will do gastric surgery at all.  They are very strict about the pro-op program whi*****ludes attending a four hour info session, two support group sessions (offered once a month) and three two-hour nutrition sessions (sessions are offered one each week in a three week rotation.)  I've been doing a lot of commuting!  The lab work and so on you can get done locally. 

If you have any other questions, I can try to help.  Best wishes to you.

Kate

http://www.bamc.amedd.army.mil/departments/surgery/bariatric/

Pugmadkate- Thank you for the information! Brooke Army is about 2.5 hours away from my mom's house as well. She is in the Ft. Hood area as my dad was Army and retired at Ft. Hood. I am in England with my AD husband but would be more than willing to travel back home if it meant having the procedure done. I will keep looking at options closer to my current home but am glad to hear I can get some help "down the road" from my family's home in Texas :)

I am a Federal employee working for DoD in Germany so my take will be a bit different but I think should be helpful.

I do know several military dependents (spouses and minor children) who have gotten sleeved under TriCare. 

I think, logistically, if you want to use a MTF, it will be a challenge if you are stationed in the UK, I am not wholly certain you will get travel orders for that and the amount of time it would take is rather extended.

Why are you interested in a revision?  It could make a HUGE difference in getting it funded by TriCare. 

If your reason for revision is acceptable, TriCare could refer you to a surgeon in UK or elsewhere in Europe.  If it's not within a reasonable distance to get there, they can put you on travel orders.  For example, there are regular bus trips from Vincenza, IT to Landstuhl, GE because Landstuhl is the ONLY hospital left on this side of the continent due to the consolidation and drawdowns.  They also send people in the Middle East (Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain) to Landstuhl.  

My current surgeon is the top rated surgeon in the entirety of Europe.  He often does procedures for people flying in specifically for surgery (particularly from the Middle East because there was a 90 day moriatorium on bariatric surgery there for awhile).  However, if your PCP is willing to do the work up, necessary referrals, and endorse the revision all the way up to doing the travel orders (primarily for air fare), he can do it as a TriCare-covered procedure (as can other surgeons within Europe).

If I can be of any assistance, please let me know.

Caramel_Bllond- THANK YOU for your help so far. 

I am interested in revision because I was banded 5 years ago and am only 5-6 pounds lighter TODAY than I was the day I got banded. This is just a guess as I refuse to get on the scale. I may actually be heavier at this point. Anyhow, I have been going back & forth between my PCM here and the referred band doctor in London getting fills and unfills with no success. I know the band is only a tool but at this point it's useless to me. We plan on being career military and are about 1/2 way to retirement. The last 2.5 years have been hell getting the proper care I need for my band and I just don't want to go thru the same things at every base we go to from here until we retire. I doubt that's reason enough for Tricare.

I can tell you that the 2 PCMs I've had here are not very helpful. They both have made me feel bad about being banded- my first doctor flat out told me that I took the easy way out and wouldn't give me the referral to see the guy in London for an adjustment until he saw my paperwork that Tricare paid for my band in Vegas. After showing him ALL my paperwork I got the referral but was still given a hard time. I reported him to the patient advocate and have since gotten a new doctor...who pretty much feels the same way. I highly doubt she will help me in the revision process but I am willing to try. I want to move on from the band. I don't want to knock it, I just don't think it's the right surgery for me, not when we will move around every couple of years. 

Hi!

My husband was Active Duty when I had my surgery 1/31/11 - Tricare paid for it all - I had my surgery at Wilford Hall, but they transferred my care over to BAMC (Brooke Army Medical Center) when they moved it from Wilford Hall.  (Just an FYI - BAMC isn't BAMC anymore - it's now call SAMMC - San Antonio Medical Military Center).  I had done Weigh****chers and I had my weigh in booklets so they accepted that as my 6 months of supervised weight loss program that you need to have prior to surgery.  I had to do an upper GI and a sleep study - that was it!  It was easy!!  I was in the hospital 3 days and my Dr cleared me to go back to work after 2 weeks.  Hope it all works for you!! It was so worth it!!  Kris