New here

Welcome!  Congrats on a great decision!  I agree...your insurance requirements will be the determining factor in the time requirement.  You should get most of that info Friday.  I went really fast because I was self-pay.  I had my first meeting with the surgeon's office on 9/12/14 and was sleeved on 10/27/14.  Could not be happier!!  Best of luck to you!

WOW! That was really fast! I am sure it will not go that fast but would be happy if it did :) Thank you and YAY for yours going so quickly!! 

I agree with GwenMo - it's important to like your doctor! I met with the surgeon first for evaluation and he handed me a pre-op checklist with surgical clearances, etc., that you'll likely need to get, too. Get started as soon as you can. I really worked my process and it took six months! Also, as some other posters said, your insurance may have a requirement for weight-loss attempt or nutritional counseling. I've heard of three-months and six-months of this, depending on insurance. Mine was six months. Hopefully you'll have a smooth and easy journey! Good luck and best wishes!

The first thing that I did was reach out to my insurance company. I found out what the requirements were and which facilities and doctors were covered. I attended a seminar for the facility I thought was the best for me and mulled it over for a couple of weeks.

Once I made up my mind that I wanted to have surgery, I set up an appointment with the doctor. They gave me a check list of things that were required by the surgeon and by my insurance. All that was really required was a psych eval, blood tests, and an x-ray. The doctor also had some educational requirements that I had to fulfill. Once I had most of this done, I made an appointment with my primary care physician to get surgery clearcance.

my appointments were delayed because I had a very heavy month of travel. But even then, I was approved for surgery on December 4th. I start my liquid diet this Thursday.

my advice if you are going through your insurance company is to reach out to them directly and be your own advocate. Make sure you understand all the requirements so that you don't have any surprises. I did my homework to understand which facilities to use not just for my surgery, but for my test and lab work. When it comes to money coming out of my pocket I want to make sure that I'm saving as much as possible while getting the best service I can. Best of luck!