Joanne
I first met Dr Bale in 11/04 when I first walked in the office the staff was very professional and Theresa Stephens started the film for me to watch before I go in have my consultation with the doctor. The insurance I had back then was Definity Health their requirments for the surgery was cHello I first met Dr.Bale in 11/04 when I first walked in the office the staff was very professional Theresa showed me the film about the gastric bypass surgery before I went in to see the Docter she went over the film I just watched pertaining to the surgery and answered all my questions I'm very confident with her, I already finished my insurance requirements in order to be approved. I had six months of dietician visits,psych evaluation,barium swallow,thyroid test,drug screening. that was what my insurance required everyone's insurance has different requirements. everything was completed 8/18/05. Theresa submitted everything now I'm waiting to hear back from them with approval "I CANT WAIT"...... Also Dr.Bale has a support group that meets every third Wednesday and I went on 8/24/05 at 6pm the turn out was wonderful. Very interesting it was post-op and pre-op patients there as well as those who had the surgery two years ago. I really enjoyed the discussion and will attend in the future. "Im just waiting for a date"
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crazy I had every kind of test there was out to be done from the head to the foot (LOL). And I also had to do six months of dietician visits which was good. Then all my paper work was submitted after I completed what I had to do and 3 weeks later on 8/05 Theresa called me and said I had the approval and I picked my on date which was Halloween!!!!!! The day I went into surgery I was 289lbs and I'm 5"7 so I carried the weight pretty well it was basically all in my mid section. But it was killing my knees and those darn heel spurs was hard for me to get out of bed and step down. I wanted to do this for myself and only me my husband loved me just the way I was I just kept thinking about my high school years. You seem to look back a lot once your kids start to be almost out on their own. I'm 42 my oldest is 22 and my youngest is 16. I lost a total of 110lbs now you can't tell the daughters from the mother everyone says I look like fantasia in fact I had a few people take seconds looks to make sure I wasn't her that be sooo hilarious to me. Now I had my Tummy tuck on 11/1/07 my plastic surgeon told me he removed 8lbs of fat he even gave me a picture. The hardest part about weight loss surgery nothing but the maintenance is hard you have to eat right and work out and remember all you went through to achieve the appearance you have now. Because weight loss surgery is only a quik fix it all up to you to maintain. That's why those psych visists they give you are so important because if you don't have the mind set then the surgery it's not worth your time and your doctor time. And also this website is important because we all need each other to lean on. And if you can go to some support meetings that's also good.
