Verny Girl
First Consult
Dec 05, 2012
Howdy!
Friday I attended a WLS seminar with Dr. Davidson at DSC Dallas and then afterwards I had a consult with him one on one. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.
When I got there I, of course, had to fill out all of the information packets which included anything and everything you could imagine including diets you have attempted with dates and how much you lost if any. They also wanted to know all about your family history and any medications you're on including dosage. So be prepared for those things along with all your normal insurance info, personal info, etc.
I got there pretty early and the office was packed and I was VERY nervous suddenly. Prior to going and so far in the journey I had been pretty excited but I was so nervous sitting in the office waiting that my hands got clammy and I started to sweat. haha
The nurse called me back finally. She asked me to stand in the hallway to take my picture, then she measured my waist (47 I think), then weighed me and I freakin weighed in at 282 **gasps for air** which puts me at a 42.9 BMI, and last but not least she took my BP which was 173/100!!!!! I admit I was pretty nervous but then again I usually always get nervous at the doctors office and it's never ever been that high! The nurse was super sweet and we talked about what surgery I wanted. She was sleeved around 7 months ago and has lost 70lbs. Turns out a few of the ladies in the office had WLS so that was comforting.
The nurse then came and took us to the conference room and we got to meet Dr. Davidson. He quickly went through a slide show. I don't know if it's because I've done SO much research but I didn't really learn anything. Although, I felt bad for an older couple that had obviously not done much or any because she wasn't sure at all what she wanted and the doctor went through the slides very quickly. Most of the slides had a lot of medical talk and not much "english". If I didn't have a sense of medical terminology and some of the pathophysiology I would've been completely lost and confused. Hopefully they got more one on one and clarification during their consult though!
After all that fun we headed back to the office to wait for our consults. Dr. Davidson is true to the reviews I have read. He's a very straight faced, to the point, all business type of man. At first, during the seminar, I wasn't so sure about him...However, he has already grown on me. He's been around quite a while and obviously knows his stuff. He asked what brought me there, why I chose him, and then asked me what I knew about the surgery itself. He was worried about my BP and told me to get with my PCP and hopefully get put on some medication (I have an appt this Friday for that!). He also listened to a few places on my chest. He then started recording his assessment via recorder, which is what he'll be sending to my insurance company. It was VERY blunt and a little harsh but he explained briefly that it was what's needed for insurance and has to be done. I left there with a reality check of how serious my obesity is and how much it is already affecting my life!!!! I also had a WHOLE list of questions to ask him but ended up holding off because most of them would be better to ask the nutritionist or later on in the journey. As he got up, I pulled out my list quickly just to make sure I didn't forget something and he sat back down and took his time to answer a couple silly questions I had. He didn't rush at all. I was also informed that I was a great candidate and he would be willing to perform my surgery in the next 10 days but we had to jump hoops for insurance! It was also brought to my attention how much insurance companies DONT want to approve bariatric surgeries because they look at the now not the overall picture. He brought up an interesting perspective.
The next and last step of the day was to meet with the insurance extraordinaire! A VERY nice woman. She had the bypass a few years ago and showed me her before pics and we chit chatted a while about the whole process. We agreed to wait to pull all of my insurance information until January 1st but she gave me the nutritionists info and some referrals for my psychiatric evaluation. I got my referral for BSC Dallas from my insurance so no worries there. However I'm pretty anxious to find out exactly what I have to do and exactly how long it's going to take. She said she's pretty sure I'll just have a 3 month pre-op diet to follow with 3 trips to the nutritionist so that would be lovely but I'm still prepared if it happens to be 6 months. It's crazy to think that I may be having surgery at the earliest, the end of March!!! I'm SOOOO ready! I'm planning on going to my first nutritionist appointment next week to get the 3 month thing started.
Anyways...I really feel comfortable with the surgeon I have chosen. He could smile a bit more but I would rather have an AMAZING surgeon than some guy that likes to smile. haha He has been voted top doctor for the past 20 years and counting. The staff seems really great too. I'm just so excited to get this show on the road and start dropping some of the weight that is holding me down.