Consultation

My dear friend Elizabeth had her surgery in November of 2019 and was always honest and straightforward about her experience. After watching her work her ass off, rejoice, struggle, and in the end, swear she'd do it all over again, I thought I had to at least start looking into my options. I filled out some paperwork and was told that this was a procedure that my insurance did cover (pending approval), I had my first consultation with Dr. Hamilton at the Bariatric Center of Kansas City early February 2020. 

Information about the Corona Virus was beginning to come out, but at this point, we had no idea the impact it was about to have on 2020. 

After going through this journey with Elizabeth, any thoughts I had before of this being the easy way out were quickly dispelled.  Even though the surgery is completed laparoscopicly, it was still a major, life-altering surgery.  

My first thought was that I wanted the sleeve. The sleeve sounded like a much less drastic option. Dr. Hamilton (he's a bit of a close talker, heads up there) went over both surgeries with me and answered my questions. My biggest concern was safety. We had had someone at work die from weight loss surgery and leave behind two children. To clarify, she had several other major health issues and didn't follow the doctor's orders whatsoever. Outside of being overweight, for all intents and purposes, I am relatively healthy.  No diabetes, no heart issues, no sleep apnea, fairly flexible, and have 100% mobility. He expressed that he had had to fix several sleeves due to complications and issues, but rarely, if ever, had to repair or address issues with the bypass.  I was sold. He also stated you lose more weight with the bypass. While this was a plus, it was not the deciding factor for choosing the bypass, it was a safety issue.

I had my first weigh in that day and I weighed in at 240. I had eaten on the way there, which I had felt bad about. I should have waited to eat if I knew we were going to be weighing in! BUT, I later found out that my insurance requires that no weight be gained during my 6 month waiting period. So, if you are going to your first appointment, my recommendation is to fill that belly to give yourself some room in case you have any small gains. Also, some insurance's require you actually lose a certain amount of weight.  I high first weigh in gives you an advantage there.

My friend Elizabeth only had a 3 month waiting period, so know that the timeline can vary depending on the insurance you carry.

First appointment down, I decided to wait to make my initial $250 payment to be able to talk to my husband and see what we wanted to do.