OK, so I had my 1st appointment with the surgeon. I like him and he seemed to be really excited that I never had any other surgeries. I'm the artists' blank canvass I guess! He gave me a list of things to get done and told me the quicker I get them done, the quicker I get the surgery.

One of the things I had to do is contact insurance to see if I need to participate in a 6 month MD supervised diet. I called insurance and all they would say is I can have the surgery if it's medicallly necessary. I told them it is and my primary care phy already wrote the letter saying it is. Their response to that...yup, you guessed it..."It's covered if it's medically necessary". So I guess that means insurance will cover it without the 6 month MD guided diet? Who knows at this point.

I just finished with the Psychiatrist. That was a joke. Very superficial questioning about my eating habits then a test about illness and spirituality. I went back the next week for the test results, that took 15 minutes. He said I passed and that the insurance required this step in the process.

I had my EKG, bloodwork, and do not need a sleep study since I do not have sleep apnea. The only thing I need to do is have an endoscopy done but the surgeon wants that closer to my surgery date.

Lastly I need to lose 5% of my current bodyweight. I'm having problems with this. I mean really, this is why I'm having the surgery in the first place. I did not meet with the nutritionist at my first visit because she was on vacation that week. I meet with her on the 21st at my next surgeon's appointment. I'll get a feel from them about the weightloss prior to surgery. Here's what I'm thinking...I can lose the weight by doing something like Medifast for a few weeks but will that really help me out on the the other side? Am I supposed to be learning how to eat healthy now before the surgery to ensure success post op? I think I would be doing myself a disservice by doing Medifast just to lose the weight. Has anyone found out, is that 5% weight loss really about losing the weight or is it about developing healthy habits to ensure success post sleeve?

I was hoping to get a surgery date at the 10/21 appt but according to the psychologist they usually schedule the surgery at the 3rd appointment. I was hoping to have it done by Christmas. Oh well, time will tell!