So I am curious to hear from everyone. From the time that you first start to finish how long did it take for you to get approved? Who had to appeal their initial denial? And how long after initially submitting your paperwork did it take for you to get a decision?

I know every state is different but I am just curious to see the differences in everyone's experiences.

Well I never received an answer to this post so I am going to answer my own question.

Dear self from March.
It took me 16 days from submitting the paperwork to get approval. If I would have started my supervised diet earlier then I could have submitted my paperwork sooner but my major hold up was waiting to get the 6 month supervised diet completed and then waiting on my surgeons office to put the papers together to submit to my insurance. I had to wait 2 weeks for the surgeons office to request preauthorization even though I had completed my supervised diet for over 2 weeks. I finally called nonstop until they submitted the papers.
So if I was to do it again, I would hand deliver my paperwork from the pcp that supervised my diet and that signed my surgical clearance. That might have rushed things on.

So short answer 7 months including the 6 month supervised diet and 1 month after the diet was completed I recieved my approval

Sounds about typical. Started this journey end of May, and surgery will be in November. I'm ready!