The referral process

The referral through Kaiser Permanente is a process of its own. “Hope you’re not in a hurry to get surgery, it’s a 1 year process” was the first thing that they said to all of us day one. Then they proceeded to go through a 3 hour orientation of what the surgery entails, how many different choices they have, and what your diet will be like for the rest of your life, oh and did I forget that there is a pre-op diet to follow, and I will have to lose a required amount of weight before I even get scheduled to see the surgeon. I call this first orientation, “The Gate Keeper”, 3 hours of the good, bad and the ugly. There were 15 people in the meeting with me and I have to tell you, I was second guessing going through with it by the time the class was over. However when the class was completed they said “If you still want to proceed, email your Dr. and tell them yes, this will start Phase 1.”