It is increasingly common for people to have a medical intervention in order to lose weight. Whether this is the newest technique, which is the gastric balloon, or a more traditional procedure like the Roux-en-Y, it is important that you properly prepare yourself for the procedure. Let’s take a look at five tips to help you get ready for your medical procedure.
5 Preparations Before Opting for Medical Weight Loss
- Educate yourself so that you know exactly what will happen during the procedure and what you can expect. When you look online, however, you will find both accurate and inaccurate information and you need to be able to differentiate between those two. Try to find information that has medical references in it, so you get a complete picture of the pros and cons of your procedure.
- Find out whether you have health insurance coverage for the procedure that you are considering. Because obesity is now recognized as a disease, and thanks to the Affordable Care Act, a lot of insurance companies will cover at least some of the procedure. Do make sure that you know if and what they cover, so that you know what your personal out of pocket expenses will be.
- Have all the necessary medical information to hand that helps you to demonstrate that a medical intervention is necessary for you. All types of bariatric procedures, even the gastric balloon, have inherent risks and potential complications associated with them, and those risks tend to be increased if you have preexisting medical conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, or heart disease. You need to have your medical records to hand, so that your bariatric specialist can make an informed decision.
- If you currently suffer from a medical instability, you must stabilize this before you have the procedure completed. Ideally, you will be in near perfect health before you will be treated by a bariatric specialist.
- Have a one to one consultation with the specialist who will actually be performing the procedure. Prepare yourself with a list of questions that you may still have, and make sure that the conversation is open and honest, particularly in terms of the advantages and disadvantages of the procedure itself.
Clearly, before you decided to have any type of procedure completed, you must be properly prepared. The gastric balloon is minimally invasive, being put into place through an endoscope and only remaining in your stomach for six months, but that doesn’t mean there are no risks associated with it. You have to be able to discuss this with your specialist, so that you are empowered to make the best decision in terms of your own personal health care needs. If you have a more invasive procedure, like the Roux-en-Y, the lap band, or any other such procedure, this is even more important. While many of these surgical procedures are now completed laparoscopically, they are permanent changes, or they are meant to be permanent at least, which means you really have to be very sure.