The Bariatric Center

When we were done with the rest of the physical , the doctor asked the nurse to set me up with an appointment at the bariatric center. The center staff asked which program being referred and the nurse had no answer. The doctor had gone on to see other patients, of course, so we couldn't ask her. I finally asked the nurse for the bariatric center's number and had her verify with them that it was OK I call directly.

When I called the next day I learned that this particular center offers three things:

1) Nutritionist services.

2) Medically supervised weight loss.

3) Gastric bypass surgery.

The person on the phone said that there was an introductory meeting coming up in a day or two. So, the significant other and I found ourselves sitting through the HMR sales pitch. The nutritionist giving it was friendly enough but she was basically recruiting for a group of people to run through option number two. Either she didn't know much about options one and three or she feigned ignorance.

I had to ask pointed questions of the nutritionist to get her to enumerate the costs. Then some direct questions to break break the costs down further to startup and periodic. She told us that insurance usually covers the nutritionist, doctor/nurse practitioner, and lab tests. She was also honest in saying that insurance almost never covers the required food and/or shakes. Let me tell you, this is not a cheap thing to do.

So, after that meeting the SO and I had a serious conversation about the HMR program. When the conversation started, I was leaning toward doing the program. Somewhere along the line I realized that this program would teach me to lose and maintain weight but in a way that left me basically dependent on their shakes and food. I remembered mention of a "transition phase" but that was all that was said. At that point, I realized that I needed to find another way because I want to lose weight living in the real world. The quest for a weight loss solution continued...