How many have been turned away?

The room was full when I went for my bariatric introductory meeting. We met in the hospital auditorium. There were many heavy people. We were given information and encouraged to fill out a form to be screened to see if we were eligible for surgery.

My GI Surgeon had contacted the bariatric center on my behalf and the lead surgeon had already decided to take me on, as a patient.

But there are hoops to jump through. The first of these was that we were given a food log and told to set up an appointment for our first dietary class with weigh in. There were eight of us at that weigh in.

Now there are other times to come, three times per month, but to date, I have not seen any of the others in any of my weigh ins or at the support group meetings (which are not mandatory).

But I do know that parts of the process are discouraging:

1. One of the dieticians has a rotten bedside manner. She lords her position over the fatties and discourages them. I have been in her crosshairs. It is no wonder that she works for the doctor who does not do surgery, but gives pills. She disdains our process, I believe.
2. The diet itself is so hard. Five or six months of hunger. That's if you tell the truth, as I have been doing (99.5% of the time). God forbid you gain. God help you if you don't lose.
3.  Dieting for months is hard enough, but it pushes the goal of having the surgery so far away. The diet and exercise are so fruitless and I have been down this path so many times, and I have to stay on it for at least another two months. 
4. The cost is hard to bear: copays ($40 a crack for me) and the deductible ($1000 per year and I will squarely hit two years in my process).  I have spent $1005 this year on deductibles and copays and will spend at least $1000 right out of the gate in January -- on this process ALONE. Just on the diagnostics, the evaulations, the sleep studies, the endoscopy, the GI appointments, the chest xrays, the EKG, the dietician co-pays, the lifestyle classes and the psychologist.

So, those who bomb out of the diet, as I have so nearly done so many time and those who can't afford the out of pocket and those who are discouraged by the meanness of the professionals, where are they?

I hate thinking about all of those that are lost to this process because the insurance simply makes it too damned hard. Maybe the length of it is not so bad, at least we have time to think it through, but man, the approval process is one of the hardest things I have ever done, shy of being pregnant and giving birth.

76 days until my "tentative" surgery date.