I'm 5’11” 356 lb. My BMI is 50. I am 48 years old and married to my team mate Becky (She is having WLS also). I have been overweight / obese from early childhood. I have tried to lose weight all my life. I have tried a cabbage diet (Got Dehydrated), the Atkins diet (Got me real sick and found out I had Gout!), Gennie Craig diet (Cost me an arm and a leg and could not keep up), and Nutra-Systems (the old one. What a joke they fixed there scales and sucked my bank account dry. They tried to sue me because I could not keep up with the payments). Every time I lost weight I would gain it back and then some. I read some where here and I concur” I dieted my self to 350+ pounds” 

I Have Diabetes type II. I give myself 4 shots a day (2 in morning and 2 after supper). I also take blood pressure medicine and 6 other pills nightly. I have sleep apnea, Hypertension and I have arthritis pain in my joints. I was referred for this surgery by my Primary Care Physician and my Cardiologist who is very concerned about my health because of my morbid obesity. After research and soul searching I've come to grips with one fact, I need this surgery so I can lead a normal life. I want to live, not just exist.  I am a new father of one year. My wife can not have children anymore and we are fostering two beautiful special needs girls; Christina 12 and Juanita 16. What a joy they bring to our lives. Who is going to take care of them if I can not?

On 8/28/06 I met with Dr. Patel and his entire staff, they answered all my questions and armed me with the information needed to make a decision. I’ve decided to move forward with the Roux-en-Y (RNY). During this visit Dr. Patel I found out that my employer and a written exclusion. . I was mortified and started writing letters and making phone calls to corporate, my state senators and congressmen, also federal government.  Every response pretty much told me “Sorry about your bad luck” there is not much we can do, please contact someone else. Well my HR guy called me in February and he told me that the state of Maryland recently changed there laws and now require companies to supply their employees with insurance that allows WLS. This is the state my companies Corporate office resides.  

I called Aetna; sure enough the exclusion is gone and I am allowed to get WLS. Of course I need the 5 years medical history (Got that), need the 6 month supervised diet with a doctor or 3 months through my surgeon, a dietitian supervised diet (Doing that) and a physiological evaluation. (I’m going to get that done). Then will determine if I can get WLS or not, but things are really looking up. 

My journey Begins!.