theloveburts
4-26-07
I managed to get myself onto my husband's policy which is BC/BS and does cover the surgery. Strangely enough my company switched to BC/BS as well and so I have double coverage. I just have to pay my deductible use my insurance and whatever it does not pay can be submitted to my husband's insurance although I must pay that deductible. Needless to say I have just asked for an appointment with Duke University.
Just in the nick of time. I am really beginning to feel the co-morbids kicking in as I get a little older. I get dizzy when I stand up to quickly, my knees hurt, my back hurts and so on and so forth.
2-3-06
On January the 18th I went to a CPR training. Before the training began I was alone in the room with both instructors and gradually became aware that they were both discussing their weight loss surgery. I was immediately interested as my PCP had recommended it for me 20 pounds ago. I had gone to the informational session with my husband but we both chickened out because it seemed so extreme. That was when I weighed 260 pounds approximately 1 year ago. I recently went for check up and was devastated to discover that another 20 pounds had somehow crept on for a total of 280 pounds, which is my highest weight ever.
Both of the instructors were really positive and supportive. They talked with me briefly about their surgery, warned me that their solution was not the right answer for everyone and referred me to this web site. I ended up on obesityhelp.com the next day and as Iflipped through the before and after pictures and read everyone’s experiences I knew I was going to do this.
Around that time I was having a difficult time in my marriage and honestly thought I would be getting a divorce. Once I accepted that fact I began to wonder just what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I realized that my weight problem had held me back from doing many of the things I wanted in life and decided that was the first thing I wanted to change. The decision just felt right. This is the probably the first thing in my life that I have every undertaken just for me.
I wish I could say that I hate myself for being fat…I fell like I should because I have done something so awful to myself. I don’t dislike myself at all. It’s more like I never accepted that fact that I was gaining weight…never thought of myself as a fat person. Many times I have sat in a movie theatre chair and found my hips were a tight squeeze or pulled out a drawer and hit myself in the tummy because I chronically underestimate my size. Each and every time I am a little surprised because I don’t feel like a fat person on the inside. You would think that being fat might have sank in just from the despicable way some individuals treat overweight people but that is something I love because it is one quick easy way for me to weed the superficial losers out of my life from the first time I meet them. It is one of those little things that makes my life easier and makes me feel safe and secure.
Almost everyone in my family of origin is overweight. Everyone except one sister. She is an attractive, superficial, uneducated alcoholic. Everyone thinks she is wonderful because she looks so pretty and is so very appropriate in public...they are always shocked when they get to know her.
When I look back on my childhood pictures I am skinny as can be but not as skinny as my sister. I can remember sitting at the dinner table as a child while she made fun of every bite I put into my mouth. I ran to my mother and told her all about it. Guess what my mom did. Nothing. My mom had a weight problem and I suppose she though that would be motivation for me to work on staying skinny. I must have been 8 or 9 years old.
I began fighting a bit of a weight problem in high school. I wore a size 12 or 14 and thought I was a pig. I now wear about twice that. My major weight gain came after the birth of my daughter at the age of 21. When I stopped breast-feeding I gained about 72 pounds it seemed almost immediately and could never seem to get it back off.
I tried every diet imaginable and lost with almost every one of them only to eventually gain the weight back with a couple of more pounds to boot.
I have done Richard Simons Deal a Meal, Slim Fast, counted carbs, counted calories, joined the gym several times, tried over the counter diet pills and even used Cal Ban before it was recalled. I took weight watchers for 6 weeks and was the only one to actually gain 2 pounds. God I hated facing up to that blond perky little weight watchers witch every week for weigh in. I though for sure she was going to slap a pig nose on me or something. During one of my rare periods of strong motivation I even set up my own aerobics class and dieting support group at my place of employment for co-workers. Well my aerobics class got taken over my the thinies and my dieting support group quickly turned into a binging support group when someone had a birthday. Hell I even participated in an 8-week program for compulsive overeaters led by an eating disorders specialist (therapist) only to discover that those people had serious clinical issues I couldn’t match. Two women were in fact quite fascinating. One told us that she actually had to have peanut butter on her person at all times to feel comfortable and that she ate out of her container multiple times throughout the day. The other nice lady went on and on about how she loved the feeling of cheese in her mouth, kept coming back to the subject and it eventually occurred to me that it was almost like and auto erotic type activity for her. I couldn’t relate at all but did learn a lot about adopting a healthier lifestyle. As my interest and motivation in loosing waxed and waned I began to just play strange little games. For instance I went on an orange food diet once just for kicks in which I only ate orange items for an entire day...orange pop, carrots, cheese twist, nabs, orange pastries...you know anything orange. Don't get me wrong I did not intend or expect to actually loose weight it was more like just for fun....something to break the boredom and cheer myself up a little.
2-4-06
I have an appointment with my new PCP on 2-16-05 to discuss the possibility of WLS. I recently had a very strange experience. My employer needed a physical and sent me to one of the local doc in a box type places. It really was ridicules the amount of time I spent waiting to see a doctor that afternoon even though they knew I was coming via a referral from my employer. I was there about 4 or 5 hours total and didn’t need blood work or anything.
In any event when I spoke to the doctor I explained that I had recently moved to this area from out of state, had began having some knee and ankle pain, decreased energy, GERD, difficulty sleeping and was beginning to worry that I was developing high blood pressure. I told her that when I was seen by my PCP for a check up last year I was told that most of that was related to the fact that I was severely overweight. My PCP at that time had recommended WLS, which I declined. I also told her that my PCP had also recommended that I try some type of prescription (couldn’t remember the name) to assist me in loosing weight but that I had declined because he had told me it would result in tarry stools. I told her that as I had apparently gained another 20 pounds since that time that I would now consider the prescription and she really freaked out. She said, “I’m sorry. I don’t do that sort of thing. I don’t believe in.” I said “What exactly is it that you don’t believe in…treating physical problems or providing treatment for more than one issue on any given visit?” She actually tried to refer me to a co-worker, completed my physical examination for my employer and sent me home without so much as a recommendation for limited calorie intake/limited exercise, which I would have thought would me the bare minimum standard of care. It was like weighing 280 pounds with a BMI of 46.5, describing several weight related co-morbid symptoms and actually asking for help was just not enough to elicit a professional recommendation from her at all. She didn’t even feel the need to provide any service at all that might be related to a standard of care.
I began wondering afterwards just what the problem was there. Maybe she was just prejudiced against fat people. Maybe she thought I was asking for some sort of controlled substance which I don’t think is the case because I clearly explained to her that I had never done drugs or drank excessively. Maybe she was just offended that I came in for a general physical and then asked her about a medical concern. Maybe she believes that people should only address one issue per visit. That would keep things less complicated and enhance her practice’s ability to pull in the cash.
If anyone out there has had a similar experience I would like to hear it because for the entire duration of my life every time I have ever went to the doctor for anything (have had a wieght problem for about 20 years) the doctor jumped right on the weight issue and finally when I am really ready and motivated to do something serious to solve the problem I get this one. Go figure. I hope to have a better response from the PCP I see on the 16th.
2-16-06
I went to my new PCP to ask for a referral for WLS and it was a lot easier than I though it would be. I saw Dr. Rachel Hummel at Carolina Family Practice & Sports Medicine in Cary.
The entire process of getting seen is very user friendly. I called, they gave several choices about when I could be seen and none of the appointment times were unreasonable. It is the only time when my doctor could actually see me before I could work it into my schedule. Needless to say that was nice. The initial paperwork was minimal, the nursing staff was exceptionally nice and they were set up to take my check card for the co-payment. This was very convenient as I forgot my checkbook.
Dr. Hummel was very kind, knowledgeable and professional. I am very happy that I found her and would highly recommend her to anyone for PCP services. She took the time to get to know me, took a realistic history and was very nonjudgmental. She identified both the areas I would probably need referrals in for my WLS and also the areas she would concentrate on from a family medicine perspective (i.e. beginning yearly mammograms and updating my pap). Unfortunately I managed to gain about 8 pounds since I was last seen by a doctor about 2 months ago. :-(
I was still researching and did not have a WL surgeon in mind. She told me that she would be happy to speak to the other physicians in her practice and give me some names. She agreed to let me take a little time and when I had decided she would write the referral. I am extremely happy with the quality of services I received at Carolina Family Practice and plan to encourage my husband and daughter to be seen there for PCP services as needed.
I am thinking of having my surgery at Pitt Community Hospital by a Wade Nazari, M.D. in Greenville. I really liked the exceptionally good reviews both got on this site. Do anyone have any other recommendations?
2-20-06
I am totally devastated. Today I called my insurance company (United Health Care) to ask what WL surgeons were in network and was told that my particular policy has exclusion for WLS. UHC told me I don’t even have the right to appeal. My husband just put me on his insurance because we thought it would be better to have a secondary policy and the representative I spoke with today reports it is common practice for a secondary insurance company who does not have an exclusion under that policy to refuse to pay for surgery based on the exclusion by the primary insurance company. I feel like I have lost hope and now I guess my only option is to just sit around waiting for co-morbidities to worsen and I guess UHC will be all about paying for treatment for them assuming that the first cardiac arrest doesn’t just take me.
When I found out my BMI was 54.4 I was pretty devastated but I guess this is what it feels like to be totally screwed. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know.
