ObesityHelp

My name is Gail. I am a 42 year old mother of one son. Married for 16 years to the same wonderful man. I am no different from any other person on this web site. I have battled with my weight all of my life. Never keeping any weight off for any substantial period of time. With each loss more would come back in its place. I am at the stage of my life that I cannot do the yo-yo thing anymore. My health is at stake. At 318 pounds I have high blood pressure, diabetes and joint problems in my knees and ankles. I have no quality of life at all. My husband and son are so great. They love me unconditionally. I am so blessed to have them both. However, they are very concerned about me. I have been researching wls for about a year and I have finally made the decision along with my pcp that this is my only way out. I want this surgery more than anything. I know that this is a tool and I still have a major role to play in loosing weight and keeping it off. But I know that with God's help and the support of my family I can and will do this. I am getting paperwork ready for Dr G and then his office will submit my request to my insurance company. This is where the scary part comes in. I hate to think that my life is being decided by a group of people who don't know me or my sitution. But I know that God works all things out for the good of them that love and serve him. I will update later with good news of approval. God bless everyone who is on this jurney with me.


June 7, 2002

Well I have finally got all the paperwork together so maybe now we can submit whatever we need to the insurance company for approval. I am so scared that the insurance company will not approve my surgery. I am ready to fight for it. But I just hate all the time it takes to battle with uncaring people who don't have clue as to what we have gone and are going through. But I have put this whole jurney in God's hands. There is one thing for certain He has the last word. If anyone out there has dealt with The Mega Life & Health insurance company please email me with the out come. Good luck and God bless all on this long jurney.


June 10, 2002

Just wanted to update real quick. I have mailed all my paperwork to the Dr. Whenever his office manager gets it she will give it to the Dr for approval and so he can write my letter of necessity to the insurance company. After that they will send all the stuff to the insurance company. Everyone please pray for me that the insurance gods will approve my surgery. On a lighter note, My husband, son & I will be going to our first support meeting tomorrow night. I can't wait. I love talking to people who have made or who are making this jurney. I will post again after the meeting to let everyone know how it went.


June 12, 2002

Well went to my first support group meeting. It was great. I am so pumped and ready for this surgery. I met lots of success stories who are doing wonderful and so glad that they have had this life saving operation. I plan to be one of those people. I called my Dr office this morning to make sure that they had received all my paperwork. Well they had everything except my psych report which was supposed to have been faxed to them last week. So I call the head doctor to see what was up. And as you might have guessed, he had not even written the letter yet. He promised me that he would write and fax it today for sure. I hope he does. I want to get this show on the road. I know I am going to have a problem with the insurance so I don't need any problem before that. Keep praying for me that God will work everything out with the insurance. I would not even start this jurney without God's guideance. Without Him I would not be able to do this at all.


June 25, 2002


It has been a while sense my last update but my family and I were vacationing at the beach for a week. It really feels good to get away from normal life for a while and just pretent to be someone else with no problems or responsibilities. Oh well back to reality. Well I have tried to contact by Dr office to see the status of insurance approval. And wouldn't you know it the office is closed this week because they are on vacation. Oh well I guess everyone needs a vacation. I will just have to wait until next week. I hope and pray that I don't have to wait forever to hear from my insurance. I am so ready for my new life. I missed out on alot of fun at the beach because I was just to big to go to the water park or to the pool. It made me sad but hopefully by next summer I will be able to do all those things.

July 12, 2002

I HAVE A DATE!!!!!!!!!! I have decided that I need to go ahead with my surgery and deal with the insurance afterwards. I have a date of 7/30/02. I have mailed my paperwork to my insurance pre-determination dept on 7/8/02. They said it usually takes from 2 to 3 weeks for an answer. So if I haven't heard from them by my surgery date I am going ahead with surgery and persue the insurance afterwards. I am just not willing to sit around for 3,4,5,6 months fighting with people who could care less about my physical health. I will start my new life then I will deal with insurance. I am not really worried because I have put this matter in God's hands and I know that He is able of working this out before my surgery date. I have no fear. Because even if God doesn't see fit to work out my insurance matters I will still be a winner. I finally decided to move forward.

August 11,2002

Sorry that I haven't updated in a while but I had my surgery as scheduled (open DS) on July 30, 2002 and all went very well. My surgeon did find an pretty bad umbilical hernia that he had to repair, but other than that all went as planned. No complications, very little pain and no throwing up. I give God all the praise and glory for this because without him I could not have done as well as I have. My hospital stay was 5 days and the staff was wonderful. I couldn't have asked for any better care. My husband got me home Sunday afternoon. I was never so glad to see my little peice of the world. I have done very well tolerating all the liquids and can even take my vitamins. I am so blessed and grateful for the chance to change my life for the better. I go for my post op this Thursday and hopefully he will take these staples out or at least some of them. To date by my scales I have lost 13#. I am so excited. I will update later after my doctor visit.