There really is a light at the end of the tunnel!

Jun 17, 2009

I started this journey in 2006, when a friend and I decided we were going to have surgery and change things forever…   Well 3.5 years later I finally have a surgery date! My friend had her surgery in Feb. and I just got my date …..July 21^st at noon! I’m excited, scared, and relieved all at the same time. I have fought my weight since the age of 7 when I started having serious problems with asthma, 24 years later I’m at 267 lbs and still fighting my asthma daily. I feel awful, don’t have the energy to do the things I want to do with my son who is 8 and sometimes I just try to hard to keep up and pay dearly for it. NOT ANY MORE! I get the chance to change all that and I can’t wait. It might be a huge step and it’s about 50/50 on the support or criticism I’m getting from my family, my son is the most supportive and has promised to be mom’s walking buddy.    So now it’s the endless cycle of doctor’s appointments, I think the worst of all will be the ALL day nutrition class. Don’t get me wrong I have questions and know that I’ll learn things in the class but I live right at 100 miles from the center that will be dong my surgery and when you add the drive time to an 8 hour class it’s going to make for a long day. After all that I get to turn around and make the trip again 3 days later for my physical and endless pre-op testing. This whole process has been time consuming and stressful but I know it will be worth it.    Next, INSURANCE! OMG, they were not easy to deal with. In 2006 I went through the consult, physc. visit, and everything else just so they could tell me no and continue to tell me no through the appeals. I qualified but I hadn’t been at a bmi of 40 for long enough, having a bmi of 38 for several years didn’t count so they actually told me I hadn’t been fat enough for the required time. Now they have changed the rules and you only have to have a bmi over 40 for 2 years to qualify. They still denied me at first, then I went a little crazy on them over the phone and they changed there minds…lol I used a lot of awful words and told them they would be hearing from my attorney (not like I could really afford to hire one after all of this but they didn’t know that). When I called back a few days later to see what information they were “missing” they gave me the good news, “your request has been reviewed 2 more times and you have been approved, the only thing we need is your surgery date”. I was SO excited I called just about everyone to tell them the good news. So now I wait! 34 days from today I get the tool that will help me change the way I feel physically and it will help me enjoy life again.   I’ll keep you popsted!

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