Nicoesy
Hello everyone! My battle with obesity has been a life long one, I am sure much like most all of yours. I have been on every diet imaginable! I did lose 72 lbs. on Weight Watchers while in college only to gain back 93 lbs! Before gaining my 93 lbs. I had a breast reduction, abdomnioplasty and liposuction- lotta good that did me, huh?? Needless to say I need a surgical intervention to be successful and healthy! Here is a brief synopsis of my life fighting for weight loss surgery since May 2007.
As many of you know getting your insurance company to pay for WLS is next to impossible, however, my husband's insurance carrier started carrying a "Weight Management Program" last year. The deal was that if you could meet all of their criteria and jump through all of their hoops they would fund the procedure. So begins the fight of a lifetime! Rather than bore you with all the gory details I will list out the main hoops I have jumped through in the last year!
-Psychiatric evalution to determine I am mentally stable to begin program.
-3 visits at 6 month intervals with an exercise physiologist to complete stress test and measure my cardio endurance.
-4 visits with registered dietician to adjust my diet.
-36 visits with a personal trainer for 1 hour cardio and weight training workouts.
-sleep study-diagnosed with sleep apnea.
-Family physician for full physical and lab workup.
-Pulmonologist for Pulmonary Function Test.
-H. Pylori test to check for bacteria that causes stomach ulcers.
-Psychiatric evaluation to determine that I am mentally stable for the surgery now.
-EGD scope, to check for ulcers, hernias or stomach cancer.
-Lose 10% of my excess body weight.
I had a "case manager" assigned to me by the insurance company that I had to send bi-weekly logs documenting my weight, blood pressure, waist circumference, and BMI. Every third one had to be signed by either my family physician or my trainer, talk about humiliation!
I am happy to report that I have a surgery date scheduled for Sept.3rd!!!
