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I first became interested in pursuing bariatric surgery over a decade ago, when I weighed 270 pounds but allowed myself to be talked out of it by my family. They decided that if I did that, I'd be "cheating" and they didn't like that one bit and weren't shy in letting me know how they felt about it.
Fast forward to 2014, and with the advent of the Affordable Care Act, the possibility of bariatric surgery was once again in my sights. Knowing that it could end up being a real thing, I immediately looked into what was required, got a referral, and started the process.
Imagine my surprise when I was turned down for surgery, because, despite being morbidly obese, with several co-morbidities, the surgeon they had sent me to for the planned surgery, didn't have privileges at my capitated (assigned by the insurance company) hospital.
Doing some homework on my own, I discovered that they would NEVER find such a situation, as that hospital does not even offer bariatric surgery of any sort. It was a Catch-22 situation of epic stupidity.
I tried explaining this to the people at the medical group who I had my insurance through, and they refused to speak with me about it, informing me that they only spoke to doctors, not to patients. I asked to speak to a supervisor and ended up having to leave a voicemail.
Of course, I never heard back.
At the limits of my frustration, I called the California Insurance Ombudsman and explained the situation. That esteemed individual suggested my changing medical groups (but not insurance companies), and so that's what I did, after making certain that we were all on the same page. I wasn't sneaky about things. I let everyone know right up front what I wanted and why this was all going to happen.
The new medical's phone representative told me they would do what they could to make all this happen for me.
The new medical group referred me to Dr. Gevorg Mutafyan, who has privileges at Glendale Adventist. I saw him the first time in about August 2016. Two months later, I had my approval, and I had my surgery on October 27, 2016. While he was in there, he repaired what he described to me post-op as "a sizable hernia".
All told, I was in surgery for only two hours.
I have had absolutely no complications from my surgery, and as of this writing (4-25-18), I have gone from a high weight of 300 pounds to today's weight of 163 pounds.
The honeymoon period is over, so the weight loss requires more care, but I'm sticking to it. I refuse to be fat again. I just won't allow it to happen.