jeannette B.
I am 44 years old and have struggled with my weight most of my life. I managed to lose weight in my early 20's and was able to maintain 125-140 until I got married in October of 1992. I am 5' 3" tall. Things, and I mean everything, went down hill after that. My highest weight was 234 two days before the birth of my daughter in 1997. I have been dangerously close to the weight again...within 2 pounds actually. I have not been able to get below 185 pounds since I started gaining.
My marriage ended in 2002 and I have had a couple of other major issues to face as well and have managed to get my life under control again...except for the weight. Thanks to a co-worker who was getting ready to have gastric bypass surgery in April 2008, I began to take a serious look into WLS. She has been supportive from the beginning and attended the initial meeting with me. I went through all the preliminary appointments, sleep studies ( and was diagnosed with sleep apnea) and the surgeon submitted my claim to the insurance company in September. I was denied although I had a BMI that ranged between 35-40 for at least five years and sleep apnea. The bariatric coordinator suggested I file a free appeal through the Lapband Advocate and in January of 2009 I was actually shocked to receive a letter from BCBS saying that I had won the appeal and was approved for the surgery.
So here I am getting ready to have surgery in less than three weeks. I am very excited and very nervous at the same time. This site has been very inspirational and helpful. I will be posting updates regularly and I hope that my experiences will be an inspiration to someone else who is considering WLS.
