The seminar last night was very good, informative, and created some more questions.
First...there is no pogram fee so that was awesome. My dilema now is that I had only been going to band surgeons because I was sure that's what I wanted to do....but this surgeon also does the gastric sleeve surgery. Not having to deal with fills, pb'ing, getting stuck all sounds good....having part of my stomach cut away permanantly not so good.....Why did you choose the band over the sleeve or vice versa? I would love to hear your comments!
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Here we go..
Back in the saddle...one more seminar! This time with Bridges. The ladies there promised there are no program fees and commented on the fees so I at least know that they know what I'm talking about. I'm not sure about the facility, I know it's old and not "visually" pleasing, but I'm hoping they still have cutting edge equipment.
Having a rough day with eating today :( The children are fighting non stop and I just want to lock myself away for some peace and quiet. 4 more weeks till school starts!!!!
Having a rough day with eating today :( The children are fighting non stop and I just want to lock myself away for some peace and quiet. 4 more weeks till school starts!!!!
Thursday, June 24, 2010
One more seminar and some wishing.
I rounded up child care for tonight. My husband and I will be going to one more seminar, might not be the last but I hope it will be. My husband is very supportive of me, he doesn't like the idea of surgery because it's...well..it's surgery, but as far as me doing what I feel is necessary he's there for me. He can diet and exercise and lose weight and keep it off....I'm his saboteur. I'm hoping that once I can get myself under control that we can be happy and healthy.
I miss taekwondo. I managed to earn my blackbelt even though I was around 280 pounds the entire time. I really enjoyed myself, but unfortunately the wife of the owner and I had a disagreement where she questioned my ability as a parent and told me my children "weren't normal" at which point my husband and I decided that it was not the place for us. Since I stopped my weights gone up and I'm finding it really hard to exercise at all. It's not really aches and pains from joints that's prohibiting me it's that I get headaches every time I exercise. My blood starts pumping and my head starts throbbing. I'm really hoping that losing weight will help with this.
Here is a video of me doing my made up form for black belt testing...(I only show it because for some reason the camera made me look taller and thinner lol)
I miss taekwondo. I managed to earn my blackbelt even though I was around 280 pounds the entire time. I really enjoyed myself, but unfortunately the wife of the owner and I had a disagreement where she questioned my ability as a parent and told me my children "weren't normal" at which point my husband and I decided that it was not the place for us. Since I stopped my weights gone up and I'm finding it really hard to exercise at all. It's not really aches and pains from joints that's prohibiting me it's that I get headaches every time I exercise. My blood starts pumping and my head starts throbbing. I'm really hoping that losing weight will help with this.
Here is a video of me doing my made up form for black belt testing...(I only show it because for some reason the camera made me look taller and thinner lol)
Monday, June 21, 2010
Good news Bad news
I received my phone call regarding insurance. My insurance is a very good insurance....they will cover 100% of the surgery (apparently that does not include anesthesiologists) and don't require any supervised diet period before the surgery. However I do have to have documentation that I've tried diets in the past. My problem is that I never really stuck to the diets for very long so I don't know if that will go against me or not.
The bad news.....they have a $1000 program fee!!!! I had heard about program fees but did not know it would be that much. The office said it's pretty standard and they have a pretty low fee, yet the first place I called after them had a $200 program fee the next had a $500 fee. I don't understand....my 100% covered surgery is going to be close to $2000 with their program fee and anesthesiologist. I made an appointment for the 'seminar' at the place with the $200 fee, we'll see if I like that surgeon or not. Blech....not feeling defeated yet...
(1 hour later) ooh...found a center that doesn't have a program fee...off to another seminar!
The bad news.....they have a $1000 program fee!!!! I had heard about program fees but did not know it would be that much. The office said it's pretty standard and they have a pretty low fee, yet the first place I called after them had a $200 program fee the next had a $500 fee. I don't understand....my 100% covered surgery is going to be close to $2000 with their program fee and anesthesiologist. I made an appointment for the 'seminar' at the place with the $200 fee, we'll see if I like that surgeon or not. Blech....not feeling defeated yet...
(1 hour later) ooh...found a center that doesn't have a program fee...off to another seminar!
Sunday, June 20, 2010
A little over a month ago I went to my general practitioner regarding some problems I had coming off of some medications that resulted in a sudden weight gain. I had been between 280 and 290 for 4 years and all of a sudden found myself at 318 within a couple months. I was horrified when he told me that the only solution he could see for me was bariatric surgery. When he said that I instantly felt like a failure, to think that I couldn't manage my own weight with out having to mutilate my body. After I finished crying at home I decided to look into it to see exactly what those procedures would do to me and how much they would cost. I think I was trying to prove to myself that he was totally off base but instead found that not only did I qualify for bariatric surgery but that I was way beyond what my insurance deemed as heavy enough.
Devestated again I continued to look at the options. By-pass did not appeal to me, I did not like the thought of permanently changing my physiology. I remember stories from my childhood where my mom, a nurse, would talk about patients who had gastric bypass surgeries that had horrible results and they were called GBGB's for gastric bypass gone bad. I liked the idea of the band, being adjustable AND reversable if necessary.
Last week I looked into various surgeons and centers and made an appointment with True Results this last saturday to find out a bit more about the doctor and the procedure. I had read up a lot so nothing they said really struck me as outrageous or negative. They took my insurance information and will hopefully be able to tell me what is required by the insurance in order for me to have the surgery. The information I had available from my insurance was a BMI of 40 or greater (and I am somewhere around 49) but no other things such as previous diet history, medically supervised diets, psych eval, or any co-morbidities. Right now I have high cholesterol and sleep apnea (the latter hasn't been officially diagnosed but it's not a far reach). I also have a hiatal hernia that is really causing me problems and the blessing of a band is that they fix the hernia in order to place the band. So now it's wait and see.
I have made the decision not to tell anybody about my decision on this. My husband knows and supports me in it and that's all I need for now. My mom has a negative view of weight loss surgeries, they have advanced quite a bit but I don't want to find out if she's changed her mind on it until after I have it done. Other friends and family just don't need to know yet.....eventually I'll get over feeling like a failure for wanting to do this and then I'll be able to talk about it openly.
Devestated again I continued to look at the options. By-pass did not appeal to me, I did not like the thought of permanently changing my physiology. I remember stories from my childhood where my mom, a nurse, would talk about patients who had gastric bypass surgeries that had horrible results and they were called GBGB's for gastric bypass gone bad. I liked the idea of the band, being adjustable AND reversable if necessary.
Last week I looked into various surgeons and centers and made an appointment with True Results this last saturday to find out a bit more about the doctor and the procedure. I had read up a lot so nothing they said really struck me as outrageous or negative. They took my insurance information and will hopefully be able to tell me what is required by the insurance in order for me to have the surgery. The information I had available from my insurance was a BMI of 40 or greater (and I am somewhere around 49) but no other things such as previous diet history, medically supervised diets, psych eval, or any co-morbidities. Right now I have high cholesterol and sleep apnea (the latter hasn't been officially diagnosed but it's not a far reach). I also have a hiatal hernia that is really causing me problems and the blessing of a band is that they fix the hernia in order to place the band. So now it's wait and see.
I have made the decision not to tell anybody about my decision on this. My husband knows and supports me in it and that's all I need for now. My mom has a negative view of weight loss surgeries, they have advanced quite a bit but I don't want to find out if she's changed her mind on it until after I have it done. Other friends and family just don't need to know yet.....eventually I'll get over feeling like a failure for wanting to do this and then I'll be able to talk about it openly.
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