Tif 2.0

I know how you feel. I am 5'6 and I've lost 27 lbs so far during my 6 month MSWL. I still have 2 weeks until my last appt before it can all be submitted to my insurance. I started at 319 and I want to get to a normal BMI which for my height is 144. Ideally if I could get to 135, that would be AWESOME, but I really do have a big bone structure. To get to 135 would be 184 lbs lost. That would be the best. We can do this. It's a long road ahead and it begins with the first step. Congrats on taking this step.

I can see it! Congratulations. I'm so happy for you.

AWESOME! Congratulations.

Congrats! I know how you feel. Jan 5th is my last weigh in. I'm so ready for it to be over.

I'm tentatively scheduled for Jan 27th. Tentatively because I haven't submitted to my insurance company yet. I have my last weigh in for my MSWL on Jan 5th and it will go to insurance that day. My insurance company said they take no longer than 2 weeks for approval. So I'm hoping to be part of the Jan 2012 Sleevers.

For me, I'm highly irregular anyways and there's been anecdotal evidence that people who are irregular tend to even out a bit after losing weight. I imagine that if that is true then it could affect people the opposite way as well.

CONGRATULATIONS! WHOOHOOOO! It will be here before you know it. LOL!

Yesterday afternoon, I was just bothered by the whole will they/won't they mind game of insurance approval. Now, I realize I can't even submit for another month. I have one more weigh in for my MSWL program requirement. I called BCBS-TX yesterday and asked her if I had to use one of their Blue Center of Distinction for Bariatric Svc. She put me on hold and came back and said for Bariatric Surgery, no I don't. She told me that it is all up to the policy riders that each employer puts in the coverage. She said our insurance has that requirement for Organ Transplant, but not for Bariatric Surgery. So then I asked her to repeat the requirements so I could make sure I wasn't missing anything. (I'm not. YAY!) I told her that I was stressed out about not being approved and she said that for almost everyone that applies they are approved providing all the requirements are met. She said that 90% of the denials are based on missing paperwork and most of those are approved on the 1st appeal. She was SUPER nice and patient and I realize that she's not the decision maker, but it did help put my mind at ease a little bit. I know I'm doing everything that I'm supposed to.

There are 3 COE near me, but I will have to meet the $2500 deductible and then $500 out of pocket fee in order to use them. So I'm going with another surgical center and so far I have no complaints. The surgeon has been doing bariatric surgery for at least 10 years. In my view, it's no different than going to Mexico. LOL!

That's AWESOME! I tried leaving a comment on your blog, but it wouldn't let me. I am still doing my pre-qual requirements. I started at 319 on August 16th and have lost 27 lbs so far. I have no idea how much weight I want to lose, only that I'd like to be a size 8. At my last weigh in at my Dr's, I lost 6 lbs. I hadn't told my 5 year old son yet, but he gave me a hug when I picked him up from school and he said "Mommy, I can give you bigger hugs now." That, my friend, is more motivating than ANYTHING else. So then I told him I had lost 6 more lbs and he said "WHOOOOHOOO, Way to go Mommy!" Congratulations on your 1st 100 lbs. I am so very happy for you.

I called my insurance in the very beginning too. Even before I went to the seminar. LOL! The reason I'm not going with the center of excellence is purely economic. I will have to pay $3000 out of pocket if I go there, but if I go with the Surgeon I am going with, I will have no out of pocket expenses other than the psych eval and nutritionist. I'm going with a reputable company, just out of network and they can charge whatever they want and aren't held to provider contracted rates.

LOL, EXACTLY! I was like WTF?!?! I've been in your care theis whole time. No, I didn't need to bring a towel, Paola. They told me to take the day off work and I really could've gone to work. I didn't, but I could have. LOL!

I did! I did! I was nervous about it too. The last thing I remember is the anesthesiologist saying "Close your eyes and breathe normally". Then I woke up about 25 min later and it was done and they had me sit up and asked me post procedure questions (my name for the 40th time that morning) and I left about 10 minutes after that. They offered to let me stay for a little to come off the anesthesia, but my anesthesiologist was AWESOME and about 10 minutes after I really felt fine, not goofy even a little bit. For me, I had psyched myself out so much that the actual procedure was VERY anticlimatic.

CONGRATULATIONS!!! I have a question for you. Are you going to a BCBS Center of Excellence to have surgery?

Yesterday, I completed my 5th of 6 Medically Supervised Diet weigh-ins. Another 6 lbs lost. That's 27 lbs total. My Doctor wanted me to lose at least 20 lbs. Today I'm going for my chest x-ray and Wednesday I have my appt with the nutritionist. My final weigh-in is Jan 5th and then everything will go to insurance. My surgery is tentatively scheduled for January 27th. The funny thing is, I am more nervous about my insurance company denying me than I am about the surgery itself. I've told everyone I'm close to at work that I'm having surgery and everyone is super supportive. I work on the 2nd floor and we don't have elevators so they are even moving my desk downstairs temporarily post-op so I don't have to walk up and down the stairs until I'm comfortable doing it. The one thing I'm not doing with my co-workers is telling them how much weight I've lost cumulatively, because I started out at 319 and I'm down to 292. I don't want anyone to look at me and say "Well Jeebus, how much did she weigh?" if I say I've lost 160 lbs (eventually). My 5 year old is very supportive. He put his arms around me and told me that he can give me bigger hugs now. This is only after 27 lbs. Can you imagine after 100 lbs?

That is AWESOME! I'm so happy for you.

Well, I'm pretty open about my surgery I just don't tell anyone how much I weigh or how much I want to lose. I just tell them I want to get to a certain size. It doesn't matter to me whether I weigh 150 or 175 lbs as long as I'm at that size. (However, truthfully I'd LOVE to get to 130-140. That would be losing over 180 lbs total. I don't know if that's realistic, but I really want to get down to a size 8.) As far as my family goes, my husband is supportive for the most part. My 5 year old son is VERY supportive. My extended family is very supportive because for my family eradicating diabetes is a big deal. So if this is what I need to do to keep diabetes at bay then everyone is VERY supportive. However, I do have family members that are supportive to my face and want me to lose weight, but just not more than them.

That's the worst part about it. We spend all this time and energy meeting THEIR requirements only to turn around and say that we're denied. Logically there is NO reason I should be denied, but you never know and that's what sucks about it. In the meantime, I keep plugging away at all the appts. LOL!

I'm also in Vegas. I'm in the month 5 of my 6 month medically supervised diet. Tomorrow is my weigh in. Only one more month and then everything can be submited to the insurance company. Savvyshamrock, I'm with you. I don't know where the support groups are.

OMG Congratulations. I actually teared up for you. That Last sentence is EXACTLY how I feel and what I am excited about. Actually having options of where to shop where I can get good deals for not having to buy YARDS of fabric to fit me. I am still meeting requirements so I have a journey ahead, but I KNOW this feeling.

I can't believe this I am approaching the 5th appt of my 6 month medically supervised diet. It seems like I've had a never ending calendar of appts to get this far. I am nervous and excited all rolled up in one. I'm not even that nervous for the surgery. I'm more nervous that my insurance company is going to deny me. I honestly don't see how but you never know. I am so tired of being fat. I mean REALLY tired. I have a 5 year old son that took me 10 years to conceive and I can barely keep up with him. My family history is rife with diabetes and I don't want it. My grandma passed away at 52 and my mom is dying a slow and wasting death from diabetes. So far though, other than sleep apnea I've been able to keep other co-morbidities away. Blood sugar is fine, BP is fine, Cholesterol is fine, etc. I want them to stay fine. The only thing that isn't fine is my weight. I could lose 1/2 my body weight right now and be a normal sized person. I went to the informational seminar in August and found out my husband's insurance will cover the surgery. Originally, I went with the intention of getting Lap Band, however, during the seminar I liked the sleeve more. Until then, I had never heard of it. I've had to do a sleep study, EGD, Nutritional Visit, Psych Eval, 6 month medically supervised diet. I still have 1 more set of blood work labs to do and a chest xray of which I will be doing both next week. Then I will have my last followup diet appt the 1st week of January. Everything will be submitted and hopefully approved. If everything goes well and as planned I could have my surgery as early as Jan 27th. It seems like such a long journey from August, but I am so ready. I am ready for the next part of my life to begin.

Thanks Lissa! Diabetes is the clincher for me. I'm 37 and I am determined not to follow down the same path my mom. My grandma had Type I diabetes. My mom is Type II and for awhile she controlled it through her diet but then she just stopped trying to control it and figured she could eat whatever she wanted and double up on insulin. My great aunt passed away 5 years ago from kidney failure. I was holding her hand in the hospice (The same one my grandma died in) when she took her last breath. The last 5 years of her life were horrid. It was so debilitating. Her father, my great grandfather had both of his legs amputated. My biggest fear about the surgery is not the surgery itself, it is the insurance approval. I've done Jenny Craig 3 times and each time I get to a certain point and then my body just does not want to lose anymore than that even though I could stand to lose at least another 60 lbs after that. I have no problems going to the gym. In fact I go everyday on my lunch for 30 minutes, on Thursday evenings I go for another hour while my son is in karate and Friday, Sat and Sunday I go walk for an hour and a half on the treadmill. I think just that I am able to do that has at least kept most of the co-morbidities away, except for the sleep apnea. I know how and what to eat. At my son's most recent well check visit, his pediatrician asked him "What do you like to eat?" My son's response "Carrots, Broccoli, Ants on a Log (Celery w/peanut butter and raisins), Salmon on the barbecue, string cheese and some stinky cheese but not all stinky cheese, apple slices, grapes and strawberries and steak" I was FLOORED. I couldn't believe he didn't say chicken nuggets, pizza, corn dogs, etc. This was his first visit to this pediatrician so I had no clue he was going to ask R that so I didn't coach him at all. LOL! The doctor asked if he liked soda and he said, "I don't drink soda because it's not healthy." We have soda in my house for my husband. I stopped drinking it in August for the most part when I started on this journey. Occasionally I will have 1/2 of a coke. I told his pediatrician that when I plan the menu for the week, I always let R have one night where he picks what we will have for dinner. Sometimes it will be pizza and carrot sticks, other times it will be pork chops and broccoli. My parents always bought the cheap processed food and forced us to eat everything on our plate or we'd get spankings for not finishing our food. It is so ingrained in me that I physically have to stop myself from eating everything on R's plate if he doesn't finish. I NEVER make him finish everything on his plate, except for veggies. If he says he's not hungry, I don't make him eat but he doesn't get anything else the rest of the night. Usually about 30 minutes later, he'll come to the table and eat the rest of his food. He's a husky kid so I'm not afraid of him wasting away. LOL! I just want better for him and I want to be around to guide him along the way.

Congrats Mona. I also have BCBS of Texas and I'm petrified that they won't approve me even though my BMI is 50. Do you mind me asking if you had any other co morbidities? Or anything like that.