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In September 2011, my wife and I attended a seminar at Dr. Mailapur's in Huntsville, Alabama. We went to learn about the lap band but ended up choosing the sleeve. After consulting with Dr. Mailapur, we felt it was the best decision for us. We went through the months of hoops for Blue Cross/Blue Shield and both received our approval.....or so we thought. My wife received a written approval and mine was verbal from a customer service rep at BCBS. Our surgeries were scheduled and we were set to begin our journey. On the day of pre-admission, we found out that my approval had NOT been completed, so my surgery was cancelled. My wife went forward with hers on July 16, 2012. In retrospect, we are glad we did not have it on the same day. After much more hoop-jumping, we got my approval just this week and Dr. Mailapur will be performing my operation on July 30, 2012. Dr. Mailapur and his staff....especially Jessica...have been amazing to work with. We feel very well informed about the decision we have made and we feel that the staff has done verything they can to put us at ease. I am 6 feet tall and weighed 297 when I started the process. I use a C-PAP for sleep apnea, take glucophage for type 2 diabetes, and I also take crestor for bad LDL cholesterol. I am down to 280 as of today. (Dr. mailapur makes you lose some weight to shrink the liver before he will do the surgery). It was an emotional roller coaster waiting on the approval process, but ready or not...here I come.