SamIAm3791

so far so good on everything here. im 3 months into things and my wife is a little more than 2. we are looking forward to all this for sure!

I just found out I have low Iron have to wait 30 days and get tested again I am down in the dumps a set back should I be worried

was just having this convo with my wife the other day. she bruises very easy and got bloodwork done saturday morning per the surgeon and has a huge bruise at the site where they took blood. i told her i hope shes not low in Iron keep your head up though, dont let this take you out of the game.

i like mine with thick cut bacon, miracle whip, and homegrown tomatoes please

Sadly, it appears as though you'll never get it.

who paid the surgeon for your surgery bottom line? i do get it, you dont thank you very much. im done arguing with you. you have your mind set on the fact that your employer took care of your WLS and not the insurance company; then you come on here bad mouthing insurance companies for not taking care of their policy holders when they took care of you. that is a hypocrite. youre like the self-proclaimed vegetarian who loves BLT sandwiches. nuff's said from me

You really don't get it, do you? The insurance company didn't take care of me, MY EMPLOYER took care of me when they negotiated our plan coverage.

OH! i get it now! your EMPLOYER paid for your surgery not the insurance company your employer contracted with! MAKES TOTAL SENSE NOW! my question is why would your EMPLOYER even contract with an insurance company if they are paying everyones hospital bills? so do you have monthly premiums? do those premiums get paid to the insurance company or your EMPLOYER? just wondering because i want to start an insurance company where people pay me the premiums to me but their EMPLOYER pays all hospital bills. IM GONNA BE RICH! i understand what you are saying about your company negotiating a contract with said insuarance company. your employer is not paving the road and breaking down barriers by doing that, everyones employer has done the same thing. you keep believing that the insurance company didnt pay for things and that your EMPLOYER took care of everything if that makes you feel better about things.

I think it's highly likely that you don't understand what the word hypocritical means, because there is nothing even remotely hypocritical about what I said.

The fact that my employer negotiated a policy for their employees that provides WLS approval without requiring them to jump through hoops in no way detracts from the fact that the insurance companies exist solely to make a profit and care more about that than the people they cover.

my point exactly. your saying they are out for themselves, but they took care of you - hence hypocritical statement. would you rather they didnt take care of you to back your arguement? business is business. its not about you its about them everywhere you look. ford dont sell cars because they care how you get to work everyday. nike dont sell shoes because the welfare of your feet are their top priority. business solely exists to make money.

She meant in general. Insurance companies are a money making business.. Simple as that. If they didn't make money off of our premiums they would go out of business. They routinely reject claims in hope you give up. It's just a job.

sorry i missed where she said "in general" .... in fact i'm still missing where she says "in general" and yes they are out to make money? sounds like a great business plan to me! i'd want a company that makes money too!

Not really. Their goal isn't to help people, it's to make money. Don't ever believe that your insurance company gives one atom of care about you or any of their other subscribers.

according to your profile you had 1st letter of approval for the surgery? sorry, but this statement of yours seems a bit hypocritical being that your "noncaring" insurance company took care of you on your 1st attempt?

oh im not complaining it just seems odd lol

just an observation.....

how come "fasting" always seems so slow?

bsbcMI, the only way to get rewarded with a very fast surgery date is to eat yourself up to 50 and over bmi

and it doesn't matter what or how many co-morbidities you have, you can never get a quicker surgery date, the only thing that matters is exactly how fat you are

BCBS PA, BMI over 60, inequality????? i have to go through my 6 months of insurance appointed monitoring by my PCP. i dont gripe, i dont complain, im just doing it. my wife and i are considering it preparation time for the rest of our lives. to say the fattest of the fat get preferencial treatment is plain old stupid and in my opinion uneducated. if you dont like how your insurance company operates switch companies, wait another 12-18 months for that surgery date, then be happy and live your life. yes, we all ate ourselves to this point. some may have other conditions to help things along but the bottom line is you (no matter who you are) ate too much. thats the common denominator here, no ifs, ands, or buts. try and learn what you can about the new lifestyle you will be living over the next 6 months and consider yourself lucky that this is even an option for you.

count your blessings, dont air your complaints. especially on a site where we all are going through pretty much the same thing.

just talked with the insurance company. we have a $1000 family deductible to meet then a 90/10 coinsurance up to $500/person $1000/family. so if im correct it should cost us both around $2000 total to get this done together or $5/lb lol still cheaper than a porthouse steak and baked potato!

Hi there, my wife and I were both sleeved, exactly 6 weeks apart. We wanted to do it closer, but she had problems getting off from work, so had to do it later. We submitted to insurance at the same time, and had no issues, were approved very quickly. I was sleeved on March 8, and am now down 60 lbs. I only had 84 to lose, so now only have about 25 more to get to goal. I was taken off my blood pressure medication yesterday (yay!). My wife was sleeved April 19, and is down 27 lbs now, I believe. She also had about 80 to lose.

very cool! congrats on everything. we are looking forward to doing this together but decided its best to stagger our surgeries by atleast 3-4 weeks.

hello all. so far our "out-of-pocket" costs look like this - PCP monthly weigh-in visits $25 copay per visit x 6, $100 unlimited nut consults for life, and $240 psych consult. multiply that by my wife and myself and thats $980! this doesnt even include the blood workup, EKG, and PFT (pulminary function test). so far i have no idea what those are going to cost and how much of them are covered by our BCBS PPO Blue Insurance. was told today by psych dr that the $240 fee will be out of pocket since we havent met deductible yet. i am scheduled for my psych visit june 24th. my question is isnt there a way to find out what our out of pocket costs for the procedure will be before we spend $1000+ of our own money? i mean if we have to dish out money on top of money on top of money for this i dont know if its the right decision for us. we'd hate to dish out $1200-$1400 out of pocket just for the insurance company to come out and say ok now you have to pay another $2,3,4K! ------ feeling a bit discouraged today

Can't believe how this thread turned into a lecture, sorry I even asked about smoking! I thought this was an informative and supporting site, but clearly it's not.

Thank you to all those who answered my question regarding smoking, as this was initially directed to smokers only. As to those (non-smokers) who enjoy lecturing other smokers, find another thread to lecture on.

Have a nice day:)

maybe posting this thread on malboro, camel, or newports page would have given you the answer you were really looking for? not a site dedicated to people who are trying to get healthy, and live longer. it gets me everytime when people ask a question then get huffy when they dont get the "ok" they were really looking for all along

My dr knew I smoke and never said anything to me about quitting but I have read some bad things about it

"my dr knew i loved whoppers, large fries, and chocolate milkshakes but never said anything about quitting but i have read some bad things about it." --------- no how silly does that sound? do what you want, it's your body but dont you think your dealing with too many addictions here? im glad my only addiction was them choco shakes . . . and loving my wife

the "diet & weight loss" industry is an estimated $20 BILLION dollar industry covering over 100 million people in the US alone. everyone and their brother wants their hands in that till. what shes doing isnt against the law but it does show her moral character. im not trying to judge your friend but it seems she learned nothing from her "weight loss" and is trying to cash in on peoples hopes and dreams of being thinner. shame on her! i wonder if she can actually look herself in the mirror every day? to each their own but im a firm believer in "what goes around comes around" and their will be a day when she may regret pulling the wool over peoples eyes, just sayin'.

sorry didnt realize this until after i re-read my post, it is actually against the law by being fraud. i worded that all wrong lol

the "diet & weight loss" industry is an estimated $20 BILLION dollar industry covering over 100 million people in the US alone. everyone and their brother wants their hands in that till. what shes doing isnt against the law but it does show her moral character. im not trying to judge your friend but it seems she learned nothing from her "weight loss" and is trying to cash in on peoples hopes and dreams of being thinner. shame on her! i wonder if she can actually look herself in the mirror every day? to each their own but im a firm believer in "what goes around comes around" and their will be a day when she may regret pulling the wool over peoples eyes, just sayin'.

everyone different but your body is a funny thing. more times than not hunger is triggered by carbs, especially bad carbs. when we eat bad carbs (sweets, breads, things like pizza, ect...) our body feels satisfied and "comforted" shortly after that them carbs are burnt off and cause chemical reactions triggering feelings of "hunger" so what do we do? eat more carbs. its a never ending cycle that makes us all overweight. if it didnt we wouldnt be here on vst. only advice i can give you is to push through them feelings of hunger. your body will adapt after a couple/few days of knowing your not going to give in and feed it carbs. its sorta like a baby who wont stop crying until someone picks them up. you have to not pick up the baby and teach them that its ok to cry from time to time. might sound like a crude way of putting it but its what you have to do to train your body that its not egtting them carbs/sweets/ect this time. the feeling will go away trust me. good luck on everything and dont give up! your surgeon and yourself will appreciate that smaller liver come operation day.

thanks all! everything went well! every question i had was answered and even found myself -8lbs from my last dr visit last month. surgeon waived the sleep study for me and wife and gave us both instructions to schedule a psych eval, blood workup, EKG, chest xray, and lung test. basically have 4 months to do all this since im in month 2 of my required 6 month "wait & see period" for my insurance. all in all we are happy with how things are progressing and looking forward to getting this done. our surgeon was awesome! great guy that is very enjoyable to talk to. he didnt talk down on us or anything and we cant wait to see him again.

hello all! my wife and i have our first official surgical consults in the morning, her at 9, me at 1030. have plenty of questions for him. wish us luck!

Thank you all I appreciate the kind words. It's hard to explain to someone who has NEVER been overweight what you are going through-and a boss who won't let you have time off because it is elective surgery is a big jerk face. (my honesty didn't pay off-I should have said it was personal) I would be taking time off without pay-he just doesn't want the inconvenience of me not being here. I want to be the Sleeve Guru too!!!! #disgruntled

in my humble opinion, its none of your bosses business what your getting surgery for? all they need to know is your getting surgery. through hippa laws hes not obligated to know anything more than that. if he wants to be a "big jerk face" i'd say that its medically necessary, thats it, no more. he cant ask you or your doctors for anymore info. good luck in everyting

What is that?

they are carrots lol

LoL - no horror story here!!! I have been on board and excited since I woke up in recovery!!! Never a problem, never, ever buyer's remorse!! It may be because I was healthy and had no medical issues.....but I had an easy time....I also had an over the top positive attitude!!!! You'll do fine and I'd bet money you're going to LOVE being sleeved. (have you had surgery??) One year later, you won't believe how different your life is!!!

havent had surgery yet, looking at this fall but looking forward to it all very much!

im not at all worried about the procedure or anything like that, in fact i cant wait! i have a great bariatric surgeon at a grade a+ facility. i just dont understand why theres always the "debbie downer" in every group? i guess theres always the experts out there no matter what the surgery is, just gotta give them their minute to speak and ignore what they may say lol