I enjoy reading other people’s journeys and stories, so I decided to create one of my own! I’m Shelly, about to turn 35 years old on July 7th, and I’m from Iowa. I’ve struggled with my weight ever since I was 10 years old and have been up and down too many times to count. My lowest adult weight was 165 (very briefly) and I’m currently at my highest adult weight, 242. At 5’6”, the top end of the healthy weight range for me is 154, so 150 is my goal. Funny thing is, the last time I got measured as an adult I was told I was 5’4” so I always thought I needed to get to 138 or less to be at a healthy weight!
Currently, I am in the final stages of being approved for my VSG. The surgeon is supposed to sign off on everything today and the gal handling my insurance paperwork said she would submit to insurance today and call me. She said approval could take anywhere from 15 minutes to 7-10 business days. Fingers crossed for 15 minutes! 😉
Backing up a bit, I originally went to Iowa Weight Loss Specialties for their non-surgical weight loss program on 5/10/2018. Knowing my BMI wasn’t 40 or higher, I thought trying for the surgery would only end up in disappointment if I didn’t get approved through insurance plus I was still struggling a little mentally with the idea that I thought I should lose the weight on my own. While meeting with my nurse practitioner, I mentioned that I had considered WLS and she asked if I’d like them to at least look into it with my insurance company in the meantime and I agreed.
At my next appointment two weeks later, my nurse practitioner told me that surgery would be covered, all I’d need is one more nutrition counseling appointment and a mental health assessment. I thought that meant my insurance was approved, but I had misunderstood what she said. So for the next couple weeks, I was happy as a clam thinking I was approved as long as I completed the steps, until I went to meet with the surgeon and found out I wasn’t approved yet! I was devastated and in tears, which was really embarrassing but I had my heart set on this surgery and it was extremely disappointing to hear that I may not even get approved without a comorbidity. However, they did tell me they wanted to do bloodwork and possibly a sleep study to see if I had a comorbidity, but the wait time for the home sleep study kit was two weeks. ☹ Luckily, the next day when I came in for my bloodwork they magically had a sleep machine I could take home immediately, which was great news.
My bloodwork all came back normal, so I was really riding on the sleep study and praying I’d have at least moderate sleep apnea. My husband told me he thought I definitely have sleep apnea based on how loud I snore, but I was still worried. Plus I thought all this time he was exaggerating on my snoring! 😉 So I returned the sleep machine on Monday 6/11 and they said it would take 7-10 business days for the results. I was happy and surprised to hear back on Friday 6/15 that I did have sleep apnea which qualifies as a comorbidity and scheduled an appointment to come in Monday 6/18 to hear the results and do my nicotine test, which was the last step before submitting to insurance. I was completely shocked to hear that I have SEVERE sleep apnea. Which all makes sense now that I know and think about it. But I have to get a CPAP machine to wear from now on. She indicated they’d have me do another sleep study after I lose 10% of my body weight to see if I still need the CPAP machine, but that my weight might have nothing to do with it. Not getting adequate sleep may have been one of the reasons I have not been able to lose weight on my own in recent years. Although I dread the thought of wearing a CPAP machine, I’ve grown so used to being exhausted that I’m actually looking forward to seeing what getting a good night’s sleep feels like.
After hearing that I have sleep apnea, I briefly wondered if I really needed the surgery after all and that maybe lack of sleep was really what had been holding me back from losing weight through diet and exercise. But then I remembered how I’ve been struggling all my life and that the hunger hormone ghrelin was going to continue to be a problem for me. I really feel like the sleeve is what I truly need to become a healthy person for the rest of my life.
Finally, in addition to sleep apnea, I suffer from depression, anxiety, back pain, heartburn, and ADD. I am hoping the surgery will reduce my depression, anxiety, and back pain.
That’s all for now! I’ll update again next time I have news, which will hopefully be my insurance approval!
