Thank you, Maggie. I do have osteoarthritis which, as we all know, is made so much worse by obesity. My PCM back at Ft Hood said it was due to me being overweight so I believe that should qualify me in and of itself. I know Tricare goes by the MetLife scale for obesity, if you look at the bottom of the range (and I have been told they do) then I am about 110 pounds overweight. My one and only concern with that is I want to lose 70 pounds, I have been as thin as 140 pounds smaller than I am right now (in high school...lol) and feel I look best at about 70-80 lighter than I am at the moment.
I don't have sleep apnea to my knowledge and a Dr has never mentioned me needing a sleep study.
In all honesty, back at Fort Hood they were giving these things away like halloween candy. And not at the MTF either. I can think of 6 (SIX) people just out of my circle of friends who have been banded in the short time since Tricare approved coverage of the band. Maybe I shouldn't put all my eggs in this basket though. I have tried and tried and tried to get this weight off. Every time my husband deployes I gain 20 pounds despite my best efforts not to. My parents are both in the 400-500 pound range (I am 5'9" and 239). I did weight watchers and had success but to be honest we cannot afford $40 a month for WW.
Okay, enough woe is me. I am working from home as a medical transcriptionist and in the past year since I have been doing that the weight has just piled on. I was never sedentary before and now I just sit here at this computer all day and that makes it even harder to get the weight off.