HatheryOnHerWay

I know, it's like I have a roadblock at every turn! I'm determined to make this work, though!

I don't have a 401k. I'm a government employee, so all my retirement is through the state retirement program.

At this point, I think the biggest thing is going to be getting financing. That's really the wildcard!

This literally made me LOL

I think he'll be supportive once I get it done, but it's just getting there that's difficult. He's naturally a very skeptical and anxious person, and the idea of spending money on something and not having it work is just really overwhelming to him. I have a strong tendency to have a lot of ideas about life in general, and then quit when I lose interest. He's reasonably worried that I'll do that with this, too. I was so happy when I lost the 100 pounds--if I could kick my own butt for putting the weight back on, I would. I wish he realized how difficult it is to say "I need help", and that's exactly what I'm doing by wanting this surgery. I am strong-willed and I get what I want in life, but for some reason obesity is the one thing I can't get a hold on. I'm asking for help--I wish he saw it that way. I'm attaching a collage of pics from before and after when I did Medifast. I'm pretty well back to the "before" again :(

Everyone around here says that you can expect a stall at week 3. Just keep doing what your doctor directed, and things should start moving again. Sometimes your body needs a bit of time to adjust. Or so they tell me

I wish it were as easy as that, but I can already hear the responses "Quit trying to sell me on this", "Are you trying to make me mad?", "You always take things too far", bla bla bla. I don't know why this is such a sore subject for him because it means so much to me, but it's just one of those (few) things that are nearly impossible to talk to him about. I think he sees me as a really strong and driven person, and to him this feels like I've given up. But it's the opposite...I'm trying. Really, really hard. I want to have the majority of a vital organ removed VOLUNTARILY. It hardly seems like giving up to me.

I'd be more than happy to go to Mexico, but my husband is absolutely adamant that I will not be doing that. He has the idea I'd be in some back-alley chop shop with dirty medical instruments and untrained doctors. I know this is 100% untrue, but he believes what he wants to believe and really won't research anything (despite my request that he educate himself on this topic.) Since he is so resistant to begin with, I gotta take what I can get! And if he'll be ok w/ a doctor in the US, at least I get the surgery. Who knows though....we might find out we can't finance more than a few thousand, in which case Mexico may be my only option. It'll take some major convincing, but I want this surgery!

I really don't understand their resistance! It just seems like the long-term benefits for them as far as insurance payouts would be substantially less if they just paid for the surgery. I guess when I'm president, I'll change that haha

I just so happen to have a friend who work's for my insurance company, so I'm going to ask her and see if she knows of an backdoors or loopholes like that with my insurance. I have Physician's Plus (I think that might be a Wisconsin thing?) My insurance covers just about everything under the sun, but apparently they don't think fat people are worth helping. Grr.

I'm attaching a screenshot from my insurance policy so you can see the exclusion. What do you think? The places I've found in the US that will do it for less than $10k (or around that) would be Dr. Borland in Louisiana, Dr. Gonzalez in Texas, and Dr. Washington in South Carolina.

That's really disingenuous

Nope, not even gonna get my hopes up until I secure financing! I'm currently in talks w/ my credit union about it. If I can't secure financing, I'm going to have to look into other options (selling my car? selling a kidney? haha)

Yep. It's a 100% exclusion, regardless of medical necessity. Pretty stupid considering how much less they'd end up paying overall if I got rid of my comorbidities!

I didn't think I'd be able to get another insurance because of pre-existing conditions (migraines, high blood pressure, depression, bla bla bla). I have really good insurance, but unfortunately WLS is an exclusion. What is PPACA? (n/m just looked this up! ObamaCare! Forgot it had a real name. hehe)

The main reason I have to involve my husband in this decision is because I'll be self-pay. If my insurance paid for it, I'd be doing it whether he liked it or not. But it requires a bit more spousal cooperation when I'm asking to use $10k that we really don't have He was saying to me yesterday things like "What if something horrible happens? What if you die on the table?" My response was, "If I stay the way I am, there is a 100% chance something horrible will happen and I will die." It's not cosmetic for me. I can deal with how I look, but I can't deal with the way I constantly hurt, the way I have no energy to do anything, the way I sweat like a piglet, etc.

So excited for you!!! :)

As you can probably tell by how long I’ve been a member here, I’ve been considering VSG for a long time. My husband has never exactly been on-board with it; he’s naturally very thin, and can eat whatever he wants without gaining any substantial weight. Since he’s never really been willing to hear me out on VSG, I’ve tried everything else under the sun to try and get my weight under control. In 2011 I did Medifast. Over the year, I managed to lose 100 pounds. Over the next year and a half, I managed to gain back every last pound. I talked to my husband last night again about VSG, and he was not terribly supportive of the idea (as usual). He doesn’t like the idea of me having surgery, and he is also of the opinion this is somehow taking the easy way out and I should be able to just do this on my own. He feels like I “quit” on Medifast, and that we wasted money because I gained it all back. I tried to explain to him that it’s not losing weight that’s the problem…it’s keeping it off. I’ve tried and tried, and I *can’t* stay a normal weight. I am just not able. I’m not a snacker, and I don’t eat a bunch of junk food. I’m a vegetarian (15 years), don’t have high cholesterol, etc. My problem is the speed and quantity at which I eat. If my husband and I are having pizza, I will be on my 4th slice by the time he’s finishing his first. I literally inhale my food. I don’t chew, I don’t wait for it to cool, and I eat so quickly and so voluminously that I feel ill. I’ve tried to consciously slow down, but even my “slow” is fast to most people. And I don’t know the meaning of the word “full.” Through all my research, it seems like VSG would be the best option for me because it would force me to slow down (lest I get sick!), and I physically won’t be able to hold as much food. I know you can “eat around” the sleeve, but like I said I’m not a big snacker or junk food eater so I don’t worry about that so much. I feel like the sleeve would be a good tool to help me control my portions and give me that sense of when to stop that I’m *supposed* to have. Since my husband feels like I “quit” at Medifast, he thinks I’m going to “quit” on the sleeve. He thinks I’ll just gain it all back, and we’ll have “wasted” all that money. I know he wants to be supportive and he wants me to have something that works, but he just doesn’t know what it’s like to have a problem with food. It’s impossible to understand if you haven’t been there. But he raises a good point, and one I feel is fair to ask—how IS this different from Medifast or anything else I’ve tried? Will it just end up being another “waste of money”? How will this help me succeed where other plans haven’t? Please, any insight you can provide would be so appreciated. I just want to be healthy again.

Thank you for the recommendation. I'm going to see if the library has that book!

Does everyone get a catheter?? I've never had a catheter before...this is perplexing to me.

Interesting! Thanks for the replies! I guess I would probably put in retainers and if I HAD to, take them out...The bellybutton one would definitely have to come out :thumbup:

Out of curiosity, where did you see/hear that they work with Dr. Rod? On his webpage the other members of the surgical team are listed as Dr. Aramburo and Dr. Chavarin.

I wonder if that's the same across the board no matter if you're in US or Mexico? I would think if a plastic retainer was put in it wouldn't bother any monitoring or possible electro-shock equipment...guess that'd be a questionf or the surgeon beforehand :thumbup1:

Thanks for the great reply, Tiffykins! I read in one of the articles about the plication than by the stomach being "folded" it more or less restricts the Ghrelin from being released...but that doesn't make a huge amount of sense to me as tissue is somewhat porous so I would assume the hormone could still find ways of seeping out. I like the idea of a surgery that could be done via endoscopy, but it seems to me I would need lots more research before I chose this as a viable option!

I was thinking it would be best to put plastic retainers in...sounds like that is the concensus!