did anyone else go through this? I called the insurance company. the first time they said "sure, lose as much weight as you can, tha'ts what the 6 months are for." I was leary so i called again. second person said "no- do not lose weight, that would put you under bmi 40 and with no co morbidities, you wouldn't qualify for surgery at the end of the 6 mos." today I called AGAIN to get an answer and they said they couldn't find the answer to my question and they needed to ask someone higher up and she'd call me back. "it might be a day, or even a week or 2 before we can get you an answer." OH PLEASE! I know this will all pass, and I'll look b ack and giggle at my impatience, but right now that seems like forever. as if I'm not already doing enough for the insurance company.

dealing with insurance is annoying. I so wish I had cash for Mexico.

Wow, I never thought about fundraising for surgery in that manner, that actually sounds like a great idea.

I think anybody that does choose this avenue to improve their lives should feel a moral responsibility to pass on the generosity that was shown to them. Just think, if everyone that receives the blessing of a healthier life through these means made a personal commitment to pay forward 2X what they received how much of a change we could make, and really it wouldn't cost us a dime.

Example: I receive $5000. I then commit to contributing $10,000 to helping others. I do this incrementally, say $20/week for 500 weeks (a bit shy of 10 years). The great news is with my lowered food consumption I've actually reduced my food bill by $50/week (or more).

I love this idea. I am going to go to my local tech college and offer this up as a project to see what the cost would be to build the website and put the fund managemt tools in place to build this system.