Hello to everyone here, you all seem so nice. I feel very lucky to have found this forum. I like you all have struggled with every diet imaginable. I am so sad that my weight affects every day of my life mentally and physically. I am 5'6 and weigh 240. We have three adopted children ages 7months , 8yrs, and 10 yrs and I find myself so limited in what I can do with them, my knees and feet are so bad. I am at my wits end. I researched the lap band and went to a seminar. I have my consult app this friday the 17 of Nov. I am so nervous that the Dr will say that my BMI isnt big enough. I think it is like a 36 or 37. I am so desprate. I am on anitdepressants , I thought they would help but I understand that the depression is from how I feel and the fear that I have about my risk ( of breast cancer , my mother had it, grandmother , aunt ) from estrogen and when a woman is heavy we have more of it. Also I have never given birth which makes my risk very high. The only diet that works for me is the Atkins and with that I cannot commit my whole life to eating meat and cheese, its only temporary then even more weight comes back. My problem is everything I have tried I feel shaky and week like I am starving unless I have food. Almost like an hunger addiction. To make a long story short, you are so kind to listen. I will know on Friday the Dr feels I am a canidate. My primary care Dr I totally supportive and said he will write me a letter of recomendation, maybe that would help. I live in Maine and am going to Augusta Center. My question is what was your experience with a BMI under 40? Anything else I could do to make my chances higher of getting approved by the Dr ? I have blue Cross insurance and from what I have heard they are pretty good. I will be so heart broken if they wont do the surgery on me, I know it would only be a matter of time before my BMI would be high enough anyway and I dont want to leave there knowing I will be back bigger someday. I really need a tool to help me and I believe this is it. Thanks for anything you can tell me to make my chances higher of being able to get this done. Thank you all so much for your imput I really appreicate it more than you know:) Kim

Hi Kimmom!

I want to say welcome and let you know that this is a VERY good place to get your questions answered. Your story sounds similar to mine though I have a very high BMI. Do you have PCOS? PCOS goes along with insulin resistance which can make you very addicted to carbs (if you don't know about pcos and want to there are much better explanations out there, and I too would also be happy to tell you more) but that's why things like Atkins work great for peoploe with pcos, though I second the opinion that its very hard to stick to! Anyway, if you DO have pcos there are a lot of things that go along with it that can/will count towards co-morbidities. Those should be mentioned in your recommendation letter. Anyway I'm sure someone out there will have more advice to you then I do, good luck!!!

Welcome to the board.

I had this surgery for my daughter. I never focused on losing X number of pounds. I simply wanted to be able to be a more active parent. I started this journey at 297 and I am the same height as you.

I would definately let your surgeon know about the other problems you have. The pain you suffer from your knees and joints can definately be caused by weight. Lossing weight will also help with the depression.

My husband and I have both had this surgery. Our daughter just turned 2 and I am able to chase her around and keep up with her the best you can with a toddler.

Best of luck to you.

Hi, My name is Michelle and I am from, Fairfield Maine. I was banded Sept 22, 2006 by Dr. Mckee. I have Blue Cross and Blue Sheild of Massachusets. My journey started in May 2004 when I went to my first seminar. I then went to Augusta Surgical in June but got discouraged from the begining. My insurance then was Cigna and they told me out front that Cigna was one of the worst for them to deal with. I went to my first diatician meeting and then found out that under no cercumstance were they going to pay for me to have any weight loss surgery. My husband works for New Balance in Skowhegan and the insurance company said the insurance the company chose was not one that would pay for any WLS. So I gave up hope.

Well over the past couple of years my health has gone down hill. I went from 225 in 2003 to 255 in 2004. By 2005 my weight was 267. I have chronic lower back pain and a few other health problems. I was diagnosed with Diabetes Sept 25, 2005. Well that made me more determine to loose weight. I followed the low carb diet closely and did everything I was supposed to and lost 5 pounds in probably 6 months. When they could not get my blood sugar to go down they put me on insulin which caused me to gain about 13 lbs. So then I was up to 273 and feeling very depressed. I gave up on trying and somehow over the summer managed to take off 6 of the 13 lbs I gained. Well In May we got a letter from New Balance saying that they were changing insurance June1st to BCBS.

I was so excited. I called Augusta Surgical and asked for an appointment to be re evaluated because my insurance had changed. On the phone they told me BCBS is real good about approving people and if they dont the first time they almost always do the second time. That gave me hope.

So I made my first call to them in May and they made me an appointment for June 16th. I had been going to the Diabetes center in Waterville for 9 months and seeing a Nutritionalist so they counted that toward my 3 Diatician visits. I got in for my psych consult the last week in June and the 3rd week in July I got my approval letter from BCBS. I cried when I got it because I was so happy.

When I was going thru the process the first time they did not make you work with Nate the personal trainer so I had no idea about it. He wanted to see me the 10th of August or something like that but I could not come up with 380.00 to see him that quick esp with school shoping. So I did not see him until the third week in August. I saw Dr. Mckee for my pre op surgeon appointment the last week in August at which time they told me my surgery would not probably be before Oct 16th. Something like Sept 15th I got a call asking if I would like to do the surgery on Sept 22 and of course I said yes.

So I had the surgery Sept 22 and had my first fill Nov 10th.

I had lost 10 lbs since the day prior to surgery and am happy with my progress because the first month I focused on healing and trying to get my BS down.

Some questions for you. Do you have any co morbidites? Diabetes, high blood pressure, joint pain, heart burn ( things that are caused or made worse due to your weight?) These things tend to make the insurance jump at it quicker. Did you go to the August Surgical web page and use there tool to calculate your BMI?

Dont give up ok. It took me a while but things finally worked out. If you want to e-mail me with any questions go right ahead. my e-mail address is lambertfmly@yahoo.com and maybe we will see each other at one of the support groups at MGMC in Augusta.

Good luck and keep us posted.