Hi I'm new here. I love this site and y'all give me so much inspiration and many things to think about. I appreciate each of you.

My name is Latrice and I am 38 yrs young. I am married to my High school sweetie and we have two sons 20 &16, and my Goddaughter who is 13. I live in TN, outside of Nashville.

I am 245 lbs and sick of being overweight. I get the you carry your weight well comments when the topic comes up among family and friends. I hear them and I feel like I do carry it well but IM TIRED OF BEING overweight period. My goal weight is around the 170s-160s right now but I may feel differently as it goes of course. I have been researching the sleeve forever almost got the band because that and the bypass were all I could get approved for from BCBS. I'm so upset that now I can't seem to qualify (no 5 years med records, thankfully I'm not sick) and unfortunately I don't have 22k or 5k bucks laying around to pay for this thing. I'm just ready to get this started. Just found out I could not borrow the full amount for MX only half (student loans ????) so I'm going to get a 2nd job to help with that. Y'all please pray for me as I want to be able to get this money together before forever and that I'll have a safe surgery and figure this tiny tummy out when I blessed with the procedure. Thank you. Ok no more complaining for me. ????

Latrice

So sorry you're having trouble getting this done as wanted. I'm certain that a change in policy concerning coverage with your insurance must be on the way since they are covering the two bookends to the sleeve.

In the meantime, study all you might need to to understand the risks, challenges and lifestyle changes ahead. Also, start collecting needed histories. Did you know that depression and back pain are comorbidities?

Wishing you luck.

Try to get your Doctor to document that VSG is recommended as 'the medically necessary option' due to your body anatomy.

I would be pretty relentless and keep pressing BCBS.

Also, you may have BCBS, but is it an employer plan or an actual BCBS plan?

If employer plan with BCBS as the plan administrator, take the recommendation above and ask your employer health care plan rep to help you appeal to get this covered.

If BCBS shelf plan, unless you have some serious pre-existing condition for any family member, you can always change to a plan that does cover VSG, then go back to BCBS post-op if you like it better. You could even get just a policy for you that does cover Sleeve, and then drop post-op.

-RC-