So here is my situation. In a few months I will be going home for a visit. I havent been back home in years. Anyways I havent told anyone except two co workers ( in case anything went wrong) about my decision to have lap band surgery.

I dont know how to break it to my family that I had the surgery when I go home. When I left home I was skinny ( thanks to an extreme diet that failed once I moved to another country) and when my family came to visit I had put on some weight. I am sure from photos they could tell I put on more weight recently.

Anyways any ideas how to break it to them. My main concern is that I had a low BMI ( 33) and so I dont think they will understand my decision to have the surgery. For me I was concerned about my health and I wanted to take control of my weight and my PCOS but I know they wont understand. I would love to avoid the topic ( which I will probably do) but am afraid that if I get food stuck they might have a slight heart attack if they dont know I had the surgery. ( but knowing me I will probably wait till an event like that happens to tell them).

EEEkkk I'm so nervous to tell them!

so it turns out that i wont have to lie to anyone about my band after all. I have band erosion already not even 4 months after surgery. I am getting my band removed in 2 weeks and then going to Canada a month after it is removed. In 3 months I can get a new band if I want once my stomach has healed. Wish me luck that I dont gain that weight back :S

I'm so sorry. What happened? Can you tell us anymore about the erosion problem?

I'm so sorry. What happened? Can you tell us anymore about the erosion problem?

I didnt really have any signs of having erosion. An area where my tubing is hurt but the doctor said it is because my tubing is close to my stomach because I lost so much fat around my stomach. He told me I would have to have a revision to move the tubing and port.

One day after drinking Water too fast I pbed and had acid reflux for a few hours but only that one time. That could be a sign that I had too much of a fill. One day out of no where i also had a short quick 30 second pain in my band area. I thought my band had just slipped.

He did a camera scope and had to look long and hard and found a little area smaller then a pea where the erosion had started. Usually you don't find that erosion so soon but because I am a baby for pain he checked everything he could to see what was wrong with me. I'm glad he didnt dismiss my pain as just my tubing needing to be moved or I would have gone longer with the erosion. I really didnt expect it. It doesnt even hurt.

I think it might have happened because I got my fills too fast I was already at 10cc in an 11cc band

May I ask you a question? How old are you? Just wondering since you are in school and under your parents health plan. Did their insurance pay for your surgery?

I really wish I could keep it to myself. I think when I go back for a visit I wont tell anyone but once I go back to live in Canada I will have to tell my parents as I will be under their health insurance ( will need to know what is covered etc) and will be living with them for part of the year ( holidays and vacation away from school).

I'm also worried that if something happens no one will know that I had the surgery.... :S

May I ask you a question? How old are you? Just wondering since you are in school and under your parents health plan. Did their insurance pay for your surgery?

I'm 24 years old. If I am in college when I go back home my parents health insurance will still cover me. I am self pay. My parents dont know about the surgery. I had it done in Korea. No one knows about my surgery actually. I couldnt get it in Canada because I started with a low BMI and self paying for it in Canada would be too expensive. I have a great job here and was able to pay each month a certain amount to be able to get the surgery done here.

OK thanks, just wondering due to the school comment. When I was 24 I would have never dreamed of having a surgery without first running it by my parents. Everyone is different I know that, my parents and I have always been super close. My 2 cents....you are young I would tell my parents. Someone in your family needs to know what you have done so if there ever is a complication / problem they know. God forbid you are out (in a coma or something bad .... worse case senario obviously) your parents will be making decisions for you and need to know so they can make the right choices for you.

OK thanks, just wondering due to the school comment. When I was 24 I would have never dreamed of having a surgery without first running it by my parents. Everyone is different I know that, my parents and I have always been super close. My 2 cents....you are young I would tell my parents. Someone in your family needs to know what you have done so if there ever is a complication / problem they know. God forbid you are out (in a coma or something bad .... worse case senario obviously) your parents will be making decisions for you and need to know so they can make the right choices for you.

yup see my parents and i are close too but I knew they would never let me get the lap band but I have researched it for years and couldnt lose weight any other way. They also worry too much because they seem to think korea is not like a first world country with great medical care and doctors where i actually cant stand north american doctors now. Korean doctors are way better.

I will break the news to them when I do move back home though I am sure they are going to kill me. I would want someone close to know about the surgery. I have two co workers one at each school i teach at here in korea that know about my surgery in case anything happens to me here.

Haven't we already covered this before? I know I've written this post before, but maybe it wasn't to you. You are over the age of 18. As a Canadian resident you shouldn't be under anybody's insurance, you should have your own provincial insurance card completely independent from your parents'. Or are you talking about paying for fills? Provincial insurance doesn't cover lapband after care because it doesn't cover lapband. Then I could see how your parents' insurance might enter the picture... but at 24 you likely are far too old to be registered as a dependent on a private health care plan.

If it's a private plan you're speaking of, it's not going to cover anything. That's just how they are right now in Canada. If you need fills or something, I think you're stuck paying for it. Provincial health care should step in if you have a major complication requiring immediate medical care but, other than that, I think you're boned.

This is such a touchy topic! I decided to tell my husband and 2 of my kids know. I also told 2 close coworkers but nobody else knows. I work in a large hospital and I did not want all the questions or judgments. I also did not want to tell my managers etc. I may eventually tell other people but for right now (banded on Jan. 5, 2010) I decided not to tell others. When I am with people who don't know I definitely eat carefully! Don't want to explain food getting stuck or vomiting! Hope that helps

Sue

Haven't we already covered this before? I know I've written this post before, but maybe it wasn't to you. You are over the age of 18. As a Canadian resident you shouldn't be under anybody's insurance, you should have your own provincial insurance card completely independent from your parents'. Or are you talking about paying for fills? Provincial insurance doesn't cover LAP-BAND® after care because it doesn't cover LAP-BAND®. Then I could see how your parents' insurance might enter the picture... but at 24 you likely are far too old to be registered as a dependent on a private health care plan.

If it's a private plan you're speaking of, it's not going to cover anything. That's just how they are right now in Canada. If you need fills or something, I think you're stuck paying for it. Provincial health care should step in if you have a major complication requiring immediate medical care but, other than that, I think you're boned.

well onikenbai if u read back through these posts you would find ur answer to whether u posted before or not. I am not looking for something to pay for my fills. But with my parents health insurance I must tell them if I have had any medical procedures. Somehow all through university and college I was able to be on my parents health insurance until I left when I was 22.

If I live at home I am covered under their insurance until I am 25 years old or until I finish college ( before a certain age I believe 30).

If you're uncomfortable telling them, don't.

I understand your concern that no one will know "if something happens" to you. You can take care of that with a medic-alert bracelet (laurenshope.com has very pretty ones; if you wear the tag part on the inside of your wrist, no one who's not specifically looking will know it's a medic-alert, but first responders WILL).

You've been cruising along, doing really well, without them knowing. Nothing catastrophic has occurred due to their being in the dark. I think it's probably safe to assume that this pattern will continue--that things will STILL be okay if you don't tell them.

Alien....When I was in college I was under my parents insurance as long as I was enrolled in university .... I was 18 when I graduated from high school and after a year off to travel was in school again for 8 years.....so I was 27 when I got off their insurance. Oni is just going from her/his own experience I am sure but for me I could have been 40 and covered as long as I was going to full time university/college.

Naw, who said you have to tell them anything. It's a personal decision. I'm sure if you do tell them they will be cool. Maybe freak out a little bit but then calm down.

I just don't get why you need to be on your parents' insurance at all. You are a Canadian citizen and presumably qualify for your own provincial health care card unless you've given up your residency to avoid paying Canadian taxes while living overseas. When I moved to Japan I lost my OHIP because I no longer met the residency requirements to keep it in place. You said you haven't been home in years so it is entirely possible your universal health care card has become invalid, but it's also likely that you won't be eligible for your parents' plan as you haven't lived there in years and you are no longer a student. If you are moving back to be a student, most universities include supplemental health care as a non-optional part of tuition, so you'd still be covered anyway.

I'm not trying to be a pain in the butt and I'm not attacking you, I'm just trying to understand why you would need to be affiliated with your parents' insurance in any way:confused:. Health insurance isn't a private thing in Canada like it is in the US. We get hit by a bus, the ambulance comes and gets us and takes us to the big building where they make it all better, basically for free. That's why we pay the big bucks in taxes. If you had some sort of major complication related to your band which required a surgery, such as an erosion, it should still be covered provincially as it would become a necessary procedure to have it removed. An ulcerated stomach is what it is, regardless of how it got that way.

Worst case is that you move back, wait your three months (or whatever it is in your province) to get your provincial health card and you're all covered again, completely independent from your parents, free of charge. Pre-existing conditions are irrelevant to the eyes of provincial health care so it's not like they can turn you down. Even your parents should have insurance completely independent from each other... such is the nature of the universal health card.

I get why SoExcited was under parental insurance until 27. It was a private policy in the US. Canada has a completely different system for paying for health care which is not based on private family policies. That's where I'm getting confused. I also don't know which province your Canadian household is in, so there is a possibility of you working to a slightly different set of laws than I do.