ddlmiles
I am a married mother of 3 who has been battling weight for a majority of my life. Growing up as was a "solid" child with borderline high blood pressure. My life has consisted mostly of tramatic experiences which began when I was only 11 with the loss of my only sibiling. Eventhough he was 8 years older than me, I became an only child totalling dependant on my mother who was consumed by her own depression, sorrow and broken heart. At the age of 13 my materal grandfather died, 11 months later, my maternal grandmother died, 14 days later, my mother dropped dead right in front of me. She has no illnesses, her death was a complete shock. She was only 41. She suffered from cardiac arrest and died immediately when she hit the floor. I will always uphold that she died from a broken heart as she suffered terribly after the loss of her first child, my brother, Tony.
Needless to say, on top of an already brewing eating disorder, I became an emotional eater. I have maintained this habit ever since. I am now 31 and I see no end in sight. About 5 yrs ago I managed to loose 73 lbs., and then all of a sudden I was diagonsed with depression (of course), OCD, and possibility Bi-polar II disorder. I was put on heavy antidepressants, Zoloft, Topomax, Effexor, Lorazepam, Prozac and mood stabilizers. I was not on all of these medications at once, but ended up on Zoloft for a majority of the time until I reached 220 lbs and then I begged my doctor to switch me to something else that would help me maintain instead of gain weight. He then introduced me to Prozac. Prozac was a little better, until recently when I decided I would rather wash my hands raw, be thinner and feel better about myself then to continue gaining weight! I took myself off of my medicines, but I know that there will be a day very soon that I will have to go back to them.
I am now considering weight loss surgery in hopes that this will take one of my many burdens off of my shoulders. I feel that if I can get over this hurdle then I will be able to focus more on taking care of my depression, OCD and mental issues that I have now. I'm hoping that maybe I will feel better about myself if I could look and feel more like a normal human and not so disgusting! Maybe I will want to have sex with my husband more often because I will feel more comfortable with my body and not so embarrassed over everything that over eating has done to me. I look horrible without clothes and have concluded that I hate my body just like everyone else in the world. I want to put all of the behind me and start living a happy, more productive and normal life.
I have discussed, with my husband, paying out of pocket for the lap band surgery. He was totalling against it, but I think he is changing his mind since he realizes how much it means to me to get this part of me "fixed". I asked the receptionist at my PCP's office about this and she instructed me to call my insurance company and verify if we have obesity coverage as a rider. I did and was told that I did not have this coverage available at this time. I am currently insured by Anthem under a HMO plan. Has anyone ever been able to overcome this obstacle with this insurance company? How do I get started on the process, should I bypass my PCP altogether and go straight to a surgeon?
I would love to hear from anyone with any information or success with Anthem.
