ecjones
I pretty much battled my wieght since I was a little kid. I was alays the chuby kid in shool. It wasn't till I got involved into sports, particlular football at age 10 did it fluchuate. I was always health and active but I remember even back at 10 yeas old I had to diet to keep my wieght down in order to play football as the had a wight limit for my age group. I pretty much dieted since I was 10 years old, my wieght would be some what in check while I was in sports then balloon out of control when I was in sports. Needess to say I stayed in sports alot to keep it in check all the while I was still chubby and self concious of my wieght at a very young age. I remember right be for hightschool I ballooned up as I took a time off from football as I was tired of the black and blue and hurt muscles I got in football...I was short legged and didn't run very fast so I was always a lineman. It seemed I was constantly on a diet through school even though I was pretty active in football, wrestling and many other school activities to try to control my wight. I had it in check for a couple of years, I actually got really strong and skinny...maturity kicked in I guess. It wasn't till college that my wieght really got out of hand agian...long school hours, working full time let to no exercise and bad food choices. My wieght ballooned and I was miserable and felt like a social outcast as I was self concious of my wieght. Not a good time for me which was lousy as college was supposed to be the best time in your life. Not so much! I finally got fed up with the wieght gain and went to a doctor that speacialized in wieght loss. I was on a extreme diet of 900 calories a day. That was a rough time but I was determined. I lost over 50 lbs with this diet and my doctors supervision...the problem it only made matters worse. I keep the wieght off for 6 months and slowly started to gain and gain and next thing I know I was out of control again. Trying new diets every year, hoping the next one will stick and make success. I would always loos wieght for a short time...average 30 lbs but only gain it back and then some extra. It became very disapointing to be lossing ground. I contimplated WLS but at the time all I heard about was the open surgery and that scared me off. It wasn't till I heard of the laprascopic WLS did I investigate sooner. I check with my insurance company to see if they covered this procedure and at inital review they said it was covered.I was estatic and I seet up my apointment, took the preop classes, pshyc tests etc to later only finde out that there was an exclusiong clause. Wow! did that put a blow to my attitude...here there is a life saving procedure and I was getting worse...my blood pressure was rising, sleep apnea getting worse, feeling lousy, headaches etc and I could not get the WLS surgery because it was an exclusion. I had no means to appeal either. So I did alot of reseach found information and convinced my employer that a change was needed. A year later when it was time for renewal of our insurance it was made sure that WLS was an option. So round two, I applied and did the necessary steps to make sure I met their criteria of medically necessary surgery ( lots and lots of documentation, 6 month diet, my file was around 50 pages, the nurse at the insurance company was impressed). I was determined to make this happen...if you are reading this and face similar obsticles don't loose hope. Be vocal to your company, educate them that this is a life threatening conditions the WLS can help save your life. You are worth it! So now I am set to have my surgery...once I got approval it happens quick...I am getting my last minute test done and onto a new life with a healthy body.
