LauraAG
My story starts three years ago when I decided to undertake my WLS journey. Grant it I have struggled all my live with every diet imaginable...and the up and down weight lose throughout my years. I remember as a child even my own family would refer to me as the chubby child....how I hated that. I was never a really big eater but as I found out in my recent years that waiting long periods of time between meals is not a good thing.....but how the heck does one even get an appetite every two- three hours to eat....it has always been so hard. To this day I see my skininy co-workes fill their plates and wonder how they do it and not gain so much weight. I know my choices are not always good but still I don't eat that much or often. My dietician seems to think I have really done some damage to my metabolism and that I have to eat more frequently and exercise more. Boy!! is that easier said then done. The frustration of diets and more diets. I remember my two year stint with a personal trainer who was a bodybuilder...my two hour a day...four day a week at the gym...strict diet regime. How I wanted so much to be like one of them. After my two year stint I had gone down to 200 pounds on my 5"2 frame...gesh!!! two whole years and even though I felt good it just wouldn't stay off and the two hour daily gym thing had to stop. ....I was exhausted and stalling. That was just one of my plights in the diet world....I remember back in the seventies as a teenager getting some type of injections to lose weight....and then amphetamines from my doctor,... then back to the gym....Weight Watchers, and a myriad of other diets. None of my past experiences kept the weight off...and so three years ago I decided to embark on this journey.
This three year journey has not been easy as I had a major problem with my insurance company and my employer who backs my insurance company. I work for a hospital as a nursing supervisor so you can imagine how shocked I was when I noticed that our hospital would let our surgeons do WLS at our facility but if you work for our hospital it wasn't covered in our medical benefit but was an exclusion to our policy. What was wrong with this picture??....
My surgeon's office tried to help me get approved....it wasn't till the last denial letter from my Insurance company that my surgeon's assistant stepped in and told me about seeking legal help from ObesityLaw.com. I forged ahead and called them and spoke to Kelley who for the next couple of years helped me in my fight to get the exclusion removed from my medical policy at work and help my employer realize the importance of adding this as an included benefit. It finally happened at the beginning of this year when my employer removed the exclusion......I had it made.....or did I?....The Insurance company then decided since now that is was included in the policy they needed to establish guidelines.....so then came all my hoop jumping. .....and here it is after jumping through many of the insurance company's hoops I was finally approved. With the help from Kelley....my persistance, patience and with my plain ole stubborness I have helped pave the way for other employees at my hospital to be able to have a chance to benefit from this surgery. Hoops anyone!!
