starly94
My story is probably similar to most others on here. I have been overweight for many, many years in varying degrees. I started to become overweight in about the first and second grades. This steadily increased over the years. I was always fairly comfortable with myself and pretty outgoing. But the weight was always a hinderance in one way or another. I did lose a substantial amount right after high school but not in a healthy way. I was going out a lot and started smoking and basically only ate one meal a day. Then when I was 19 I met my husband and married him a year and a half later. From there the pounds really started to pile on. I had my first child at 23. I only gained 25 pounds during pregnancy and lost all of it by my 6 week check. I had my second child at 25. I only gained 16 pounds with him and was 15 pounds less than when I got pregnant at my 6 week check. Then when he was about 5 months old, I joined weight watchers and lost about 30 pounds in 4 months. Then we moved to a different town and I stopped going to meetings and started gaining. Then 6 months later, we made another move to Northern VA, just outside DC for my husband's work.
At this point, I had a 1 yo and a 3 yo. I decided to stay home with them because daycare was going to cost as much as I would have made. So as you can guess, staying at home with two small children, in a strange city where you don't know anyone or anything to do, I really packed the pounds back on. I looked into RNY while we were living up there, but quickly found out that our ins. would not cover it. I then tried Atkins, which made me miserable. Eventually things worked out that I got to move back to Bristol, VA and return to the job that I left at a local GYN office. The only problem was that there were still no jobs for my husband in this area and we decided to have him work during the week in DC and come home on weekends. This was how we lived for a year, which put pounds on both of us because we both went through the drive-thrus every day.
So finally in 8/06, we all finally got back into the same house. My husband now works from home for the same company in Northern VA. I am working full-time as a Med. Assistant. Our daughter is in first grade and our son is in Pre-K. I knew once all these obstacles had been overcome that it was time to do something about the weight. I really began researching the Lapband in about Sept. I checked again with the new updated ins. and still no coverage for anything obesity related. So I began to explore other avenues for covering this. I called around to all the dr. in about a 60 mile radius and checked to see what the cash price for this surgery would be. Then once I knew what they charged. I began researching the dr. themselves through the internet and some of our patients who had similar procedures.
I figured out that one of the lowest charging dr., also had the best reputation and I made my first consult with him in Nov. I got all my financing in order after speaking with him and deciding that the band was what I wanted. I did my psych consult the beginning of Dec. I had my patient education and preop testing in mid-Dec. Surgery scheduled for 1/18/07. For anyone wondering out there, total cost for my surgery was $16,500. This cost included preop testing, nutrition counseling, patient education, labs, hospital costs, anesthesia, and surgeon charges. So it was similar to financing a car, but hopefully more beneficial in the end.
I'll keep you updated on my progress from here.
Starting weight 275 lbs. Ht. 5'4". BMI 47.
