Lap-bandit's Journal

My Decision

I made the decision to have lap-banding done. I had looked into this over the years, but I did not qualify for the procedure due to the insurance companies guidelines. This is kind of like discrimination in a sense. Basically, I was not "fat enough" to be considered. My BMI is 35. Yes, that is on the low end, but if I continue at the rate I am going, I will be morbidly obese in a couple years. So, after losing 30 pounds on Jenny Craig and then gaining about 18 of that back, I decided to start looking for new ways to get the weight off. That is when I came across the lap-band again. Now, I knew from previous inquires that I did not qualify for this and I was almost ready to do a new search when something caught my eye about affordable lap-banding. Well, I looked and it was an ad for belitewieght.com and it was offering lap-banding for $11,800 in Detroit. Well, I had heard that lap-banding was expensive and I didn't think that $11,800 was all that bad, so I was curious and I filled out the information form and received an e-mail back almost immediately. It went over the details of the procedure and what was included and as I read on I kept thinking.....but how high does your BMI have to be???? Because when I had initially looked at the site, the qualifications for the surgery were not discussed, at least about the BMI. That was another reason I decided to get some info. Then, towards the end it said BMI's of 30 and above qualify. That made me speechless (not for long though). I have been looking at this procedure on and off since it was approved and I have never seen anybody offering it to individuals with lower BMI's. I was even shocked that BMI's of 30 were being considered. So, this really got me excited about the prospect and so I started reading the forums and getting as much information as possible and I also started on my financing. Now that was difficult in itself. $11,800 is a lot of money to borrow unsecured. When I got word back about financing, they said (citera) could finance me for $3600. That is a far cry from the $11,800 that I needed. Coming up with the additional money seemed hopeless. The lady from beliteweight.com suggested Mexico, but at that point, I was not even remotely interested in Mexico. In my mind, Mexico was not even an option for me....but that changed. While I was looking on the forum, I decided to check out the doctor and hosptial section that had discussions on different doctors, their experiences and opinions. The more I read, the more I realized that there was a LOT of people who had went to Mexico and there dis not seem to be any regrets or problems. So, now the prospect of surgery in Mexico was starting to sound good. Although, beliteweight.com is who I started out with, that is not who I went with. After searching high and low, I decided on a doctor I was going to contact. His name was Dr. Franscico Gonzalez and he was in Tijuana. That is actually where a majority of the doctors are. So, after reading all I could about him and not finding any bad comments, I called the office. I was shocked to actually get to talk to a doctor. I assumed that, like in the US, that a nurse or office assistant would answer my questions, but this was not the case. Dr. Valenzuela, the clinical manager, took my call and he spent over 30 minutes on the phone with me. He answered my questions and also ask me questions about my weight and how long I have been overweight. He told me that I qualified for the procedure. I discussed the fills that needed to be done. This was a concern of mine. Hopping on a plane to fly cross country for fills was not realistic nor cost wise. It would cost me more to fly to Mexico than it would to go to a fill doctor and pay to have it done close to home. So, with that in mind, Dr. Valenzuela started searching for a fill doctor for me to go to. He did not tell me "you must find a doctor" he said "I will find you a doctor" and he was true to his word - he did. The coolest thing about the whole thing was that the procedure was $4550 less than in the US. It still was cheaper when you included 2 plane tickets. So, I had the $3600 and I had to come up with the rest. So, I decided to use credit cards to pay for the rest. I was glad that this was an option. Things changed drastically when I got my paper work from Citerra regarding my loan. First off, I noticed that it said $5000 in the section that said "amount financed". Thinking this was a mistake, I called citerra and I was informed that it wasn't a mistake that I was financing $5000. I said "no, you said $3600" Well, at that point, I was missing one very important paper and that was the one that broke down the loan into where the money went. Well, $1400 was going to the bank and citerra, which infuriated me. The women kept telling me that my credit was bad and that this was the only bank that would deal with me. Well, I knew for a fact that my credit was not as bad as she was letting on. I had high debt to income ration, but I took care of this by closing accounts that had zero balances and also paying off as much credit card debt as possible. Needless to say, I was not payin $1400 in fees if I could help it and so I decided to call Citifinancial and I was approved in 60 seconds (no lie) for $5000. I ask if there was any fees and she said "no". So, I told her what Citerra had tried to charge me and she couldn't believe they would do that. She told me that my credit was not bad and my score was close to 700. So, I hope that if other people read this that they watch out using Citerra. I am not saying that they do this all the time, but they tried doing it to me. Needless to say, I was able to get the money elsewhere. So, now I am set. I am scheduled for September 14th. This is my day, I am not scared right now, but I am sure I will get nervous as the time comes closer. 28 days and counting!! BTW, I would like to know if anybody else had problems with Citerra.

Lap-bandit

August 17, 2007

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