Hello my name is Melissa this is actually my first thread on here. I'm 24 years old. My whole life I've suffered from obesity and my weight has constantly been a yo-yo. I started my journey to get the Lapband in December I saw my dr in northern va and we decided the band was the best option for me. My BMI has always been close to 40 or over my entire life I've seen my primary care for 10 years now and have always maintained an ideal 'overweight'. Well Aetna required me to do 4 nutrition visits which in the beginning they said it was 3 since I started in December when January came they all of a sudden required 4. I had my psych Eval and passed that. My weight in 2010 was 215 and in 2011 I was trying to lose weight and my weight was 190 in January those are the only documentations I have for my 2 year weight history. Also in 2011 I got pregnant with my daughter at the end of feb so for the rest of the year I was pregnant and of course gained weight probably about 50-60 pounds and these documentations of weight are not eligible for approval since I was pregnant. So after all these hard months of working my way to approval they send everything in and tell me that the only way I would get approved is if I get a sleep study and have sleep apnea. Even if I have the test and I don't have sleep apnea they won't cover it they told me today. Mind you at this point since I've had my daughter I'm not 238 pounds. So the only way to approval is if I have sleep apnea. At this point I'm so discouraged with this whole process. I feel like once I get one thing done there is another issue and so forth. I've wanted this more than anything especially for my daughter I don't want her following in my foot steps I wanted this new life not only for me but for her too. Not only am I frustrated with Aetna but I'm frustrated with all the time and money spent on this journey just to be told no. I'm going to get the sleep study done but I feel as of this won't do any good since I've never had any issues that I know of in the past. Just looking for some encouraging words or if anyone has gone through anything similar with Aetna the only problem they have is that one office visit weight of 190 which I understand but my dr has written a recommendation letter stating I've tried many things for the last ten years and they still are only going to approve me ONLY if I have sleep apnea. :-(
