Kristina J.

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]My story has been a long 10 year roller coaster ride both in weight and emotion![/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]I was banded at 18 in California. I was just under 250 at 5'1". I had an easy surgery and started losing pretty quickly. After a couple years, I was down almost 100lbs and feeling great until suddenly, in August 2005, I couldn't swallow water. My band had slipped and badly. I went into surgery the next day to have my band fixed, but due to erosion, it was removed and as the surgeon put it to my parents, he "MAY have punctured my stomach trying to navigate scar tissue, but it was difficult to tell what was a puncture and what was an erosion." I was devastated to put it lightly and spent 9 days in the hospital recovering.[/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Insurance refused to replace the band (despite multiple appeals) because my BMI was too low. My surgeon and I worked through the year on appeals and by June, I had climbed back to my starting weight of 250. We found out in March that when my insurance changed at the beginning of the year, they had made WLS a contract exclusion and we had exhausted our appeals. [/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]I decided that if I wanted my band back, I would have to pay for it and began looking into options out of the country. For a bunch of different reasons, I ended up choosing a hospital and surgeon in Mumbai, India. The surgeon in Mumbai told me that my first band was placed so high, that my scar tissue wasn't in his way at all. I now wonder if that is the only reason it worked so well. I had a new lap band placed in August 2006 at 269lbs (my highest weight) and went home filled with hope.[/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]My hope faded as over the next year I only lost around 40-50lbs or so. Not a small amount of weight, but only half of what I lost the first time and only about a third of what I was hoping for. This band never worked like the first one. By 2012 I was back up to 250.[/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]My current insurance has a contract exclusion as well, and instead of going through lengthy appeals (since that worked so horribly before), I decided to self pay again. This time I am going with Dr. Fernando Garcia in Tijuana with Ready 4 a Change. I have my surgery scheduled for May 11th and I'm fearful that I am starting to get my hopes up that this will be the right path for me. I am hoping that this roller coaster will take one final dip (hopefully at least a 100lb dip lol). My kids need a mom that can keep up with them and I know I can't do that on my own.[/font][/color]