noone

Hi all, I'm new around here. I was just wondering if there is anyone in Canada, in particular Western Canada, who has had LBS and had it covered at all by their health insurance company. My health carrier is Pacific Blue Cross, and when I called them to ask them if they covered any kind of obesity surgery they got all snitty with me and said 'we don't cover any elective surgeries.' :cry If anyone has any info I'd love to talk to you about it! Thanks,

If I had it in Mexico, that would require going in an airplane to get there, which I try to avoid these days! hehe. Which is a shame because I love to travel. It's just the seats are too flippin' small. So frustrating! I don't think I'd feel comfortable getting it done in a different country anyway. But I have heard of someone here in Canada getting her health insurance to foot the bill for her op in Mexico, but she lives in another province, so hard to say if that would go over here or not. I probably would have quite the fight on my hands, like you said. I don't know if it's worth all that.

Thanks Marie, it's my little place to vent and whatnot.

Hi All, I'm Lindsay, I just joined the board. I'm just interested in finding out more about the surgery, the costs associated with it, and in particular I would like to meet Canadians who have gone through the procedure, as that's where I'm located. A little bit about myself for those who are interested, I live in Beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia with my husband of 7 months, our Pitbull and Chihuahua, and a bunch of tropical fish! I'm a Webmaster by profession, and I do web design on the side as well. I'm a computer nerd to the core! lol. As far as the weight goes, I've been overweight for about 8 years. I started to put on weight when I graduated high school, and it became problematic when I was about 19 and got up to about 190 lbs. I'm now 27 and weigh about 315 lbs. I am currently in therapy for Compulsive Eating Disorder. I'm finding it somewhat helpful, but when I'm still stuffing myself so much it's difficult to find the willingness to deal with the issues that cause me to overeat in the first place. I'm really at my wits end, as I have been for a long time. I've played around with the idea of WLS for a couple years now, and I've seen it work for people, so it's starting to look more and more appealing. My only concern is the cost, because I've been told that Lap Band Surgery isn't covered by any health insurance companies in Canada, and that it costs upwards of $10000, which of course I don't have. I just get so frustrated with my inability to STOP the eating. I feel like I've tried everything and nothing works -- for very long anyway. I've seen moments of sanity around food, but they've been very short-lived. I just feel like I've had enough. If anyone has any information about LBS in Western Canada I'd love to hear from you. Thanks for this great board, I think I'll learn a lot here! Talk to ya later!

Health conditions? Where do I start! I've got knee problems, degenerative discs in my back, a hiatus hernia, sleep apnea, a slightly slow thyroid, slightly high blood pressure and cholesterol, and the list goes on! And I'm only 27! I sound like I'm 67! I know I'm a candidate. It's just a matter of finding a doctor that would support me doing it. And finding out if my health insurance will cover it. Because I won't do it if I have to pay for it, lol. As far as I know though it's not covered in Canada because the procedure is still so new. But if anyone knows anything different, let me know!