cshort83

It all started with self diagnosis of Restless Leg Syndrome (thank you internet). Two nights in a row (Saturday Dec. 5, 09 and Sunday Dec. 6, 09) I woke up and my legs ached. My legs ached so much I could not go back to sleep. Having seen the Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) commercial 1,000 times, I just knew I had RLS. Well, after a little more research I figured I did not have RLS. One thing I did discover at 4am during this research (with one eye open, half sleep) is that I was a desired candidate for weight loss surgery. I know, how do you go from RLS to WLS.

Since the age of 14, I have been overweight. I blame it on the french fries I ate everyday for a year. Either way, I have been overweight for quite some time. I can remember standing on a scale and thinking to myself, "WOW, I almost weight 150 pounds" and shortly after standing on the same scale thinking, "WOW, I almost weigh 200 pounds." I come from an overweight family so there was no one to lead me down a better path.

Fast forward about 10 years to my heaviest weight of 263 pounds. It is a no brainer that this train is not stopping any time soon, unless I pull the emergency brake, or jump off. And that is what I am prepared to do. GET OFF THIS TRAIN LEADING TO SUPER OBESITY!

After two nights of what I thought was RLS, I woke up Monday morning (Dec. 7, 09) with the determination to get off the OBESE TRAIN. I spent the entire morning researching the Lap Band procedure and my options. I decided to go to a seminar that day at TLCEdge in Plano. So at 4pm I was sitting in the waiting room for Cindy to have my one-on-one consulation. The consultation didn't take long as I had been researching the procedure all morning and pretty much gave the presentation to her.

I left TLC that day knowing LapBand was for me and the time was right. Walking out of TLC I called my mom (Dec. 7, 09) and told her about my decision. Although there was some hesitancy, I could tell she was as happy as I was about my decision. She actually told me she mentioned to my step dad the day before that she was going to have the procedure. I really wanted to keep my support group small and down to the people I knew would actually provide support. To ensure I had support from all angles, I told one person at work (Dec. 9, 09), my sister (Dec. 9, 09) and a friend (Dec. 11, 09).

Although I felt good about my decision, I still couldn't sleep that night. So I sat in bed and re-figured my budget to payoff excess debt and credit card bills. Once I completed my budget, the weight (no pun intended) was lifted and I went right to sleep.

The next morning (Dec. 8, 09) I woke up and although satisifed with my decision of TLCEdge, I still wanted to do more research on other WLS doctors in my area. So I went to a seminar held by the Nicholson Clinic in Plano. The seminar was VERY informative. Dr. Nicholson gave the seminar and did not sugar coat anything. I really appreciated the information given by Dr. Nicholson and I considered switching from TLC to Nicholson, but after handing in my information, I received no calls from their office. When 3 days passed, I decided to continue my journey with TLC as they had really shown me TLC. My Insurance Case Manager at TLC is absolutely wonderful. She informed me of everything I needed and everything I needed to do. She returned my calls promptly and made sure I was taken care of. My initial call to TLC was during lunch time, and I still got through to someone. My initial call to the Nicholson clinic during lunch was not the same experience. I called and was transferred the patient advocacy department only for them to come back and say everyone was at lunch and my call would be returned. It wasn't an issue until it took 3 and 1/2 hours for my call to be returned. Once my call was returned, the woman was not pleasant to speak to.

When I finalized my decision to go with TLC, I faxed my patient information (Dec. 10, 09) and waited for a response. Of course I was impatient and called the next day (Dec. 11, 09) to verify receipt of the documents. I also faxed a request to my former OB/GYN (Dec. 11, 09) to release my medical records to show my weight history.

I got married on December 18, 2009 and my weight loss journey was side tracked. After 2 years of marriage, my husband asked for a divorce. We separated and I saw it as the perfect opportunity to work on me and get this weight off of me. Because he has in the military, I was able to get it covered for free.

I had met with a new surgeon on May 10, 2012 and was approved for surgery with a surgery date of July 18, 2012. The only requirements were a sleep study, blood work, an online course, and a evaluation in the office.

I know having the surgery now is better than having it in 2009 because now I have the support system that is needed to handle something like this.