Med1862

Hello every one, my name is Kevin and I'm new to this site and my surgery will be September 11th, 2013. I will give you a little background on myself. I'm 41 years and married and together we have 5 children ages 7 - 18 and we live in Wisconsin. I have been overweight my entire life, I have never experienced what if feels like to be "skinny" nor do I ever expect too. As an adult and getting heavier, weight has always been an issue. I worked as an active paramedic for over twenty years now and love EMS. I currently work in a small rural hospital as the ER & Trauma Coordinator and I'm also the Director of Informatics for our electronic health record. In my "spare" time, I also teach EMS for one of the technical colleges and I'm going back to school myself. Being overweight makes everything so much more difficult and now that I'm over 40, I must get healthier if I want to survive and enjoy the second half of my life. At my heaviest weight I weighed approximately 435lbs and this was back in approximately 2004. I looked into bariatric surgery then and jumped through all of the hoops only to be denied by my insurance company 2 times and could not get the surgery. I was at the end of my rope and need to make a change so I tried the low carb diet which actually was a life saver for me. Over the next year I had lost over 140lbs and was feeling so much better, but as soon as I got off track and didn't stay committed, I started to regain the weight. I gained about 100lbs back. a few years later I went back to low carb and lost another 150 lbs and again feeling better until life happens and I lose focus. I again gained over 100 lbs back. Currently I weigh about 350lbs. My current job switched insurance companies about 2 years ago and they did have a benefit for bariatric surgery so for the past year I have been going through the process to get approved. I started in September of 2012 and now my surgery is about three weeks away, its very hard to believe. My insurance company denied me the first time because 2-3 years ago when I had lost some weight my BMI was 39.9% and it needed to be 40% since I really didn't have many other health issues. I was so devastated and pissed off, but I kept going and had more testing so I could get diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea. Then upon resubmittal, they approved me. I have to say I HATE THE CPAP MACHINE!!! I'm looking to put all of the struggles behind me and move forward. I really need this surgery as my tool to a healthier and hopefully much happier me. This looks like a great site and I love reading every ones stories and experiences, I have already learned many valuable things on here. I start my pre-op diet on Aug. 28th and have all of my pre-op physical and testing on September 3rd, Its coming so close. There is one thing I have to do and that is to tell the rest of my family about the surgery. Only my wife and a best friend knew I was going down this journey and I didn't want to say anything until I knew it was approved. I need to tell my children I'm having surgery along with my parents. This has been a very private and personal thing for me and I'm not sharing with everyone. I just want to have the surgery without any fuss from anyone. Well that's my story in a nutshell. Thanks for having me here and I look forward to getting to know many of you. Feel free to contact me anytime. Kevin