mami2two

Thank you all for your advice.... unfortunately with the rules of obamacare I can not drop my group insurance for obamacare because group insurance is offered to me and I am a salary employee. I even attempted to try and change my pay scale from being a salary employee to a contract employee so that I could then get obamacare, but it would highly put my job at risk, a risk I'm not willing to take. I will be going to my doctor and talking to him about it to see if he can submit it to the insurance company and see if that will make a difference even though they say no. Wish me luck, I will update everyone as I figure it all out.

I have BCBS FL and my insurance shot me down from the start. I spoke with Customer Service, HR at my work, and our rep from BCBS and it all comes down to, if this surgery was the only thing that could save me from death.... they would still deny me. I was told I could appeal it but my rep has never seen someone get approved since they recently changed to the NO EXCEPTION rule.

I was really excited to begin the process of having the sleeve surgery and decided to quit smoking immediately so that it would not hinder my ability to have the surgery.... unfortunately I have now found out my insurance won't pay and it's a no go, but the reality is that this surgery is waaaay more important than a puff of a cigarette. I do have a no nicotine e cig that I utilize every once and a while. It is my understanding that the reason you can't be a smoker and get the sleeve is because when you receive your sleeve they cut through blood vessels in your stomach causing you to have less of a supply going to the stomach which does not cause you issue but smoking slows the blood supply going through the vessels and therefore it could then cause stress on your new stomach. I wish you the best of luck in your quitting... it's so worth it to quit but I completely understand how difficult it is.

I have been researching the sleeve with serious intent and excitedly for the past few weeks. I had come to the decision that I definitely wanted to do the surgery.... signed up for a information seminar and called my insurance (as the seminar instructions told me to do). It is to my dismay that my insurance company doesn't cover any gastric surgery. I reached out to customer service who said it is a no go... then I talked to Human Resource who referred me to contact my companies rep and he reached out to the BCBS rep who stated that I could basically be laying on my death bed and that if this was the only surgery that could save my life, the insurance company still probably wouldn't cover it. There is no way that I can afford to pay out of pocket for this as I am a single mother with 2 kids to support. I am feeling very frustrated, I don't understand all the ins and outs of insurance, but I find it highly unfair that I pay to have insurance and can not utilize that insurance to benefit my health.

This was awesome, I watched the video and it really did answer alot of my questions. Thank you for sharing it with me.

Thank you soooo much to all of you that took the time out to reply to my post, I know time is precious and I appreciate all of you sharing some of your time to help me out. Everyones advice has been wonderful and I feel like I already have a little bit better of an understanding of it all. I was not aware of any information groups, but I will definitely be looking into them Someone also mentioned that she actually found the doctor she had for her surgery at the information session she went to which is so awesome, I really want to make sure I'm picking a good doctor. Just for clarification, I don't intend on eating a bunch of stuff that's bad for me after the surgery if I choose to have it. LOL. I think I may have worded that wrongly, but I just wanted to have a true understanding that if I wanted to take a taste of something in extreme moderation, if I would be sick after it or what that looked like. The tip about the froth and it causing gas by putting ice in Protein shakes was an awesome tip, I had never even thought of that honestly. It sounds like most everything is just by a surgeon to surgeon or person to person basis and that is fair enough, I can completely accept that every surgeon has different rules and that everyones bodies respond differently to things. Again I thank you all for taking the time, for you help and for you support, I appreciate it greatly.

I have contemplated the idea of the sleeve for a very long time and have recently taken a very serious look at it. I am 273 pounds which is the biggest I've ever been, it seem that every time I lose weight I gain it back plus some extra to boot. I have 2 young boys and constantly find it hard to keep up with them and it's breaking my heart. I would like to do something for me now that will help me be a better me... for them. This is something that is very new though, I haven't even talked to my doctor about a referral to see if I qualify for the surgery, I just assume that I would and hope that my insurance will approve me. I have read different reviews on the sleeve, looked at youtube videos, read varies blogs and looked up the procedure, qualifications and complication, but still feel like there is so much that I don't know about what happens after the surgery. I am hoping that some of you may be able to help with that understanding so here goes my questions. Will I have to be on multiple different Vitamins for the rest of my life after the surgery? Is acid reflux something that is going to be a problem for the rest of my life after the surgery? (it seems practically everyone who has gotten the surgery claims of acid reflux problems) How long are you on a liquid only diet and what comes after the liquid diet and how long does that last? Will I have to drink Protein shakes for the rest of my life after surgery or will I be able to gain my protein through food? Can I add ice to my Protein Shakes post op? Will I ever be able to have little bites of something delicious such as sugars or simple carbs or am I giving those up for the rest of my life? I would greatly appreciate any advice that anyone could give.