WendyDTX

I was born into a family with a long history of obesity.  In 2008, I lost my mom prematurely to what was documented as primarily obesity-related illness.  Having been overweight myself since puberty, living the definition of "morbidly obese" for about 20 years, and having hit my all-time-high weight of 357 lbs, I sought surgical intervention after seeing the success of my sister's LapBand procedure.  I received my own LapBand on December 1, 2008.  Following pre-surgical dieting with the aid of prescription Adipex, my weight on the day of surgery was 287.  I stopped taking Adipex that same day as it was causing other health concerns, such as significant interruptions in sleep and elevated blood pressure.  Unfortunately, it would be a while before there was enough saline in my band for me to begin to feel any restriction, and I had gained back around 25 lbs in those first months following surgery. 
 
Once I started to feel restriction from the band, I stopped gaining weight.  Continuing to receive fills for a few more months, I began to slowly lose weight.  My weight dropped down to around 270 lbs by late 2009, when I hit my first plateau.  In addition to eating less, I was also visiting the gym regularly – treadmill-walking, riding stationary bikes, swimming, taking water aerobics classes, and using strength training equipment.
 
I hung at this plateau for quite a long time.  While I wasn't losing weight as I'd hoped, I was at least happy that I was no longer gaining. 
 
Some time later, I started experiencing the side effects of the band being too tight with "night choking" and a vicious return of acid reflux.  The surgeon's office removed some saline from my band to help with this.  With less restriction, I gained back a little weight, but continued to work out and be mindful of my eating habits so as to move forward in my weight loss journey.  I believe a little saline was added back in the following months, but the scale continued to pause in the vicinity of 260-270 lbs.
 
In September of 2012, after months of recurring night choking, the surgeon's office confirmed my band had slipped, and subsequently removed all of the saline from it.  It was during this appointment when the physician's assistant first suggested revision surgery to me, and while I was interested in considering a different option with which I might find more success, I did not further pursue the conversation at that time.  By Christmas of that year, I had gained 40 lbs. 
I continued to struggle with little band-restriction for a few more months while the saline was returned to my band, bit by bit.  With the aid of replenished saline and taking Adipex for a short time, I was able to stop gaining, then start losing again.  By April of 2013, I had finally achieved what was seemingly as close to a "sweet spot" in band-restriction as I would ever have.   It was around this time that my surgeon stopped taking Cigna.  My weight loss success topped out at a low weight of 248 lbs in early January 2014 (the lowest it had been since I was 18 years old).  Along the way, I had injured my shoulder at the gym (which eventually led to surgery to address a torn rotator cuff), so unfortunately, my visits to the gym were replaced by doctor visits and physical therapy for a large part of 2013 and into 2014. 
 
I had hit another plateau, maintaining a weight of 252-255 lbs, until around May of 2014 when I noticed that I was feeling less restriction again, and had gained around 10-15 lbs.  This was when I first suspected there might be a problem with the band, maybe a small saline leak, if that was possible.  I was eventually able to lose most of the weight I'd gained, and along with continuing to walk for exercise and carefully dieting, I was still able to maintain my weight around 254-255 lbs, because I did still have significant restriction from the band.
 
Sadly, what I had discovered was that while the band's restriction had helped me to lose weight very slowly and (more so) kept me from gaining weight, for which I am grateful, I rarely experienced the sensation of being "not hungry".  I struggled with vomiting, almost on a daily basis, for the better part of six years. 
 
It was late September, 2014, when my suspicion of a "small” leak became suspicion of a “major” leak in my band, as ALL feeling of restriction was completely lost, and I'd gained 19 lbs in 10 days.  Following this catastrophic event, I began talking to a friend who had had revision surgery from LapBand to gastric sleeve, as well as other friends who had started their journeys with the gastric sleeve - I wanted to hear about their experiences and inquire if they’d had any regrets – there were none.  I also did hours of research online about gastric sleeve surgery, including watching a full sleeve surgery performed.  It was after all of this research that I reached out to find a new surgeon.  Since then, even with increased dieting and exercise, I am still up around 30 lbs, as I no longer have any tool to help control me from finishing a full meal and/or avoid overeating.  Every day is a huge struggle with hunger as I try not to gain any more weight (and largely failing at it); I feel as if my metabolism is all but "shot" after having had the band drastically shrink my food intake for six years.
 
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This is the appeal letter I wrote to my insurance company following their denial.  They came back and approved my revision surgery, which is scheduled for Feb 16, 2015.