Teresa L. Foster

I have had issues with my weight every since I can remember.  In third grade I can remember crying after stepping on the scales and it read 105 pounds,  105 in third grade!  My family moved every year due to my fathers work as a Master Plumber.  Instead of working away from his family we would just pack up and move to where my dad was working.  So my entire life was spent trying to get to know the new kids and to fit in.  It was very difficult due to me and my entire family being heavy.  My three younger sisters and I were always picked on and called names because of our weight.  When I became a young teenager I took my weight into my own hands and began to hardly eat anything.   I wouldn't eat breakfast and I no longer ate meals at school in Jr. High. at supper time I would have very little to eat.  I spent a lot of time doing sit ups and jumping on the trampoline.  As the weight began to drop off it motivated me all the more to not eat.  At the age of 15yrs. 5'-7" I went from 165 pounds down to 118 pounds.  When I once stepped on the scales and mistakenly read 115 pounds I began to get frightened that I had taken my weight loss to far.  This was just the start of my roller coaster dieting.  As an adult I have lost more than eighty pounds at a time by taking a diet pill callled phentergen, walking seven miles a day, six days a week with an extra 20 pounds on me (5 pounds on each ankle and 5 pounds in each hand).  Of coarse when my goal weight was in sight I would end up pregnant.  Six children later and a lot more weight it was time to do something more permanently.  I was afraid of what the diet pills were doing to my heart.    So begins my journey towards Lap Band.  I have been trying to be approved since 2005-2006.  After my first denial I went back  on the diet pills and lost weight just to put it back on.  After a second appeal to the Ins. Company I fainally was approved June 24, 2009.  Of coarse it has been a long jourrney and I have learned that you are your own advocate!  I called the insurance company and the Insurance Specialist at the surgons office numerous times.  I feel a lot of the delays were due to the Insurance Specialist at the surgons office.  I feel like she dropped my case and wasn't at all aggressive.  Even after my letter of approval, I had to call her and the Ins. Co. on a weekly basis Due to surgons office not receiving exactly what they needed.  I litterally called her every week to see if I could be scheduled for surgery yet and to see what I could do to speed the process up.  Her response was no because she needed more info from ins co with specific codes and so on.  I would call the Ins. Co. and they would say that I was approved for the correct code and procedure and if my surgons office was requesting more info then they needed to call.  I spent a lot of time on the phone back and forth with the surgons office and the Ins. Co.  It always came down to the Ins. Co. needing the surgons office to call and request information, NOT me requesting information on part of the surgons office.  I don't feel that the Ins. Specialist at the surgons office did her job very well.  Like I said I learned that you are your own advocate.  Keep after the Insurance Specialist and the Ins. Co.