libbylovesdogs

Throughout my life, I have struggled with my weight. I was always the chubby kid at school, but it didn't become more obvious until I was in junior high. In highschool I was always putting myself on a diet. I played sports and stayed relatively active. I was still 260-280 lbs. While attending college, I tried several diets; Weight Watchers, Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig, Atkins, and I also went on the prescribed weight loss pill, Phentermine.  I would get relatively good results, but they would never last. I would reach my weight loss plateau and just stay stagnant for weeks. The weight always crept back on.In December of 2009, I weighed myself at work just out of curiosity since I couldn't even remember the last time I weighed myself. I weighed 295 pounds. Basically 300 pounds. I was mortified. I went home from work and cried. I knew I was going to die early in life. I knew it. Here I was working as a registered nurse and I knew exactly what my future entailed. To say the least, I was scared. That following January I took care of a patient that had Lap Band surgery. She had lost 80 pounds since getting the surgery nearly a year earlier. I went home and researched for hours about Lap Band.  I put it in the back of my mind for a couple weeks, while that weight of 295 lbs plagued my mind. I called my insurance company to see if bariatric surgery was even covered.  Guess what? Bariatric surgery was not covered unless it was a life or death medical necessity. I was 24 years old with no real health problems....yet. I didnt have diabetes YET, or hypertension YET, or heart failure YET, or sleep apnea YET, but eventually I probably will. This was in January 2010 and I knew the surgery was expensive (especially if I was paying 100%) so I thought "I will think about it for awhile".In June 2010, I decided that I would at least go through the process of being denied by the insurance and have a bariatric consult. After jumping through hoops for months and after gathering as much  "medical necessity" proof that I could, I was denied by the insurance company. At least I expected that to happen.  I sold my fancy car and began preparing myself to make $20,000 loan repayments. I guess it's worth it, since in the end, this surgery will ultimately be saving my life.I had my Lap Band surgery on September 28th, 2010.