Markrb
My battle with my weight began at a very early age and for as long as I can remember I have been obese to morbidly obese. I've tried just about every diet that I could find, from weight watchers, Atkins, or just sensible eating and exercise.
At my highest weight I was 312 pounds about 5 years ago, but much of the time my weight has fluctuated between 250 - 290 lbs, depending on how my self control is working at the time. For the past 10+ years, execise has become a big part of my life and I have been able to keep that going even when the diet is going that well.
In February, after contining to exercising on a very regular basis, but still being at the upper end of my weight range, I decided to look into the lap band procedure. I went to an informational session and my fiancé went along with me for support. As it turned out, she found that she was right on the edge of being at a 40 BMI to qualify for surgery, as was I. We both made appointments and went on a 2 week food bender to be sure we'd qualify, it wasn't as much fun as expected and we both ended up feeling gross.
Her insurance had no problems covering the procedure (BCBS MA), however my insurance (Cigna) was a huge pain and required a 6 month supervised diet, which I completed. The folks at my surgeons office weren't very confident in getting approval from Cigna, and said they were a real pain in the butt to deal with. Since my company offers Harvard Pilgrim, which is very quick to approve the band surgery, I decided to wait until open enrollment and switch insurance. I am still hopeful that I can have the surgery at the beginning of the year.
I have gone from 292 to 242 since February and feel like I will benifit long term from the band, however, want to be sure it's right for me before I go forward with the surgery. I'm about 70lbs from my goal weight and can't seem to lose more without extremely low food intake.
I'm hoping to spend the rest of this year looking for support on this board and coming to my final decision.
