shannonlmitchell
I have been overweight my whole life. I am currently 39 years old and I am 5'8 and weigh 294 lbs. July 25,1995 I had a Molina band placed at the age of 25. My most significant weight loss was about 40 lbs and have since gained all of the weight back and got up to my heaviest weight of 310 lbs. I am back down to 294 and exercising and changing my eating habits so that I can do it on my own without a revision surgery. My insurance refused to authorize a revision surgery because on most PPO plans, surgery related to obesity is now considered an Exclusion of your benefits. That means no authorization - even for medical necessity. I have days when I can't keep any solid food down. I have days when ice cream won't even stay down. It's sometimes miserable. I had an upper GI with follow-through done in August of 2008 and was assured that my band was in place and that my stomach has not "eaten" my pouch as Dr. Molina suggested. My surgeon has advised that this Molina band is a nightmare for most patients and has done numerous revision surgeries or just the removal of the Molina band and he stated that one surgery he did it looked like a bomb had went off inside his patient because the scarring from the band placement was so significant. He advised that Dr. Molina did not follow any protocol when doing this surgery, he merely reached into the stomach and grabbed it and placed it wherever he grabbed. Patients that have the Molina band too far up on their stomach have severe complications, not just the regular regurgitation that comes along with eating too fast, emotional eating or eating the wrong foods like bread. I have family member's that had the surgery and two out of four of us did have successful surgeries but all of us have the same exact side effects and they vary in intesity based on the day. I personally can not eat chicken at all - cooked any way. It always comes back up. Whereas my step mother can eat chicken but can't eat beef because of the same effect. My step mother did not ever excercise with her surgery but lost from a 24-26 down to about a size 12-14 now. I started at a 24-26 and now am at a 22-24. My weight did shift....I have a much smaller stomach but my legs and butt got bigger. It was weird. I do not discourage Gastric procedures because of my situation HOWEVER, I have very strong beliefs about gastric surgery and the fact that most people DO just want to take the easy way out. I don't believe that everyone should be able to have the surgery and I believe that in the past....so many dr's lied on requests for authorization for this surgery that it has made it impossible now for the people that really need the surgery to have it because the insurance companies are slowly making it an exclusion on all policies to avoid physician's who list that a patient has tried everything to lose weight when in fact they have not. If you are just lazy, I do not think you should be able to have this surgery as an easy way to lose your weight. If you don't want to exercise, I do not think you should be eligible for this surgery either. You are fat for a reason. You like to eat and hate to exercise. If you want to lose weight, do something about it. You don't have to agree, but, that is my opinon. This surgery should be for real people that are ready to lose the weight and are willing to do whatever it takes. The surgery is hard, its not just a quick fix. You can gain the weight back and you can still eat sugar once you have made yourself accustomed to it and ignore the side effects.
