SoCalBella
I am 22 years old and from Los Angeles, California. Like many people here I have been battling with weight problems my whole life and by whole life I mean WHOLE LIFE. I was 12 pounds at birth! Obviously things only got worse. As a child and as an adult I tried everything to lose weight. During these attempts to lose weight I always had my family's support. Especially my mother and sister. They provided me with anything I needed during these attemps to lose weight. This included money, rides, and just general support. This support continues as I go along in this weight loss surgery journey.
I began looking into weight loss surgery in 2002 when I was 18 and had just graduated high school. I had planned to have surgery and begin college as a new person. I did a little research and made an appointment at Cedars Sinai Medical Center. All my hopes of being a new person in college were destroyed when I as told my insurance did not cover such a procedure. I sadly moved on and continued with my life. Of course I tried to lose weight and ended up gaining more than I had lost.
After this I was scared of weight loss surgery. Deadly afraid. I had heard horrible horror stories. I could not believe that I had ever even thought about doing such a thing to myself.
In 2005 I found out that a friend of mine was having surgery. I was kind of excited since I had never met anyone who had weight loss surgery. He had surgery in January of 2006. I was able to ask him questions and find out a lot more. At this point I was still scared of surgery but I was not considering have it.
After being unemployed for 6 months I gained about an additional 50 pounds. Once this happened I began to noticed that I could no longer do things that I used to. My weight was affecting my everyday life. I couldn't stand or walk for as long as I used to and I was out of breath a lot sooner than before. This really hit me one day when I was on vacation in Las Vegas with a friend and my boyfriend. I realized I was spoiling everyones fun because I was tired and my feet were hurting. They were very understanding but it still hurt to know that I couldn't do normal activities.
I decided to look into gastric bypass once again. In November I starts reading books and doing research. I found a paper from my insurance company that said surgery was covered at centers of expertise. This let me know that this time I maybe had a chance. I called my insurance company and asked for center of expertise in my area. The list included Cedar Sinai medical Center. This made me very happy since this was the hospital I went to the first time I researched weight loss surgery and where my friend had his surgery. I knew this was a great hospital, I had only heard great things about Cedars.
I made an appointment. Dr. Khalili let me know that i was a great candidate for lap gastirc bypass. I obviously met the weight requirments and I am young and healthy. (besides the weight) I began with my pre-op work. In February of this year Dr. Khalili's office sent in authorization for my surgery and suprisingly I recieved an approval within a couple of days. Now all I needed was another upper G.I. to make sure my ulcers had cleared up with the medicine I had been taking. I had my upper G.I. on March 20. On March 28 I recived a phone call from the scheduler and we came to an ageement on April 12 which was only 2 weeks away. So here I am waiting for that day to come.
