My Fight!

Well, after 2 1/2 years of fighting the insurance and jumping through hoops, I am finally approved for surgery - April 18th - my youngest son's birthday and my oldest son's first track meet. Whew what a day for my family. I am a little nervous about having this surgery. But, my husband says after me having three back surgeries in less than a month that I can handle this little surgery. I have always been heavy and I am looking forward to getting down to my highschool weight - 150. My husband- my biggest supporter says he will be happy with my date weight - 180. I weight 325 or I did two weeks ago. I have to loose down to 299 before my dr. will do my surgery...I have 10 more pounds to go. I began the insurance process November, 2003; right after having my third back surgery. My first insurance said I was heavy enough to have it, but didn't have enough health problems....HELLO....three back surgerys, high blood pressure, oviarian cysts don't count for health issues. I appealed, got denied again. Was looking for an attorney, when my husband's work changed insurance companies, that was July 2004. Well, once again I applied for surgery. This company also denied me. I appealed, and went to a hearing before the review board and even after that they denied me because I had not had a year's worth of doctor supervised weight loss. So that was in February of 2005. Just two weeks ago my husband called me and said he had a really big surprise for me when I got home. I thought it was another Boston puppy...not. When I walked in the door he was so excited for me to read the letter. I was not overly excited...not like him. I guess after that long of a battle I was emotionaly drained on the subject. I will let you all know how things progress. I wish the best to all of you and good luck to those who are still struggling with insurance companies. Do not give up the fight!!!!!!

hi candy, wow...so happy for you that you are finally getting your surgery. good luck to you. i also have had back surgeries (4) and need another one with insertion of a rod to stabalize my lumbar spine. what kind of surgeries did you have? were they successful? i hope so. i am just starting the process of getting surgery. did you have a lap band surgery or the other surgery? any help is appreciated. ty sharon

My first back surgery was September 23rd of 2003 and it was a Lamindectomy (where they just clean up the bulge around the disc) and only four small wholes in my back. Well, that lasted all of one week and I began to have the same symptoms as before the surgery. I was admitted into the hospital for another MRI and was getting ready to go have it when my back litterly blew chunks. My disc just exploded in my back. I was in so much pain that the nurse when giving me medication for pain, her hand wa shaking because she had already given me enough to put an elephant down. She was so afraid I would stop breathing because of all the meds she was giving me. That led to surgery number two. They went (a medium incision) and put two plates with four screws, a cage and a cadavor hip slice as my disc and then a graph from my hip. The doctor did not suture me and I am a big lady (SOON TO BE SMALL ) and when I moved around it opened up the incision. So that led to surgery number 3. I had a really bad infection in there and they had to open me back up all the way down to the hardware they had installed. Praise God, it was just mainly on the surface because had it been any further, they would have to leave the wound open and put antibiotic beads in there every three days until it had healed. This time the dr stitched me up with stuff that felt like guitar string and I had to have it in for two months. My back now looks like a railroad track. I still have problems with my back and have two more discs that need surgery, but I have learned to live with the pain and hopefully will not have to have any more back surgeries after have gastric bypass. I am going to have RNY surgery laproscopically. I can't wait. Good luck with your bac****il someone has walked in our shoes they really don't understand the pain and emotional strain it is on us. Keep up the fight for the gastric surgery. Had they denied me this time, we were going to contact an attorney and seek damages back to the first denial in Nov. 2003.

Congrats Candy, Welcome to the april board and I am so encouraged by your words you never gave up and that is a wonderful thing.....best of luck to you and know that we are here for you we all are going to be going through this together...... Hugs Lisa

Congrats on getting a date, Candy! We are on the same day so I'll be thinking of you! Lisa L.

Congratulations, Candy!! and good luck with losing the required amount of weight for your surgery! I'm sure you will do it. You seem to have such determination with everything you've been through. I don't have insurance.. which I don't know if that's a blessing in all of this or not. But I guess I'm grateful that I've not had to fight the red-tape that so many others do. I'll just have a monthly payment the size of my car payment but it's going to be soooo worth it. I've got major back issues as well. And even though I would not have the surgery, a surgeon told me two years ago they would never operate on my back as heavy as I am. So I've been living with the pain. Some of my back problems will not get better without surgery but I'm hopeful some of them WILL after getting 160 excess pounds off of this bod . I wish you all the best with your surgery and recovery. And I'm glad you have such great support from your hubby!