How do you get Out of Country surgery paid for in BC?

Until a few months ago, I would not have considered WLS. I had stabilized at between 225 and 240 for the last 10 years and was exercising regularly for the past 3 or 4 years at Curves. As a hypothyroid girl, I had accepted that losing weight just wasn't going to happen for me. With exercise, my aches and pains went away and I felt pretty good. After some personal disappointments, I started skipping exercise, then recently got back into it at our office gym, using the elliptical trainer. I really have learned to love exercise. For my efforts, I suffered a stress fracture of the navicular bone in my left foot, I imagine because I am just too darn heavy to use that machine. Now I'm really out of commission, gaining weight for the first time in 10 years and have not felt this demoralized for a very long time. I have also recently developed high cholesterol, and am also in the process of having some recent disturbing heart irregularities checked out. At 46, it's time ramp up the efforts and be more pro-active and after a friend went through it, I'm considering WLS as a preventive tool to deal with these serious health issues that I seem to be developing. I'm afraid to tell my family of these developing conditions, because of course they'll tell me to just go on a diet (we all know where that leads) and I'll become even more of the focus of their worry and concern. I'm very disturbed by the fact that getting WLS treatment is so difficult in BC. I can't afford to pay for this on my own - we're blue collar - and I don't think I can wait 5 years. What if I have a heart condition that has to be treated NOW? What if I can't get my cholesterol under control? I am also pre-diabetic (was hypoglycemic in my teens) and staying away from sugar is my absolute worse issue. I lo-carbed for a few years and felt great, but couldn't keep going with it long-term indefinitely. My appetite is large, although binge-eating is a thing of the past. Does anyone know the steps for applying for surgery in Seattle and getting it paid for? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Please email me at [email protected] Carolyn aka Hollycat

Hi there my name is Elisa and I'm trying to get out of country also. I'm starting to realize that this is also a long hard process. There are many things that are required of you to have like certain comorbidities and high BMI. I'm still waiting for an appointment with a specialist to see if i even can get someone to sign my application. But there are some very nice ladies on this site that have had the surgery ooc and they have lot's of info and i'm sure can help you. So keep smiling and good luck to you and if you read all the messages on this board you will learn lot's. Take care Elisa.

Dear Carolyn and Elisa, My name is Sim White and I was the first person to get out of country to go to Virginia Mason in Seattle from Vancouver where I had WLS last June with Dr. Hunter. It is best to email me and I could send you some documents and talk to you as it is a little difficult to explain over email. After I went there has been a few of us that got the approval and went down to the same place. There is an arrangement made between MSP and Virginia Mason to do the WLS at the reduced cost. I am leaving next Friday for Europe for 6 weeks so you want to chat before then give me a call. There is an out of country application that has to be filled out. I can not attach it here as it won't work and also I would like to email you some stuff to look over. You have to have at least a 50 BMI to qualify and co-morbidities such as sleep apnea and or diabetes for them to consider you. You need to have the pre-op tests done and send them in with a letter explaining why you want to go out of country. There are doctors that will sign the out of country application to send to MSP but they have to be specialists. It would be much easier and quicker to go over it over the phone then try and type out a 2-3 page explanation. Your gp can not fill out the application. I hope that helps and this all makes sense. Cheers, Sim 65 inches gone since June 26/07 RNY June 26, 2007 Seattle, WA- Dr. Hunter-Virginia Mason Hospital, HW 323 lbs; SW 313 lbs; CW 180 lbs, GW around 150 lbs