I am a Bandster! I just got home yesterday from Mx. It was very different, but a good experience! Dr Kuri was great and I am doing good a little sore. Has any one heard of a support group in Wichita? Kelli

I had lap band on 12/14/05 and had to have it removed 11/7/06. It had grown into my stomach wall. I actually started experiencing pain in April of 2006 - horrible pain but my surgeon would not listen to me. The weight loss is really slow. I never felt the resistance they talk about. I contracted a super-bug staph infection known as MRSA when I had it removed and almost died. Ambulance rides, 20 day stays in the hospital, thousands of dollars worth of new debt...I paid $15,000 to have the stupid thing put in to begin with because my insurance would not cover it. Do i regret having it??? YES - I am the poster woman for DO NOT HAVE THE LAPBAND!!!!

We have a state BCBS plan... any hope of getting around a denial?

Apology accepted. Sometimes I get kind of touchy I guess. As far as the medical field goes, I'm not trying to scream the aliens are coming or anything like that. It's just how people on these boards and everywhere really say how doctors are miracle workers sent by God ect... The truth is that they are far from it. It's not just insurance companies either. Do you know who makes the decisions about what is a fair price that insurers should pay? Doctors. A board of doctors. Do the employees at your place of work decide what their pay is? Congress passed a law years ago that says that if you show up in an ER dieing, the doctors there must help you whether you can pay or not. That's because doctors were throwing dieing patients out the door because they had no insurance and couldn't pay. People who have Medicare are finding it harder and harder to get medical help because doctors and hospitals can make more money treating patients with private insurance. The medical field, hospitals and doctors alike are a business. Just like AT&T. They aren't concerned for you they're concerned about the bottom line. Sometimes it's cheaper to settle a few law suits for people that were harmed then it is to pay to do it right for everybody. I just think people should see this and protect themselves. I'm not trying to be a fanatic here. I just don't want people to be hurt by a system that legally allows it.

I am sorry you thought I was being condesending. That is not how I was coming across. So, I apologize if you felt that I was. I had my gall bladder out and I was home within hours as well. Whom I was talking about "they" was the hospital staff. I know how you feel about the insurance companies. I have read your post on here from prior items. However, being in the medical field, I can tell you that if you did not meet requirements to go home, "they" the hospital staff would not have sent you home. A patient has to meet certain requirements before the staff can release you. If you meet the requirements then yes the staff sends you home because of the insurance companies. I don't believe that everyone should be sent home the same day, but it is happening more often then not. I work in a field that you would not believe some of the patients we have to send home. I understand totally what you are saying. It is not right and it is certainly unfair. But we don't have the control. The insurance has that control and it is not just an insurance issue, it is also a governmental issue as well. I can tell you stories about insurance and the crap that they pull. So I know and understand what you are saying. I do understand. My husband had his eye removed a few years ago. The whole eye was taken out and he was sent home the same day. I work in an office where some of the patients we deal with have neck surgery and back surgery and some of the insurance companies make those surgeries out-patient. I know what you are saying and where you are coming from. I am sorry that you took my words the wrong way. It was not meant like that. I wish you luck and a speedy recovery....