Help Please

I have my final appointment before my surgery will submit my claim to the insurance. I'm so nervous. I have lost 22 lbs from my highest weight but only 2 lbs in the last month. I know he said that i was only required to not gain any weight. i have been so paraniod of gaining weight that i have completely changed the way i eat. i cut out all sodas, stopped eating bread. and cut my calories to  1200 a day. but in the last month i have been so discouraged. i dont know why. i feel like the insurance is going to find a reason to deny me. Like there is no way that something this good could possibly happen to me. 

does anyone have an recommendations for me? i need something to get my mind right. i feel like i'm going nuts. a blog a video anything i can watch to calm my nerves. 

Hi there!  Congrats on your weight loss and all of the adjustments you've made!  It's not an easy thing.  In 2011 I began the process to have WLS but my insurance at the time required me to lose 5% of my body weight to gain approval.  I never was able to do it and a year later my employer dropped coverage for WLS.  This was very difficult to accept and I felt pretty hopeless for a while. 

Five years later a new job and new insurance presented a renewed opportunity to try again.  In the beginning I told myself not to get my hopes up because of what happened before.  With each appointment and each month that went by I worked towards insurance approval and a healthier lifestyle.  Even after I scheduled my surgery I couldn't help but think that something would happen and it would all fall apart.  I just wouldn't allow myself to get excited about it because I didn't want to be disappointed.

BUT, surgery DID happen and sometimes I still can't believe it!  

I'm telling you this not for you to have the same attitude, but to remember to be grateful for where you are at right now.  Not everyone gets the chance and not everyone can make the changes you made pre-surgery.  Regardless of the outcome, you can appeal a negative decision from the insurance company and at the least, you can continue with these healthy changes you've made. 

Keep doing what you're doing.  You have done your part and no one can tell you different!  Be proud of what you've accomplished and take every challenge as it comes.  Please keep us informed on the outcome!  I wish you the best!

It's going to happen.  Have faith!!

-Mia

I felt the same way, 100% the same.

In fact, I was so sure that it couldn't happen to me--that it was too good a thing to happen to me, no matter how much I worked to get it--even the morning of the surgery, that evil little voice inside my head convinced me that there was still a way that the Universe could still keep this wonderful thing from ever happening to me: for me not to make it off the table.

I was pretty sure that the surgery was going to kill me, right up until they put me under.

I think that when we become/are morbidly obese, we get so used to disappointment that it becomes hardwired, and something that we have to actively fight against in our own minds. Yes, the world is going to throw obstacles in your path, but the thing is to not let it derail you. Not to let it make you feel that the whole thing is Hopeless, so why try anyway?

Stay on it. Be kind to yourself. You don't have to have a path free of obstacles, you just have to overcome the obstacles. Cultivate your stubbornness so you can be more stubborn than your path, more stubborn than your obstacles. If you get derailed, get back on track again as many times as it takes.

I made it through surgery. I actually had some hideous complications afterward, but the only way out this is through, and to be more stubborn than your obstacles!

Currently, I've discovered that even after surgery, I'm a slow loser. It's another obstacles, and one that has been driving me nuts, but? I'm more stubborn than this obstacle. When that evil little voice in my head tries to derail me, I come here and flail about on the boards like a drunken orangutan until someone talks me down... and I put my head back down and plod forward.

Coming here is good. You're not crazy, it's part of the process. Cultivate your stubbornness.

xx

I'll share my experience for what it is worth.

I decided one day, when I weighed in at 420 lbs, that I could NOT continue down the road I was on or I was going to die. So, I set a goal. Lose weight and get healthy. Pretty simplistic but, that was my goal. That same day, as I sat and tried to research how to do that, I discovered weight loss surgery. (like I had literally lived in denial my whole life so WLS never crossed my mind before that day).

A couple days later I started the long process to having WLS. BUT never was I under the impression that my goal was to have surgery. My eyes were always focused on losing weight and getting healthy, and I was looking at surgery as a tool to get there. This somehow produced less anxiety for me about getting approved. Sure I had some but it didn't take over. In fact, I had some medical issues arise as part of my pre op testing (a heart condition) that could have derailed my surgery but for a great cardiologist who eventually approved me. Even when looking at that possibility of not being able to have surgery, I never lose sight of the bigger picture - that I needed to lose weight.

Yes, I would have been crushed had I not had surgery and my life would probably be drastically different today, but I didn't dwell on the what ifs. All we are guaranteed is TODAY. What can we do today to meet our goals and move forward. Don't regret yesterday or dream or dread tomorrow.

I know probably not what you wanted to hear but I have no idea whether you will be approved. Just know its not the end of the road if you do. Ive seen so many people get denied and go on to gain 100 lbs. You may have to travel a different path but you don't have to give up if you are denied.

But sending tons of good vibes your way and praying for an approval soon!

If your insurance covers WLS, then as long as you meet the criteria, then they'll cover it.  They might insist on additional documentation or something (mine did...), but as long as it's a covered service and you meet all the requirements, they have no reason not to cover it.

Thank you all so much for the encouraging words. It does  help. It just gets so hard to keep your head up when things around you are pushing you down. Ill just have to take a breath and be stronger. Ugh.  I do just wanna give up but I know I can't and won't. 

Thanks again. I think ill just keep reading these reply a few hundred more times. Lol