New to board hello

Hello my name is John I am new to the board.  I have had struggles with my weight pretty much all my life.  I currently weigh about 275 and have been at as low as 200 and as high as 298.  My bmi is about 38.  I have been reseaching the lap band.  I have harvard pilgrim.  I am heading to two meetings on tuesday and thursday.  (lowell and salem hospitals programs)  The women I talked with at salem said depression can get an approval if your bmi is over 35.(My choleserol is a little high also)  I am new to this and my main goal now is to go through the programs and hopefully  get the procedure approved by ins.  Any sugestions or input that can help me out would be greatly appreciated.

John

Good luck with your journey and come back to this board often - it really is a great source of support.

Hi John,
Welcome.   I just wanted to wish you well with your journey.  Ask all the questions you can think of ....People on this board are helpful!   ginny 

Hi John,

Welcome to the board.  I had my surgery in December at Salem Hospital.  They have a good program there.  Dr Buckley was my surgeon and he is great!
If you have co-morbities and a BMI over 35 they consider you a candidate for surgery.  I had a BMI of 39 and co morbitites and I  had no problem getting approved.  Insurance companies are different though.  I would also just check with the insurance company and find out what their requirements are.  I had to do a 6 month medically supervised diet before they would consider me for surgery, even though the surgeon thought that I was a candidate for they surgery. 

Good luck and let me know if you have questions about the Salem program

Sue

Welcome John!
I checked out the Lowell program and found it to be wonderful.  Due to insurance reasons I had to go with Newton-Wellesley (which I also loved), but I know a lot of people really pleased with their experience at Lowell.

Ask anything you want here, on the lap-band board and on the RNY board - you'll learn about the the pros and cons of each, plus your surgeon will tell you what they think is best for you too!

Sue