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greetings from oklahoma

mac2000

New Member
Hello. I am new to this site. I have been trying to have bariatric surgery since 2006. You would think with as much health problems as I have they would have scheduled it right away, but my heart is not healthy and they said I would have to loose 20% of my weight before surgery. Now here I am 5 years later and 90 lbs thinner, but am stuck and can't get past the 300 mark on my scale. I am now ready to retry looking into surgery and hopefully can find insurance that will cover it and someone who is willing to give me a gastric sleeve.
 
Hey Mac, I'm new here too and in the same state. I used Bariatric Solutions out of Texas. I didn't have insurance so I financed my surgery through Care Credit. The interest rates were high but I got the surgery and I've lost over a 100 pounds...
 
TBUB and MAC-welcome to the forum. Please come back often to share your experience. Like MAC I am still pre-surgical. Similarly, I began my research about weight loss surgery over 5 years ago. My insurance back then wouldn't cover anything related to weight loss. I became disabled enough to be eligible for social security disability and after 18 months of being on SSD I became eligible for medicare insurance. Although being bummed out about the whole disability thing I feel blessed with now having insurance that will cover the majority of my surgery. MAC, my heart goes out to you and your quest to become a healthier person. Just move forward a day at a time, find a surgeon and start your journey. Maybe we can compare post-surgical progress here on this forum. Best of luck to you.
 
I have many health problems but the one that is the most concerning is my heart. They are afraid to put me under. But since I had contact with the San Francisco Drs. I have had to have surgery and did fine under general anaesthesia. My sister had the switch and sometimes has trouble with the bypass part. I thought it would be easiest on my heart to do the sleeve and depending on how well it works, I may do the switch when my heart is healthier. My heart is enlarged, I have a pacemaker/defibrilator, and I go in and out of atrial fib regularly. My ejection fraction is 20-25%. It is complicated by congestive heart failure, recent bouts of passing out and getting shocked while blacked out, and many other health problems. Don't you think that is the right choice?
 
Hey TBUB. I do have a little money saved up but would like to not have to use it for the surgery. Would rather save it for cosmetic surgery after :) But the weight loss is the important thing so if the insurance falls through, the money is there. And I am right near the Texas border. I might check into bariatric solutions out of Texas. Thanks. And good luck to you!
 
MAC-the bariatric surgeon will tell you which surgery is best for you. Usually the D-switch is for ppl with extreme amounts of weight to lose and the sleeve is for ppl with much less to lose. There are complications with the D-switch as your sister can speak to. It usually requires additional surgeries to do repairs. In addition to the bariatric surgeon I will be using, I have a friend who is a general surgeon. She agrees that the RNY is the way to go for myself. I wanted to have the sleeve too but the surgeon said I would have better results with the RNY. What appealed to me about the sleeve was there isn't any dumping like the RNY but I want results so it's RNY for me.

MAC-I felt compelled to edit this post. I should have said the surgeon will tell you which surgery is best for you once you tell him / her which choices you prefer. Unless your choices are totally "wrong" for your weight loss needs and lifestyle the surgeon should work within your choices.
 
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