Rich person's surgery?

I'm sorta frustrated since I'm on a limited income. I want the DS, but it seems it's a surgery tailored to only people with lots of money.

Some could say this about obesity surgery in general though, with the hassle of getting insurnace to cover it.

The good thing is now Medicare and many Medicaid programs do cover it.

But that doesn't mean a person of limited means can have the DS. First, you usually have to travel to find an experienced surgeon. Some of these won't take Medicare or Medicaid so your pool is further limited.

The ONLY way I can afford to have mine is to have it in Topeka where my mother lives--the DS surgeons in Colorado are particularly greedy and don't take poorer people's insurance--only insurances that pay them at a premium. The Topeka surgeons seem to be just starting to do the DS, although they are experienced in other surgeries and revisions with good stats--the DS experience simply isn't there yet. It's a scary situation for me. But I don't have the money to buy experience. Medical care shouldn't depend onone's amount of money--but this is America and it's all about the money.

There is controversy about the Medicare Advantage programs. I'm enrolled in one. More providers take it because it pays at the higher Blue Cross Blue shield rate than the lower Medicare rate. This is a freebie giveaway to the health providers from the government because the care isn't any different despite the increased cost. But Bush and his cronies are all about government welfare and handouts for rich corporations and the wealthy. Hopefully, Obama will cut this waste out and mandate that providers take care of sick people for reasonable payment as other civilized countries do.

We should start calling it what it is--greed. Medical professionals should be able to make a good living, but not to be greedy. Greed doesn't go well with caring for patients.

As it is now the DS is an operation for people with the resources to afford it...hopefully one day it will be an operation for those who need it, regardless of their resources.

My decision to have the DS

I decided to have weight loss surgery in the middle of October 2008.  I've tried to lose weight every other way a person can and failed over and over.  My body wars with me.  


Living in this culture of plenty, my body demands to be fat.  My mind cannot overcome it, I've tried.  It's like going without water when you're thirsty and surrounded by drink.  There's no comparison with quitting smoking.  I did that 22 years ago with no sweat in comparison with dieting.     


Both my parents are obese, both have diabetes and hypertension and so do I, in addition to the other maladies my parents suffer, arthritis and sleep apnea.  I had my daughter at 37 years.  If I want to see and enjoy my grandchildren, I need to do something now.    


 That something is weight loss surgery.  It is the only thing that works.  Even if I accomplished the monumental feat of losing weight, I doubt if I could battle with my body for the rest of my life to keep it off.  It would be miserable.  There's a reason there is only a 2% long term success rate losing any significant amount of weight.     


It will not be my first time to dance with the knife.  I'd had a stomach staple in the early 80s that completely failed.  Then I had a vertical banded gastroplasty.    This was the only time in my life I was a normal weight outside of my teenage years.  


Being a normal weight is the only reason I was able to marry and have a child.  Six years after my bypass, I went to the doctor to see about the constant vomiting and heartburn.  He put down a scope and dilated my stoma.  After that I could eat anything and I rapidly regained the weight.   


It's 14 years later and I'm again morbidly obese with co-morbidities, diabetes, hypertension, arthritis and now sleep apnea with a CPAP.  I have disability and a Medicare Advantage program.  Medicare will pay for most weight loss surgeries.   


So here I go again.