July 2006

243lbs

Went to a neurologist to discuss my Meralgia parenthetica and see if he would write a letter to Bc/Bs to get them to cover Lap Band Surgery for me. My insurance – Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota – will cover the band if your BMI is above 40 for 3-5 years or if your BMI is between 35-40 for one year and have two co-morbidities. My BMI had just reached 40 so I wasn’t sure if they would cover it. After a LONG process and many letters from a number of Doctors, the pre-authorization was denied. My Doctors office called Bc/Bs and filed an appeal on the decision. That was denied. I went to another Dr. and received another letter recommending weight loss and filed an appeal with that documentation, again denied.

I had become very frustrated and not sure of what the next move should be. During my researching the band I had seen many websites on having the surgery in Mexico. I began to research the different Dr.’s in Mexico. One Dr. was in Tijuana, when I talked to my sister who leaves in CA about that Dr, she said she wouldn’t allow me to get a t-shirt in Mexico, much less SURGERY! HA HA. So that left Monterrey and Mexicali. The Dr. in Monterrey cost as much as having the surgery here in North Dakota. So I began to aggressively research Dr. Aceves.