Re: medical records/history

[Guest guest]

Darla, it sounds like you have sleep apnea too. Which can be very dangerous.

Check out www.sleephelpusa.com Their site is almost all the way up now and

has some good info. However, if you can get it diagnosed properly, it is a

" good " thing to have as a co morbidity. It will help you get approved. But

please get it checked out.

medical records/history

> I am looking into having a wls, and am wondering just how much

> medical necessity I need to have? I have high blood pressure, under

> fair control with medication. I have horrible back pain, which I

> gave up on getting treated when I gained my weight back from the

> fen/phen diet. I am miserable and always tired, can't drive home

> from work without running off the road falling asleep at the wheel.

> I could sleep 24 hrs. a day I think, I'm never really rested, my

> back, and my snoring wake me all night long. But I have'nt seen a

> Dr. for these things in a very long time, because they never really

> helped me. So would having these symptoms, and a BMI of over 50,

> qualify me for the surgery?? Can anyone tell me this? I know my PPO

> covers the WLS, and you have to show medical need, and have been

> obese for 5 yrs or more, which I have. I have Cigna.

>

> Thanks for responses,

> Darla in WA

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

> Darla,

Most insurance require a five-year history of weight loss efforts,

and many require co-morbidities in addition to the history. You have

high blood pressure and that is a biggie of co-morbid's and the

falling asleep at the wheel and snoring you are describing could be

sleep apnea, another major co-morbid.

I too was on Phen Fen in 96/97 and was on it till they recalled it in

1997. Now the way I wrote my five year history was to round up all

my medical records from my doctors offices and hospitals. If you can

show a pattern of doctor office recorded weights up and down, it can

back up a diet attempt. I was astounded at the doctor's notes on the

office visit; she put down as a diagnoses " obese woman " or " very

overweight woman " on every visit regardless of what I came in to see

her about. There was even a remark on one of the visits

of " attending OA (Overeaters Anonymous) has lost 60 lbs 1200-1400

cal/day walks for exercise " . I even had a doctor comment about my

weight when I went in for a tonsillectomy.

I had so much information that was backed up by medical records that

I ended up not writing a diet history just putting the medical

records in chronological order highlighting the date, weight,

diagnoses and any weight related comments, then making a table with

the highlighted information. In the end I had almost 50 pages

covering 11 years of undisputable weight history with co-morbities.

I hope this helps