That Could Have Been All Of Us: Pondering and My 600LB Life

My 600LB life is a rather popular show shown on The Learning Channel here in the United States of America. The show follows a set of morbidly obese people severly morbidly obese people in their journey towards WLS. 

There is a lot of controversy about this show in the weight loss surgery community, some people feel they are lazy others see them as inspirational so on many of the boards that I am part of I do not discuss this show but since this is my personal blog I am going to discuss how I feel towards this show. 

This above is a poster from the show. I could not find anything without a picture. Before I entered this journey of becoming the new healthy me, I often thought this show exploited severely obese people and made a circus out of it. That was until my wake up call, I happened to come across an episode of this on netflix in March right around the time I decided to possibly consider medical intervention. I saw the episode and in that episode I SAW MYSELF. I saw the huffing and the puffing, the food addiction, the denial, the constant ups and downs. For some reason the show hit home for me that day. I understand why now I knew I needed to change my life because I was on the path of becoming a 600lb life person. At that moment I knew surgery was going to be the answer for me. 

I can still remember the moment when I decided to have surgery. I was with my Mom and my Grandma was recovering from a injury. We were visiting her and I said Mom I am having weight loss surgery and she said Katie you go for it. At that moment I started the process. 

As I look back on the moments all these months ago and my sagging jeans this surgery saved my life. 

The current episode I am watching of my 600lb life is Domonique. She is a lovely character who sitting right in her bed on her clear fluids I FEEL HER PAIN. I dont care what anyone says these people are us. They are all of us. 

The scene they are showing now she is complaining about her pain, I remember the pain post op and I was nearly a quarter size of her. I was only 300 when I started now I am 218 last I weighed. I weigh every two weeks. I have never been this small in my entire life. 

Another scene in this episode of the surgery they go in through the key hole and talk about the fat they found around her liver and organs, they found that same yellow fat in me. 

We are a community of people that are close whether we are 400, 300 or 500 lbs when we begin we all take that first step into a new journey. 

Remember the people on this show are our sisters and brothers, they are us. We are a community. 

The Bills Cometh

You have your medical procedure... you get approved by your insurance. Everything has been settled. As you are recovering and embracing the bariatric lifestyle. You sit and home and decide to get your mail its a nice l

 diversion from sitting home and sitting all day... all of a sudden they COME THE BILLS! Packaged nicely in their envelope sitting there waiting for you. You think of its just a EOB or some kind of survey. You open it up and to the horrow you OWE MONEY! LOTS OF IT !

What is the bariatric patient to do?  This post I am going to share with you some of my tips on how to sort through these bills and possible save yourself money. I have a Masters in Public Health and am able to decipher these things. So below I am going to share some of my tips with you. 

You Open Up The Bills 

• Do not pay it immediately look it and make sure it matches up with your insurance claims. You can find that information on the internet and you can also find it on your insurance carriers website.  
• Before you have surgery ask about your plan are you going to have a deductible, a co pay for me I have what they call an 80-20 policy. My insurance paid 80 percent and I was supposed to pay 20% but currently right now I am in between jobs and unable to pay. 
• For my surgeons bill and office I had no issue with paying my co pay as it was priorly discussed before surgery.  
• Prior to surgery I had to have blood draws and I used my local hospital and they sent me bills totalling over 600! I could not afford this. I called the hospital and asked them about their charity or discount program. They sent me the paperwork and I filled  it out. 
• Make sure you call the hospital and ask about it and ask for an explanation of the bill. 
• Another bill I had gotten was for unrelated testing before my VSG I figured it was easier for me to get all my doctors tests done. This bill was for 500! I could not afford that and it was something that as considered a well woman visit. 
• I just looked at the bill and they billed through United health care I have NOT HAD UNITED SINCE 2009! They took care of it already. 
• I am now working on another two bills that should not have been charged to me. 
• It might be a headache but it is  something for you to do

Good Luck!