Small Bills, Please

Friday 3-9-12
Why surgery is not a cheap fix...


While The Hubs and I do a great deal of our banking online, I have also been paying many of my weight-loss related bills by check.  It is old school, requiring more effort and thought than simply clicking a mouse a few times.  It also makes the expenses more real in my mind than they might be otherwise.

Today, for example, I wrote checks to the hospital and a diagnostic lab for tests I had undergone as part of getting cleared for surgery.  I wrote three checks totaling nearly $425.  This is not small change in my world!  As I wrote in my last post, I used our entire tax refund and then some to pay my program fee for surgery and follow-up care in the year after surgery.  That was $3,000, and it is by no means all-inclusive. 

These are not small bills.

Thank God I am not a self-pay patient!  The total costs for weight-loss surgery can be staggering, ranging from $18,000 and up depending on the procedure needed, where it is done and the doctor who does it.  Insurance companies that cover weight-loss surgery cover it at different rates and have different criteria for a patient to qualify.  A friend of mine who works in law enforcement told me that their insurance requires them to pay a $5,000 program fee out-of-pocket.  Some insurance companies cover nearly everything, while others cover nothing at all. 

One might wonder why a person would go to such extremes and expenses "just to lose weight".  I used to be one of those who wondered about it.  I now understand that surgery is truly a last resort for those of us who have tried everything else without achieving permanent success.  I used to be able to lose pounds more readily, when I was younger, but I was never able to keep them off.  Now that I am not as young, it is even more difficult just to lose the pounds in the first place!

I have to make a lot of changes in the ways I think about food, my body, size and shape, and what it takes to get myself healthier.  Among other things, I have to realize and acknowledge that the expenses are worth it...
that I am worth it.  (L'Oreal has been saying it since I was a child, but they were only talking about the surface issues that could magically be addressed by purchasing their products.  How convenient.)

So today, as I slip a big chunk of money into the mail slot, my mantra will be:

I am worth it.  My health is worth it.  My self-esteem is worth it.  Easing the strain on my hips, knees and ankles is worth it.  Feeling better and enjoying my life are worth it.  I am worth it. 

I am worth it.