Keeping Up With Leo and Carolyn (and Melissa too!)

Welcome to Summer

As usually happens, I start looking for something to do, and realize there is much I should have been doing already. Of course, making entries on this blog is one of those things that gets left behind.

But this time, the entry has a dual purpose. It's not just to give you an update, but to ask for your assistance with a little project we've been undertaking. Well, not exactly a "little" project.

For those who haven't seen her in a while, here is the latest picture of Stacey:


As you can see, Stacey is down to a very svelte, slim version of herself, after months of hard work and dedication to diet and exercise. No gastric bypass, just determination to lose the weight. about 200 lbs.

After all this weight loss, the result is a slimmer, healthier Stacey. But there is one side effect of the drop in pounds: a whole lot of excess skin. If you're a fan of the shows on Discovery Channel that show you the cosmetic surgery procedures, you may have seen some of what I'm talking about.

So, with her doctor's help, Stacey has built a case for having the skin removed surgically. Besides aesthetic concerns, the excess skin can cause rashes and other complications that require vigilant monitoring. She has presented this case to her medical insurance company, and they have rejected it, the most recent rejection saying that they need a year of photographic evidence of the rashes and complications before they will consider it.

Needless to say, this was tough for Stacey to take. She isn't asking for medical help to lose the weight - she did that all on her own. And since it was done on her own, she is far more likely to keep up the regimen to stay healthy and keep the weight off. You'd think the insurance company would see the benefit of paying for someome in this situation, as they will reap the benefits of the individual's future health and reduced risk of weight-related maladies. Nope.

So, what's the project? Well, Stacey never reads these posts, so I'm fairly confident that she won't get wind of what I'm doing. And if she does, it's no big deal, as you'll see.

The surgery she needs, if paid out of pocket, is about $25,000. No, I'm not asking for money. I am asking for resources. Stacey has already sent her story to Oprah, Dr. Phil, Montel Williams and others in the hopes that her success might be of interest to them. What's the interest? How about someone who had gotten to nearly 400 pounds who lost the weight on her own? Or the fact that the final push to lose the weight came one day when Carolyn said to her "Mommy, you're fat"? Or the fact that her insurance company will pay for a gastric bypass, but won't pay to remove the skin from someone who did the work on their own without surgery?

So what I'm looking for is resources. Know someone who might be interested in her story? Send me an email. Know a cosmetic surgeon that might be able to help? Let me know. Know someone who might be inspired by Stacey's story? Drop me a line. Maybe you know a health insurance professional that can help us steer through the insurance waters. Whatever the case, I want to build a stack of resources to work from.

My goal, one way or another, to find a way to get the procedures done for Stacey. By networking, talking, discussing - whatever the means - get the work done so that Stacey can complete the journey she has been on.

That's the pitch. Nothing big. And if you don't have any of those, there is one thing you can still do. Call or email Stacey, and let her know how great she looks. She has a hard time feeling that she has accomplished her goals because her body doesn't look the way she wants it to. I tell her I'm proud, that she has done an incredible thing, but it seems to have more effect from others. Let her know as well. She has a new email address - sasoderman at earthlink dot net.

In other news, we're all great here. Carolyn is growing more by the day. The picture is one of my favorite recent pictured, taken at Easter.

The other day at school, they were apparently talking about how caterpillars become butterflies. The teacher mentioned a cocoon. Carolyn informed her teacher that it wasn't a cocoon, it was a chrysalis.

Yup. We're in trouble. I expect she'll be asking for the car keys and a trust fund anytime now.

I'm still working at the Flamingo, although I've been doing less dealing and more supervising. But it does afford me the chance to have weekends off, a rarity in the gaming business.

That's all for now. Drop Stacey a line!

posted by Leo @ 7:04 PM