Thanks! & Another Question - long!

[Guest guest]

Just wanted to say thanks again to all of you who have responded to

my gallbladder question. As I told in an earlier post, I

had my ultra sound and they saw sludge. I will know more next week

when my PCP gets back to me.

Some of you may remember that my youngest son has also had WLS. At

about 9 months out he was dx'd as a type one diabetic. He then went

through alot of problems with giving himself up to 7 insulin shots a

day. He was getting infections, scaring, knots, and more from the

injection sites. We finally got him approved for the insulin pump.

Had to fight BCBS of AL for almost 8 mo to get it for him.

Now we have requested a LBL to reduce the amount of hanging skin

around his middle. We have been denied twice. Even though we have

three docs saying that the excess skin is a threat to his life.

Now, I know that some of you are asking yourself how hanging skin

can be life threatening. Well, it's kinda simple but complicated.

With the insulin pump you have a tube running from the pump to the

infusion set. The infusion set is the piece that holds the

plastic " needle " in place. The plastic " needle " is inserted through

the skin and into the fat where the insulin is best absorbed.

With me so far? The infusion set is usually used for about 3 days

before replacing. During this time my son's skin " moves " so much

that the needle will crimp and cause him to have no insulin or very

little causing ever higher blood sugars or it will build up insulin

to the point that when the skin moves again the needle un-crimps and

he gets an excess of insulin and he has dangerous lows.

He has used the available infusion sites (upper leg currently the

only one available) to the point of over saturation. Meaning that

his sites are becoming even more limited. He cannot use the belly

or upper butt because it moves way to much!

His endo stated clearly in her letter to BCBS that my son could die

in his sleep because he would never know he had gone too high or too

low. We have talked to our employer's BCBS rep and done all of the

paperwork to no avail.

Now to my question...is there anyone else out there that has had

this type of problem? We need more documentation to support

our " case " . Ike, my son, was NOT diabetic when he had this

surgery. The endo says that his body, for unknown reasons, attacked

his pancreas and killed it.

Endo says that this can happen to anyone at any time. Not like type

2. His WLS and our PCP say that his is a very, very unusual case.

You just don't lose 150 lbs and become diabetic! So hunting for

others in this position who have had WLS is like looking for a

needle in a hay stack!

If you can help me out, this very worried mother would sure

appreciate it!

Love and appreciaiton to all!

Reba