She Lost The Weight, Then Got Lost In Red Tape

The good is Bonnie Smith, LVN, who made a huge and healthy change in her life by losing massive amounts of weight on her own. The great is Dr. Pollack, who Bonnie credits with putting her body back together again after the monumental weight loss left her slim but plagued by excess skin. The dilemma is still ongoing, with a change in insurance industry policy threatening to take away the life Bonnie Smith and Larry Pollack have worked so hard to achieve.

Let's start with the good. "Standing 5 feet two inches tall, I weighed 365 pounds. As I huffed and puffed on my job at the hospital, the patients were more concerned about me than themselves! On June 19, 1995 I decided to go on my own diet."  

Frustrated by past attempts and determined to do it on her own, Bonnie Smith succeeded. "I walked in the morning and evening, and danced at least 45 minutes to Janet Jackson. The diet I concocted sounds terrible, but it worked for me. White rice (with ketchup or enchilada sauce), pinto beans, vegetable soup and over 100 ounces of water a day -- by December I had lost 166 pounds."

The achievement put her under 200 pounds, which was what Bonnie needed to take her scheduled donkey ride into the Grand Canyon over the holidays. "I was so happy with myself," she recalls, "but we got to the Grand Canyon right when the government cut back on funds, so it was shut down."

Disappointed but undeterred, Bonnie was within 20 pounds of her final goal by April, but another problem had surfaced: "I had absolutely enormous amounts of lose skin hanging from my body, so much that insurance indicated removal would be covered."

"You Are Going To Love What I Can Do For You."

 Being a nurse, Bonnie Smith was a scrutinizing patient. "I demanded someone with impeccable credentials." She found Dr. Pollack, but the initial meeting wasn't (pardon the expression, Bonnie) a piece of cake.

"Even though I was a nurse and he was a doctor, I was so embarrassed about my body," she recounts, explaining that after her monumental weight loss, "I could literally carry all the lose skin around with me in my hands."

Instead of embarrassment, Bonnie found compassion and empathy. "When Dr. Pollack told me, 'You are going to love what I can do for you,Õ I realized I had chosen the right surgeon."

First up was a tummy tuck and removal of skin on her upper arms. "The surgery on my stomach was so amazing," reports Bonnie, still glowing at the memory. She retained her sense of humor throughout the process, telling Dr. Pollack at one point he needed to take a course in drafting to mark her body for surgery.

"My second surgery lifted and removed skin on my inner thighs. I also had a breast reduction."

Confirming the procedures "made a tremendous impact," Bonnie explains, "The problem now is that my outer thighs and buttocks need excess skin removal. I am in tremendous pain. The hanging skin has affected my lymph nodes. I can gain up to 12 pounds overnight in my legs and the pain on my back is unbearable."

"Dr. Pollack gave me back my life," she says with admiration but also sadness. "Now, after losing all this weight and getting healthy, I have had to quit nursing because I cannot walk. My current job as a secretary does not provide the income I need to finance my final surgery."

The culprit is mutating insurance parameters, which will not cover the procedure. Bonnie Smith and Dr. Pollack, are hopeful this dilemma will be worked out to her advantage soon. When it does, our readers will be among the first to know.

      Good luck, Bonnie!