OK - many thought here so bear with me....
So it sounds like she got it covered for publicity, but it's also not outside the realm of possibility that if she has some sort of insurance, it could have been mostly covered. Skin surgeries post weight loss are often covered if they are deemed medically necessary. With the amount of skin she had removed, I am guessing she had rash problems, back problems and other problems that could have qualified the procedure as medically necessary. That would make the cost of the surgery much less and even more likely for a surgeon to waive the $2000 out of pocket, rather than the whole thing.
The issue is that we have no idea if she has a job, any insurance (possibly court mandated in the divorce decree under Gareth), Medicaid or what. We know that Olivia didn't have a job, but I agree there are missing details. Am I remembering correctly that Olivia's sister had moved in because she didn't have a job either? Because it seems like I could see their dynamic still being Olivia needing to be taken care of and watched if her sister was the one supporting the
That grant she got was totally legit. I was thinking of applying for it, but I assumed you had to travel somewhere and use their surgeons. I'm cheap, but I'm not the "take risks with major surgery" cheap with my body. As I have said here before, I am down about 165 lbs from gastric sleeve 1 1/2 years ago and I, unfortunately, need extensive plastic surgery. I giggled a little when she said that she hoped it could all be done in one operation. Yeah, no. My plastic surgeon said I need three surgeries....and in case you are wondering: the first would be the lower body lift (the one where they were holding Z's skin like a trophy, which my doc said I only have about 4 lbs of skin, by the way), then would be arms/breasts, and finally a thigh lift....all for the low low price of $42,000. The body lift by itself is $16k! And insurance would laugh at me if I tried to put it though them. It does happen once in a while, but you have to demonstrate you get severe infections from the hanging skin and its akin to passing an act through congress, then they pay for a tummy tuck, not a lower body lift which is what she needed and got.
I would never ever ever let my bariatric surgeon do any kind of plastic surgery on me, even if it were free. I won't even go to one that just does regular plastic surgery. The one I am considering specializes in skin removal post bartric surgery and I have thoroughly vetted him.
I assume Z works. I remember reading about her a long time ago on facebook that she said she was actually gainfully employed at 600 lbs and resigned her position to be on the show. That was probably the smartest decision she ever made.
There is totally a weird dynamic between Olivia and her sister. If not, why wouldn't she have gone to live with her sister first instead of her brother? I figured it was because the twin lived in Chicago, but I think she lives in Texas now.
Also, I felt like this episode was "lets pick on Dr. Now night." I think both of the ladies were really rough on him. I'm totally picking up what they are putting down about their lives being more than just about a number, but I also know that if you are the type of person who needed bariatric surgery in the first place, chances are that you weren't really good at gauging your own weight by "feel" to begin with--but maybe I'm going out on a limb here, LOL. I liked the correlation to checking your bank account, because Dr. Now is right, it is the same exact thing (off topic, but when I was really piss poor broke when I was just out of college, I would repeat to myself "your net worth is not your net worth" when checking my bank balance, LOL). So maintaining your weight after bariatric surgery is like having a checking account with just enough money in it, you have to check it nearly every day! I weigh myself each and every morning and I know that if I go more than 5 pounds about my goal weight, actions must be taken right away.
Edited April 14, 2016 by notyrmommancG1vNJzZmien6fCrr%2BNqamipZWptq6x0WeaqKVfqbyxtcJoa2pwZ2d6tHyTnmhvZaedsrOxjJqpnmWknbK6ec2ormayo5a5urrNZpinnF2kuarCyJpm