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So he said he was getting lap band surgery.

A lawyer for the county likens the county’s refusal to pay for Lange’s surgery to its refusal to pay for hearing aids or lap band surgery for weight reduction.

“You can’t have an exclusion that says we don’t cover lap band surgery because you’re transgender.”

The specific surgery I got, the gastric lap band, reached its peak in 2008, with 35,000 surgeries performed that year.

After an upper endoscopy, I found out I had gastritis, esophagitis, and gastroesophageal reflux disease, all of which are potential side effects of the lap band, because when you have a small stomach and a constricted opening, food and acid can have trouble going in the correct direction through your body.