Alexandra

You're all wonderful, but I just got the call to tell me it was denied again. :myscared: :girl_hug: No surgery for me today. :(

...and I've already seen my first 2008 presidential campaign bumpersticker. This is going to be a looooooong election. :faint:

Oh my god, thank you!! I had a wild dream last night that I went to the hospital and everything, only to be offered a MEAL by one of the nurses in pre-op. I was totally confused until my doctor came out and it turned out to be a total miscommunication--I had been summoned to the hospital for a dinner, not lapband surgery! This is going to be a very weird morning. I'm already hungry... Thanks for the good thoughts, everyone!! I'll let you know as soon as I get...the call.

We thought about that, too. But the trampoline in question is the neighbor's (we don't own one), and as it is the kids are only allowed to use it on weekends. We figured four weekends wasn't really enough, because with school ending and camp starting it would go by in a flash. Adding in the first couple of weekends in July made it something they'd really notice.

This is what we were afraid of, that S wouldn't want to come back! But she knows our daughters well, which is one of the reasons she didn't suspect for a while that they might actually have gone elsewhere. We have a large house with lots of hiding places, so S and my tenant spent a good time just searching in the house, thinking the girls were hiding. They were listening for giggling. I know this is true, but in our lives it just hasn't come up very much (thank goodness!). We have rules that--until yesterday--the girls follow quite well. I guess there's a first time for everything. And Tricia, WOW, you look amazing! :biggrin1:

Holy crap. I've gained 20 lbs in less than two months. :drum: :tea: Right now I'm sitting on tenterhooks about my rebanding, since the insurance coverage is not a sure thing. The house is full of fruit and lean Protein, but there's nothing standing between me and what seems to be compulsive eating. I can't tell the difference between hunger and habit. It almost seems like someone else is putting things in my mouth. (Holy cow, that sounds bizarre!) Clothes are already too small, and my closet is a scary, depressing place once again. My legs are slamming together, and my reflection in the mirror is frightening. I feel worse now about my weight than I've ever felt in my life, and my family is bearing the brunt. This absolutely sucks. Sorry to share my black mood with everyone. But I know getting it out is better than any alternative.

Hi Terry, This site has a chat function, though it's rarely used. Why not schedule a time and say you'll be hosting an online meeting here? Just make an announcement about the date and time (make sure you say which time zone you're in), and at the appointed time go to the chat area. Hopefully some other people will come in and join you, and voila! An online support group meeting. Decide what would be a good time for you and we can make a couple of announcements about it.

I just got a message from my doctor's office that even though they STILL haven't gotten the results of the expedited appeal, they think it's prudent to proceed as though an approval is coming. So I'm still on the schedule for Monday afternoon, and they promise to let me know by noon if it's a go. How will my nerves survive?? I have to fast all day until the phone call comes. This is NOT going to be fun! But hey, it's not a no. :biggrin1:

Oh my god, I'm so embarrassed! Which one are you? Where were you sitting in relation to Linda?

Victoriana's right, it could be lots of things. One that immediately springs to mind is a vitamin deficiency--are you taking a good multivitamin? An extra B-complex could be a good idea, too. But definitely talk it over with your doctor!

I don't actually think the argument about choice is about what is a human life and what isn't. That question presumes that if something meets a definition of human life it automatically earns the protection afforded to all other human lives. And that's just not the case. The questions related to reproductive choice are about whether a developing fetus' own interests--to the extent that it can be said to have any at all, which is completely arguable--OUTWEIGH those of its mother. And THAT is a question that goes far beyond any dictionary definition of "human life." Painful as the truth may be, human lives DO have relative value; always have, always will. (We'll have to wrestle with this fact more and more as we learn how much it costs to sustain near-vegetative people in their "lives." But that's another discussion.) The modern, civilized state steps in to make sure that society treats its citizens fairly, and as we've seen the definitions of "citizen," "person," and "adult" are Fluid and can change over time. Though the concept of "human rights" is a fairly recent one, now we say every human has them--even to the extent of adding minority groups to a growing list of those worthy of protection. Pro-lifers might say sure, and the list will grow to include the unborn as well, just wait. But preserving one group's rights by destroying those of another is not the way this process works, and it's women whose rights matter more in this discussion. Yes, MORE than those of the unborn. Why? Because only when we are separated from the women who incubated us can our human rights can take their place as equally important to those of our mothers. Before that our "rights" are relatively nonexistent, because they can't be exercised without profoundly affecting those of someone else. The way any decision related to an unborn baby affects its mother makes it a very different being than any other entity in the rights discussion. Now, before anyone jumps on this as a defense of abortion in the late third trimester, I'd argue to leave that to medical ethics to control rather than laws. Once a fetus reaches a point of reliable viability, a doctor who is approached to terminate the pregnancy should indeed counsel towards delivery and adoption (or whatever). I am fully in favor of education and enforcement of medical ethics rules in this direction. Women and doctors who are determined to break the law or rules of ethics will do so no matter what happens. But laws don't allow for special situations in the same way that codes of ethics do, so many women and doctors who shouldn't be there will end up on the wrong side of the law. And that's why passing laws about this is the wrong way to go. We might all find that gadgetlady's list of milestones reached by developing fetuses could make us think twice about having an abortion ourselves past a certain point. It's important information for all potential parents to have. But where that point would be for each of us hinges a great deal on the mother's personal situation. Just because abortion may be emotionally wrenching to onlookers doesn't mean that anyone has the right to force a woman to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term.

Seppi, were you at the meeting last night? I forgot you said you were planning to be there! Are you one of the people who was there and whom I have met fifty times? Or did you not make it? :confused:

My DH can't post (or type, for that matter :confused: ) but I will definitely let y'all know if I'm going under the knife on Monday. I'm not worried one tiny iota about the surgery itself--which is kind of funny, because the first time that was ALL I was worried about. Funny how things change. :ermm

I know I was conscious of it for the first few months after surgery, but it never got in the way and it never bothered my husband.

If the life in question, fetus or illegal alien alike, is living INSIDE another human being, then I say the "host" gets to decide.

Interestingly, my mother faced the very same situation that I faced when I chose to have an abortion at 22. She got pregnant with a man she was very involved with but not engaged to, while living in a town she knew she didn't want to stay in. You know the story, big-city girl spends postgrad year at small-town job, falls in love and gets pregnant, feels trapped, scared, pressured from every direction...how does it end? In my mother's case it ended with an illegal abortion secretly obtained. When her job and the relationship ended she moved back to the city, and a few months later met my father. I am the product of a planned and very much wanted pregnancy and I'm glad my mother had the time to make her decisions the way SHE wanted to make them. I'm just sorry she had to break the law to retain control of her life. When I first learned about her early relationship I used to fantasize about how my life might have been different had I been the baby from those parents instead of the ones I had. That's a fun mind exercise but utterly pointless, because -- of course -- I wouldn't have been ME. And never once did I question my existence or worth because of my mother's decision made a decade and a half before I was born. My older daughter has recently been asking about my first marriage and why we didn't have any children. She asked if we'd ever gotten pregnant (she's a thinker, that one!) I told her the truth, that my ex had been a terrible choice for a husband and would have made a terrible father, and in any case I wasn't ready to BE a mother until I met the man who became HER father. I told her that I did get pregnant by mistake, but I had a medical procedure to make the baby stop developing so it wouldn't be born. I waited for her reaction, not sure what her 8 y.o. mind would make of this news. She smiled wonderfully and told me how glad she is that she has the parents she has. And I was glad for the chance to start our discussion about how my daughter can have a family when SHE wants and is ready to have one, and not one second sooner.

The original bands, measuring 10cm and 9.75 cm in circumference, did indeed have a 4cc max capacity for fluid. Maybe they're not marketing those anymore, since there are newer and presumably better ones now available.

Thanks, Leatha. And it sounds like you're in a great place to get support at home with regard to your diet! I hope your friend is also interested in being an exercise buddy. That's what I need, but my schedule doesn't really allow for that. :confused: It's after 12:00 noon now and there's been no response from Oxford (so much for an expedited appeal, ha ha), so I'm off the surgery schedule for Monday. I'm OK with that, because no news still means there might be good news. And in fact, a later date would have worked out better for me work-wise. Another good thing is that I found out that my doctors are staying in the Oxford network until August 1, so even if the answer is no this time we'll have time for yet another appeal. And lord knows I'm good at that. I've lost 6 lbs of the 20 I'd packed on, so I'm feeling physically a lot better. I'm scared of the weekend, but at least it's not a holiday with lots of barbecuing!!

A lot of carriers prohibit fills for a certain period right after surgery, to be in compliance with the manufacturer's guidelines. Last I heard that guideline was 6 weeks, so two months is not out of line.

I guess they felt that a healing period was necessary, but now I'm really regretting that they didn't replace it right then. I'm sure it will all work out for the best, but at the moment my insurance company is denying the request for precert for the replacement surgery; my BMI is too low and I don't qualify medically for bariatric surgery. My doctor's office is trying to convince them that it should be considered continuation of ongoing treatment for a managed condition, rather than a new placement. I should find out today. :pray:

Jane, my band was removed because it had slipped to a point that there was no other choice. Believe me, if/when I get another one I will eat from a teaspoon for the rest of my life. Thanks for everyone's good wishes!! My mood has improved but I still don't know what's what. Today is the last weekday before surgery, and the decision must be made today. I honestly don't know which way it will go, but all my fingers are crossed and I really appreciate the good thoughts!!

Sometimes there are problems that can only be resolved by removing the band. That's what happened to me, but I'm very hopeful I can have a new one placed soon (waiting on insurance). The removability of the band is the precise reason I chose it in the first place. Complications happen, we all take our chances, but I felt the potential complications posed by the band were so much less dire than those posed by RNY that it was the wiser choice. And when I get depressed about the removal, I remember that I have exactly the plumbing I had when I started, I'm 100% healthy, and if I wanted to walk away and never look back I could do so. RNY leaves one with permanent changes and malabsorption of nutrients, creating a situation that can be dangerous years later.

Terri, I think that's another way of saying you have a slip. The only advice I have is to take it VERY easy with the refills. You might even want to stop here and see how that goes for a year or so. People who have had unfills seem to need much less fluid to find restriction, and it's extremely easy to get too tight almost by mistake. Good luck!!

It doesn't pay to worry too much about a slip. It's not something that happens to MOST people, and along your banding journey you will have times of being able to eat more, or less, or weird feelings, or gurgling, or even some heartburn and none of these is necessarily an indicator of a slip. If you're really concerned, call your doctor. But in my experience people who have a slip KNOW it. Things feel VERY different, even if there isn't significant discomfort. CHHS, in the early days of banded life, it's NORMAL to be able to eat more than you think you should--this is called "bandster hell" and happens to everyone before their first (or even second) fill.

And if the question were "Does abortion end the development of a fetus into a baby and terminate a potential human life?" the results would be 100% that it does. That's only the case if one sees it in purely black and white terms, which MOST people do not. The simple fact of conception does not, in MOST people's estimation, create a fully formed human life. It creates the potential for such a life, and terminating it at an early stage of development is an acceptable act when the alternative is unacceptable to the mother. It's not an on-off switch to MOST people. That's why you see a disconnect, because you don't allow for a middle ground.