GeezerSue

Of course not...but the stuff they have "worked on" isn't killing them. Morbid obesity KILLS people. If your nose is unattractive and you want a nose job, go for it. If your boobs are so big they are causing you backaches, by all means, have a reduction. In those cases you are fixing something that is, in your view, "wrong." But that's not what your posts are about. You have been saying that EVEN THOUGH YOU ARE HEALTHY you are going to have surgery to please others. Again, OF COURSE NOT. But, if you believe that in spite of being morbidly obese, you are perfectly healthy and happy and just want to have surgery to "fit in" better with "society's" values and change your looks to make you more "acceptable" to others, then YES...you need a counselor. Again, there is no such thing as a healthy morbidly obese person. That's like saying "a healthy but dying from fat person." I don't know your particulars. Maybe you are NOT MO. Maybe you are just a few pounds overweight and it's getting in the way of your idea of having fun. WLS is a good idea, but you really need to be doing this for a good reason because it's a BIG job...and, unless you have a REALLY good reason, you'll get tired of the routine. Good luck, Sue

You know...not to hurt any feelings here...but I would NEVER have any surgery to "fit in" with what "society" approves of or doesn't approve of...and I fear there may be a DSM-IV diagnosis code for those who do. If anyone is planning on having surgery for any reason other than improved health, YOU NEED COUNSELING!!! That is because if you qualify for surgery it is probably because you are morbidly obese...that is "diseased" obesity..."sickly" obesity, "pathological" obesity, etc. If you are so deeply in denial that you don't realize that your obesity is killing you--at the same time your insurance company will cover the procedure--you really need to get some PROFESSIONAL HELP in making an honest appraisal of your current health status. None of this was mean to be mean...but it was meant to bring home a point. If your obesity is NOT killing you, there is no logical or moral or medical reason to have any surgery.

I don't care what kind of antics any two consenting adults--even elected adults--engage in behind closed doors, as long as I'm not married to either of them. However, I got a real kick out of the Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker debacles because THOSE duds tried to tell everyone else how to live.

There are others who speak whatever it is that Dubya speaks? Wow!! I guess I misunderestimated him.

Just because they are Black does not make them experts on the topic. And I'm not proposing it be "taught," any more than I'd propose that Gullah be taught in public schools. But there is an enormous difference between a dialect and slang. Many miss that point. Too bad some Black leaders think that ANY dialect of English, or any language, is garbage. Ignorance defined, I guess. I don't speak Pidgin English, either. But it communicates. And whether I understand it or not, it is of value to millions. If I work in a community of people who communicate via Pidgin English, I'd be wise to acknowledge the effectiveness of that mode of communication and a fool to try to tell them to stop talking that way. I might even be a HERO if I can help them add standard English to their repertoire...but I won't get there by telling them that the language that they and millions of others use is garbage. They know better.

BTW...anyone se habla Gullah? Also not slang... http://www.bcgov.net/bftlib/gullah.htm#Examples

"Ebonics" is not "slang" spoken by young black kids. We call THAT something else; we call it "slang spoken by young black kids." "Ebonics," among other things, utilizes a different grammar. It is consistent. It doesn't change with fads and mean one thing this week and something else next week. If you don't enjoy reading about grammar, this will probably not thrill you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebonics The link keeps fizzling out. Well, go to wiki and search on "Ebonics."

"...how POOR..." It modifies "the quality of writing," which makes it an adjective. When the "ly" is added, it becomes an adverb, which cannot be used here. I'm just sayin'...

The first week or two is more likely dehydration--sometimes even combined with swelling from surgery--than actual weight loss. It really shouldn't even be counted.

OKAY...I got confused. I thought folks were calling the sleeve a "MGB." I lknow NOTHING about the MGB...the stuff I wrote was in refence to the sleeve...aka "the top half of the DS." Sorry.

So...if we want young people who are reared in communities where non-standard English is the norm to learn standard English, we are asking them to become bilingual. Is it too much to demand of ourselves a minimal gesture to comprehend THEIR native liguistic style(s)? One of the best books on racially (and socio-economically) linguistic patterns I've ever read. EVERYONE who works in a linguistically diverse setting should be required to read this: http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio/0226449556

The LapBand is "the best way to go" FOR SOME PEOPLE and a terrible choice for others. Spend a lot of time searching for YOUR best choice.

As my MIL would have said..."I'm fixin' to get shed* of this debate." *pronounced "get shut."

Many years ago, the Harvard Educational Review ran a great article on a related topic. The author, Lisa Delpit, an African American and teacher, tried to express how important it is to not declare a "home language" (Ebonics, if you will, but my sister's ex spoke a strange conglomeration of English and he was white) wrong. If you are white, and live in the mainstream white culture, there is no reason to be concerned about Ebonics or other non-mainstream language. (My very-anglo MIL, used to tell me it was time to bring the clothes in off the line "before they draw damp." That language worked well for her and her neighbors. I was the weirdo.) It works where it works and for whom it works. The issue, as I understood Delpit, was that those in power in the classroom needed to teach students the difference between "home language" and "business language," and cause them to be proficient in the mainstream language which--because formal English proficiency was a key to the kindgom of power--might prove to be their key to success. That is NOT best accomplished by denigrating the language that THEY KNOW WORKS, in their neighborhoods and homes and churches. That said, I overheard a Sheriff's department radio person give info as (data changed) "Subject is identified as James Jones, 123 Elm Street, outta Covina." Outta? OUTTA? Was any word necessary between the street and the city? They need a class on business English. I'm pretty sure it gets my goat because I'm old.

There are bad doctors everywhere. I have a friend whose surgeon--in WISCONSIN--totally screwed up the surgery and left her in permanent pain and he's still advertising and doing business in the good ol' US of A. That said, to enforce a LOAN agreement, they probably do NOT need medical records, just loan documents. Jurisdiction would depend on what the loan docs say. Not an attorney, just grew up in a family full of 'em. Sue

Garland Mom, I was given different reflux meds to try; some worked better than others. And, I was prescribed Reglan...to move the food along. If you take that, do not be alarmed by the weird noises! About ten weeks post-op, just as I was settling into a permanent depression that the esophageal damage would be life-long, I ran out of Reglan and the food moved anyway!! I didn't need another refill! So, give it some time...and try to keep a positive outlook. I don't take any drugs on a daily basis except a very small dosage of my diuretic and the related potassium. (Those were originally Rx'd for edema...probably congestive heart failure-related. I started at 20mg/day--have taken 40--but I'm down to 5mg/day at this point.) Sue

Carlene...my bad...it looks like SEVERAL insurances cover it. Mine (BC-CA-PPO) doesn't yet list it as a covered procedure. http://obesityhelp.com/forums/VSG/action,replies/board_id,5463/topic_id,3114010/cat_id,5063/a,messageboard/ Edited: this info/link are about VERTICAL GASTRIC SLEEVE, NOT the MINI BYPASS.

Can't be "the only surgery...". Since the MGB or Gastric Sleeve is merely the "top half" (the stomach part) of the Duodenal Switch surgery, then the DS would also have the same effects. ~~~~~~~ The DS is often done in stages for the SMO who are not up to the massive surgery. They do the "top half," removing most of the stomach, and then wait a year. By then, the patient usually has lost enough to be able to survive the rest of the surgery. My only concern with the Gastric Sleeve is that once the stomach starts stretching out again, it would be just like the regain with the RnY...since the only thing going on with that surgery is restriction. (That is to say, MY stomach is smaller than it was...not as small as for the sleeve, but smaller than original and I can eat a ton of food. If it were not for the malabsorption, I'd be regaining already and I'm less than a year post-op.) I wasn't aware that there were seven years of positive follow-up on the procedure. If there ARE that many years, it would seem that more insurance companies would cover it as the follow-up care would be so much less expensive than the band. Edited: I thought people were calling the sleeve a MGB...not so. I know nothing about the MGB except that it could not possibly be the only surgery that impacts ghrelin levels and that I wouldn't have it. This info is about the sleeve.

Okay...I didn't read the link, so I apologize is this is redundant...but... You didn't really lose all that weight the first couple of weeks. You were dehydrated. After a week or two, you start to rehydrate and then you panic thinking you have regained. I get CRAZY reading all of the "I'm one week out and 14 pounds gone forever" posts. No one--not even DS'ers unless they are SUPER, SUPER MO--loses 14 pounds in a week. But if I post and try to warn them how worried/depressed they may feel a week or two later, I'm Debbie Downer. So I don't. The band helps you eat less than you need to survive, so that your body has to use stored up fat to operate. Although not as exact a science as we'd like, let's look at a 5'5", 300 pound, 40 year old who has a completely sedentary life. She burns about 2600 a day doing essentially nothing. For her to lose 10 pounds in a week means she must UNDERCONSUME 35,000 calories, or 5,000 calories per day. In other words, she would have to eat absolutey nothing AND run in place for five hours per day. So, you are NOT gaining weight. You probably mistook dehydration for actual weight loss. You have not failed.

Yeah,I had esophageal problems caused by the band and which ended after it was removed. I had the duodenal switch. www.duodenalswitch.com It leaves a bigger stomach than the RnY, and depends on more malabsorption. Long term it seems to have a higher percentage of excess weight loss. Nausea FOR ME was the brain's interpretation of the restriction as a blockage. First, it would send slime. If that didn't clear the non-existant blockage, the only other way to do it (per the brain) was to barf up whatever was causing "the plug." That's when nausea started...when the slime didn't solve the problem. Does that sound like what you're doing? If so, you may be a little too restricted...at least too restricted for your brain.

Christina, My insurance(BC-CA) no longer covers LapBand for people with BMI's over 50...they lose weight, to be sure...but, ON AVERAGE, too many higher BMI's end up STILL MO a couple of years out. It's all so individual...when I had my band removed I went for the Duodenal Switch, see www.duodenalswitch.com But, I'm me. I already knew--from living with the band--that I would HATE the RnY eating prohibitions. And, I was in my late 50's and didn't have a biological clock running out on me and didn't need to think about pregnancy. I know me well enough to know that I WILL take my supplements and I know that my finances can handle paying for supplements. I probably would not have made the same decision if were younger, or pressed for cash, or if I knew me well enough to know that I'd flake out on supplements. There are currently two widely used surgeries (the bypass and the band), one coming in third place (the DS) and one that is just gaining in populatioty with no long-term stats (the gastric sleeve.) Read about them all at www.obesityhelp.com and take your time deciding. Sue :::I still HAVE a LapBand...in a baggie in my guest room:::

I know...but I think the Inamed report is several years older...from the FDA study period.

This kind of makes my point. Positive thinkers HERE have had erosion. But reading only positive posts is really going into the process in denial...AND it prevents people from seeking alternatives when they ARE having problems. If 100 people sit in a seminar on banding and hear that x% of people will suffer complications, almost every single one of them is SURE that they will be in the OTHER group; that is denial. But, of course, that is not how it works; and that is reality. I hope the rest of your journey is as smooth as your 12 days of being banded have been.

Except, when you are the person HAVING the complications, that isn't quite as reassuring as one might hope. Again, "100% reversible" means you have to undergo a second surgery (and for self-pays, a second set of bills) to have the band removed. You experience that best when you are sitting in the surgeons office and he says something like, "Well, THEORETICALLY, you just take it out...but how well that goes depends on a number of factors including the skill of the surgeon who placed the band, the problems he encountered, what he had to do to overcome those problems and what damage the band has caused in the interim. It isn't a cartoon-like thing where you snip a couple of stitches and it's gone." Those are, I believe, Inamed's numbers from the early days...after the original three-year study. But band erosion is generally a later complication, so some of the people who were banded in the early days may just now be experiencing erosion. Some more recently published information indicates a higher rate of erosion. For example: A Swiss study reported "Band erosion developed in 24 patients (6.8 %)." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?itool=abstractplus&db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=abstractplus&list_uids=15072660 A Swedish study had a harsh verdict. "When questioned according to a standardized protocol 2 years after surgery, every other patient in our series admitted heartburn and acid regurgitation. Regular endoscopic surveillance revealed a prevalence of erosive esophagitis of 44%. After a median follow-up of 7 years, 58% of the patients had been reoperated on, almost always with excision of the banding system and conversion to Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGBP). The reasons for reoperation were esophagitis, band erosion, pouch dilatation, leakage from the balloon, and esophageal dilatation, complications that also have been described in several recent papers in the literature. Our prediction is that LAGB will not stand the test of time." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=12152154&query_hl=8&itool=pubmed_docsum After having spent more than four years on this board and others, I have to disagree. At OH, for example, the board is RIFE with pre-banded people and newly banded people. I compare it to discussing marriage with engaged people and those just back from the honeymoon. They are great resources for discussing the WEDDING, but know almost nothing about being MARRIED. IN THE PAST, the problem has been that when people having problems have tried to express their concerns or share their very real problems, they were first given a bunch of "have you tried this" responses or were "lectured" about following the rules and were routinely "ganged up on" by those who just don't want to hear it. The band SURGERY is safer than the other SURGERIES. But surgery takes only a couple of hours. Then it's the rest of your life to deal with. Band complications are DIFFERENT than RnY or DS complications. DS people mostly have to worry about supplements because of the (intended) malabsorption and deal with the bathroom consequences of eating toomany carbs. (Or just stop EATING too many carbs.) RnY people seem to make more ER visits, with strictures and obstructions. Banded people mostly have to worry about esophageal damage and damage to the stomach...although I have a friend whose band was removed because the banding surgeon nicked a nerve and that kept her in constant pain and her two additional surgeries to find the problem couldn't fix anything. I'm not saying the band is not a good idea. For many, it is. I AM saying that SOME people choose the "least invasive" surgery without even knowing what that means, or mention reversibility as though someone can just reach in and unsnap it or think that "adjustability" means they can turn it on and off and that "all you have to do is go for an adjustment" if you need to lose more weight. That just isn't how it works.

A few things... First, if you don't have all the answers you need, there is no law saying you have to have your surgery when scheduled. Learn everything BEFORE you take that step. Then, if you are 105 pounds overweight, you probably are NOT "completely healthy just oveweight." You may not yet be feeling the damage,but it is mostly likely being done. Also, if the band is eroding (wearing away at) your stomach tissue, then yes, you need more surgery because the band will KEEP wearing away the tissue unless something is done to make it stop. Fianlly, there are no guarantees. The band might be exactly what you need. Or it might cause you a heap of problems from Day One. Or it might be just fine for a while and THEN start causing problems. Like the saying goes, "You pays your money and you takes your chances." I know this part first hand, because I paid cash and my band worked just fine for almost a year, but developed problems, regained the lost weight and I eventually had to have my band removed...but not for erosion...and a different surgery done. ALL the wls options have risks. Some will be more acceptable to you than others. Just know the whole picture BEFORE you have surgery.