Marimaru

I recovered quite well, but I'm not sure I would have been up for Disneyland 3 weeks out. You could probably do the walking around bit, and ride some of the more gentle rides, but not things like Space Mountain that throw you around a bunch. You definitely want to pack food. It's pretty much sodas and burgers there.

Well, firstly, I believe that Liposuction is always bad answer to 'weight loss'. Spot removing certain areas that bother you is one thing, but 40 lbs with lipo and a tummy tuck? And the reason of course, is because she didn't change her eating habits and she gained it back (AND SHE'S TWELVE). That was a short video clip, but based on the comments the mother made, probably this girl has grown up never believing anything is her fault and so there must be something out there to *fix* her. Compulsive eating is not easy to control, but at 12/13, I'm not sure the answer is to put a band in her so that "she can only eat so much and after that it comes back up" (mother's comment). I did not have a psych eval, but I gladly would have if my doctor had required it. I do think that insurance companies put a lot of 'red tape' on things, but psych evals and apnea tests aren't part of that! I just have a vision that we are going to be hearing about this girl and her surgeries for years... her nose isn't just straight, her thighs are too flabby, she'll probably be one of those girls that gets breast implants as a graduation present. Surgery addiction isn't good either.

If your lap band doctor told you that, you need to find another one, ASAP. First of all, the band is hard silicone, so the only part that can stretch is the balloon part that fills with saline during adjustments. Secondly, your baby isn't in your stomach, lol. The day before my surgery my surgeon told me "Even if you got pregnant tomorrow, it would be no problem".

It's probably a little of both. There are some surgeons outside the US that use a brand of band that isn't one of the FDA bands (Swedish band), but I don't believe that means it is of lesser quality, but it does give them the right not to treat those patients. But, if you have an inamed band and can prove it, I don't see why they would have a 'policy'.

What Lauren said is basically my thoughts. I only had 2 younger siblings, but I had a large hand in taking care of them (and there's a bitterness behind that statement you can't get by just reading it). I can't imagine that is not happening with that many kids. I don't have a whole lot of experience with HUGE families, but one family in particular I know had 11 kids, because she liked babies. The older kids take care of the younger kids, and the babies get taken care of by the parents, until they aren't babies anymore. This is one of my husband's siblings. He's the youngest of 10, and his parents didn't do that, so this isn't something that his brother learned, it was something they decided to do. DH actually has very few stories of being taken care of by his siblings, his mom stayed at home, and his dad retired while he was a teenager. That's not to say this family doesn't have everything they need as far as emotions go. If the parents are having more kids because they want a bigger loving family (not because they just want another little baby), then they are likely to do quite well, and I say good for them. It's really all a matter of the dynamic behind it. As for me, I'm thinking 2.

I think it has a lot to do with confidence. My husband used to be angry about the frequency (or lack there of), but it hasn't been an issue in a while, right about the time I started feeling better about my body .

Stress lately? Weather changes in your area? Both of those make me super tight. It's the reason I don't get another fill. On those days, I'd be completely closed up!

Sorry. I usually make a habit to keep my opinion to myself for this very reason. I'm not trying to say that people can't post here, or can't consider themselves slow losers. I'm just trying to give you some perspective. Like I said, I'm also not saying not to be frustrated. My post was mostly in response to posts I've seen of people banded less than a few months who are 'ready to throw in the towel' or 'ready to buckle down for a long ride' when I don't think they've given there band enough of a chance to tell them how well it is going to work one way or another. I certainly didn't mean to insult anyone, and will bow out of this thread to avoid doing so in the future.

You might log calories for a bit. If you can show him daily for a little while that you really are taking care of yourself, maybe he'll lay off. Also, your daughter is young enough that you can teach her what you are doing (over time) and explain that you are eating enough but not too much, and that your needs as an adult are different than her needs as a growing girl. Don't sabotage yourself to keep peace in your house. Things like that can cause resentment and things like that. I would say sit him down and chat with him and come to an understanding.

Probably insurance wont cover a lift, since they think it's cosmetic in nature :/

I would say not to give it to him in May for his birthday, just because you want him to have enough notice to get the time off of work and whatnot...

If you are driving, you do not need a passport, but if you are flying you do need one. If you are driving, you need your driver's license, and it's good to keep your birth certificate with you.

Admittedly, I didn't real the whole above story, but the idea of chipping Alzheimer's patients doesn't seem like all that bad of an idea to me. In a severe case of not knowing who/where you are, you could be identified and brought back to where you belong...

You might consider a lift instead of a reduction. Usually you lose a cup size in just extra skin. I've been going back and forth between two options myself...

Listen, In the first few pages of this thread, you'll see that the original 'requirements' for the slow losers club, was that you had to have lost less than 50 lbs in the first YEAR of being banded. The requirements were 2-fold; number 1 you really can't know how well your band is going to work with you (and how well you will work with your band) until you are properly restricted, and that can take a number of adjustments over a number of months. Number 2, the weight loss stats are all based on AVERAGES. Almost no one loses 1 to 2 lbs per week constantly. Even the fastest losers hit plateaus, and a plateau can last weeks or even months at times. I hope no one thinks I'm trying to say you don't have a right to be frustrated, but for a lot of the people who've been posting on this thread lately, I will say that you are saying you are 'slow losers' but you are in fact losing at or above the average that is expected...

This is evidently a new-ish procedure created by a doctor here in Los Angeles. It's called the Laser Bra, and what he does is instead of discarding the removed skin, he uses it to reinforce the lift, by attaching it to the breast wall, basically like it says, to create an internal bra.<br><br>Some of the results on his site look really nice, others are just so-so (laserbra.com). Anyway, I was wondering if anyone here has had this procedure, or known anyone who had and what their thoughts on it were?<br><br>Also, I just can't decide whether I should do this (the lift in general) soon, or wait until after I have kids, risking that I'll want/need another one... opinions on that would be good too

Probably you didn't bust stitches on a liquid. If your doctor said you could have anything that fits through a straw, and your soup did, probably you are fine. But if you are worried, give him a call. It probably wont be the first time he's had that question

It's great to hear from you! He's soooo cute!!

I think that if they gave the amount of time and whatnot with the before and after pic/amount of weight lost it might be better, but I also don't think they should use anyone where they need the disclaimer that "results aren't typical", or use a variety of results (people at goal that took 1 year, 2 years, 3 years to get there).

I don't mean to imply that all families do this. Or even most of them. But I have heard of various cases of it. I agree completely on both points.

Something else to look into is sleep apnea. Alot of us have it and don't realize it. The more I read about I think I had at least some case of it at my highest weight.

I'm 3 years out and I've lost 85 lbs. I haven't given up, and I'm still losing weight, however slow it is... Maybe your doctor's aftercare is suspect for HIS patients getting frustrated and giving up? Perhaps you should find a doctor who has more hope for a procedure that he's willing to take thousands of dollars to perform..

So, with getting married and changing my last name, I got a new drivers license. My old drivers license had the original picture on it from when I was 17 (which is years before my highest weight). Holy. Crap. http://www.joygraffix.com/holycrap.jpg I'm honestly as disgusted by this as I am excited by it.

BJean, I'm sorry to hear about your mom... I imagine that was a terrible ordeal. The Catholic church aside (since their settlement has many beneficiaries), I think there does need to be a cap on settlements. I don't think it's an all or nothing type of thing, but you do see families getting millions for something that happened to them or a family member, and they are then living VERY well, off of this... I think possibly something like covering the person's medical care for the rest of their life, or something like that (like counceling for "mental distress") would be better than cash. Number 1, this cuts down on frivolous law suits where people were certainly wronged, but not to the degree of the money they were asking for and Number 2, I think that doctors should be responsible for their own malpractice payouts. The biggest 'reason' that I hear that our healthcare costs are so high, is the cost of malpractice insurance... it seems VERY odd to me that we insure our DOCTORS against MALPRACTICE. My husband brought up a point to me that with *some* of the settlements, people would never see anything because the doc would go bankrupt, but still... it's like big cycle; judges don't throwout frivolous law suits, or don't insist on a reasonable settlement, so malpractice insurance is created, frivolous law suits increase, since they are being paid out, and people have dollar signs in their eyes, insurance costs go up, healthcare goes up, and on and on and on. Plus on top of that you have hospitals and insurance companies bouncing off eachother; insurance starts covering things, so hospitals charge insurance more than they charge Joe Shmoe, so insurance rates go up, but they still pay the hospitals the insane amounts, again, and on and on and on. I don't claim to know what is "reasonable" or what should be done about any of this, but I still believe that someone needs to figure it out, lol. I do agree that it would all be much better if the medical community would have some pride and police their own.

Lauren! It's great to hear from you, and great to hear you are doing well! Wow... I think I would DIE if I had to use dial up... although I guess it's better than no net at all... (gamer/computer geek)