KathrynRose

Bandster - the period comes after ovulation, if you had not gotten pregnant, you would have had a period. Just because your periods don't come regularly, does not mean that you won't ovulate. My MIL had periods at most every six months, she thought she would not be able to have kids. Now she has five. My husband was a surprise to her, she did not find out about him until she was four months pregnant. Lifechange - you look like a natural blonde like me. When I contacted a laser place they told me it would not work very well on me because I have fair skin and blonde hair. My beard hair even comes in darker than the hair on my head, just not dark enough.

My husband's cousin is 6'2" and wears size 12 or 13 shoes and she has shoes like that, she delights in wearing them. Shoe shopping is a pain and a half for her, but she finds shoes. On another note, we found out that it is harder to find nice shoes for someone who wears size 6.5 EEEE (me) than for someone who wears a size 12. She thought it would be easy to find shoes for me, but when we went shopping we found three pairs for her and none that fit me. We spent a whole day at it.

I have blue care select also, thank you everyone! We just got chosen to adopt another baby, and all of a sudden I am freaking out about finances.

My favorite grading on a group project happened when I was a junior in college. There were four people in the group. One person and I did the bulk of the work, the other two were complete slackers. At the end we had to write an evaluation of each other's work. I got a 95%, the other girl got a 97% (she did slightly more work than I did, and I agree with the grade), the third girl got a 72%, and the boy got an 80%. This was the fairest grading I had ever seen on a group project, and I was really glad they did not get good grades based on the work the first girl and I did. I think basically the teacher gave our project a grade and prorated us on the amount of work we did. In some ways I don't begrudge the boy his slacker tendancy, he was having a lot of financial struggles and so he, his wife, and their three kids were living in a tent at a campsite nearby, I don't know how he got any work done. The third girl was just into partying.

Did you get your date yet?

Congrats! You should check out the Massachusetts board, we have set up a thread for those using UMASS.

I only got diarrhea for a week.

I started this process in August, and I am nowhere near close to getting banded (doctors are slooooow). I was wondering if there was anyplace I could go that would have me banded in the next two months. I have BCBS of Massachusetts which will cover it (I assume I have to stay in network). Right now I am looking at no classes until March or later because I did not lose weight over Christmas. I can't have the surgury until after the classes. I am so very frustrated at the time this is consuming!!!!!

It wasn't so much a debate, there were a few statements, we have one person in our group who is very outspoken and wants the lapband, so the gastric bypass people were getting a tad defensive and talking about how they were in the minority in the room, so then we raised our hands to show who wanted what. The malnutrition aspect of gastric bypass really scares me, especially since I want to get pregnant after I have lost the weight.

Latex allergies are on the rise, too at a much higher incidence than silicone. Silicone allergies used to be unheard of, but now there are people with those allergies, it turns out that if you are latex, there is a remote possibility that you may be allergic to silicone.

Raisin was during the first class, I don't like raisins! I always eats dried fruit more slowly than how we were supposed to eat it the second time, so there was no difference to me, now if she had brought in a box of Thin Mints, that would have been a different story. They said they would bring in the exercise information during the last class. I don't know, the classes seem to be more for gastric bypass. Most of the people in the class are trying to scare away the people who want the band. I keep getting asked, "Don't you know you have to go get fills? Don't you know you have to take really small bites and eat really slowly?" I think it is just the classic band v. bypass debate. I do like the members of my group. Four of us want the Lap-Band and thirteen want bypass. I guess I trust myself to eat properly more than I trust myself to take Vitamins regularly. I hate taking pills. I would rather take the chewable or gummy kind. It is funny, one person in the class pointed out that silicone allergies are on the rise and that is why she does not want the Lap-Band, but silicone allergies are still like one in a million. I am glad it looks like you will have two job offers, I just hope they will work with you on the surgery. Weight wise, I am really struggling this week. Last week when I ate like a bandster, I lost five lbs. and did not feel hungry. This week I feel like I am starving to death and I end up eating too much at the end of the day. So far I have stayed the same weight.

I have a Tanita - not the fancy one. I love it, it measures me two lbs less than the doctor's scale, but since it is consistantly two lbs. I can live with it.

So you have to wait for the clinical visit before they will schedule the surgery, or before they will submit you to the insurance company? This sure does take forever. Which insurance do you have, I have BC/BS of MA. They said at the meeting that Fallon was the best to have.

My SIL had the implant and has not had a period in 10 years, she does not have PCOS.

Every person with PCOS is different when or if your cycles become regular. I did not ovulate for the first time until I was 22 and on clomid. Every time after that was on injectable fertility drugs or fertinex (4 more ovulations by the time I was 26). After my one pregnancy ended up ectopic, I decided to lose weight. I was shocked when I got below 200 pounds and I started ovulating "regularly" (every 32-38 days). Over the next two years I still did not get pregnant. I have gained back my weight and so the ovulating has stopped, but I have learned that somewhere in the past six years, my tubes became totally blocked. I think it was when I lost my baby(ies). I now have to do IVF no matter what to become pregnant. The doctors will not do IVF unless I have a BMI below 40, I would like to have a BMI below 30 so that I can reduce my chance of miscarriage. My surgeon says I can do IVF as soon as I get to that goal because of the history of early menopause in my family (my mother and grandmother both had early menopause) - and this even though I am only 31 (almost 32). By the way I also have PCOS, and yes, one of the reasons I am doing this is because I want to get pregnant. Also because my mom had her first heart attack one year after she his menopause and has had 5 heart attacks and 2 strokes since, not to mention numerous other problems all stemming from her weight. My only co-morbidity is PCOS.

I have seen others on other posts, so I know they are out there.

I thought I would jump in this thread, even though I can't answer your questions since I started this process after you.

I like to donate blood. I realize that I won't be able to do this for a while after the surgery, but I am hoping that I will be able to resume donating blood a year or two out, does anyone know anything about this?

Thanks for your answers, the blood donation people did not think I would be able to donate again after the surgery. They were not sure, they were just worried about someone getting enough liquids in.

No, my mom keeps going into the hospital right around those nights. She is my built in baby sitter. This last one she had surgery that day. I went to visit her at the same time as the meeting. I left the hospital the same time as all of the people leaving the meeting and they were talking about it. I was really sad I had missed it because I had been planning to go. I just can't take a two year old to the meeting. (He is annoying enough in the hospital room.) For the next meeting I am travelling to a different state to go to my SIL's wedding. I really want to make the March meeting. I am still trying to find a babysitter for my mom for the last week of February. That way someone is there in case she gets sick again while we are gone. One of the reasons I want to do this surgery is because of how sick my mom is due to her weight. And yet she is so sick, she ends up in the emergency room during the last week of each month. Ok so it has only happened for the last three months, but it has been very upsetting for me (all around, not just because of missed opportunities).

I guess I should say, yeah, I am out of Worc. When do you make the physiological appointments?

So when did you start with the first orientation meeting? How long did it take to get through the exercise classes? How long did it take you to get an appointment after the exercise classes? I guess I really want to know how long it has been since you started the four classes? I don't know this is really dragging. At least I start the four behavioural/nutritional classes next week.

Hi. I am 31, I have been married for 11 years and we have a 2 year old son whom we adopted. I have been overweight since I hit puberty. I am getting the surgery for two reasons (well two that helped me decide to get the surgery rather than lose weight without the surgery). 1) I would like to have a baby, I have only been pregnant once, and that resulted in an ectopic pregnancy. This pregnancy may have destroyed one or both of my tubes because my tubes are now blocked. This means that I have to have IVF. The doctors won't do an IVF unless my BMI is under 40, I would prefer to have a BMI under 30 because then the risk of miscarriage is greatly reduced. 2) My mother (only 55) has had 6 heart attacks, 2 strokes, diabetes, congestive heart failure, and end-stage renal failure. All of this started because of her weight. She now has a defribulator implanted in her heart. I have got to stop doing the same things to myself. I have been working on losing weight during the waiting period by trying to eat as if I am already banded (following general rules from this forum - protein first, 60 grams of protein per day, no liquids with meals or for 1/2 hour after meals.) I am also exercising every day. So far I have lost 6 lbs.

I am in Central Mass, so those places seem kind of far. I made my decision in August, went to both pre-rec meetings in September. Got my appointment with the doc in November, apointment with psych in December. My appointment with the nutritionist is next week. The psych said she would not clear me unless I lost weight by the time of my nutritionist appointment. I am now back at the same weight I was at the psych appointment, but I have to lose weight by next week. I have PCOS, so it is very hard to lose weight. Besides eating right and exercising everyday, I have taken drugs so that my TOM should start tomorrow or the next day. I am hoping this helps. I have not had a period since August, so it has got to help in some way. Just a note on how hard it is for me to lose weight - most people lose 5-10 pounds the first week, for me the first week always has a whopping weight loss of 2 to 2.5 lbs. This is always my largest loss week. I am exercising every day for at least 45 minutes, drinking my Water, and eating less than 2000 calories per day (that was my highest day, yesterday I had about 1000). I wish I was one of those people who could drop a lot of weight in the first week.

I think this is my first post. I have been lurking for months. I did not read most of this thread, so I don't know if this point has already been made. When Oprah talks to her audience on her show, she treats the audience as if they are guests in her home. She is very casual in her speech, very welcoming. Speaking at a political rally is quite a different thing, she needed to persuade her audience that Barak Obama is the best choice for president. She could not do this acting as if everyone is a guest in her living room. If you look at any political rally, the candidates, no matter their race, sound like old time Southern preachers speaking from the pulpit. They do this to persuade the audience to believe in the same things they do. I do agree that a person needs to speak in different ways to different audiences. That person also needs to speak in different ways depending on location. I do not think that Oprah speaks any differently to her white friends then to her black friends. I had really thought that she was helping to bridge the racial divide in this country, but I guess I was wrong.