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WestCoastFatGuy

LAP-BAND Patients
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Everything posted by WestCoastFatGuy

  1. WestCoastFatGuy

    how many fills so far ????

    I just had my first fill 2 days ago. I had nothing in my band prior to the fill. I now have 4-1/2 cc's in a 9 cc band.
  2. WestCoastFatGuy

    Why am i eating so much

    The whole key to weight loss, as you know, is to expend more calories (over time) than you take in. If you are worried that you are eating too much I suggest that you use a program or website to track the calories and nutrients of what you are consuming. That way you'll have a more realistic idea of what you are eating vs. what you are expending. There are all kinds of websites and programs to do so. I personally use a program called DietPower (Diet Power Calorie Counter, Diet, and Weight Loss Program) and have been very pleased with it.
  3. WestCoastFatGuy

    Should I expect this???????

    Your neighbor needs to get with the program and see her doctor ASAP. This is not the way the banded life is supposed to be. Do your research and know the signs of too much/too little fill and you'll be fine. Your neighbor clearly either has too much Fluid in the band or is experiencing some other sort of complication that is not normal or acceptable. The band is only a tool. As with any other tool... knowing how to use it safely and effectively is key to achieving success.
  4. WestCoastFatGuy

    First fill coming up...scared

    No need to worry, my friend. I just had my first fill 2 days ago. My port was tipped so the doctor had to try several times to hit it in just the right way so that he could do the fill. The pain was minimal, at worst... I feel a slight bruised feeling at my port, but nothing else. You'll be fine. You made it through the surgery. The fills are a cakewalk! Keep on keeping on. You're doing great!
  5. WestCoastFatGuy

    This thread is going to be sooo inappropriate!

    Wow! I read through all the possible benefits and complications/long-term effects of all the popular weight loss surgeries before deciding on the lapband. Apparently one of the biggest complications/side-effects of DS needs to be added... DS may turn you into a stark-raving lunatic that will become enraged (possibly including uncontrollable shaking and/or convulsions) and lose all ability to engage in civil discourse when exposed to the words "Lap Band".
  6. WestCoastFatGuy

    All you people do is complain...

    O-kaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy.... Did this poster just wwwwhhhhiiinnnnneee about people whining? Yeah. Okay. So she had her surgery on March 26th... is 21 years old...and apparently an expert on life and everything that goes with it. I've reviewed her other posts and can only say... WOW! I only wish I could be as put together as she believes herself to be. Wait a minute... if she's such a genius and has so much willpower and such intuition and blah, blah, blah... why did she need a lapband in the first place? I mean... why the h*ll is she fat? Apparently, according to her view... fat people should stop whining or "have a donut" (as she said in one of her posts on another thread). With that advice... I happily offer her two dozen jelly filled donuts at my expense at the donut shop of her choice. She may feel free to PM me and I will buy the giftcard and overnight express it to her. Or maybe she'd prefer a nice sharp cheddar cheese to go with her whine (wine). Sheesh.
  7. WestCoastFatGuy

    Question-adults Only-strong Sexual Content

    This is in regard to my post above.... Okay.. I feel like a TOTAL *ss now... sweet Kim sent me a PM saying that she is sorry to have offended me. I was NOT offended. I thought it was hilarious! I keep forgetting that you all can't see my laughing face as I type my posts and don't necessarily know that I am thoroughly amused. Looking back on it, I didn't even use an appropriate Smiley Icon. It should have been jumping up and down and laffing its fool head off! I'm sorry to have put an unnecessary damper on the party. You can dress me up (sometimes), but obviously... you can't take me out! I promise to do better next time. Kimmie... Keep on postin, doll... you're a riot!
  8. WestCoastFatGuy

    When the truth is inconvenient . . .

    To my dear "right-wing crazies"... Thanks a whole heck of a lot for waiting until I had converted all my freakin' lightbulbs (well, all that I could) to these stupid looking things and am now living in a chemical dungeon. Okay, maybe it's not exactly a chemical dungeon, but couldn't you have warned me before I went and spent all that money??? :biggrin2:
  9. WestCoastFatGuy

    Question-adults Only-strong Sexual Content

    My legs crossed together very tightly when I read this message. Are you a sadist or what???!??? This kind of comment can make a grown man cry!
  10. WestCoastFatGuy

    Question-adults Only-strong Sexual Content

    On a TOOTSIE ROLL POP? Giirrrrlll, if it isn't at least a banana, then you aren't getting everything that you're entitled to! Sorry, I couldn't control myself! See what a couple vodka shots in a f*t *ass with a lapband can do! I may be a heavy-weight but when it comes to liquor these days, I'm a LIGHT-weight!
  11. WestCoastFatGuy

    Question-adults Only-strong Sexual Content

    Ooooo-kaaaaaaayyyyy... I'm gay and lived in San Francisco for 8 1/2 years. Thought I'd seen and heard it all. You girls actually have ME blushing! You GO! I always heard that the reason brides smile when they're going down the aisle is because they know that they have already given their last b*** j**! I guess I need to tell my straight male friends that they need to get with a woman with a lapband.. cuz HUN-EEEEEE! You girls got it goin' ON!!!
  12. WestCoastFatGuy

    Doctor says eating too few calories...????

    Gastric bypass patients often have the same problems with plateaus that lapband patients do. Do a google search and you'll find lots of links to articles about it and posts on boards similar to the one we're on. I found one post on a gastic bypass board where a woman had lost 13 pounds after surgery but then had stalled for 4 weeks. She was very frustrated.
  13. WestCoastFatGuy

    Doctor says eating too few calories...????

    We all completely understand the emotional pain that you are going through. It totally and completely sucks! I am sooooooo proud of you for sticking with it and knowing in your heart and mind that you will succeed! You are a major inspiration to all of us that you are keeping up the fight and not giving up. That's exactly what all we all need to feel... that incredible conviction that THIS TIME is DIFFERENT! THIS TIME EVERYTHING CHANGES! THIS TIME NOTHING! NOTHING! CAN BEAT US! You made my week! Thanks so much for your spirit and support even as you are going through bandster hell! You ROCK!
  14. WestCoastFatGuy

    Please help California homeschoolers!!!!!

    I would really help myself more if I would actually type the things that are in my head instead of leaving them out of my posts. I agree that testing a 6 year old is probably not very productive. I seem to recall that we had mandatory testing in 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th and 12th grades. The tests in two of the years (6th and 10th), I believe, were different types of tests from the others. They were more concept-based than fact-based. It sounds like your state has some pretty good requirements in place. The only one that I am a little bit squeamish on is the 45-hrs of college exemption. There are far too many students who have completed 45 hrs of college that don't have a clue which end is up. But, then again.. there are lots of licensed public education teachers with multiple degrees about which I could say the same. Your post was very informative and helpful.
  15. WestCoastFatGuy

    Please help California homeschoolers!!!!!

    I don't disagree with the spirit/intent of your message. I do believe in pull-out programs, magnet schools, even homeschooling. However, never having testing just doesn't cut it in the real world. There are universities that didn't believe in a traditional grading system. Ultimately, most (if not all) finally had to resort to them because they are a tool (albeit, only one) that are used by medical schools, masters and doctoral degree programs and others to determine eligibility. Even employers often use them to make hiring decisions (hospitals, law firms, investment banks, etc.). I agree that tests don't paint a complete picture, but they do provide at least a rough outline (at a minimum) that one does not have without them.
  16. WestCoastFatGuy

    Please help California homeschoolers!!!!!

    Long before George Bush's mess of 'no child left behind' there were states that required mandatory testing of students for all schools. While I went to a small-town school in a town that was very anti-education, we weren't exempted from our state's comprehensive mandatory testing that occurred at pre-determined points from K-12. Private schools were also required to conduct the same testing. Homeschooled children were not required to do so. I don't think that Bush's idea of testing is correct in that teachers ended up 'teaching to the test', as you state. They were doing so so as to avoid having their schools taken over by the government. That's an entirely different animal than the one of which I speak. I do understand the overall statements that you are making and pretty much agree with you. I do not, however, believe that any school should be exempt from periodic mandatory testing.... public, private or homeschool. It was just such testing that forced my home state to realize that their reliance on property-tax revenues to fund schools had been a dire mistake. Wealthier areas had an unfair educational advantage over poorer areas. They changed their revenue model and the poorer areas now have much more available than they had previously.
  17. WestCoastFatGuy

    Please help California homeschoolers!!!!!

    Thanks very much for extracting this info. It gives me a very good basis to further my research. :blushing:
  18. WestCoastFatGuy

    Please help California homeschoolers!!!!!

    You are correct when you say that he is known as the Father of Progressive education. Grabbing text from your second link above: "He saw learning as an activity driven by a sense of disequilibrium on the part of the learner when faced with new ideas and experiences. Dewey believed that if the student wanted to learn they must become active within the learning process. He strongly argued that the way schools approach education, the doling out of information by the teacher, the memorization and regurgitation of this information by the student, led only to superficial learning. The role of the teacher, he argued was the creation of problems to present to the child who in turn would be motivated to resolve the problems. Dewey believed there should be a focus on the child rather than a focus on the content. He believed that the basis for learning are the natural impulses to inquire or to find things out. Dewey advocated the idea of designing school for the learners, as opposed to Frederick Taylor’s idea of the school as assembly line." As your first link above references, his progressive education ultimately branched out to what is now referred to as humanism or the humanistic approach to teaching.... which causes the hairs on the necks of many Christians and other religious believers to bristle. I personally am not of a humanistic mindset and do put my faith in God. I can, however, appreciate some of the views of humanists as well as some views of bible-literalists (even though I am not a literalist, either). For religious homeschoolers the argument against mandatory public tax-payer education is multi-fold (including teacher-to-student ratios, etc.), but particularly strong for two points: 1) Taxes paying for public schools and 2) Their taxes being used to fund teaching methods or topics of which they strongly disagree. For the non-religious homeschoolers the argument (also multi-fold), but most strongly voiced is the school funding with tax-dollars. Religious homeschoolers can easily loathe John Dewey for his progressive views that included disbelief in theism. Both types of homeschoolers strongly oppose Horace Mann's push that ultimately resulted in the U.S. adopting a tax-payer funded public education system. While I am not happy with many parts of the public education system and experience I am not able to accept some conservatives view that all public education is humanist and therefore, bad. Their extreme view of humanism may exist on some level in some schools... but not nearly to the far-reaching extent that they make it out to be.
  19. WestCoastFatGuy

    Please help California homeschoolers!!!!!

    I'm sorry, but I negelected to note that I had already reviewed that website a great deal. I am actually looking for other research locations that are not dependent on either homeschool-advocates or public/private school-advocates for their existence. The founder/primary researcher of the website you note has actually riled quite a few feathers in the homeschooling community due to his tendency to perhaps exaggerate his claims. Here's an extensive article from a pro-homeschooling site that feels that he may actually be hurting homeschooling more than helping: HEM January-February 2008 - I'm personally not against homeschooling... as I stated earlier. I am not opposed at all to parents wanting to provide more one-on-one teaching time with their children or wanting to incorporate travel into their curriculum (which is virtually impossible with the traditional school systems), for only a couple of examples. I am, however, morally opposed to parents (I believe that they are in the minority of homeschoolers) who wish to homeschool only because they want to enforce bigotry against others based upon race, creed, religion or sexual orientation. Oh, and of course with the individuals that I went to school with and referenced in an earlier post who are essentially 'anti-education' and homeschool only to avoid their children having to learn things that they don't feel are important (math beyond basic arithmetic, reading beyond the basics, history, etc).
  20. WestCoastFatGuy

    Please help California homeschoolers!!!!!

    Thanks. I appreciate it! John Dewey was the one who pushed like crazy to get public education established in the US. I wouldn't consider this a stretch at all. I believe that was more Horace Mann. He felt that children should be provided education that was supported by taxes. John Dewey was a proponent of progressive education, which at its core is against rote learning... and instead focuses on critical thinking (there are many other parts of his 'progressive' view, however, that many question).
  21. WestCoastFatGuy

    Please help California homeschoolers!!!!!

    GadgetLady... The quote from John Dewey seems to be quite chilling. Do you happen to know from which of his works it is quoted? I have read this quote on the following websites: Falling and rising [world net daily] (this site is especially near and dear to my heart because it was where I learned that I must have become gay from soy products (tongue firmly planted in cheek). Please see Soy is making kids 'gay'. American Renaissance October 2001 [american renaissance] (a website founded by Jared Taylor that focuses on how race affects issues in the world today. He has numerous interviews and debates posted on this site with his views on race, focused mostly on anti-immigration). John Dewey's philosophies are and have always been viewed by many with a squint and a tilt of the head; even among people who mostly agree with many of his views on society and education. As such, he was never able to achieve the integration of his views into the educational system as he would probably have liked. The quote that you list from him is one that I would like to view in context. I am unable to find any reference to which of his writings this quote appears. Both of the above websites use the quote but do not list the reference. Does anyone reading this happen to know where I could find it? I'm one of the people who can sort of see where some of his views could be acceptable, while others just make me wince. This quote is certainly one of the 'wincers'. As for John Dewey being the Father of the American School system? Wow... that seems like a bit of stretch. As for the Isabel Patterson quote... it doesn't give me chills. She was fervently anti-central goverment and her views are embraced by many who call themselves libertarians. From my view... just because she said it, doesn't make it correct... and I don't believe it is. I can say that George W. Bush and his cabinet have created a totalitarian state. Just because I say it, doesn't make it true. And, by definition of a totalitarian state... it isn't true.
  22. WestCoastFatGuy

    Please help California homeschoolers!!!!!

    I have read many articles about homeschooled children doing better on average than in public or private schools. By now you know from my previous posts on other topics that I love to read research and always do so with a critical eye so as to derive whether the research is fair and accurate or slanted to one viewpoint or another. The area of homeschooling has been tough for me to find conclusive research findings other than simply being stated as such in various newspaper and magazine articles. I'm sure there must be compiled information from standardized tests (perhaps ACT or SAT or others) that I am just missing. Gadget, if you know of any resources for this could you please steer me in the right direction?
  23. WestCoastFatGuy

    I Want My Band Removed Now!!!!!

    The statistic quoted is certainly daunting, but the National Weight Loss Registry, unfortunately, cannot be used to decisively prove that it is wrong. This Registry is based upon individuals "self-reporting" all information. For individuals to participate they need to have lost 30 pounds and kept it off for one year or more. The follow-up questionnaires, etc. all rely on the participants providing accurate truthful information. Unfortunately, human nature provides that these answers (especially considering weight loss and maintenance) may all too often include a "fudge factor". That is, not necessarily telling out and out lies, but maybe just altering the truth "a little bit". Over time, to avoid exposing the "little lie" another slightly bigger lie needs to be told... and on and on. I own a small company that provides consulting services in the area of clinical trials. You would be surprised that even in the serious area of cancer trials what the patient-completed drug and side effect diaries contain. We call them "parking lot diaries", because more often than not the patients forget to complete them on a daily basis and end up scribbling in the blanks when they are in the parking lot of the doctor's office. It is not at all uncommon to have a patient report that they took a total number of chemotherapy tablets that are in excess of what they were actually prescribed and given. The progress notes from the doctor usually read something like, "patient reported taking 32 doses of trial medication. Patient was only prescribed and given 28 doses. Despite this, patient continued to assert that he took 32 doses." Fortunately, the patient diary is only one small part of the clinical trials documentation process or we would never have any drugs approved by the FDA. The National Weight Control Registry does provide good information even though it is not necessarily clinically sound. Because of the large number of participants, data can be extracted regarding eating/dieting trends, exercise trends, etc. The data is not necessarily conclusive, but it can provide excellent starting points for clinical researchers to focus on when developing clinical trials.
  24. WestCoastFatGuy

    Please help California homeschoolers!!!!!

    Thanks very much for your thoughtful reply. The stop-gaps that you reference (like yearly placement testing) are a wonderful idea that clearly aid in ensuring quality home-based education. GadgetLady may be able to advise otherwise, but I am not aware of any requirement in the State of California that includes such stop-gaps. Perhaps this would strike a good balance between homeschoolers and the State's interest in education.
  25. WestCoastFatGuy

    Please help California homeschoolers!!!!!

    This is a very difficult decision for everyone involved. For those parents who are well-educated and wonderful teachers to their kids this could not be worse news. There are many well-documented examples of home-schooled kids whose education far exceeded what they could have gotten in a public or private school. Unfortunately (and here's where I am conflicted), there are a great many parents who are not remotely qualified to be doing so. I attended a very small school in rural Michigan. I was horrified to find out that there are members of my class who are homeschooling their children. The horror came because these particular people were not good students by any means and avoided any class that would challenge them. While I counted them as my friends and respected them as such, they never felt that education was important while they were going through school and still have not attended any classes post-High School that would contributed to their overall knowledge. For you parents who are out there without teaching credentials who are most likely as qualified as any person with teaching credentials to school children... can you please give me your view as to how states can enforce good education for children by eliminating parents who don't have any business teaching kids, yet not stop you from continuing to provide your own children quality education? I hope I'm not coming across as dense or obtuse, but it seems like it's a real dilemma from my perspective. I'm hoping that those of you have been or are currently homeschooling can enlighten me. Thanks in advance for offering your views.

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