Wheetsin

That position kills me. But it is so worth it. I brought this question up at a support group meeting. The nurse said it was just the movement of the muscle and that as long as it wasn't severe/prolonged, it wouldn't hurt anything. Next time try lifting your butt up a butt. Either have DH put his hands under and lift for you, or swquish a pillow or two under you. I ca't guarantee it will make any difference, but it works for me. You can do everything else the same, but having the body as a slight incline seems to make a huge difference in the pain.

<p>Diane, that's so awesome and I'm so happy for you. I plan to be there myself someday (after kid). As for the drains - wish I could advise but I've never had them. I have asked, though, because even though my TT is at least a year or two away, I'm already anxious about it. Just kinda gives me the creeps, you know? So I asked Puddin on here to pay attention to what it felt like and she said she didn't really feel anything. I've asked others I know IRL and I've heard a mix of "didn't feel a thing," and "hurt like hell," and "felt... weird." Nothing in between. Just invest in a plastic dental tray, like they give to people who grind their teeth. For DH's sake. :Banane35:

Don't believe that TriCare has approved the band unless you hear it from a TriCare person (more than two or three times at that.) If someone tells you it is approved, get their name. My mother is trying to get banded through TriCare. She calls every Monday. As of about 9:15am CST this morning, it was still excluded. She has found somewhere between 4 and 6 MTFs that do the band. I don't know how long the waiting lists are but they're through part of next year already (from what she has told me, I have not called them myself).

Oh, they also won't (usually) count things like Weight Watchers as a supervised weightloss attempt, even though it's supervised, because it isn't medically supervised. For this to count, you would have had to go to your doctor's in conjunction with the weightloss plan, because the insurance company is still looking for those obesity procedure codes...

Probably not. I can't speak specifically to BCBS, but most insurance companies are looking for 6 months of supervised doctor's visits for the sole purpose of monitoring weightloss. This means you go, and your diagnosis is obesity - not back pain or flu or what have you, and you happened to get weighed while you were there. The insurance companies will check the treatment codes. There's not really a way around this one.

Of course you can eat as much, you aren't filled yet. The band can't do its job until you have some restriction. For some people this happens pre-fill. For the majority, it does not. Yes, you still have a "pouch" (we don't really have pouches, we have a compartmentalized esophagus).

I'm very critical (silently) of others' eating now. Especially people who are obese. Like finally doing something about my problems give me the right to think that way towards others I know... weird. When I first read the title of this thread, my initial reaction was "No, just the fat ones." I would say the average meal at an average restaurant should feed about 3 people. And I don't mean 3 bandsters.

BlooEyez - when you have your 2nd PB, try to stick with liquids for the rest of the day. You may have lucked out. Usually if you PB, you will be significantly swollen and the stoma can be more constricted than normal, meaning your chances of repeat PBs are MUCH MUCH higher.

I've worked at national level charities and I know too much about what goes on behind the scenes to donate anything to them. I tried freecycle but (like Alexandra) had some unsavory experiences of the "I'll take everything, what else ya got?" kind. Then I saw some of the things I had given away for sale on ebay. So I posted some on ebay. I made $$$ off them, seriously! More than I paid. But it takes time, and who has that? I've given away bags and bags to local bandsters, but now I'm prety much out of touch with them. My short term solution - I have seriously rented a storage unit to house the clothes. And other things as well, don't get me wrong. But I know there's a minimum of 20 "Ziploc XXXL bags", 20 - 30 Rubbermaid totes, 10+ 55g trash bags, and two 100g storage chests crammed full of clothes. And that's just the stuff I can remember. Let's not forget everything I've forgotten, and everything around the house still. Yes even at 32+ I was a clothes horse. Now I'm between 14 & 18, and I bought a full wardrobe for every single size. That's a LOT of clothes (and I don't even want to think about how much money!) I've been seriously considering taking them to one of those "sell your ebay stuff for you" places. They take like a 10% - 15% commission, but handle everything including the shipping. Similar convenience, I would imagine, as consignment shops. SERIOUSLY thinking about doing that.

Commercials part 3

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIsHj3DNGUc]Commercials part 2[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eEGjXObPRQ]Commercials they should air, but don't[/ame]

Great video

She is still around. She had some issues with her account that we had to work through, but all is well and I'm sure she will return as soon as she has the time. She knows we miss her!

This isn't new news, but I just heard about it tonight. Very interesting. Here's my non-scientific explanation: Scientists are in the second stages of testing a vaccine that tricks the body into thinking that it is being attacked by the nicotine molecules. This causes the release of antibodies that bind to the nicotine. The molecules themselves are small enough to make their way into the brain, but when bound to an antibody, they are too large. This prevents the nicotine from entering the brain and - as such - decreases the the activity of the nerve cells that are effected by the nicotine molecules. In other words, people can still smoke, and still have ill health effects, but the addiction can be diminished because smokers would no longer get the same stimulation they get from smoking. Results of testing so far are showing a success rate of smoking cessation near 60%. The highest that any other methods can claim is a low of about 3% for "cold turkey" and a high of about 30% for prescription aids such as Zyban - with an average success rate in the 20s (therapy, OTC treatments, etc.) This could have some amazing ethical implications.

Just a suggestion, not moderation - why not just let it go? People have had their say. Everyone wants to "move on". That's not going to happen as long as this stuff continues.

Venting is good, and we're good at it here. Maybe I can help make sense of some of the things you're experiencing. Doesn't it seem like we lose weight at a snails pace compared to everyone else? By we do you mean people with the band, or just people who are significantly overweight? Even worse, it seems like we GAIN weight faster than everyone else. This I have noticed. Gain on the tail end of loss is predictable. I think rate of gain also has to do with the extent to which we overeat. E.g. take a "normal" person who has lost 10 lbs, and may gain back 2. And a "fat" person who has lost 50 lbs, and may gain 15. Two things working against the fat ones - the amount they lost (which usually has a strong correlation to the amount that is gained), and the way in which the weight is gained. The "normal" person doesn't have an eating problem, the "fat" person does. Chances are the fat person is consuming a helluva lot more calories, hence the quicker weight gain. Have you ever been on a diet, stuck to every single little rule and didn't cheat even just a little bit - then, one day you have a morsel of something "bad" and gain 2 pounds?? This experience is exactly what kills so many diets before they even have a chance to kick in. People defeat themselves way too quickly. If you've been around a while you've seen me say it more than once - weight does not equal fat. Weight is your skin, everything on it, and everything in it. Fat is fat. During the first 7 - 10 days of a diet, especially a full omission diet (where some thing or things are excluded, e.g. low fat, low carb -- as opposed to a redcuded calorie diet where the overall calories are viewed rather than individual types of foods), your body is fighting like mad to keep the fat on. I won't go into the sordid details, but one byproduct of that battle is to retain things like Water and glycogen. What happens most of the time is that -- maybe some fat is lost, meube it's not, but it certainly isn't gained. However, the body is being greedy with all the things it's trying to hold on to, and not releasing the way it does when you're in a dietary equilibrium. This means you weigh more than you did a week ago, even if you have less fat on your body. People see that jump in the scale and say, "F it, I'm 2# heavier, this diet isn't working" when - if they could have just given it a little while longer - their body would have adjusted and they would have started to see the difference. And then there's the specific restriction leaps and bounds. Take low carb diets for example. While in a state of ketosis, the body uses a lot of water. Most people don't adequately increase their intake, so their body is continuously in a state of mild dehydration (that's on TOP of the dehydration most people are always in). When you break ketosis, you will gain water weight. It's pretty much a guaranteed thing. It can be as little as a pound, or as much as 18+ pounds. People on low carb diets in ketosis will "cheat", break their ketosis, see they've gained 10 lbs overnight, NOT make the distinction between "gain" and "fat gain" and give up because all of their sacrifice has been for nothing. This is why scale's aren't the way to go. I'm so frustrated I could scream! I'm on my pre-op liquid diet, been good as gold for 8 days and I've lost 5 measly pounds! GRRRRRR! I remember when I could lose 5 pounds in 2 days, now it takes me 8 whole days of nothing but liquid??!! Liquid diets usually aren't for weightloss, they're usually for a specific outcome, e.g. shrinking the liver, giving intestinal issues time to "take it easy," flushing some part of the body, etc. Try not to let yourself be frustrated by this. Part of it could be your age (you mention remembering the day -- also remember that your body has changed since then), part of it could be the liquids... there are SO many variables here. So frustrating. I really think that years of yo-yo dieting has messed with my metabolism. No worries here, it can't happen. Your body - if subjected to extreme dieting - becomes more efficient at storing fat. This "unexplained" weight gain, coupled with the additional challenges in weightloss that can come with age, hormonal changes, etc., and the body's natural tendency to change its own composition (which yoyo dieting can add to - remember, the body always tries to hold on to the fat it has... yo-yo dieting can make your body, well, to make a long story short, your body can become less sure of where its next meal is coming from, and want to hold on to even more fat, just in case... hence your equilibrium state is now fatter than it used to be). I know I didn't gain this weight over night, and I know it'll take a long-long-LONG time to lose it... but 5 pounds?? Come on! And I would say to you, 5 pounds in 8 days?? Come on, what more do you want!?!? :cool: Of course now I'm concerned with what will happen when I'm banded (this Friday). I know I'll go crazy when I see the scale creeping along, or even stopping after surgery. It's just so frustrating. The ideal thing would be to hide the scale - been there, done that. I always talk myself into stepping on it. I try not to be obsessive with the numbers, but, how can you not be? It's not that hard to get away from. It really does work to get rid of the scale. Just throw it away. It doesn't tell you what you need to know. If you want to do something compulsively, invest in a body fat meter, or hell - a $4 tape measure. Those will give you a much better idea of the changes in your body than a scale will. I'm really discouraged and really just plain bummed out. I know it'll take a while, but, I'm literally starving on this #$#%$ pre-op diet and so disappointed. I know we've all felt like this - I just needed to vent. And vent away. It's good for you. And understanding why some of these things may help.

Stretchmarks can become less noticeable, but will never go away unless as a previous poster mentioned, the skin is removed. Hydration should help with the itchies. You can also try something like Calamine lotion. If you go the moisturizer route, you may as well use a good quality soothing lotion, something like Aveeno or another brand that uses colloidal oatmeal oils might do wonders.

My port is in a different area, keep that in mind. My first fill, done under a local, hurt like hell. Not the fill itself, but the numbing. Hurt much, much worse than you'd think a lidocaine shot would hurt. Second fill (and all subsequent fills) I requested no local, and they didn't hurt a bit. Just the teeniest, tiniest prick - seriously less noticeable than getting blood drawn. Once the needle is through the skin, Idon't feel a thing.

It reads to me that surgical treatments for obesity, post-op aesthetic treatments such as plastic surgery, and treatment programs such as Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig are excluded from your policy. Usually specific procedures aren't listed as exclusions. So, for example, they will say something like "surgical treatment of morbid obesity" instead of listing each and every procedure out there. They would never list "lap-band" so don't bother looking for it. Lap-band is a brand name, not a generic term. "Adjustable gastric banding" is usually what it's referred to as, but if surgical treatment of morbid obesity is excluded, the band would normally be part of that. There is a procedure code for adjustable gastric banding posted here. I don't remember what it is, but run a search. Then just call and ask if that's covered. If you can't find the code, call and ask about adjustable gastric banding as a surgical treatment for morbid obesity.

I'm not a mom, so forgive the piping up, but I would have some serious reservations about a 16 y/o's ability to make the behavioral changes and comittment that come with being banded. Then again, 300# and only 16 -- those certainly aren't circumstances you see every day. I don't know any teenage bandsters. I do know teenage RnYers, and compliance is a big facor for them. Huge. Also, Puddin has done fantastic and I certainly don't mean to take anything away from her, but you (your daughter) have to keep in mind that she has also had plastic surgery. Most of us don't look like that, even at goal. If your daughter has been overweight most of her life, she probably won't either. My advice is to make sure she is realistic about what she will accomplish in what amount of time, and without additional medical assistance. Maybe I missed this somewhere, but if you're divorced, and you have custody, why do you need to convince your ex that this is the right thing?