Wheetsin

We had a good conversation about this at work yesterday. I'd rather see people not vote if they aren't aware of what they're voting for. A few people here were saying they're pretty much ignorant of what means what, but vote because they can - so they go in and vote for things based on criteria like "neat name". Yeah, it's their right to do so, no problems there, but what a waste.

By the way, Sunta - praise Flying Spaghetti Monster! Happy to see a convert.

Church and state are supposed to be separate, but as a true measure of freedom it's lacking. I was thrilled to read the news. Let's hope other states can be as smart. Love is love.

<HR style="COLOR: #d1d1e1" SIZE=1> <!-- / icon and title --><!-- message --> Do Males and Females lose diffrently or react to the band in other ways? React to the band differently - not that I know of. Not physically, anyway. Lose differently - very often they do, but I don't want to make a generalization out of that. Typically the male metabolism lends itself to quicker weightloss. Particularly with "low carb" diets (which many bandsters end up following). A niggling little fear that I have is losing muscle mass, I know I will lose some becuase hopefully I will not be carrying around a 160 lbs of fat but I do not want to lose too much. Have any of you noticed a loss of muscle?:phanvan I'm sure that I have lost muscle, not it is not evident, neither in my physical abilities nor in my physical appearance. E.g. I can still flex my thigh and see the thigh muscle, just as I could before LB, but now I see a lot more definition b/c there isn't as much fat blocking my view. :cool: This question may sound a little vain:embarassed: but, has your social life improved since you have lost weight? No, BUT I have noticed a BIG difference in how I'm treated - already, and I still have a ways to go. I've been getting a LOT of attention from guys lately, almost overnight, and 120# ago I couldn't get the time of day. I have a BMI of 45 but I do not consider myself "morbid" I can get around under my own power (tying shoes suck though lol) and I work, I can do hard physical labor with few problems due to my weight. Will this hurt my chances when I go to the doctor? "Morbid" refers in part to the likelihood of life threatening complications coming about as a result of the obesity. I was morbidly obese, but I had no comorbidities, no mobility problems, no health problems, no secondary risk factors, etc. I honestly didn't expect to be approved, and had alreasy planned to self pay. I was as healthy as I could possibly be, while being 200# overweight. I was approved on the first try, I didn't have to submit any documentation other than the paperwork I gave to the program coordinator and the required medical history. I didn't have to prove a medically supervised diet. I just gave her my paperwork and then got a call that I had been approved. I was actually surprised by how easy it all was, I definitely expected that due to my relatively healthy state, I would have to fight for coverage. But that's insurance, and you asked doctor. My PCP was all for the idea. She said that the lack of physical challenges, clean bill of health, good vitals, etc. made me the ideal candidate. My surgeonasked what I'd done on my own to try and lose the weight, but did not try to "hassle" me at all about having the procedure done. Hope this helps.

Clarification - absolutely weight loss can impact your "stats". I was referring to: "As soon as I left the hospital, my diabetes were gone, and my blood pressure was at a normal range". I call a big old BS on that one. :cool:

I don't believe it. How would the person even know? There is often rapid weight loss in the beginning, which can contribute to loss substantial enough to eliminate the need for maintenance medications. But in the beginning, for maybe 3 - 6 weeks, dependong in the person, you can expect 40% - 60% of the weight loss to be Water weight. I've never heard of anyone getting off of insulin because they were dehydrated. :girl_hug: Don't let one ignorant claim distill your confidence in your decision, or in the band.

So true. Very, very, very few molesters engage in acts of molestation for sexual pleasure. It's much more about control, aggression, retaliation, etc. Think of a negative behavior, and feel assured that there is deeper meaning there than you can see. Most people don't commit suicide because they're tired of living, they do it to hurt someone else. I assisted in a counseling session with a pedophile once, a man who had a fondness for pre-pubescent girls. He had a disorder that left him with a very small penis. His efforts at normal sexual relationships all ended in him being made fun of, rejected, isolated and deeply inadequate, which was internalized into aggression toward women. He started taking this aggression out on young girls. Why young girls? Because he could easily control them, because they would submit to him and cry and do all of the things he needed them to do in order to feel that he was once again in charge of things. And also because they were sexually inexperienced, and "wouldn't know any better" or know to make fun of him about the size of his penis. He was disgusted by him actions. He hated that he did it. Yet he continued to do it because his drive to achieve all of the feelings that the molestation gave him (not sexual feelings, but the control feelings) was greater than his will to stop molesting. This is just one experience, but hopefully it helps to show the kinds of things other than sexual gratification that drive the behavior. It is a mental illness. Although under entirely different circumstances, "I hate that I do this, I want to stop doing this, I just can't help but do it and sabotage myself" -- I heard that with him, and I hear it here. And I hear it with alcoholics. I don't hear it as frequently with drug abusers, but I do hear it. For people with an addiction disorder, what they get out of doing something is so strong and so powerful that they cannot break the cycle of doing it, just as it was with the man and young girls. It's not saying "overeating is the same thing as raping a child", it's saying both things are driven by stuff buried deep down, and that on a fundamental level both can be driven by the same root behaviors... it's just a completely different means of expression. You know, a few weeks ago at a support group I sometimes go to, the program's psychologist came to talk with us. Without calling it such, he was talking about the compulsion to overeat, and eating addiction, and how to change the behaviors around overeating... how to re-channel the energy and effort without getting into a cycle of swapping addictions. During his talk, the nurse who was there leading the session, her cell phone rang. Her ring was the theme of some TV show. A few people recognized the tone and started giggling. To excuse the interruption she said, "Well I guess we all have our addictions." I made the comparison to: One of these days I'm going to lead a support group for child molesters, and when I walk in I'm going to throw down my Prada bag and say, "Well, we all have our temptations." And then I'm going to ask the group if they feel supported. BTW, the man I referened above had never been molested. He came from a very warm, nurturing, stable household.

Opening this up for discussion, not judgement or criticism. One of the things I've witnessed here that has always made me raise my eyebrow a bit is people's questions about -- and others' willingness to help -- "beat the system", so to speak. I haven't seen the topic come up in a while, but when I first joined it was fairly common for someone to want advice on how to qualify for the lap-band, even though they don't qualify. And there was a lot of advice given about putting sand in clothes, weights in shoes, forcing down a gallon of Water before being weighed, etc. Opening this up for discussion - in general - is it ok to "nudge" the system this way? Is there anything wrong with doing it? What's the line between what's "ok" to nudge, and what isn't?

Oh, and if you like parsley, chewing (not eating) parsley is something that a lot of Atkins people had good luck with. It was one of the best options since it wasn't loaded with carbs, and didn't contain artificial sweetners (which can cause major stalls).

Sounds like ketosis breath (ketosis is NOT "starvation mode", btw - totally different things... you can enter ketosis in a matter of a few days, starvation mode takes a LOT longer, and totally different physiological processes going on). I had to deal with it when I was on Atkins. You have to be careful now though b/c if you accidentally swallow a mint or gum, you could be in for a lot of hurting. I can't think of the name of the mints I use but they're tiny, liquid filled capsules. The capsules are like gelatin - eventually disolve. So if you accidentally swallowed one, it's probably not big enough to get stuck anyway, but if it somehow did, it would dissolve quickly. I think they're under the IceBreakers line.

My typical day: Breakfast - nothing. lunch - pepperoni chips (25) with some cream cheese or half a Chipotle bol. Snack - not usually needed, but if so I will get a 100 calorie snack pack of either Oreo or Chips Ahoy. dinner - a half a fish filet or about 1/3 chicken breast, about 2 or 3 spoons of some vegetable. After dinner - try to get in a 2x Protein shake (two scoops, 42g protein) w/ Carb Countdown 2% milk, about 16oz total.

I used to. I used to eat a lot of McD's, and of course the Monopoly game justified buying the larger portions. Never won squat. I just reazlied - I've only been to McD's three times since being banded. Once I ordered a chicken nugget happy meal, ate one and a half nuggets, and threw the rest away. The other two times have been while travelling and I've just ordered the fruit n' yogurt parfait.

I'm glad you switched if you were not feeling comfortable about proceeding with your first choice. I'm also glad you took a stand for your own health. Doctors get away with things that we wouldn't tolerate from just about anyone else. Where else would we go for an appointment at 12, and still be waiting at 3? Not many places. Good for you!

Actually there could be an indirect link. 2 or 3 years ago I read an article in a magazine (don't remember which one, but something health/fitness related as it was at my gym) that was looking at the frequency of colon cancer and undetermined colonic polyps among people who have high protein, low fiber diets. It was part of an "investigation" on whether or not low carb/high protein diets were effective and safe in the long run. I don't remember the numbers, it was so long ago, but there was an interesting read. The rates were significantly higher, if I remember correctly, but far from conclusive. Maybe something like 30% more likely? But with a lot of variables in the study, that doesn't necessarily mean much. Wish I could remember which magazine it was in.

I am so sorry, accidentally just deleted your thread. I had responded to it, and meant to edit an an error in my response, and long story short accidentally wiped it right out. Please feel free to repost, it wasn't deleted intentionally. And if you are one of the people who had responded, please re-respond and help me not look stupid.

I'm about 5'11 too, and am a LONG way from what I can "get away with"!!

There are local areas for Kansas and Missouri on the board, but not for specific cities. Though coty groups are welcome to form under the state areas. There's a group of us across KS & MO who have sort of "come together" by virtue of having used the same surgeon. We met in the surgeon's support group, but use this board as our main way of communicating, and have tapered off with the support group in favor of our own local gatherings. Stop by and say hi. Here's a link to our little "home away from home". We just met in OP for dinner, and will probably do something else in the near future. http://www.lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?p=316760#post316760

I had to meet with one pre-op, but haven't been back since. I did call her once... my appetite never came back, and I'd go all day eating maybe an ounce or two of food, so I called her to ask if there were any other supplmenents I should add other than what she'd already told me to take. That was bout 2 months post-op and now I couldn't even tell you her name.

Ok someone clue me in. "A wooden spoon isn't just for cooking anymore." What do WLS patients use wooden spoons for?

I can understand that. When we can't get out of state for it we scuba in Joplin/Oronogo - it's a long & boring drive. You can't get me to do it outside of scuba season. Best of luck. If you can't find anything local, feel free to hop aboard here. Even if you can find something local, feel free.

I am not. Maybe search the MO forum for "joplin" and see if you get any hits? If you don't find a group, maybe you can at least find someone from there, who could help you out. Another place you could start would be calling the local hospitals and asking them if they have bariatric surgeons on staff, or if they sponsor any bariatric support group meetings. If nothing else you could search OH. They have a *great* listing of surgeons by state/city.

Looks like that's just something they have as part of a glossary? All it says to me is - weight reduction isn't considered medically necessary treatment for MO. As in, if they cover "weight reduction" procedures they would cover things like Weight Watchers, but not Lap-Band. And if they do not cover "weight reduction", they would not cover Weight Watchers, but may cover Lap-Band (depending on what it says about bariatrics).

Expect to still be under general anesthesia.

Don't know if it helps your options any, but you can get medic alert jewlery in just about any form: necklaces, earrings, rings, pins, etc. I asked my surgeon about this and his opinion was that it's not something to worry about, especially considering the frequency of bariatric patients now versus just a year or two ago. Again, just his opinion. It's a valid concern. Like with most things around this surgery, the chances of it ever being an issue are extremely small. But you should be more worried if you *weren't* concerned about things like this than if you are.

Hi 5jacks, are you on the MO or KS side of KC? I'm in KCMO, about 15 minutes east of KCI. There is a good-sized group of us on here, ranging both states and in all directions. I've not used Dr. Malley but I've heard of him. He's the one who runs all the commercials, I believe. I've heard of Dr. Lopez but not great things.