Wheetsin

I can't imagine letting a guy jack off on you. Hell, I wouldn't wait long enough to ask the stewardess for help before knocking him out. :biggrin: I've always had either parents or stewardesses handle children, even on the 10+ hour international flights. I'm not sure what consequences they offer, but they've always been very effective. So maybe it happens, maybe it doesn't. Point being, a fat person taking up my seat can be fixed by that person buying another ticket. We pay for a certain amount of seat. A kid kicking the back of your seat doesn't mean you get less of your seat. Someone talking loud doesn't mean you get less of your seat. Someone's saddlebags creeping over does.

Your examples by and large can be remedied by notifying the stewardess. Not sure about the smelly person, they're probably the closest to another apple when it comes to an obese person. A loud person - ask them to be quiet, or tell your attendant. A drunk person - they can be kicked off the plane or detained until landing. Kids - trust me - attendants will take care of it. Having your seat taken up by someone else, the attendant can't really go ask them to lose weight real quick. Much like they can't ask someone to go shower real quick. But the size issue can be fixed for other flyers by requiring "POS" to purchase another seat. Boom, issue handled. If someone's smell really bothered me, another seat won't do anything, and I would have the attendant put me in one of the reserve seats.

I'm going to use a carrier. We could make it on just one of our incomes but I'll be returning to work. I love my job and have no intentions of giving it up. But I'm also a weirdo who thinks a FATHER can do as good of a job raising a child as a mother, and if one of us did stay home, it would probably be DH.

Before I got obese I had to fly next to obese people, and now that I'm much closer to a normal BMI I have to fly next to obese people, and they really do impede on your space. I can fit in the seats/seatbelts/etc. but I don't have a TON of extra space. I need what's mine, per my ticket. When someone spills over their alotted space, it takes up my space that I pay for. It's not unusual for an obese person's hips to spill past their seat, under the arm rest, and take up the seats next to them. When someone's girth is such that their abdominal fat is hanging on my arm rest, I don't get my arm rest and have to sit there with my arms across my chest or something. I paid for a seat, and even if it's only 19", it's 19" I paid for. If I'm having to lean into the aisle to accommodate someone else's girth, I should not have to pay for 19". When I was larger, and had to fly, I would pay extra for a flight with larger seats -- e.g. Midwest. It's not the fault of the person next to me that I'm fat, and I didn't think it was fair for me to take part of their seat they paid for.

You didn't vomit, you "PBed" - not an entirely accurate term, but it's the one most well-known. Please don't confuse the two, because if you tell someone "I vomitted" then medical advice, course of action, potential consequences, etc. are very different than if you tell them "I PBed" or "stuck food came up".

Southwest tends to be more vocal about this policy, but what he told her is accurate, and ALL airlines can do it. And they rarely make it a personal/private event, even though I'm sure many wish they would. YOu have to keep in mind that something like 97% of people who purchase tickets do so online, so how could the airline have any clue? Maybe they could ask weight, but then people will lie. Maybe they could ask measurements, but then people would lie. And so on. They can't do much until they see the people. But yes -- if someone has to be called out for POS, then it would be a consideration on their part to find a way to pull the person aside. The term is "POS" - person of size. That's sort of the codename they will use to call someone out. She probably doesn't feel it, but she's actually lucky. Most of the time if they go so far as to stop you, they've already identified you over the radios as a POS and are going to push you to purchase the second ticket. That's the whole policy. If you cannot get the armrests down, and they will not stay completely down on their own, then you don't fit in your seat and you "will be" (if they catch/notice you) required to buy a second seat. If the flight is full, that' the end of the story. If the flight is not full, your extra seat purchase will be refunded. If there are no more seats available, or you refuse to purchase the extra ticket, they can prevent you from boarding.

BTW, unless you're for some reason required to disclose detailed information, which I can't imagine but I've never worked for DOT so maybe, try holding back a little information. Maybe tell them "I had a medical emergency, and once I had recovered the position had already been filled" or "I ended up having to be admitted to the hospital the night before the job was to start, so I missed the first day." Something like that, maybe.

Have you thought of changing careers, even just temporarily? A job is better than no job. Go to a Target or Wal-Mart or something, retail, etc. Benefits + pay, even if the benefits aren't great, it will give you more to save toward your surgery than no job will. Does that make sense?

Just tell people you had surgery a few days ago, and didn't want to event hink about missing the wedding, but you have a graduated diet and can't eat the food just yet. No need to specify the surgery type, and if anyone wants to probe for more info, just ask them, "Why do you ask?" or tell them it's personal. If you don't want to mention any surgery, just tell them you were sick earlier that day and scared to eat much of anything, but will maybe try some crackers later that night. Why no drinking? Sip on Water or juices (if kids are coming, I'd think there will be juices there).

You NEED to stick with the food stage you're assigned to. Because something might go down doesn't mean it's OK to eat it. The food stages are there for a reason, e.g. to give the band a chance to get secured in position. Pushing the food stages can very well jeopardize the chances that this will happen. Things chewed well doesn't make them mushies, "mushy" or "soft" or whatever refers to the ORIGINAL value of the food, not the value once you've chewed it up. See this thread: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/675012-post7.html And this one: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/726734-post2.html

HOW the HECK do your interviewers know you had open heart surgery? You realize that's not something you have to tell them in an interview, yes? And I'm assuming your shirt/tie/jacket covers scarring. So how is it that open heart surgery is even coming up in an interview, and how are the "see"ing it?????

Bikini, you're just going to have to research your options. You've asked who excludes, but obviously we can't provide information on every option available to you, and it's the same with this question. I would suggest making a list of what's available to you, and then go to OH. Somewhere at some point they had a list of patients and what insurance they had used. Go through that list and make a tick mark next to each of your options, and then count up who has the most tick marks. Or, get your list of plan options, and start calling the providers and ask them if it's covered. That's going to give you much, much more reliable information that we can. A "horse's mouth" kind of thing. As you'll see, your thread didn't go more than one post without diverging away from individual plans. Not only can most people here not tell you the difference, but they don't have them. If you want someone to tell you what insurance to get (first of all, good luck), then you might want to rethink how you're going about getting your information. Maybe post a poll on type of plans, then when/if you have other individual plan users identified, follow up with them to see what they used.

Next time you have sex, call up your girlfriend and say "You owe me $10", then don't tell him what you had bet on.

When it's an employer exclusion, you really can't do much other than asking your employer to cover it. There are more strategic ways of doing this than others, e.g. by appealing to that "common sense" (ROI) rather than just saying "please" but it really just boils down to their choice. CrueFan - appealing her insurance will not get her anywhere when there's an employer exclusion. The insurance company owes her nothing because it has never been paid for WLS coverage. Her insurance company has never been paid for the WLS option, so of course they don't owe it to anyone, squeaky wheel or not. You can't have never paid for something, and then demand they give it to you for free. Employer exlcusions have NOTHING to do with them hoping you give up.

I don't watch soaps and I'm not sure I've even heard of Guiding Light. (Ok, I did watch a few seasons of Passions TIVOed from SciFi because I went to school with one of the actors and thought it was hilarious). I'm confused tho. A RL actress on the show had lap-band, and now they've worked it into her character's storyline? So the actress WAS fat on the show, but is NOW skinny and has also NOW gotten a gastric strap while skinny? Or she wasn't on the show until she was already skinny, and now her skinny character has a strap? (Replace skinny with average, normal, etc. - it's just easier to type).

Marketing 101 -- to hold most male interest, it has to be competition. Think of TV shows or networks that might not typically cater to men (style, gardening, food, etc.) and chances are that in the last 5 or so years, there has been a HUGE increase in competition-based shows to try and bring in the male viewers. It doesn't matter what the subject is, if it's a competition you can get the average guy to pay attention. Guys need a "team" to "root" for, or some sense of "winning" over someone else, etc. So try to see it as their way of being interested, even if it's second-hand. They are guys, after all... :biggrin:

I'm beginning to think more and more that surgeons, outside of pre-op diets, advocate for lower carbs because most people do lose weight with carbs decreased and the more weight you lose, the better their numbers are. I've seen very few surgeons distinguish in their diets between simple carbs and complex carbs. If I didn't eat my complex carbs, my food pickings would go way down, they're among most of my favorite foods. In fact, they will say "avoid carbs" in one sentence, and "eat beans" in the next... which is just going to confuse 95% of the population out there who is going to see the somewhat high carb count of the Beans and not get why they can eat them...

The carriers don't bother me either. No kids yet, still a few months away from that, but I help my friends with their babies and when it's sleep time, it's much nicer to remove the carrier seat than unstrap them from a regular baby seat. And in restaurants doesn't bother me either, the restaurant should be seating the people in a place where they aren't obstructing customers (e.g. don't put a couple + carrier at one of those tiny 2-man booths). I've never seen a carrier put on a chair at a restaurant unless the chair was flipped over. Some restaurant chairs re designed so that the legs make a 4 point support for standard carrier sizes. Usually I see the carriers in one of those "hammock" type holders, or mom and dad will put it on the table with them, so they can interact with the baby as they eat. I also don't care for it when people place the carrier over the children's seat of shopping carts. I've witnessed more than one tip over so I personally don't trust it to be a safe arrangement. Either the dad carrying, or cross-wise across the actual cart part. I see mothers carrying their babies all the time, just not so much while they're doing tasks easier accomplished with two hands. We've started looking at strollers, carriers, etc. and I know we'll be buying a carrier, and using it. That doesn't mean I will never hold the baby. Does it also bother you to see children who have outgrown their carrier, but aren't yet suitable walkers, pushed around in strollers? Do you think they should always be carried, too? Or is it just the ones young enough to still be in carriers?

I've not come across any bandsters from your area. We go through Salina every odd year on our way to the Lindsborg Hyllningsfest, but that doesn't get you help with support. Hope you can find someone, and if not - we're here virtually.

I'd pay the cost of a lap-band for someone like Wentworth Miller to be my slave, and then I'd just make him stand there so I could look at him. Mmm. Or Bob Villa, 'cause we're hoping to sell our house in the next year or so and don't want to do any maintenance. But not that creepy ebay guy. So wrong on so many levels.

Stalls around week 3 should be expected.

Has your doc ever tested your potassium?

You know, OP was clueless and tacless, that's for sure, but there is a lot of drama here. And I don't mean RnR drama, I mean "boo-hoo" drama. For example: OMFG day 1 of pre-op and I'm STARVING and I don't know what to do! Probably since you're fat and have been dieting less than 24 hours, and have ingested sustenance of some type today, you're not starving. If you really were, you'd probably be trying to eat your fingers because starvation hurts and we revert to core primal instincts in our reptilian brains to avoid it. So quit telling us you are, and more importantly -- quit telling yourself you are. It's going to be as bad as you let it. OMFG give up rice? That's horrible! Now to me, a building full of puppies and cash burning up completely with nothing intact is horrible, not your MAYBE innability to eat rice. And I bet that if you really took the time and put things into perspective, it wouldn't really be that horrible after all. Scary - sure. Intimidating - perhaps. But horrible? I dare say not at all. Now, is it really that horrible? THis is the worst pain of my life what do I do? Unless you're remarkably blessed with a pain-free life, this probably isn't the worst pain you've felt in your life. I've been through some pretty damn painful things, and when I rate them, my top 15 or so are waaaay beyond "I could get online and have enough rational thought left to post about it." So probably it's not the worst pain ever, since you're able to be here sharing it with us. And probably you should quit telling yourself it's the worst pain ever, because the more you say it the more you will believe it. I don't think we do people much service when we validate irrational thoughts for them. And we all know there's a lot of people out there looking for those who will do just that. E.g. someone breaks up with their boyfriend, and wants to sit and cry about it for 3 weeks because life has no meaning. The worst thing you can do is say, "You're right" or "You have every right to cry" or "I would do the same thing". We say that to try and make the person feel better, but what are we really accomplishing? It's no different here. When a pre-op diet is horrible, and we say yes, it is -- I wonder how much of their drive to do it right we've just killed. "Stinking thinking". </rant>

It's possible, they could cancel your surgery or opt to do you open (cut wide open, not laparoscopic). The main purpose of the pre-op diet is to reduce the size of your liver. If the surgeon gets in there and it is not reduced enough, s/he may not be able to proceed.

tapshoes, when I was in a similar situation as you, back when I lost weight quickly - hehe, I would buy 3 sizes if having something really mattered. The size I currently needed, and the next two down. Then come the day, I would refund whichever 2 didn't work. Saved my butt several times.