MacMadame

The question is does it go into the triangle shape when it is wrapped around your stomach. The answer is: no it doesn't.

Wow, rockbandster, you never give up do you? If you look at many studies of lap bands, the two bands perform the same both in the short term and long term. If you just pick out one study, you can find ones that make Lap-band look bad or ones that make the Realize band look bad compared to each other. But if you look at all the studies, you see that average EWL is similar with both bands.

So 1.7 sounds in between aggressive and conservative. That's probably good.

I went to a party at Mr. Mac's train club tonight. I haven't seen most of these people since Aug (i.e., 40 lb. ago) and I haven't seen the rest of them in over a year (60 lb. ago). Did even one person even say "You're looking good?" let alone "You've lost weight!" Nooooooo...... People suck.

I haven't got a foreign object in my body. So I guess I'm doing it the "natural" way. :wink2: Personally I think dieting is very *unnatural* and that's part of why it doesn't work. Anyone who know me knows that research is my middle name. People told me over and over pre-op that with my research, I'd be a great WLS post-op. Then I had surgery. Good lord, what an ADJUSTMENT! I'm glad I did the research I did and I'm glad I start practicing the post-op life early, but even so it's been a big adjustment to actually have the surgery. It's just not something you can really understand until you do it. Kind of like marriage and having kids, in fact.

Well I'm not surprised.... does that count? :wink: So, I'm confused... Kirstie Alley had WLS?

I think Cheetohs are disgusting. Which is good because my kids and Mr. Mac like them so they are often in the house. I win. Now, now, if plain can't start political fights, you can't either, even if I agree with you. :wink: What exactly do you do again? We never discussed it last time. People said "no politics" so I shut up. I respectfully suggest you start another thread if you want to actually discuss the subject.

I see you didn't get an answer in this forum. Have you tried the Texas forum?

I see you didn't get an answer here. How much did you get filled?

You may be swollen, moreso in the morning than later in the day. If you are, then even 1/2 ccs could be too much for you even if you had more before when you weren't swollen. Taking the fill out until the swelling goes down is pretty much the only answer, if that's the problem.

I think it's helpful to know what Head Hunger is. Because a lot of times my daughter will insist that she's hungry when it is clearly head hunger. I think we all do this to some extent. So ... Real hunger comes on gradually as the body slowly consumes the last meal it had. It can be satisfied by a wide variety of foods because it's about fuel, not a craving. Head hunger comes on suddenly, usually in response to a trigger of some sort. It often is a hunger for a specific food. With my dd, we'll pass McDonald's and she'll say "I'm hungry!" But the only thing she wants is a McFlurry --nothing else will satisfy her -- and 5 minutes after McD's is out of sight, she's not hungry any more. That's classic head hunger. The other type is where you find yourself in front of the fridge and you have no idea how you got there. You may feel a vague uneasiness (which you are interpreting as hunger). This one can sometimes be satisfied by any food (like real hunger) but sometimes nothing look good unless it's quick and easy -- which often means not good for you.

If we're not supposed to talk about politics in this thread, that includes you....

I think the exclusionary factor would be if you do those things and are clearly not committed to changing them post-op. Except who can judge that pre-op? I don't think the shrink visit can really determine that. (In fact, the way most shrinks do it, it's a complete waste of time.) But if you *could* judge, then we could save people a lot of grief by not giving them WLS when they are just going to sabatoge themselves afterwards. Oh, nevermind. I think it's all too Big Brother-ish for me.

How in God's name is the BCS system something Congress should be making laws about?!

I tell everyone about my surgery. I'm just a big mouth.

It makes you awesome. Plus, it's a nice change. I'm glad you are feeling happier.

I don't know why he doesn't do it all at once. The band will still have given you scar tissue, and sometimes that may need to heal, but most of the time it seems people get the band out and revised in the same surgery if it's at all possible. Did he say why he wants to do it in two stages?

Welcome to LapBandTalk and congrats on your band! If you don't get any answers here, try the Special Interest sections ... Jewish Bandsters - Lap Band Surgery and Lap Band Discussion Forum

Aw, you can be band mother-daughters instead of band sister. And rats are awesome! (Well, pet rats; not the wild kind.)

So what makes you think this time will be different and that you didn't give it your all at least some of those other times in your 25 years of dieting? I gave it my all when I lost 70 lb. for my wedding. I dieted right through the holidays and didn't cheat once -- and I was on prepackaged food, not WW points, so that means NOT ONE piece of candy, slice of pumpkin pie, etc. Then, I fought the regain like no-one's business. It took me 8 years to regain that 70 lbs, not the usual 1-5 years. But regain I did. If I couldn't keep it off then -- and all the other times after that -- I didn't see the point in one more "serious" attempt.

I was thinking about this last night when I was watching Big Medicine. It was the episode where Garth's sister had trouble with her band and had to fly in for an unfill. She got banded at a size 14 at the urging of her family who could see that she was losing the battle with obesity in spite of working hard to fight it. That was me at her age. Not having surgery in my 20s didn't prevent me from becoming morbidly obese. It's not like my only problem was that I just didn't try hard enough to lose weight or that I just hadn't found the "right" diet yet. My problem was that my body was genetically programmed for obesity and nothing I tried was going to work. I do think that if your BMI is under 35, the risk-benefit equation changes. Because of that, I can see why a lot of people in the 30 to 34 range aren't running out and having surgery. But I can also see why some of them are. If you have fought your weight all your life and you are losing the fight, there isn't any point in waiting until you've suffered big time defeat IMO.

Psst... Ceredad... the earth is round. Actually the center of the universe thing is kind of a myth too. At the time of Galileo, most scientists didn't believe that. It was the Church who was out to get Galileo that prosecuted him for blasphemy, not other scientists, whose main fault at that time was keeping their mouths shut so they wouldn't get prosecuted too.

So you are saying that the polar ice caps *aren't* melting. Sorry, but that's a fact, honey.

This may be an unpopular opinion but I think surgery shouldn't be a last resort once a person has at least 100 lb. to lose. That's because scientific studies show that these people will not be able to lose weight on their own and keep it off. So making them jump through other hoops is jeopardizing their health. In fact, I will go so far as to say that if we have a treatment that works, it's unethical to withhold it from people who can benefit from it. I also think it's unethical to force them to go through another treatment that we know doesn't work first to "prove" they are at their last resort. The bottom line for me is that morbid obesity kills more people than WLS does.

Well I know I'm going to have to get a tummy tuck -- or at least a panni-removal. But that's because I already met the criteria for insurance paying for the later before I even lost a pound. But I'm pretty sure I won't need a tigh lift or the arm thingie(sorry, I'm not even going to try to spell that one) or anything done to my butt or quite a few other things. I'm probably going to need a breast reduction too. I've wanted one for years but wasn't willing to do it when I was so overweight in case I ever lost the weight. I didn't want to reduce to a C and then lose to an A. Even if he's correct? After all, he's just quoting respected scientists; it's not like he came up with the theory all by his lonesome.