MacMadame

Define normal? :thumbup: Some offices do it. so it's not unheard of, but it's not universal either. They call it a program fee. It covers all your aftercare and some other stuff that generally insurance won't cover. Of course, if you have insurance that covers this stuff, it's annoying, because they won't waive it for you. My surgeon has a big staff that we can access. This includes a nutritionist, a counselor, a monthly newsletter, seminars all over the area each month, a surgical coordinator, a patient coordinator, and some other staff. Someone has to pay for it and much of that stuff isn't going to be covered by insurance. (Though mine would cover the nutritionist and counselor. Too bad they don't cover the actual surgery!) OTOH, some surgeons don't have program fees or have much smaller fees. Sometimes this is because they don't have those expenses. Which means the after-care may not be as good. Sometimes it's because they are working through a hospital or other non-profit and the expenses are covered in other ways. Because I was self-pay, I didn't have to decide if it was worth it to me to pay the program fee that my surgeon charges. I feel for you being put in this position.

I forgot that I came here to post this: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4xfMisqab8]YouTube - Olbermann Special Comment: Proposition 8[/ame]

No, you beat people over the head with your interpretation of what you think God says. My feeling is that if your only argument is "because God said so" then you don't have much of an argument. It's still asinine and therefore not worth repeating. The Supreme Court of CA disagrees with you. They say marriage is a fundamental right and that's why they struck down the original initiative.

I think it's misleading when people say "you'll never feel hungry again". You won't feel appetite hunger caused by ghrelin for at least the first year, but there are other ways our body tells us that we're hungry and we do feel those.

They do at Bible College! Hey, I'm back from Vegas, babee. We went shopping and Mini-Mac fell in love with Ann Taylor. I think I have created a monster. We also hiked Red Rocks Canyon. I haven't read any of the back pages. There are too many.

No, it's because they get further and further away from prejudice and bigotry. The world is expanding and people are realizing that their narrow view of what is right and wrong is not based on logic or morality but on tradition and culture. I agree. Banning gay marriage is wrong but people are calling it right!

I'm on the West Coast. But we have a SC board, if you haven't found it yet.

Hey, it's just the toes. Aren't everyone's toes like that?

Hey, I'm prepared. Though, I'm going out of town this weekend so I won't be around to see it.

No, the law doesn't work that way. (Thank goodness.) It was 52% of the people. To try to pin it on one or two minority groups is offensive to me. Plenty of white people voted for this abomination. Of course it is. Otherwise, the status quo would have been maintained. There is no need for Prop 8 if you don't want to challenge gay people's way of life. Unless your partner is in a hospital outside of CA. That's not the only difference. There are tons of differences between a domestic partnership and a marriage. Right. It's about changing the constitution to make a few people feel comfortable and keep gay people out of their exclusive club. Here we go again, comparing being gay to being a pedophile. :eek: Except I already said it was about legal rights, not symbolism. If the state only recognized civil unions, for gay and straight people, and marriage were some spiritual thing, I'd be fine with that. But the state is in the marriage business and therefore it's wrong to single out a whole group of people and say "no Soup for you." More offensive crap comparing being gay to incest and bestiality. First of all, the law of the land says that elected judges get to decide certain topics. The people agreed to those laws and elected those judges. That's the way our system works. It's not some perversion of justice as you imply. Secondly, the idea that this will never change is just ridiculous. Every year there is less and less support for prohibiting gay marriage, not more. I predict in 10 years or less, gay marriage will be legal in CA and quite a few other states it's not legal in now as well. It's definitely going to change; it's already changing in other states.

I think you need to go in every month and they are strict about what the doctor's notes have to say too. You have to talk about diet *and* exercise. That gets a lot of people. The doc only puts down diet and not exercise. But call your insurance and make sure. They are all a little bit different.

Congrats on your surgery!

Every insurance is a little difference. Some will consider hypertension but some only consider it if you can't control it with medicine. That was my case and I think it sucks! :eek:

Congratulations! We'll scoot down on the Loser's Bench to make room for you!

Welcome to LapBandTalk!

Congratulations! Where are you having your surgery?

Okay, so apparently I'm a mess.... Surgeon says: 1) Almost passing out in Hip Hop class was due to giving blood earlier and not related to Thurs' adventures. OKay, I'll buy that. It didn't feel related. 2) The pain was probably kidney stones. :eek: Makes sense to me. Last week I had tremendous trouble getting in all my fluids and was very worried about kidney stones. Apparently it was a sensible worry. Plus I told Mr. Mac last night that I felt like I was in labor (only less pain) and I've heard passing kidney stones is like being in labor. 3) My labs have deteriorated dramatically since 2 weeks pre-op. It's rather scary how far south you can do in such a short time. To combat this: -I'm to supplement my potassium for a while to get my potassium up -I need to get in 100 g of protein for a while to get my protein up -I can't give blood for 6 months because giving blood made me anemic. (Seriously, hemoglobin of 14.7 morning of; gave blood; hemoglobin of 11.9 the very next day.) Oh and apparently being malnurished like this is unheard of with my surgery. So I'm also a freak of nature on top of everything else. :cool2:

Welcome to LapBandTalk!

I feel a lot better today, but tired because I didn't get any sleep last night. I have an appointment with my surgeon this afternoon and hopefully I'll know better what was going on. And maybe I'll STOP ITCHING. I hate it when whatever it is they put in my IV makes me itch.

I'm confused. I think I missed a post somewhere.

I just got back from the ER! (Okay it was a few hours ago.) I'll write it up in my blogs... once I get caught up on my message boards anyway.

Welcome to LapBandTalk!

Port infections are thought to sometime cause erosion. Erosion is very serious -- if it happens, you've lost your band and can't have another. Please do what you can to have this taken care of ASAP! Also, if you post in the Complications forum, you will find a bunch of people who have already gone through this who can give you good advice.

And yet nothing in Prop 8 stops schools from teaching about gay marriage. Nothing. Okay, how do we get the ball rolling? :thumbup: They would only need to "justify" their own actions, if their actions were wrong. But they aren't wrong. There is nothing to justify. YOU think there is because you think it's wrong. But it's not logical to think that homosexuals think that way. Besides, it's not about a legal label at all. It's about RIGHTS. The legal label of marriage brings certain rights in this country that the legal label of civil union does not. The "people" also thought black and white people shouldn't marry at one point. But the people were wrong. Plus, a strict constitutionalist would know that this issue is not one that should have been put to a constitutional amendment. In fact, it was challenged on those grounds before the vote and is being challenged again and will probably be struck down. The initiative process was not meant to make fundamental changes to the constituation, only to make clarifications and improvements to existing philosophies. There is another process for making fundamental changes and that process was not followed. The law and the processes need to be followed, otherwise we just have mob rule.

I agree about cutting them and getting sharp edges. I find a cut pill much harder to swallow than a slightly bigger uncut pill. Edited because for some reason I thought you had a band. Brain not working, brain not working.... Anyway, my surgeon is of the "as tolerated" school of thought. So you can start pills as soon as you can tolerate them. I'm still doing liquids and chewables and I'm much farther out than you but I know people who go right back to pills as soon as they are out of the hospital.