MacMadame

The weight loss tickers come from other sites. One is TickerFactory.com.

Well, when I moved to Hawaii, the volcanos on Oahu hadn't irrupted in ages. Then one in a different neighborhood started to go and took out a few houses and also Kilauea, on Maui, woke up after a brief hibernation (and has been active ever since). I actually got to fly over it in a small plane and that was awesome. The thing about volcanoes is that you can't do anything about them really. If a lava flow starts going and it's aiming for your house, you can only hope that the flow stops before it gets to your house. Otherwise, it's gone. All you can do is not live in the path of an active one and hope the inactive ones stay that way.

I prefer quakes because there is no warning. The earth shakes for a bit and then it's all over. More people die from hurricanes every year in the US than from quakes. I have lived where there are quakes, hurricanes, tornados, and active volcanos. I will take quakes over those other three any day of the week.

If your doctor codes your fills as an office visit, your insurance should pay for it. That's what one surgeon I looked into did. I recently found out there are different types of HSA with different rules. Health Spending Accounts I have a FSA and fills would be covered because it's a doctor's visit. But Health Savings Accounts have different rules that I'm not familiar with so I don't know if they would count: U.S. Treasury - Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)

And people don't understand how I can live in CA. Quakes can happen anywhere. At least we don't have tornados or hurricanes. So it's Halloween, eh? Guess I better go out and get some Halloween candy. It's supposed to rain here so I am assuming I won't need much.

There are placed you can look up your doctor's certificates. I looked up mine and promptly lost the links. If I find it again, I'll post it. You can also view patient testimonials on ObestiyHelp.com.

Because I wouldn't have gotten an education without scholarships, government grants, etc. Plus my dad was a bum so for a while we were on welfare and now-a-days with all the changes, we wouldn't have qualified because people are so freaking afraid that a handful will "take advantage" that they are willing to cut out people who can really use it to get through a bad patch and make their life better. Like my mom, the abused Levittown housewife who is now a VP of IT at a reasonably well-known university.

Okay, I know I'm grouchy because I'm having one of my bad days (overdid it on the treadmill, still can't get in all my fluid), but still.... I'm so SICK of threads on another board that shall remain nameless that are about how the person isn't having any troubles and it SCARES THEM because obviously something is WRONG. Oh please, like I believe that. You are just bragging. Or a moron. So STFU.

They do have collagen in them but they also have whey Protein isolate and some other protein isolate. I think it's not the greatest protein supplement in the world but right now I'm having trouble with the shakes and I can get the bullets down. So I think it's better than nothing.

It's not slinging mud to point out that process is broken. It has to be fixed. We don't want to be one of those countries where no one has any confidence in the elections and I think we're getting closer and closer. In my county, we have electronic machines. I'm okay with that. But there is NO evidence you have voted. The polling people could just forget to swipe your card, either by accident or on purpose, and you'd never know. As a computer person, who has designed systems that require checks and balances, I am just appalled. They need to swipe it and a receipt pops out that you get as a basic, bare minimum.

Welcome to LapBandTalk! I think you will find answers to some of your questions in the Insurance forum. But I can answer the "how long" question -- it completely depends!! Some docs are scheduling appointments months out, some can get you in a few weeks after approval. Some will schedule before approval because they have an idea of how long approval will take. Hair loss happens for a lot of people at 3 months out. It stops in a few months, once the big heavy weight loss is over. Some people it doesn't stop until you get to goal. But most of the time, it's not very noticeable.

Hi Deadoc. Welcome to LBT! Have you checked out the guy's forum? It's called The Men's Room.

At my last check-up, my doctor told me to up my exercise and keep eating what I was eating. So indirectly he didn't tell me to up my calories. I do think their program and recommendations are based on assuming people follow their exercise recommendations and not based on people not doing it.

Okay, that's way too deep for this thread. Cut it out! :thumbup: Me too. That and Chuck. Except in ice dancing and ballroom dancing. Then it's always the guys fault. Well, even as a scale addict, I don't really get weighing more than one a day. I mean your weight in the evening is completely thrown off by what you've had to eat today, how much water you've drunk right before and a ton of other things, that it's completely meaningless. I only weigh in the morning, naked, after peeing. It's still not that precise but at least it's an apples to apples comparison. I'm the shortest in my family. Well, of people age 13 and older. The two year olds aren't as short as me. But my 80 year old grandma who was hunched over from osteorporosis and a borderline anorexic was even an inch taller than me. I look so much like my mom, her sis, her mom and her mom's sis though that no one could think I was a changeling. It's only when I stand next to my 5'9" sisters with their long bodies and brunette hair that I feel completely out of place. It's what I'm doing, but, if anything, it's really too often. I think every 30 lb. is probably about right for me. But I'm still doing them every month just to be consistent. Sorry, I'm not peeking and you can't make me!

It's not just about knowing. It's also about believing and it's also about understanding how to succeed in that environment and the long-term consequences of their actions. I know that I get frustated with people I know who are working line jobs and get offered a promotion to management and their response is "why should I take that job -- I won't get overtime any more" or "taxes will eat up any raise". They just don't *see* that while it may not be big money in the short run, in the long run they will be much better off because they now are in line for other promotions for jobs that make much more money. I think growing up in poverty is a lot like that. You see some drug dealer making 250k and you think "why go to college" and you don't see that a) that drug dealer will be dead by the time they are 30, that only the few at the top are making that, you'll more likely be a gopher who lives with his mother because you have no money. I was lucky in that even though I grew up in poverty, my family had very middle class values. So I grew up with the firm goal of going to a good school, getting an education and getting the heck out of my loser hometown. And I did it. My mom once was responsible for setting up a Basic Studies program at a local community college. They did a lot of studying about what makes people succeed and fail before they structured the program. They found a bunch of studies about something called locus of control. Basically, people who are successful have an internal locus of control -- they see themselves as being in control and believe that their actions are what cause things to happen to them. People who are not successful tend to have an external locus of control -- they see themselves as not being in control. Life is what happens to them. It's mostly luck and random chance. In her program, they did a lot of work to help people see the consequences of their actions and teach them to have an internal locus of control instead of an external one along with teaching reading, writing and 'rithmetic. Her program was much more successful than people who just signed up for the classes seperately and weren't in the program. These studies reminded me of a friend of my husband's. He always was going on about his "bad luck" but it wasn't luck at all. He would do things like buy a car even though his job was seasonal and he know he would be laid off in a few months. Sure enough, when he was laid off, he'd whine about his "bad luck" and how he had this car payment he couldn't make. He didn't see that it wasn't luck at all, but his own bad choices. Growing up in poverty, I saw a lot of people like that. They were never going to break the cycle because they didn't get it. I think this is why mentoring programs are so important. Seeing other people do it and seeing how they did it, can give you a blueprint for success. Even if you don't quite "get it", you can follow the role model. Then, as you see success in action, you start to understand it, and can do it on your own.

I think it's common to feel a mass under an incision. I've got a tiny hard spot under one of my tiny incisions. They usually go away as they heal.

Yes it is. And crap like this has been going on for a long time and been swept under the rug. I'm glad a light has finally been shined on it. Though I do find it amusing that it's only when it looks like a Democrat might be elected that mainstream media like CNN has finally decided this is a story. Why hasn't it been a big story in previous elections? It's really appalling that with today's technology, we can't ensure that everyone get a vote and only one vote.

If you get a pedometer and work your way up to 10,000 steps a day, that's actually a lot of exercise. It's the equivalent of walking 5 miles. Here's some info on it: http://www.thewalkingsite.com/10000steps.html

Me too. I find I don't use it because of that. I'd rather go bike at the gym -- we have a free one at work.

Congratulations! That's a pretty good weight loss with no fill. You should be proud! You've lost more than me and I had surgery in Sept.

I watched last night too. There is nothing on at that time, but I still hate myself for doing it.

Where do you live?

Is this the pre-op diet or the post-op diet? If it's the post-op, well it will be over soon. Heck if it's the pre-op, it will be over soon. But at least the post-op has a reason for being on liquids --- your stomach needs to be still so scar tissue can form. Don't get me started on using a liquid diet for pre-op though. I could rant about that for days!

Hi Motivated. I'm on the West Coast so not familiar with your doc. Just wanted to welcome you to LapBandTalk!

I made Mr. Mac hide my scale.