MacMadame

First of all, Betancourt is an unethical weasel who lost his medical license. When the reputation of his clinics gets too unsavory, he closes up shop and opens up a new one under a new name. As he recently did when closing his old clinic and opening up the Emmanuel clinic. Secondly, the mini-bypass is not a recognized procedure by the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric surgeons because it's dangerous and doesn't even work that well. Here is an article on it: Is The Mini Gastric Bypass The Ideal Weight Loss Solution? So my advice is to RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN away from these guys and find a reputable surgeon. There are plenty in MX that are affordable and good. Check out Rumblaut, Aceves, Joya, and Ortiz just for starters.

You want to do surgery through my hooha?! Just kidding... it sounds interesting.

Thanks! I already love my sleeve even though I suspect I'm going to be a slow loser. I haven't been hungry in days and fixing my hiatal hernia has done wonders for my ability to breath.

I often feel that way about cake.

My 401k is okay. I've lost some theoretical money, but I've still got more in there than I put in. If you know you have a good asset allocation, you need to ride out these kinds of market downturns. It's absolutely the wrong time to sell, that's for sure.

Nope. This is real. I just found out last night because Mr. Mac somehow missed out on this piece of family news. I'm actually kind of annoyed with him because back in Feb. when I first got here, I could have benefited from talking to her about it.

No, I'm saying that people without bands haven't got any choice but to post on OH because there is no equivalent to LBT for their surgery type.

Yesterday I found out my niece has a band. I wonder if she's on here? Hey, Sara Ann are you out there? It's your crazy Aunt Marie!

I have found a few "homes" on OH. It does take some getting used to and the forums could be *much* better in terms of the software. The problem is that there isn't much better if you haven't got a band and can come here. I've tried a *lot* of forums and there are many that suck worse than OH.

"There is only so much you can control" This is SO TRUE. When I had my first, I got this great book "how to get our kids to eat... but not too much" and it points out that we decide what and when our kids eat and they control how much. It's easy to get into battles about food that we can't win and turn food into a control issue. The other thing families do is label kids. In our family, I was the fat one but my sister who was the same size as me was just big boned. I constantly got nagged about my weight but she never did. Clearly our family wasn't being *logical* about it as we both became morbidly obese adults.

What could she do about it? Probably nothing. There are things you can do to instill good eating habits in your kids and maybe prevent obesity, but once a kid gets fat, the parent is helpless. You can't *make* another person lose weight and most of what you'd try only makes the situation worse. I go through this with my kids. MacBoy is a stick but I still worry because he is a picky eater and has bad habits. Mini-Mac was this tiny thing but she's starting to go through puberty and she's pudged up. She's horribly embarrassed about it but anything I try to help her makes it worse. She interprets it as putting pressure on her even when it's something we agreed to together.

Hi Anne. Welcome to LBT. I understand what you are saying, but I think at some point people do have to take responsibility. If someone is going to stop coming to a support site because there are people there who disagree with them about some political issue, then they are going to find something else at that site to be offended about. Because there is no place where everyone is going to agree with you 100%.

WW did a study of their program and their average EWL at one year was 10%. And that's only at one year, not 2 years or 5 years or 10 years.

I hate coffee. But I lurve you guys.

I'm the opposite. I understood them at first but now I'm completely lost.

I won't! The bra lasted about an hour (though I had to put it back on for a while -- no other clean ones and didn't want to be braless at MacBoy's b'day party) and later on I had some vicodin too. I walked a lot more today though than last time I tried. I also took a nap with only one pillow. I know you guys will understand how exciting that is.

I have vicodin AND the underwire didn't last very long. Mr. Mac has been great to me so I didn't want to start demanding he do laundry too. (I'm out of lose underwear and no-wire bras.)

I didn't watch the debates because I don't think they tell you anything useful. I don't care if the guy running the country can "act presidential" in front of the cameras. I want to know who he's going to pick for his Cabinet, appoint as Supreme Court justices and what legislation he's going to help get passed and/or veto. The debates don't really tell you that any better than reading their campaign platforms and studying their records and, in some ways, they are the worst way to get that kind of info.

Hey, I've got on REAL CLOTHES today. Including an underwire bra! Plus I haven't had any vicodin since 5 am.

Hi AnnieDub! I think you were/are gorgeous. But yes, 220 pounds is just a lot of weight for a short person. I'm so glad I got my surgery. My quality of life has improved dramatically just from the hiatal hernia repair.

I used to save all my books. But then I got this idea that I should only have as much stuff as I have places to put them. So now I sell my books so I have room for more books.

Why didn't they just throw out *their* votes. Was it naked chick? Her photo creeps me out.

Some surgeon's offices code them as simple office visits. Has yours tried that?

A lot of Life Insurances won't even write you up the first 5 years after WLS. But after that they do and you get the rates based on your actual health.

Come to the sleeve section of LBT (Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy) and we can talk all about sleeve vs. band. :bolt: I just got mine two days ago and I'm SO HAPPY. Anyway, I thought I had posted here before I left for the hospital, but I guess I hadn't. The people I work with are not from the Delhi area directly and had to ask around to people they knew back home. They said that hospital is very popular and, while maybe not the top one in Delhi, was one of the top 3. They thought it would be very safe for bariatric surgery. They also said India is a great place to go for arthritis and joint-related treatment. Not that this is relevant here but I thought it was interesting.