MacMadame

But they have to notice just the right amount. It's weird. If they make too much of a fuss, I get embarrassed. That also leads to them saying stupid stuff that I don't know how to respond to. Like "you're going to rock that bikini". I'm a 50+ year old woman with a huge surgery scar down my chest. Even if I don't have hanging skin, I'm never going to "rock" a bikini. Though the older I get the more I learn to just smile and say "thank you" no matter how strange or outrageous the comment is.

Not with that avatar! I didn't realize you were talking about the B&A *thread*. I don't go there any more. But I've noticed coming to home page and seeing all pix of someone's dog and thinking "huh?"

But it will grow back. That's my hair philosophy... it's just hair -- it grows back. Hey, maybe I can do the blue at the 2 month mark and then at the 3 month mark when it starts to fall out, that will help me transition back to pink! Now why didn't I think of that?!

So I'm confused... are you agreeing with me or not? :biggrin:

I actually stopped doing it because after a while the pink highlights made my hair look red or even orange. So I grew them out. But I'm ready to do it again.

I think the big problem is that when someone posts 20 pictures of their kids, it takes over the front page. Actually, I think that's a problem if they post 20 befores and after. :biggrin: Maybe it's just the front page that has to change -- 1 pic per account would give you a greater variety.

Really? It's not totally pink. I just have pink highlights. I think they go good with my grey -- which was coming in strong at the temples but not so strong everywhere else. The pink makes it look streaky everywhere but without the fake blonde streaks that scream "I'm trying to hide my gray". Um, can you tell I've thought about this way too much? :biggrin:

Do you have to pay 10% of what the surgeon charges the insurance of 10% of what the insurance agrees to pay him? If it's the later, you should be okay; if it's the former, you better check with the surgeon -- sometimes they charge the insurance company a lot!

Sounds like you need to "work" at home tomorrow. That's what I'm doing. I'm getting my hair cut and re-pinked in the afternoon. Shh, don't tell anyone.

My company has an exclusion.

I'm still pre-op. I get my sleeve in about a month. So I do okay with water now but I think it will be harder afterwards.

Then you are more mature than some of the adults on here who start cheating as soon as they get home from the hospital. :thumbup: There are a lot of reasons that they give. Mostly I think it's more a function of how health care in the US works. We're really conservative. So there haven't been a lot of studies on WLS in teens and youths so the doctors don't want to do any until there are. There is also the growing issue. If you get a surgery with malabsorption, there is a chance you will be missing some important micronutrient that no one realizes today you need that could impact your growth. This isn't an issue with restriction-only surgeries like the band and the sleeve though. Then, some will say it's not good to restrict calories when you are growing. But those same people will put an overweight teen on a diet. So it's not really logical IMO. Another issue is the one you brought up about informed consent. Legally you have to be an adult to give informed consent so that means a surgeon is doing surgery on someone who can't give informed consent. They get it from your parents but you are the one with the surgery and the surgery is supposed to be for life. Even a mature 16 year old, as I was and you seem to be, doesn't really know what life will be like in several decades. But all these things have to be balanced against the alternatives. If you are already morbidly obese and you are a teenager, what is life going to be like for you if you don't get surgery? That's a consideration too. It's not an easy decision and I feel for you. I didn't get to be MO until I was in my late 20s and I have found it relatively easy to lose weight. My problem is keeping it off. So I'm not in the same place as you at all. I'm in the place of someone who has yo-yo dieted for decades convinced that THIS TIME the weight will stay off who has finally realized the insanity of that and is ready to try something new! Good luck, whatever you end up doing. This obesity thing is a really tough row to hoe.

What happens to people who get over a certain point is that they can't move around enough to burn very many calories so even normal eating can cause them to gain weight. It's a vicious cycle because the weight is causing more weight. I feel for anyone who gets in that position even if I hate them for the kid killing part.

You can have mine. And my farts too. I thought it was a bit much to have a baby at 41, but somehow still acceptable. Having one at 51 is just too too. Apparently being preggo makes people silly. Congrats, btw!

Nobody better send any baby making magic my way, I'm just saying... Did I mention my date got changed? Only by two days so I'll survive.

Yeah, it is. Luckily not all surgeons are like that.

If the band is doing it's job, it will help you feel full on much less food. This is not something a diet can do. So I don't agree that the band won't help her. Part of why people can't stick to diets or can't keep the weight off once the diet is done, is because they are hungry all the time. That isn't how WLS works. With WLS, there is hunger control, and that makes losing weight through diet and exercise possible. As for Mexico, there are some wonderful docs in Mexico like Dr. Aceves and Dr. Rumblaut. I think they are better than many of the US band docs, in fact. There are also some clunkers. So you need to be *very careful* and do a lot of research. There are several places that do pediatric bariatric surgery in the US though. Stanford does bands on teens, in my area, for example. Don't just skip the US and jump right to Mexico. I think it's always better if you can get insurance to pay and do it nearby. If you can't though, Mexico is a good alternative.

I put 22 because I always cross my legs. But I realized I do it "man style" so I can still do that pretty darn fat! Can I change my vote? :thumbup:

Here is my comment and this is not intended to upset anyone either. But it is Rants and Raves and it's one of my internet message board pet peeves. Too many people interpret disagreement as anger or, even worse, bashing when it is just disagreement.

I have to agree with that... but I'm not a big ketchup fan. I prefer mustard. (Not on grilled cheese though -- just in general.)

I'm so glad this forum got started. I wasn't looking forward to losing one my favorite places on the web now that I'm getting a sleeve. Any other sleevesters out there? I'm in the process of getting scheduled for Sept.

Probably not... It doesn't rank high enough on the "MacMadame Is it Worth it?" scale. This scale is modeled after Barney Stimson's Crazy vs. Hot scale for rating women. Simply put, the crazier a woman is, the hotter she has to be for it to be okay. Only for my scale, it's calories vs. taste. The more calories it has, the better it has to taste or it doesn't rise above the break-even line.

Not this America. I think gravy ranges from just okay to disgusting.

If you want to find out the bad of Lap Band, go to the Complication and Life After Banding forums on this site. It will give you a good picture of the worst that can happen. But once you get that picture, I recommend RUNNING AWAY because going there every day can give you a warped picture too. There isn't any place like that for the sleeve though. There is only one all sleeve board I've found (Gastric Sleeve Support) -- most of the rest are places that have boards for all the WLS and the sleevesters have their own place, but it's all mixed together. Anyway, I've been trolling the internet looking for the bad and there doesn't seem to be much of it. Some people are nauseous for a lot of the first 6 months to a year. Some have trouble eating certain foods. But most don't have these issues. There are people who aren't happy with their weight loss who revise to the DS, but not a lot. The rest of the negative stuff is the same as with any surgery -- dealing with carbs, trying to exercise when you don't really want to, falling back into old habits, stalls, etc. You'll find that in the band forums as well.

My thoughts are that I should have posted my predictions before the pick so I'd look psychic. For the record, my prediction was that he'd pick an older white dude who was perceived to be more conservative than him.