MacMadame

Sorry, adult whips will never be soft enough for me. :tongue:

The sleeve can be rough for the first couple of months. Your body continues to make the bile/stomach acid for a normal sized stomach. But after a while, it settles down and then you don't get stuck (your stomach opening is the same size as before), you don't have to worry about erosion or slippage and you don't have to go to the doctor all the time for adjustments (fills). So it's a trade off. All the surgeries have their pluses and minues, IMO. It really comes down to what you can live with and everyone is going to have a different answer to that.

I'm sure you'll be fine! Just don't do it again... (I had to say this too... but no one had to dare me.)

I would never rant about the 50 millionth person to ask "what's a PB?" or "I have pain in my shoulder... what is it?" It gets on my nerves because I've seen it 100x times before, but I get that this is my problem. I don't deal well with repetition. So I just don't open those threads most of the time. At the same time, I really wish people would read a lot before they make their first post. I know some people will never do that, but I encourage the rest to think about it. Please. It clutters up the board with the same question being asked over and over when the answer is just two threads down in the list or in the next section over. Plus you can get into trouble by coming onto a new board guns blazing. It's better to get a feel for the board first .. what kind of language is acceptable... how people treat each other. But what really gets me are people who seem *determined* to lose their bands, sometimes even before they get them. I never know what to say to those posts. Is it worth it to try to fight with them to see what they are doing? Or should I MYOB? Even though they made it my business by posting in a public forum.

Hey, I use baby whips when I poo too. They are nice and soft and they work really well.

I did go pee. I think I'll go pee again.

I tried fitday.com, sparkspeople.com and dailyplate.com I use dailyplate.com -- the rest I abandoned because they were too hard to use.

I understood that Bettencourt was not actually a doctor. At least he hasn't got a license any more. Btw, now he's disappeared off the face of the earth, how do you get your fills?

When we had this conversation the first time, the DSers on OH went nuts. Then one came to another WLS forum I'm on and he was nuts too. I understand secretly thinking your own WLS is the best, but any rational person can see that not everyone is the same and not everyone needs the same surgery or will do well with the same surgery. But all the DSers I see online insist that their surgery is THE BEST and all the other surgeries are second best. It's just weird IMO. They base their "the best" comment on some study that showed DSers lost more weight. But you know, most of the WLS I've seen vary in how much weight you can lose and how much people keep off on average and, for the most part, when you are talking about the 5 year mark, it doesn't seem to matter too much. The stats are all pretty close when it comes to average weight loss. But even if wasn't, it's not all about how many pounds you lose. There is also quality of life. Anyway, most of the other WLS types have patients who are relatively normal and can accept that other WLS types might be better for someone else. Why can't the DSers?

I have to pee right now! It's all your fault, too.

If your full nerve is broken, WLS -- of any type -- will fix it. Opti-fast won't fix it. I call my full nerve my hunger thermostat and mine is broken too. One thing I've been doing is try to stop eating as soon as I eat 1 cup of food. I figure that if I'm going to be hungry again in a 1-2 hours no matter how much I've eaten, why not eat less? It does help. I've lost around 10 lb. doing that. But will I lose the other 75-90 and keep it off? I don't know. I do know I'm sick and tired of being hungry all the time and trying to trick my brain and my hunger thermostat. So that means I'm getting WLS. Because WLS works and diets don't.

People send in post cards that show a secret. Some of them are quite clever. This one makes me sad though.

Your father's friend is an ass. Asses are annoying in general but then they try to pretend that their asshattery is really just "concern" and that's even worse. Yeah, I'm sure he's *really* concerned that you are going to end up like Karen Carpenter. Because she was a morbidly obese woman who started dieting and couldn't stop. Only not. The reality is that these people just want to be negative and say something mean. If you were struggling to lose weight or starting to regain, they could say how "concerned" they were about your health, but you've taken that away from them by being successful. So now all that is left is the lamest "concern" in the book. Now if you had a BMI of 17 and were talking about how you needed to lose at least 10 more pounds and exercising excessively and wearing clothes that were at least a size or two too big because you were convinced you were a big fatty, he'd have a point. But otherwise? He's just an ass. Feel free to tell him I said so. (And, yes, I am in a pissy mood. Why do you ask? :cursing:)

No one ever has my name when I go to a new board. I've this screen name since 1986 when it was called a "handle". Yes, I'm really that old. :cursing:

IMO, it's really insensitive to people who have real EDs to throw around the words anorexic like that. While some people's first trigger for an ED is to go on a diet, it's not like anyone who doesn't eat like a pig is anorexic.

I used black duct tape to repair some torn leather on my black messenger bag. Duct tape is AWESOME. No one is up at my house. Two kids, 1 dad, 1 FIL and they are ALL sleeping in. I'd like to sleep in but dh is SNORING like crazy and I can't sleep.

I have been at LBT for about 5 months now and in that time I've seen a trend for doctors to progress their patients through the food stages as fast as possible. Do you think that this is part of why the stats are higher now than the older stats? It seems that way to me. I'm also guessing that with more surgeons doing this surgery, that there are more duds in the bunch -- that seems to be the way of things -- and that can't help either. I really think a stat of 3% is troubling, but a stat of 7% is appalling. If my chance of winning the lottery was that high, I'd play every day!

Weird. I just had a conversation today about how fish makes me gag. It must be something in the air. I think you need a magic wand. :frown:

I have to say that when I first watched a lap band surgery online, I was a bit taken aback to see the surgeon grab a bit old piece of stomach and hoist it up and sew it in place. :frown: Lots of LB articles don't mention this at all or about how scar tissue needs to form to adhere the band in place.

I think he just needs to hit that horse a little harder. :smile:

Stuff happens with a band that can't really be blamed on anyone. Erosion and slippage are known complications with bands. If you have them, the band manufacturer won't pay your costs and the surgeon won't either. If the warranty is for *any* complication no matter what the cause, then it sounds like a good idea to me. I'm not sure I'd want to pay that much though and only 18 months of coverage wouldn't really be enough. I believe there is a financing plan that includes this sort of coverage (BLIS?) that isn't as expensive but no surgeon near me offers it. If I were self-pay, I'd want something like that.

Aw, how sweet you guys are... I'm not really going anywhere. I'm just going to try to take it EASY until my band journey gets back on track. Unless WasA talks me into getting a sleeve, that is. :smile: There are no great sleeve boards that are like LBT though. :crying:

I've been thinking about taking a break too. Mostly because at this point, I'm not learning a lot new about being banded but I haven't got my band yet so I can't contribute on the threads asking for advise and experience.

So what is NARCH and should I be interested in it? :rolleyes2: We could have LBT get-together even if people aren't going to the NARCH-thingie. I'm always up for a party.

That's a pretty common requirement, actually. It's funny how these things go in cycles. A few weeks ago it seems like everyone who had UHC was getting approved just like that, no 6 month diet, no 5 year weight history. Now it seems like no one is getting approved. I was just about to switch to UHC too. My company is in open enrollment right now.