MacMadame

You may not be able to go swimming though. It depends on how healed your incisions are.

First of all, there is a difference between questioning some aspects of the Theory of Evolution and believing in Intelligent Design. ID requires you to believe that the earth is much younger than we know it is based on real science, such as carbon dating. Therefore, by definition, it is a crackpot theory because it contradicts known facts. No credible scientists believe in it. Credible scientists do question aspects of the Theory of Evolution and are trying to refine it. But this is more like Einstein coming up with the Theory of Relativity, which seemingly contradicted some aspects of what we knew about the physics of the universe at the time, but didn't throw it all out the window and reality actually compliments and extends what we know. Fundamentalist Christians try to dress "Intelligent" Design up and make it seem scientific, and repeat over and over that the Theory of Evolution is "just a theory" and Intelligent Design is "just a theory" so that makes them equally valid, but that doesn't make it so. The same thing with their "many learned scientists" believe it. As for most Christians believing in it, as another poster stated... most Christians believe the universe was created by God. But that is not the same thing as believing in Intelligent Design. ID says that the earth was literally created in 7 days, for example, and I don't know many Christians who believe that. Most Christian faiths don't take the Bible quite that literally.

To which I say: so? What does that have to do with the fact that Creationism is a crackpot theory with no scientific basis? It's not even something that most Christians believe in and there is no evidence that the majority of Founding Fathers believed in it either. OTOH, they did believe in slavery. So, by your logic, we should all go out and buy a slave in honor of our Founding Fathers! Only I think not because slavery is wrong just as Creationism is not a scientific theory.

The dietician told me that yogurt has too many carbs to count as a protein snack. I was crushed.

You don't have to eat food that's bad for you though. You can just eat more calories one day. Also, our weight fluctuates daily for all sorts of reasons that have nothing to do with our real weight. So you have to be careful about seeing a correlation between something you ate and what you weigh less than 24 hours later. It could be real or it could be a coincidence. Here's a funny -- and extreme -- example. A friend of mine has a crazy mother. She believes all sorts of weird stuff no matter how much you explain reality to her. So one day she decided that since drinking Water helps you lose weight, she would drink a gallon of water. (Yikes!) She drank her gallon and then ran to scale to see how much she had lost. Of course, she had gained a pound because she had all that water sloshing around inside her. So now she tells anyone who will listen that drinking water makes you GAIN weight and she refuses to drink water because she doesn't want to be fat.

It depends on where you live. Some places have plenty of choices of doctors who will take people banded elsewhere and some don't. That's why it's recommended to set up after care beforehand. If you find you are in a place where you can't get fills, then that changes the equation. It may turn out that doing it locally is actually cheaper, for example.

I'm always kind of amazed at what kinds of questions people ask on the internet. Not just medical questions, but all kinds. One board I'm on is big on people asking for legal advise. No matter how many times people tell them to contact a lawyer, they feel more comfortable asking a bunch of lay people they don't even know for legal advice about how to run their businesses! It's just mind-blowing!

I have an older Tanita scale. It has settings for 4 people and 3 of them will give not just the weight but the body fat percentage. If it ever dies, I'll probably buy the latest Tanita to replace it. They've got one that measures more than body fat that I have my eye on. It's this one: Buy Tanita Scale InnerScan Model BC533 Online at drugstore.com

Tell your family that Dr. Aceves is a better bariatric surgeon than many in the US and that people have chosen to go to him as self-pay rather than have their insurance pay for a lesser surgeon in the US. There is also an article about the "medical tourism" industry in the LapBand in the News section that has links to lots of groups that can give more information that should set their minds at ease.

I would say the majority don't believe in an afterlife. Personally I believe it doesn't matter -- Me as I know Me will be dead either way. I also think it's important to live your life now and be a good person now, just for the sake of doing good in the world, and not do good only because you fear eternal damnation.

Sometimes they are just making conversation too. Or they are excited for you, but don't know how to express it. In the cases where you worry they will be comparing you unfavorably with someone else, I would just say something like "lap band often has slower weight loss, but I prefer that because I don't want to get a tummy tuck later" and leave it at that.

When I had my first -- a picky eater -- I got the Ellyn Satter book "How to get your kids to eat ... but not too much". It was awesome. I recommend anything she writes about kids and eating. The changes you have made in your family's eating habits are fantastic, LindaD. I have been working on my family for years with less success, probably because DH does the grocery shopping and cooking and is not as onboard with eating healthy as I am. It doesn't surprise me that you have a girl who still struggles. It was around that age that I found I was always hungry too. My parents didn't handle it well. They nagged and criticized even when I was within a healthy range of weight and finally nagged me onto a diet when I was 13. Obviously, their approach DID NOT WORK or I wouldn't be here today working on getting a band. Kudos to you for taking a different approach.

Well, that's what my Tanita scale says. I haven't gotten the more expensive and elaborate, but more accurate test. I also haven't measured lately so maybe with my 5 lb. lost, it's gone down a bit. I am only 5'1" and I have a small frame so there is room for lots of fat. Also, I'm betting at least 10% of that is in my boobies.

I had NO IDEA that could happen!

That's not what science says. WLS interferes with the body's hunger signals. Bypass, for example, cuts out a large portion of the stomach that produces a hormone that tells us we are hungry. Without as much of that hormone in your body, you can go for longer between meals on smaller portions. The band gives us all a smaller stomach that is on top where the vagus nerve is. When the pouch expands, it signals to the body that we are full. Thus, it's getting that signal with 1/2 to a cup of food instead of with several cups as it took before. It also short-circuits whatever it is in the brain that decides there is a famine every time you go on a diet. There have been study after study, the first one done during WWII, that showed that once you gain a significant amount of weight, your body thinks that's normal and it tries to maintain it. WLS stops that cycle and allows the body to maintain on a reasonable level of calories -- something that isn't possible for most people through a traditional diet and exercise program. Yes, there is head hunger too and that is why WLS is not a magic pill, but many of us who are looking to be banded are not particularly emotional eaters and do not eat bad diets or don't exercise. We just never feel satisfied and are always hungry. The band fixes that a treat.

I use thedailyplate.com. I don't actually count anything. I just keep track of what I ate, find the closest match in their database and log it. I let it tell me how many calories I ate, how many were of fat, etc. As the day progresses, I adjust my eating based on what it tells me. For example, if my Protein is low, I have a protein-based dinner. If my fat is too high, I make sure not to eat any more high-fat foods for the rest of the day. It's pretty easy and just by tracking my food and Water intake, I lost 5 lb. and I haven't even got my band yet or have made any real attempt to "diet".

The world isn't made up of atheists. Many of the people who contribute to bad in the world claim to be Christians, in fact. Well, you know what happens when you assume...

Wow, that describes me exactly! So you are saying you didn't get that big apron of skin when you lost? I didn't get it the last time but I also was 30 ... it's 20 years later and I'm sure my skin is less elastic.

Consumer Reports doesn't think much of the Magic Bullet yet people seem to love theirs. What's up with that?

I don't agree with this. I hope my dd won't grow up to need a lap band like I have. But if her body lies to her and tells her that she's hungry and needs more food when she doesn't, then no amount of knowledge or control is going to stop the inevitable and I'd rather she get a band earlier than later. The diet and medical industry has done us all a great disservice by promoting the idea that overweight people got that way because of a lack of control or because they don't know how many grams of Protein are in every different type of food. It's not about that for most of us. If it was, going on Weight Watchers and taking the classes that teach us how to estimate food quantities and drink enough Water would be enough for the vast majority of the population. Yet that stuff works for only about 2% of the people who try it. If your kid exercises and eats in a healthy way and is still overweight, then she's got something going on that isn't going to be cured by willpower. If she's one of those people whose brain activity in the part of the brain that registers satiety is low, then she's got a medical problem that needs to be fixed. Too many of us see getting WLS as some sort of failure on our parts. Would you see having to take insulin to treat diabetes as a personal failure? I see the lap band as being my version of insulin. It's going to fix my hunger thermostat that is broken. That's what you do with broken stuff -- you fix it.

What is ridiculous is how many people have NO CLUE about science. The word "theory" in science has a very specific meaning. In order to be a scientific theory, there has to be a lot of rigor and data to support it. It's only called a theory because it can't be directly observed via the scientific method. Creationism is junk science that doesn't rise to the standard of being a scientific theory. It has no place being taught in our schools as if it were equal to a true scientific theory that has undergone a rigorous process of vetting. You know, I can say I have theory ... my theory is that people people who interpret the Bible literally rather than as a serious of metaphors and allegories were dropped on their head as babies. Hey, let's teach my theory in schools! After all, it's a theory just like evolution and the big band theory! Sure... they are exactly equal in how much data there is to support them. After all, they are all "just theories." Except not...

Except you shouldn't have a lump that shows, especially if you go with a low profile port to start with.

Oops. That's what I meant. For example, there aren't any abdominal muscles in your collarbone.

What nonsense. Atheists aren't "lovers of pleasures" any more than Christians are. Many atheists are people with a strong moral code who strive to do good in the world and live ethically. God doesn't exist and the bible is just a book written by men (and probably a few women who didn't get the credit they deserved. :party: )

My understanding is that the port gets anchored to the wall of your stomach. That's got to limit the places they can put it. They also don't make a separate incision for it so it has to be somewhere that's reachable from the main, longer incision.