MacMadame

We could take a bunch of photos of different forum members and morph them together like they do in the movies!

Some aspects of the sleeve did appeal to me, but when you compare a sleeve operation to a lap band operation, you can see that the sleeve is more involved. Plus it's not reversible. I want something where I'm under anesthesia for the shortest possible time, the least possible can go wrong and, if all else fails, I can have it all undone. That means a lap band.

I'm so annoyed. I sent out a bunch of emails trying to get some info from local surgeons and most of the replies back I got weren't even worth the energy it took to read them. Grrrrr. Plus my medical group will NOT schedule me for what they call the "Bariatric Shared Group Medical Appointment" which is their equivalent of the free seminar other surgeons have. They are waiting to hear back from my insurance ... which I find hard to believe because I've never had to wait this long before for them to do a pre-auth. I hate being in limbo.

Family history might help make your case, but they aren't technically co-morbidities. :drool: But there are lots of co-morbidities. In addition to HP, diabetes and heart problems, there is high cholesterol, sleep apnea, and GERDs. If you snore, you might have sleep apnea. If you get heartburn a lot, you may have GERDs. Some WLS programs test everyone for these things because people don't realize they have them. Plus some docs consider things like plantar fasciitis to be a co-morbidity because losing weight will help. Losing weight is also supposed to help with respiratory problems so if you have allergies or asthma, some doctors consider that as well.

I have tried to explain to people that you don't get to be over 300 lbs because you eat McDonalds instead of healthy food a couple of times a week. Something has to be seriously wrong with your body to get to that state. I'd like to see some of these thin people stay thin if their body tells them it's hungry every 1-2 hours. I bet they couldn't do it either. But people don't want to hear that. They'd rather believe we are just lazy or ignorant or both. I think they have to believe that ... because if it's not a personal failure that makes us fat, that means it could happen to them. And that scares them.

I'm not worrying about losing weight just now. There are other ways to prepare for the band besides dieting without one. I am working on logging all my food -- I want to see exactly what triggers my eating and also how healthy my diet is when I freely choose -- and on learning to take small bites and eat slower. Those are important things too. Losing weight before surgery is great if you can do it because it will make the surgery go easier. But if it was easy, we wouldn't need a band!

I've had more bad men bosses than women bosses. Like the guy who told the other people on my team that I was pretty smart -- for a girl.

A factual answer: Rachael Ray's Official Website :: Home I think I'll avoid the other answer I was going to give as I don't want any Rachel Ray fans to :eek: me. :cool2:

I think spanking is lazy parenting. It teaches kids that "might makes right" and it doesn't teach them anything about why you don't approve of the behavior or what they should be doing instead. It's a lot more work to discipline without violence -- to come up with punishments that emphasize the natural consequences of the bad behavior -- but it's well worth it in the long run IMO.

I have been wondering at that picture since I got here. What's with the apple being measured? I've seen just the apple with the tape around it on other "bariatric" types of sites so I figured it was symbolic of something related to the surgery. I just can't figure out what.

Frozen yogurt is to yogurt what ice cream is to milk. Which is to say a) it's not yogurt and :eek: it's not really that healthy. For example: Yogurt with fruit, no sugar added, 6 oz. has: 100 calories Fat 0 gm Cholesterol <5mg Sodium 85 mg Potassium 250 mg Total carbs 19 g Sugars 14 g Protein 5g Calcium 20% of daily value Frozen yogurt will vary depending on the brand and flavor, but Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia (which I happen to have in my fridge) for a 1/2 cup serving has: 160 calories Total fat 3g Saturated 2g Cholesterol 15mg Sodium 60mg Total carbs 31g Dietary fiber 1g Sugars 20g Protein 4g Calcium 15% of DV

I've looked it up. (I saw an ad here for it and wondered what it was.) It works by the doctor putting this tool down your throat into your stomach and grabbing bits of stomach up and stapling them together like a pleat. I think they make 2 or 3 pleats (it was hard to tell from the video). Here is the animation: EndoGastric Solutions, Inc.- GERD, heartburn, acid reflux

Btw, a biscuit is a cookie in the UK, right? Cookies are pretty band-friendly.

I read that you only have to chew things until the consistency of applesauce. That helped me because I like applesauce. :w00t: I couple months ago I told my doctor I was going to try to eat like a banded person and see if my weight went down without surgery. What I've discovered is: 1) I'm hungry all the time on regular person portions 2) I don't miss diet soda at all 3) Cutting my food up into small bites and chewing it thoroughly helped me enjoy the taste more and made me realize my love of spicy food was because it was because when you inhale your food you don't really taste it. My adventures have convinced me to get a real band. #1 made me realize that there is something wrong with my body -- that it's not just about willpower and proper nutrition. And #2 and #3 gave me hope I could survive on a band diet. I still have problems with forgetting and inhaling my food though. I'm hoping a real band will make that easier. Plus I still have months and months to practice.

I was fat when I met my husband and he was thin (probably too thing, really). He filled out a bit as he got older and looked pretty hot to me, but then he didn't stop filling out. And most of it is in his tummy. The only reason his BMI is less than mine is because he's 6 ft tall! In the meantime, I lost 70 lb. for our wedding... going from over 200 to 135 lb. A year later (and one gallbladder down) I was 145. Then 155. Then I got pregnant with our first kid and went up to almost 200 again. Down to 175 after delivery, then back up to 217 (my heaviest ever at that time). Then down and up over and over and I'm now 220+, the heaviest I've ever been. I don't think my dh thinks I should get the surgery either. He thinks I should just see a nutritionist. Like he refused to do when his cholesterol went over 200. I've told him that I've been to Jenny Craig classes and Weight Watchers and I know everything a nutritionist can tell me. I know that fat has 9 cal per gram instead of 4 cal like the others. I know about drinking lots of water. I know what percentage of my diet should be protein, carbs and fat. I know about bad fats and good fats. I know how to estimate portion sizes by eye. I know all that stuff. My problem isn't that I don't know what to eat; my problem is that I'm hungry all the time. But even though it's not something he would do (He is totally freaked out by hospitals and surgery on top of believing it's just about finding the right diet), he says it's my body and I should do what I want with it. My son says the same. It's my youngest who says she doesn't want me to get the surgery because I'm fine the way I am and I'm pretty and she doesn't want me to change. I'm not worried that dh won't love me when I'm thin. For one thing, I'm never going to be bikini thin -- I have stretch marks from having kids and saggy boobs and those aren't going to go away. I think as long as my boobs stay C cup or better, he'll be happy. :w00t: The big thing I worry about is that I'll get healthy and he still won't be and I won't be happy with him. I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

How do you find out about these things? I love studies and would love to participate in one.

Plus a bit of prejudice thrown in, IMO. The reps say things like "well, if you just want to lose some weight, it's not covered" as if thousands of people are getting WLS just for cosmetic reasons when all they really need to do is diet and exercise. They don't get it. I am pretty sure I can get this approved if I get my ducks in a row, but even if I do, I am still thinking of writing to my company to explain how wrong-headed their basic policy is. Good advice. :w00t: bradleybanana- I found the information here to be really helpful: OAC * Obesity Action Coalition - “Working with Your Insurance Provider: A Guide to Seeking Weight-Loss Surgery”

I thought maybe it was locked because it had gotten so long but then I saw one with thousands of posts on it! I guess not... :confused:

I think of exercise as "boring stuff I do because I'm supposed to." I think of the active things I do as "fun hobbies". So I never force myself to "exercise". I make sure I have at least once active hobby. For the past 10 years I've ice skated. No, it's not the most aerobic type of exercise and it doesn't burn the most fat, but it was FUN and I did it every week, several times a week, at one point as much as 10 hours a week. Now that I'm not having fun any more, I'm thinking about what I can do next. There is a hip hop class at my company and I'm thinking about taking it. For some people, going to the gym to work out is a fun hobby and they can keep it up. But if you are only doing it because you think you should and you don't enjoy it, you won't keep it up in the long run. At least that's been my experience.

I thought I was 5'but it turns out I'm 5' 1". I'm not sure how that happened. I'm actually rather annoyed about it because that extra inch doesn't give me any advantages when it come to buying clothes or trying to reach stuff on the top shelf, but it makes my BMI lower and now I worry about not qualifying for the lap band! I hate Lane Bryant, except their bras. They think all fat people are Amazons. They are starting to have more variety in their jeans but they still have no clue about how to flatter a shorter body. I bought two pair of pants there, one I tried on and one I thought was just the same style so I didn't try it on. I got it home and it was actually a style called "wide leg". I tried on the pants and the bottoms of the legs were AS WIDE AS MY HIPS. I looked ridiculous. Who in their right mind would design such a thing?!

You can track what you eat on a free web site such as The Daily Plate and that will tell you without you having to write things down and remember everything.

Here are my reasons for starting the process to get a band and not bypass. 1) There are so many stories of people getting bypass and then having health complications. If you have healthy complications with the band, you can have it taken out. You can't get the rest of your stomach and intestines that they cut out from a bypass back. If you have complications, tough luck. 2) The mortality rate for the bypass is 1 in 200. That is too high for me given that I have kids and want to see them grow up, get married, etc. Lap band surgery is MUCH safer.

I'm working the spreadsheet right now. :rolleyes2:

And just because some of his patients have a good experience, that doesn't make him a good surgeon. All doctors have patients who have complications -- slips, erosions, even some infections. But not all doctors are equal. If I have a choice, I'm going to go with the doctor with better than average stats, not the one with the worse than average stats.

So ... you're about 5 ft then, right? I'm guessing because that's what I am and what they say my recommended weight should be. This is my reaction: :tt2: My grandmother was around my height and weighed just under 90 lb. One winter she got sick and almost died because of it. 90 lb. is just crazy talk IMO. Anyway, I am happy today because I finally got in to see my hairdresser and my hair is nicely cut and I have my pink highlights back again. It's been 2 months and the old ones had faded away making me so sad. I love being a 50 year old with a punk hair cut. :rolleyes2: