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Found it! abc30.com: FitFlop - Consumer Watch - Consumer Reports 5/12/08 Hope this helps. If I can get them for a lot less, I might try a pair b/c I have Plantar Factiitis with TWO bone spurs in my left foot/ankle. These would probably help with the pain that I have. BUT I don't really want to pay $50 for a pair of flip flops!

I saw these on the news the other night (last week?) and they said that if you are just wanting to have proper support for your feet and maybe do some work on your lower calves, they would be fine but the claims they make for them (toning all the way to the buttocks and helping with thunder thighs) is too much of a stretch for something like that. They talked to a local foot doctor and he liked them for problem feet but that's about all. I'll jump off real quick and see if I can find the link for the news report.

I'm also a (almost) daily weigher. It helps me keep accountable. I also go up and down a lot and usually by a lot b/c I retain fluids so easily. I can tell if I didn't get enough fluids the day before b/c the AM weigh-in will be high. Reminds me to make sure to get enough Water that day and a little more if I can. B/c of insurance requirements I am in a 20 session weight management class and we weigh-in every Thursday evening before class, so that is my official weight b/c that's what Kaiser is using for my records. My scale is actually a couple of lbs higher than theirs so when I weigh on mine that AM, I can usually tell if that night is going to be a loss or a gain. If my scale says anything close to what I weighed-in the week before, I know I'll have a loss. I also play their scale. I'll eat a late lunch and stop the water about 2 hours before class. Class starts at 6:30PM, I use the restroom before weigh-in (I also have a 1hr + drive to get to class, so by then I NEED the restroom!), then I'll start drinking my water again! That way, I'm pretty close to what my AM weigh-ins are like at home minus the actual scale difference. I guess you could say I'm a little obsessive. At least about the class weigh-in. They require us to lose 10% while in class before we can even get to a surgery date. Every week is officially recorded! Last week was horrible. It was TOM which also "helps" in the Fluid retention department and I was HUNGRY and Wednesday didn't drink hardly any water (crazy day!), so Thursday night at class I knew it was going to be bad. It was... +4.8! UGH!!!!! This week is much better. May not get all of that back off but I am back down at least a couple of those pounds. We'll find out for sure in a couple of days. :scared2:

Peter, I am so very sorry to read of the loss of your dear wife. To echo the others- thank you so much for your post. This has got to be so difficult for you and yet you think of others who may have something like this happen and post a warning in the midst of your grief. Thank you and may God hold you and your family in the palm of His hand. My heart breaks for you. You and your family are in my prayers. Michelle

I think you should sit down and take a good, hard look and what you are really expecting and wanting out of WLS. THEN decide which surgery would be right for you. Lapbanders who have a big problem with un-controllable sugar cravings may be able to eat around the band. Bypass, you have dumping after you eat a certain amount (an you can eat small amounts of sugar). Portion control issues work great with the band, bypass- throw it up and go back for more food. It is really up to you to really look at your reasons/issues behind needing/wanting WLS and then go from there. As far as what some of you are saying about ALL bypass patients, get some of your facts straight, unless you know someone personally like I do and even then, it does not affect ALL bypass patients. I'm not a fan of bypass FOR MYSELF b/c I don't want to cut up and re-arrange my insides BUT my mom and sister both had bypass and they are both doing fantastic. My sister has since had THREE kids after her surgery and all were fine and healthy. My mom works out like a maniac and loves it. At 61 she's bike riding, working out, kayaking, hiking, etc., all stuff she had NEVER been able to do because of her weight. My sister is 6 years out and my mom is 4 1/2 years out. Now I will say that my sister's DH had bypass as well and he has gained all of his weight back. He eats til he pukes and then goes back for more food. He didn't change his lifestyle and expected the bypass to do all the work. He blames the surgery, not himself for his problems. He's also a disgusting, prejudiced pig (and that has nothing to do with his weight!) and I hate him and figure he got what he deserved but that's a family thing!:biggrin2: As far as complications with my sister and mom, both have to watch their Iron levels, they will get anemic if they aren't paying attention. Mom has a stomach that tends to produce too much acid if she doesn't eat regularly or pay attention to what she's putting in her stomach but it's totally manageable if she's paying attention (and she had stomach problems before surgery). And neither one has pale, pasty complexions! They both take multi-vits but they did before surgery as well, so no difference with that. And neither one has re-gained any weight. For myself, I didn't want to re-arrange my insides and I don't have the weight to lose that my mom and sister did. I also haven't been heavy my whole life like they were and I don't want to have a lot of loose skin. I'm hoping with a slower loss, I'll have less skin problems. I can't afford surgery for that so I'm hoping to avoid most of it with a slower loss. I also like the idea of not being down after surgery for long. I have a 2 year old and DH is a fireman and I have be up and going fairly quickly with DH gone for 72 hour shifts. To me, LB is less invasive and a safer procedure overall. Anyway, the decision isn't up to us, patients at your office or your doctors, it's up to you. Best wishes with your decision!

Debbi, I am so sorry this happened! I can't believe that on Friday they would not have known that the meeting time was changed. There was some MAJOR mis-communication going on to say the least. I am glad to hear that you got home safely but what an ordeal! Thank GOD your friend was with you. I would have been freaking out and I'm sighted!! I can't imagine how vulnerable that would/could make you feel. You are a very strong person and I admire you! Hopefully you'll be able to get to another seminar soon. I know how excited I was to go to mine so I'm sure you were too. Take care and let's pray and hope this doesn't happen again!!

You're last post just cracked me up. Poor DH, he doesn't know if he's up or down, does he? Aren't they all just like that though? One minute you're so happy to have him and the next you want to just shoot him between the eyes and end your misery! I'm with you on getting things taken care of sooner than later with the tumor though. I can't see waiting for MORE complications before dealing with it. That line of action has NEVER made any sense to me! Another "can't believe I didn't see this before" either. You are totally in my thoughts and you have all the best wishes I've got. Take care and stay pro-active. You're the one with your best interest in mind. Poor DH, give him a break now and then if you can and he doesn't shoot his mouth off too bad again! :wink2:

Just wanted to say that everything went well this AM. I think I'm going to like him. Even with his accent, I can still mostly understand him. :wink2: Seriously, I do think he's going to work at as my new PCP. I really liked my former PCP and I hate change so I just wasn't sure if this guy was going to work out or not. He seems to be pretty proactive. He's not sure what he needs to do for me but he's right away, going to find out and get it taken care of so I can get on to meet with a surgeon. He'll get back to me and let me know what he finds out. Also, since I've been so overly tired (exhausted really, both physically and mentally) he ordered blood-work done to check my liver, kidney and thyroid functions as well as some other stuff. So we'll see if something pops up with that. I'm really not wanting anything wrong but it'd be nice to have a reason for my exhaustion. And since I'm overdue on my tetanus and I'm planning a surgery in the near future he suggested I get that taken care of today too. He seems really proactive and I like that. Thanks again for the support!

Well, it looks like I finally get to meet my new PCP on Monday. Kind of a long story but the gist of it is that my old PCP transferred departments right after referring me to the nut and psych. Sort of left me hanging. In Kaiser (at least here, I'm finding almost every area of Kaiser is doing something a little different, even within my own region!) my PCP has to refer you to the seminar, then to the nut and psych. Once you are starting the nutrition and weight management classes that the seminar allows you access to, and you've done your appts with the nut and psych, your PCP then sends an "application" on the the surgeon in your area. Once I see this surgeon (they only do OPEN bypass near me), he will then (hopefully!) refer me to the LB surgeon. Sooo, my PCP left at the end of March. I've since been going to weekly classes and have done my nut and psych appts. In the meantime, I've been waiting for the new guy to start. He just started today! A full 2 weeks later than when I was told he was starting. My DD had her well-baby check today so I talked to the receptionist about it and she is the one that told me he started today and made an appt for me to talk to him on Monday. She's so funny (great office BTW) when I told her that I'd have to bring DD with me b/c DH is back to work Monday, she said, "no problem, we'll watch her!" with a big smile on her face! DD will be 2 at the end of the month and so she's seen her growing up and just absolutely loves her. Cracks me up. Anyway, back to the new PCP. I'm really hoping that he cooperates and doesn't make me jump through more hoops. My old PCP I'd had for YEARS and we've discussed my weight ad-nauseum and he was behind me on this as a last resort for me. I don't want to be going in Monday and keep saying, well former PCP ... yadda, yadda, yadda." How sucky is that? I've been in jobs where that's happened to me as the new person and it sucks. I'm also sure that he'll hear that from others so I don't want to be one too. I'm really trying to go in with an open mind and heart. I WANT to like this guy. I KNOW he's not Crogan. Doesn't make him any better or worse than him. Just different and I have to remember that. I just hate changing doctors anyway and then it happened in the middle of this. :smile: On a positive note, I lost 2.6 more pounds Thursday night, bring me to a 7.8 pound loss. (I need to lose 10% or 23 pounds for the class.) That was AFTER being out of town for 6 days! So, that's were I'm at.

Thanks! I'm a lot calmer now. My appt is tomorrow at 11:15 PST. I am, at this point, looking forward to meeting him. Julie, I'm hearing they're so backed up it's taking almost a year from start to finish (that would put me at about April '09). I can't do self-pay, so it's their way or not at all for me. Unfortunately. We just don't have the money, not even for monthly payments. :smile2: I just lost more hours with work (I do our church's books from home) so things just got tighter. I'm going to look into some type of transcribing work-from-home job to see if I can bring in some extra dollars. Anyway, thanks for calming me down, both of you. I do feel better about things. I tend to start a wind-up and it's hard to settle down about things sometimes. I have gotten A LOT better over the years but, well, let's just say I'm a work in progress!

Sherry, Oh yes, EVERYTHING I've ever had done with/at Kaiser is on their handy-dandy computer. I'm really hoping he just looks at it all and says, "no problem" but my fear is he'll want to monitor me himself and I'll have to wait longer. It's already a HUGE wait to get to surgery day with Kaiser. I don't want him holding me up any longer than I already am. In our area, from what I'm hearing it's an 8 month waiting list for surgery dates. That puts me into the later 1st quarter of next year IF I got into the surgeon within the next month or so. Now that I've made the decision and have started the process, I just want to hurry up and have surgery! I have next to NO patience!! :tt1: Thanks for responding. You made me feel less anxious by making me really think about it. My former PCP said I shouldn't have any problems with the new guy so maybe that means he left him a note too. It'd be nice if he did! I probably should have just blogged this. I may cross-post it there too. I got to typing and just kept going. I try to keep my ramblings to my blog! Thanks again!

Sounds like fun! Don't know if I'd be able to go or not but I'd be interested to hear of the details. Money is a big issue for me right now. I'm in CA so it'd be a bit of a jaunt for me. I doubt I'd be banded by then so I wouldn't have to worry about that part of it. Let us know as soon as you have details worked out!

Linda, We chose to vaccinate based on our research. We felt that the benefits far outweigh the risks of the vaccines. Our daughter will be 2 years old later this month. From what I've read, the possible link to autism is the mercury that WAS in the vaccines to prolong shelf-life. The mercury has either been completely taken out or so diluted as to be practically minuscule. This is just what we did for our family. Do your research and also discuss it with your pediatrician. Best wishes to you!

If you're not comfortable going into it with them, I'd just say, that I stopped weighing myself after the scale freaked out and went haywire. Threw the damn thing out and not getting another one! If you do want to get a little confrontational about it you could always ask them if they're keeping track and why? Or why are they so interested? or why are they so invested in YOUR weight loss? Etc. This is one reason I've only told DH, mom and one of my best friends. A couple of other people know about it because they ended up in the same nutrition class as I did but they are going for bypass as far as I know and I can always say later that I changed my mind but continued on the eating plan from class. They are bigmouths, rude and obnoxious but I'm hoping on this one thing they just keep their traps shut. I'm losing 1-2 pounds a week and already have people noticing so I'm already saying that I'm going to a nutrition class and trying again to lose weight. I'll just be continuing the work after class is over. Only difference is that I'll have a little friend inside helping. :smile2:

The lady that is teaching my nutrition and weight management class told us during the first night that we needed to stay on top of things. Call them every couple of weeks to make sure things are moving. I'm with Kaiser so it's all done in-house but reports have to be sent back and forth. Like if you have your psych eval, wait a couple of weeks and then check to make sure the report was sent. If your PCP said they'd send the app to the surgeon, call them in a couple of weeks to make sure they did send it. That kind of thing. She told us that we can't wait for them to call us or just figure it got mysteriously taken care of. You have to be proactive. Don't be a pain in the butt but definitely follow through.. and be NICE!! :smile2: This statement is NOT directed at any one person, I don't think any one has done that but it's just a general statement. I know we get frustrated when things aren't moving like we think they should. We just have to remember that they are human and we are one of many, many, many patients. Hang in there!

1. Does racism still exist? Yep and probably always will. 2. Does "reverse-racism" exist (prejudice against White people from other races)? See #1 3. Does affirmative action still have a place in today's society? It may or may not have a place in general society but from what I've seen of it in my DH's work, it doesn't and is dangerous. 4. Are stereotypes warranted? For certain reasons, yes. If you are putting people in a box and/or it's in regards to just you being derogatory, then, no. I do worry about my daughter. We live in the mountains, predominately white, we are, she's not. She's mixed race (cute as a bug, almost 2). I'm hoping she doesn't grow up with problems but realize that she may. As a white woman, I'm not sure I'd be able to help her through it.

Welcome Latricee! I'm hoping to have surgery with Kaiser this year too. I don't know if it will be at Richmond or not. I went to the referral seminar and then had to start a 20 session nutrition and weight management class. During this time I asked my PCP to refer me to the dietitian and to psychiatry for a psych eval. I've done those. During the class they are helping you to prepare for after surgery as well as lose 10% of your official start weight (they monitor you in class). The weight they take at the beginning of the class becomes your start weight and then you weigh in during each week at class. Once you've seen the dietitian and gone for the pysch eval your PCP then sends an "application" to the surgery dept with the reports from your referrals and your medical history. Once you see the surgeon, then there is supposedly another round of meetings and appointments. Don't know for sure about that end of it. Not there yet. I'm in a little different situation in that I have to meet with the local surgeons who only do open bypass here, before they will refer me to the lapband surgeons in the bay area. I may have to do everything I've already done again once I've gotten to the lapband surgeon. I'm hoping they just take the stuff I've already done instead of making me do it again. I'll find out. I haven't gotten my PCP to do the application yet because I have to wait for my new PCP. My former one left right after he made the referrals for me and my new one isn't starting til the end of the month. He should be getting into the office about the time the pysh eval report gets back, so hopefully the timing will work out for me. Hopefully you don't have to jump through as many hoops as I do. It kind of sounds like every one going through Kaiser is doing a little something different. Strange. I guess they are trying to streamline everything for No Cal but they haven't quite got there yet. Take care and best wishes!

baggio, Thank you so much for so eloquently saying what I've been thinking since this thread started. It's bugged me from the beginning that he kept putting off telling his story but had lots of time to comment on every single person who posted to his thread. I hope your surgery went well today. Best wishes!

Congratulations!! I'm so happy for you! Take it easy and let us know in a few days (or when you're up to it) how you're doing!

mpope, Fills happen after surgery. After you've healed for a certain length of time, every surgeon is different, you will then go to your surgeon's office for a fill of usually saline, that is inserted into the port that is just underneath your skin. The port is accessed by a needle filled with the saline. The port is attached to a tube that is attached to your band. The band had little "pillows" along the inside diameter of it and the amount of saline in the "pillows" is what causes restriction on the stomach. This causes you to eat less at any one sitting and feel full faster when you have proper restriction. There is a whole section on here about the band and if I remember right, even some pictures. If you do a search for lapband, you will also get the manufacturers' websites and they have detailed pictures of the band, tubing and port on their sites. Best wishes to you.

Molly and Enchanted, From what I understand, with the no-port band, it's the same technology a long the lines of the new phone use pacemakers. You would call a number and then hold the phone to the band area and it would do whatever it's supposed to do. Sounds like a great idea to me! Mac, The only problem with upgrading new technology right away is the lag-time between the new stuff being distributed and the bugs being worked out. Just look at Vista and Leopard. I won't upgrade either of my computers until or if they fix those! Both computers work just fine the way they are! :tt2: I think it's exciting all the new technology, I just like to wait a little and see how the stuff works before going out and getting it. I also have a hard time getting rid of something that works perfectly well just to get the new thing. We have a 32 in. TV that's 13 years old and still works, well, almost great. It's just now starting to have problems (color spots in the corners). I have a vacuum that I hate but it works and I don't want to spend the money on a new one! Things like that. DH and I are really bad! Now, once it goes out or is on it's last leg, we are all over researching new and going and getting it. We just wait til we have no choice about it! :thumbup:

Brandy, I'm so glad you're appt went well and you two were able to come up with a plan. That's got to feel good on some level. It does sound like you need to get your head on straight about the sweets. Sounds like you figured that out today. Is there a way to talk regularly to the nutritionist or maybe even the psychiatrist who did your eval? I know mine gave me his card so I could call anytime I needed to talk. I'm wondering if writing down everything you're feeling when you want to start eating the sweets would help. It would at least slow you down and then you could go back later and maybe some kind of trigger might pop out at you. Then you could work on the trigger. Sheesh! Sorry if it sounds like I'm analyzing you. Maybe I should have gone to school after all!! Ugh! You can tell me to shut my trap. It won't hurt my feelings. I know I talk too much!! :Dancing_biggrin: I do worry about how down on yourself you sound. I know you've been having a really hard time but you aren't a failure. I have worked for years on stopping the negative talk that I give myself. I can tell you that I still do it but I feel so much better for having stopped most of it. We are our own worst critics. No one can be harder on us than ourselves. Okay, I think I'm done for now! Seriously, I know I don't know you except for some writings on a message board, so I will stop if you tell me to. I do only want to help and wish the best for you. (Me and my armchair psychiatry!) :glare:

I love that! Thanks for sharing. I'm scared too. Of surgery, of what will happen after surgery, heck, I'm scared of NOT having surgery and being this way, and worse, the rest of my life. I'm not that old and I want to live to be really old... as long as my health is good. So, I'm sucking it up and doing something proactive (instead of just banging my head against the diet wall) for me, my DH and my DD. Ceinman, If you really want surgery and you've done your research, it really isn't any one else's business why you are doing surgery. Of course you're scared, it's ELECTIVE SURGERY!! We MADE the decision to do this. A doctor didn't come in and say, "okay, I made a Rx for you for such and such and oh, yes, I also scheduled a date for WLS for you b/c you need to have surgery." No, most of us, either on our own, or with a doctor's suggestion, made the decision and have done all the work to get this done. We have to work pretty hard at even GETTING the surgery. Also, if you have friends who are PBing all the time, I'd be asking them what they are eating and how fast. From what I understand, that's unusual unless you are eating too fast, and not chewing your food. I have heard if you are too restricted then you can have problems that just takes a slight unfill usually to fix that problem. There are times though when it's more of a problem than just a slight unfill would cure but that's pretty rare and I can't imagine several people you know having the same problem unless they are contributing to it. I think I'd ask them specifically what's happening to them. I'm glad you're feeling better about your decision. This is truly up to you, no one can make the decision for you, not your friends, not your family, not your doctors or nurses and not us. Take care and let us know how you're doing. Best wishes to you!

Brandy, let us know what happens today. Been thinking about you and wishing you the best knowing you've got your appt today. Hope he had some helpful ideas. And thanks for answering all my questions yesterday. I was throwing a whole bunch of stuff out there to try to help. :glare: Take care.

Thanks for sharing her story with us, Turler. Kinda puts things in perspective for me as a pre-bandster. You hear things, READ everything and have an idea of how things might be after surgery but hearing her story made it even clearer for me. The band is the surgery for ME and I'm going to have to work my butt off myself, not sit back on said butt and wait for things to happen for me. abeaher, I'm so sorry you're struggling. From what I understand, you are in bandster hell, this time between surgery and your first fill. Hang in there. Try to distract yourself from always thinking about food. I hear others saying they walked every time they started thinking about food and it wasn't time to eat. Or they get on here, or they play video games, or.... Really anything to keep them from going in to the kitchen. Do a search on here for bandster hell and see what threads pop up, the posts in those may help you find ways to combat this til you can get in for a fill. Again hang in there, and congrats on your weight loss so far! Best wishes.