HeatherO

I just finished watching Marley and Me with my dh and ds. I just have to say that eventhough it had some cute points and I cried at the end of it . . . I agree with Laura about the parts involving having children being terrible. That movie makes it seem like having children is unbearably awful and there is nothing great about it. You almost felt sorry for them everytime they got pregnant again. We all have our stressful moments after having children of course, but the great times always offset them and most of the time it is enjoyable. It wasn't a great flick.

I brush religiously, and I do mean religiously. If I miss a brushing, my teeth feel weird to me and I absolutely must brush them before I can relax at all. If I ever get stuck somewhere without a toothbrush, I use my finger and toothpaste. So after all that, do I floss well . . . not hardly. If something is stuck or if I sporadically feel like it I will floss. I dont know how I can be so uptight about one aspect of oral hygiene but not the other. My teeth and gums are healthy so I have gotten lucky so far.

I agree, shop around. Even the best discount you might be able to get may not be better then prices elsewhere.

I would have told them that while I appreciate the concern, I really don't want to discuss it with them. It was not appropriate for them to offer you advice when you have never even told them about it in the first place.

I would definitely call your doctor and let them know. If you can still get liquids and mushies down it is not quite as big an emergency. Vomiting could have irritated your stomach and you may have some swelling. I would highly suggest going back to a full liquid diet for a few days and then go up to mushies as you can tolerate them and finally on to solids after you have had a chance to recover. If you keep trying solids too soon and pb'ing, your swelling and stomach irritation may never improve or even get worse. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Good grief, I hope this Chantelle girl is completely embarrassed along with her parents. This girl had to have known that there was a possibility that Alphie wasn't the father . . . and she let the story get this far before doing the paternity test??? Teenagers make mistakes and she is certainly not the first or last that will find themselves with child at a young age, but this story grew out of control. With the internet and peoples long memories, that poor baby will be able to read the whole embarrassing story when she gets a little older. What were her parents thinking letting her have a boyfriend spend the night regularly at the ripe old age of 14??? I can tell you my teenage son has never spent a night at a girls house in the same age range, or vice versa.

I strongly feel that men and women should be paid equally. A persons sex should not affect their pay. Seniority is important for experience and it is not reasonable to expect higher pay for this . . . but I really feel that productivity and the job performed should outweigh some other factors in determining compensation. A person who is relatively new but consistently outperforms senior staff members should command more pay for work performed. A person who continually makes themselves available on evenings, weekends or is just willing to go the extra mile should also command more pay. If family responsibilities make a person less available, that is fine but it doesn't make that person equal to one who is more available.

OMG - I have not looked at this thread in a while. I glance today and I am still in the upper 600's and there are almost 800 pages. I also noticed that this thread has been rather interesting over time :0) This sooo reminds me of myself. I remember losing the first 50 pounds, going down to large top/16 bottom sizes and thinking, wow I must look great now. So I started letting my picture be taken - when I saw the pictures it was kind of a shock and depressing. It was like, I am still way too heavy, how on earth could I have thought I looked good now? I looked at that time like I thought I had looked before. My self image was wayyy off and it took banding to allow me to reset. I now look at pre-banding pictures and question how I ever allowed myself to get that heavy. Not only was I heavy, I dressed unflatteringly and my hair was blahh as well. It took me a year after banding and staying in medium tops/size 8 bottoms for many months to even begin to look at myself in a reasonable, more unbiased way.

I am enjoying a lazy weekend . . . I hope everyone else is enjoying theirs as well. :cool2: Laura, I have dreams with a need to pee as well. I usually end up making it to the bathroom several times in the dream but always have to go again . . . until I wake up realizing that I really do need to go. I am just curious . . . do frog legs really taste like chicken??? I have always been too nervous to try them, lol.

Every doctor it different. My doctor allows popcorn. I can eat it without issue and have never had a problem.

I didnt tell my family until after banding and coming close to goal. It was easier for me this way. I knew I had to do this for myself and just didnt want to many people involved in the early days. This made the process easier for me.

This makes the social workers sound like evil trolls bent on stealing the children of good people based on foundless accusations. The whole intent is to help children who need it, and complaints are the basis on which investigations get started. Are their occasional foundless accusations out there, probably, but a decent social worker is trained to find evidence of real abuse. It may not be the perfect situation but it is certainly better than nothing. Just because you can refuse to cooperate, does that mean that you should? If you are a good parent then there is no reason to worry about it. Complete refusal to communicate or allow any access just makes a person seem guilty. This is a tough world we are living in, and unfortunately, sometimes children suffer. I advocate doing whatever we can as a society to protect children. After all, the children can not choose the family or situation into which they are born.

It may not be gas, especially since it started a week after surgery. I had this problem too and it started about a week out. Gas-X did nothing for it at all. I talked to my doctors office and they said it is most likely referred pain from an irritated nerve in the diaphragm. I remember being really worried about it because it started a week after surgery . . . and it didn't hurt just a little, it felt like a horse kicked me between my shoulder and neck on the left side. Sometimes it felt sharp like a knife. I thought maybe something was really wrong with me at that point until my doctor put my concerns to rest. Not everyone gets this referred pain, I think it is only a small percentage of us. One thing I noticed is that for those of us who do have it, most people posted stating that they had hiatal hernia repairs done at the time of banding which was also true in my case. The only thing that helped with this pain for me was massage from my dh, a heating pad, or taking a bath soaking my neck and shoulder areas in very hot Water (while of course keeping my belly incisions exposed above the water since you are not supposed to submerge them). Gas-X never even touched the pain, which makes sense when it isn't a gas problem. This symptom started to lesson between weeks 4-5 and was gone for the most part by week 6. In the months following, I would only get an occasional twinge if I overate. I hope you start to feel better soon :0). Please keep us posted on how it is going.

I would definitely suggest upping the Water intake and maybe choosing some anti-acne cleansing products. Also, some of us are more prone to acne when we have fluctuations in hormones such as during puberty, pregnancy, time of the month, etc. When you are losing weight rapidly, it is releasing the hormones that are stored in your fat cells. It could just be that an excess of hormones might be having a big impact on you as far as acne is concerned.

Perhaps your physician or surgeon can write a letter of medical necessity for you. You should definitely try to appeal if you can and provide whatever documentation that the insurance or your doctor's office suggests to strengthen your request.

Actually, the best way to be sure on the requirements is to check with your insurance carrier. If it is just to complete the program with no mention of weight lost, they you may still be approved. However, if it has outlined specific expectations on loss, it might be a different story.

I have heard that people have been denied for that reason. The pre-op diets help to show that you are committed to lifestyle changes and also to decrease the possibility of having a fatty liver during surgery. Lack of weight loss or even a gain can be considered lack of compliance and they may consider someone a poor candidate for weight loss surgery because if they don't follow the program post surgery, they may not lose weight ir be successful. Some insurances have a pre-requisite of losing a certain percentage of body fat before they will give approval. If this has happened to you and you are still on one of the 3 or 6 month diet plans, you should buckle down and try really hard to get some weight off. If you are compliant and just not losing, see if they can modify the plan slightly and if you can increase your Water intake or exercise routine. Good luck.

Wow, I can't believe it is Friday already. I feel like having a slow, veg around the house lazzyyyy weekend. I think that would be rather lovely. I found a great way to curb the late night snacking yesterday. I was on the top floor (split level house with three floors) and told my husband I was going downstairs to get some cereal or fruit or something. Well . . . he said to be careful, he saw a mouse run under the dishwasher. I was so grossed out and disgusted, I never went downstairs at all last night and my appetite completely disappeared instantly. My fear of stepping on it or even just glimpsing it was greater than my need for a snack. Ewwwwww. I know Laura just went throught this recently which didn't sound like such a big deal . . . but I forgot how much the thought of having a rodent in my home stresses me out. I just get so creeped out with visions of it climbing into bed while I am sleeping. Something must be done and fasstttt. I am going to pick up some of those friendly traps, and if I get lucky, have my son let it go way out in the woods for a few bucks. I am afraid my dh might have a much less "friendly" way to do away with it. I caught a mouse once in a standard trap years and years ago which only caught it's arm and it was screaming under the sink during dinner. I just don't have the heart to do it again. As yucked out as I am about having a mouse, I still couldn't kill it unless I was sure it could die painlessly and fast.

I am very sorry for your loss. I am keeping you in my thoughts.

Hello and welcome, Cingulus. It is interesting to see you post here to this particular thread. I just saw an eloquent post of yours regarding people who don't support the decision to be banding. I love the way you compared it to "A Knight's Tale." I have always been a person to take the road less traveled and everything you said rang very true. I can tell I am going to enjoy your future posts. :0)

Hey Vi's . . . I hope you have had a lovely Thursday. I broke down and ate some peeps today. They were yummy but now I feel a little guilty. Thank goodness Easter is almost over, lol. Judy, the pictures are great!!! I can't wait to see an Easter picture of Grady. I am sure he looks a lot different by now. Laura, I think about you every day now that it is sooo close. It sounds like Carson is going to be a big baby.

I had mine with Dr. Corvala through Belite weight at Hospital Angeles in Tiajuana, Mexico and I am very happy with the entire experience and results. I would not have done anything interesting and I like that he was so much more experienced than local doctors here.

I have no doubts that I made the right choice for me by banding . . . but I do agree it is not the right choice for everyone. It depends on personal issues, eating styles and how well you are willing to adapt to changes in lifestyle. It worked for me because I was a chronic overeater and was constantly hungry. The band corrected the primary issues contributing to obesity. If my issues were different, then the bypass may have been a better choice.

I had the same exact doubts and it took a while for me to make my final decision. I toyed with thoughts of WLS in one form or another for 2 years before I did it. Now, I have no doubts. I was able to lose all of my excess weight by banding. The band really took care of my hunger problem completely - I still had to work on my head with emotional/impulsive eating and exercise. However, without banding I know I could not obtain long term success. I only wish I could go back and talk to myself when I was so doubtful and worried if I was just finding a very costly way to fail myself yet again. I think if you are really ready to commit to a new lifestyle, then you will have success. The statistics speak for themselves as far as how likely it is for the average person to lose and keep off weight post banding or by more traditional means. Banding is what you make of it, it can definitely by the tool you need for success as long as you are willing to work for it.

Not everyone is supportive . . . but it really helps to have a friend that is going through the same thing. it is great that you can be there for each other.