argon

Wow... it's up to $16,000? What a rip! LOL, just kidding. aeorpink: I really don't think there are any other options in that area.... I know there IS a Dr. Christou in Montreal. His website makes it sounds kinda like he might do the lapband, but I really don't know. www.weightlosssurgery.ca I don't think I've ever heard of people getting the band with him. I said this to someone else before... that being 5 hours from either clinic is nothing. I came from Saskatchewan for it, and I know others from BC. I'd kill to be 5 hours away! :eek: EDIT: Just found this on that website: The current public wait list for bariatric surgery at the McGill University Health Center (MUHC) is over 1,200 patients. It can take up to 5-7 years from the time a patient contacts our office to their surgery date. Due to this backlog we have been asked by the authorities to give priority to Quebec patients and not accept out of province patients for surgery at the MUHC within the Quebec public health care system. In order to help our non Quebec patients we have equipped an affiliated private hospital here in Montreal where we can offer the laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and the laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding Device to out of province patients who qualify (weight less then 350 lbs with minimal co-morbidity).. There is no wait for the surgery at this facility. The costs range from C$15,000 to C$18,000 depending on the options. Still though... not sure why I've never heard from Christou patients.

Ok, ... I can see doing it at 5kg above goal (which is approx 11lbs)... BUT... the amount you actually lose when you have skin removed is so 'iffy'. Especially if you didn't start out needing to lose more than, say.. 100lbs.. right? I just think I would want to be at the weight I WANT to be at, so I know that when I get my PS done, that's how it's going to look, and any further weight loss isn't going to create any loose® skin, and make anything sag. I hope this isn't a super bitch question, and that's why no one else is replying. I really am not trying to condemn anyone who chooses to do it before, I just want to know more about it. :|

I just might have to see it again.... for that very reason.

I say "BOOOOOOOOOO! I don't feel like making a new ticker, so you all will have to suffer without a ticker from me til next week!" I don't want my body-less head as a ticker, so I need to come up with something new, and I'm just not feelin' it today. But... I am down a whoppin' 0.6 lbs. Wowsers! Haha... nothin' to write home to mom about, but I'll take it. Mandi

She thought of that already. I would think that once you're a month out, you'd be almost eating normally, and probably not be in ketosis anymore, if you even were before.

p.s. you should changed your signature to show that you *are* now banded!

Well, since no one has answered... I will, and say nope, not me. Stinky as ever. LOL, not really. At least I don't *think* I stink! ! Perhaps it's the sweet smell of thin-dom. :clap2: I think that may have just been the Sea World smell. :pound: just jokin'. I really don't know. Mandi

I'm so jealous! What are the chances that a few months before the cruise, there'd still be open rooms? How much do the prices increase? There's just no way that I can plan something so far ahead. Mandi

Yoda: so, do you take your calcium at the same time as your other medications?

Leila: Ok... so I'll try to be good and take my calcium at night before bed. BUT... then, would you say also, that I should be taking the multivitamin at a separate time from my other medications too? Especially since I'm sure my multivit. also has some calcium in it (its that VitaVim chewable berry stuff). Ugg... I hate having to think about taking things at 3 separate times during the day. Maybe I'll take my reg. pills in the morning, put my Multivitamins in my pocket, and take them sometime during the day when I reach in there, and remember I have to take them! Sunshine: Not regular like as in it's going to happen forever! I just had the PF's for maybe 4 days. I think once the lovely constipation is gone, and the diahrea starts, accompanied by gas-expulsion..... PF's! Just be careful. If you think it's a fart, think again! (and get to the bathroom, just in case!) LOL I added Benefiber to my Water and stuff, in hopes of 'bulking'... but ya know, since Benefiber doesn't 'bulk', I don't know if it actually would help with that. It was a good excuse to take it, and I told myself it worked anyways. Mandi

You know about PB's.... now, I imagine you know about PF's? LOL (I'm not makin' fun, I got it too!) btw, I saw sublingual b12's at ExtraFoods (Superstore) as well. Bet Walmart would have 'em too. Yoda, since you seem like a Vitamin guru... I'm sure I remember being told that I shouldn't take my Vitamins and birthcontrol and thyroid pill all at once... but is taking my Calcium and Multivitamin at the same time ok?? You guys have got me thinking I need to get back on taking my vitamins, and the fact that I think I have to take them all at separate times is what makes me not take them. I'm lucky that I remember to take 'the pill' every morning. :straight

I never had a burning sensation, but I just wanted to say: "1 to 2 WEEKS!?" Wow!

I don't know what else to say! I just wanted a sub inbetween 6 and 12 !!! :doh: LOL

I will be changing it later, YES!

haha YODA! Come on.. we'll both do it, and compare pics, ok?! You'll feel so much better! I'll think of some more questions for you Telly... and until then, there's gotta be some more people who've tried it too?

haha, not me! All I ever wanted was a 9" SUB! These pervs had to take it THAT way!

Thanks! Watch out tomorrow, cause it's my weigh-in day, and I'll make a new one.... providing I have a loss to show. If I don't, I'll drop off the face of the planet with shame, and you won't hear from me until I do! (nah, most likely I just wont bother changing it. Then you'll know not to mention it out of fear of getting your faces ripped off!) LOL

Oh Telly... noooo...... did you ??????

Oh man.... I want it, NOW! lol Wowee... Telly, the stuff you took, was it a 'bulky' thing, like say, how Metamucil when you add Water and drink it gets really thick and stuff... I know when I used to take psyllium husks (thanks for nothing, Atkins :mmph:), that it got really thick. Would it be possibly not a good thing for bandsters to do, perhaps? I guess, you'd just wanna chug a lot of water... hhmmmm...... MORE! MORE! I need more colon cleansing experiences!!!!

LOL Yoda.... see what I mean. If that stuff can come out of me, I'm kinda thinkin' "Let's DO THIS!! Get it OUT!" I read somewhere, that some think it might just be the stuff they give you that is supposed to be cleansing you, forming a kind of 'cast' on the insides of your intestines, and giving it that bulbous shape..... hmmmm....

Wooo! Telly, don't mean to put you on the spot, but is that kind of like what you... uh... experienced? (the pictures from that blog)

AHHHH! That's sooooo gross. But yet, intriguing... LOL Very interesting. Thanks Telly.

Well... let me tell you what brought this on. The one informercial I DID see had this guy talking how, and he warned that he didn't want to be gross, but one day when he was helping his little daughter in the bathroom, he was amazed and started that her 'poops' were about the same girth as his arm! And went on to talk about how kids aren't as polluted as us, and blah, blah, blah. So, knowing me, and how much I'd like to increase the size of my poops, you know I just had to find out about it!! LOL Nah, it's just something that's been in the back of my head for a while. I'll be sitting here, and all of a sudden... "The size of his ARM!!?!?!?! WHA!?" Ok, you asked for it. This is somewhere that I saw pictures much like the other grossness I saw before .... http://www.coloncleansingblog.com/ Warning: GROSSNESS!!! and there's many pages of posts about the bowel movements this person had, so feel free to keep browsing. But really.... tell me more, people.

*covers eyes* you guys are DIRRRRTY!!!! LOL

Awww... c'mon. How and why?!