Hi from Ireland!

[Coco 0]

Hi All,

Well good news about ACS sending us all letters. I wonder what it'll say. I hope its good news whatever it contains. Just a word of warning, until we know who is reading this thread for the wrong reasons (ie:media) maybe we should communicate about this letter by PM. I have no advanced knowledge about what it contains but after last Sunday's Daily Mail, I don't think we should say too much. If the Daily Mail want to know whats happening let them contact ACS or wait until someone contacts them. In my view and the view of a few of ACS patients the Mail on Sunday were partly responsible for having Jerome taken off the medical councils register and although there are valid cases against ACS none of them are to do with banded patients. Yet. Maybe I'm being slightly paranoid but I would just hate for any more damage to ACS which in turn will have to effect our aftercare.

[roe 0]

Im with Coco on this the media have done enough harm.

[holly123 0]

We need to remember that the newspaper is after a story and happy banded patients do not make a good story to sell newspapers. I definitely feel that giving them more fuel for their story is the wrong way to go. As I said before, Jerome is being used as a scapegoat to get at ACS. I strongly feel that if it wasn't for the newspaper, Jerome would still be here. Hopefully there will be a positive outcome from medical council's investigation and Jerome will be able to return. Until then, we all await the letter from ACS and hope that they can get us looked after safely until Jerome can return!

[Marge 0]

Hello Everyone

I have a feeling that some people might think that I'm a media person or something. I'm not. I've just been trying to make up my mind to go for banding or not and the dicision is much more difficult now that the only choice is to go abroad. I have visions of dieing of dehydration and kidney failure before being able to get abroad for help if the band slipped or something.

The reason I joined in the debate about ACS was because I thought you guys needed a bit of a push to do something for yourselves. I think it might have helped a bit?? I hope all of you get a really supportive response from ACS because you all really deserve it.

Marge

[Coco 0]

Hello Everyone

I have a feeling that some people might think that I'm a media person or something. I'm not. I've just been trying to make up my mind to go for banding or not and the dicision is much more difficult now that the only choice is to go abroad. I have visions of dieing of dehydration and kidney failure before being able to get abroad for help if the band slipped or something.

The reason I joined in the debate about ACS was because I thought you guys needed a bit of a push to do something for yourselves. I think it might have helped a bit?? I hope all of you get a really supportive response from ACS because you all really deserve it.

Marge

Hi Marge,

Whatever gave you that impression! In my last post I was refering to the Mail on Sunday which quoted directly from this thread in his article for his newspaper. We have enough issues with ACS without matters being fuled by people who are not actually patients of ACS.

I thank you for your concern and sympathy with us and I do hope that you manage to find a company who you will be happy with to make the changes you feel are necessary in your life. There are a couple of girls on this thread who were banded in Belgium and are very happy with their care. Maybe you could direct your concerns in their direction I'm sure they will be only too happy to provide any information you require in your Quest for weight loss surgery.

[ailbhe 1]

Hello Everyone

I have a feeling that some people might think that I'm a media person or something. I'm not. I've just been trying to make up my mind to go for banding or not and the dicision is much more difficult now that the only choice is to go abroad. I have visions of dieing of dehydration and kidney failure before being able to get abroad for help if the band slipped or something.

The reason I joined in the debate about ACS was because I thought you guys needed a bit of a push to do something for yourselves. I think it might have helped a bit?? I hope all of you get a really supportive response from ACS because you all really deserve it.

Marge

Hi Marge, I see where you are coming from with your concerns about going abroad. I was given a card to carry with me giving the details of the type of band, positioning etc should I ever be involved in an accident. I was also advised if I have any immediate concerns to go to my GP or hospital. I was given a letter to gove to my GP which outlined the procedure and aftercare and Dr. Chris is very prompt at replying to emails and phone calls. I feel myself, if I had a slippage I could fly to Belgium at a day or twos notice and be fitted in by either Dr, Chris or his colleague Dr. Dillemans. As far as I am aware they alternate weeks in Belgium (as Dr. Chris also operates in Dubai). In the case of a severe emergency I have my GP and A&E. Worst case scenario is I go to A&E with a severe problem and they remove the band instead of readjusting it. I am prepared to take that risk (when you consider the band in Belgium is €3400 and the "aftercare" available in Ireland appears to be quite poor at the moment). Even my GP remarked that she had another baded patient and the letter I gave her from doctor Chris was more than ACS provided.

[Marge 0]

Coco

There is nothing in my posts that hasn't been said by lots of people on this thread, ACS banded or otherwise. I feel alot of hostility from you for what reason I don't know.

If it's because I offered my tuppence worth of advice to ACS banders then I don't appologise for that. Everyone on this site offers advice and support to others, including you, it's the purpose of the site after all.

".....I do hope that you manage to find a company who you will be happy with to make the changes you feel are necessary in your life. There are a couple of girls on this thread who were banded in Belgium and are very happy with their care. Maybe you could direct your concerns in their direction I'm sure they will be only too happy to provide any information you require in your Quest for weight loss surgery."

I only offered advice, just like you are above, but I get the impression that your advice is not meant kindly. I don't read the Mail on Sunday and I didn't see the article, was it one of my posts that they printed?.

Marge

[Coco 0]

Hi Marge,

I don't want to get into an argument with you. I never suggested that you were a member of the media. In fact I remember your very first post and I was one of the first to welcome you to this thread. You are of course welcome to say whatever you want on the forum and I was not refering to you or anyone else who posts on this site it was the people reading the thread and reporting it in the Mail on Sunday that I was refering to. I'm sorry for the confusion. Any advice I give on this site I give with a good heart and I don't believe is spreading bad karma to anyone. Please understand that what is happening in ACS affects our whole life. We need their aftercare for the life of our bands. It is for this reason that we feel that any bad stories in the papers about ACS particularly if they come from this site/thread affects us directly.

[Loriha 0]

I think everyone reading and contributing to these posts who were banded by ACS are feeling a little threatened right now after all we dont expect to see what we write here end up in print!!

Marge I think there has been a misunderstanding here COCO I think and correct me please if Im wrong.... Was fustrated by your post as she had tried so hard before your post to get action and response from other less commited members like me -I think all imput here is important but we dont know who is reading. I'm not sure that someone here went to the mail - When we were in belfast we met a girl who told us she had talked to the mail - she was given details about this site after she had explained that she was to remain anomonous in the papers by some of the other there - if she didnt know about htis she certainly did on Friday . We know from the article that the journalist confronted Jerome in Belfast on Friday - who is to say that he did not meet up with this girl

first or after. This was a safe haven for us to talk about our worries concerns now its all very cloak and dagger and our privacy has been threatened and violated it is understandable that feeling are running high. Marge I can understand why you felt threathened by wellas questioning about your interest in the site. But under the circumstances you must see why - and your responce was so defensive it might have been miscunderstood. I suggess that ACS and the papers have done enough damage to our aftercare without our support network being destroyed by

recent events. Lets stay strong together and continue this thread in the supportive community it once was for each other and leave the ACS Comments and info to PM or another thread for those banded by ACS and who are ultimately responsible for ensuring that ACS will continue to provide for them..

Sorry if I have offended anyone - no offence meant i promice just the need for support and togetherness instead of a divide.

[Coco 0]

Hi Loriha,

You put that so much better than me. Well done and hear hear.:smile2:

[skinnyirishbabe 0]

Marge,

I remember your first post and you can see your join date, we know your not a fraud! think if i had the choice i would go with the bypass. Don't get me wrong i love my band but my port sticks out and i can feel my band, it also makes me burp alot..... not big burps just little ones! so glad i did it, feel so much happier about myself had a really rough time in the last year and a half (not cause i was over weight), not only did i through a load of shit i'm also getting skinny and life feels great. shopping is brilliant now, feel my age again.... can shop in girly shops and not mature lady shops! what ever you decide i'm sure it will be right for you. good luck!

[lil 0]

Skinny I totally agree, the thing I love most is being able to shop in what I call "normal" shops and being able to buy clothes I actually like and not just because they fit me:blushing: I've spent so many xmas's the day before my xmas party trawling through shops trying to get something to fit me, then I'd some horrible thing and would have to do :smile2:, well no more thank God. When I was bigger I used to walk past the "skinny shops" as I called them but no more. Like you said clothes for bigger people are always so old fashioned and make you look much older than you are plus their twice the price. I cant believe how cheap Penneys is I'm addicted to the place now:drool: I feel and look much younger now that I've lost some weight, its just fantastic:thumbup: Still have a bit to go but I'm getting there slowly but surely.

Loriha I agree we should keep this thread for all the nice things about being banded and PM anything we need to say about ACS in private. I've only been posting for a while but have been following your thread for a few months, I used to post alot on fathappens but Coco was telling me about your lovely thread so decided to join in. Hope you will all include me on your PM lists. Looking forward to getting to know you all better. Please God we'll all get sorted out soon and we can get back to enjoying our bands and losing the weight after all the summers only around the corner:w00t:

[Marge 0]

Skinnyirishbabe

I'm glad you feel skinny, what a brilliant feeling that must be. To Loriha, Coco and everyone else. I'm sorry if I caused problems, that was not my intention. Best of luck all of you

marge

[skinnyirishbabe 0]

I've a question for everyone.... right now i'm wearing a pair of size 12 jeans from river island and most my clothes are a size 12, when i go shopping i always try a size 14 on first, expecting the size 12 not to fit. It's like i don't believe i'm as small ( i'm not small but wasn't sure how else to put that, it's like asking a three year old, how old they are) as i am. even when friends say " oh you lost so much weight, what size are you now?" i always say i'm a size 14. why can't i be honest with myself and everyone else? and why when i go into a shop that only does up to a 14 i feel like the girls are looking at me thinking " she'll never fit into that" anyone else experianced this?

[lil 0]

I've a question for everyone.... right now i'm wearing a pair of size 12 jeans from river island and most my clothes are a size 12, when i go shopping i always try a size 14 on first, expecting the size 12 not to fit. It's like i don't believe i'm as small ( i'm not small but wasn't sure how else to put that, it's like asking a three year old, how old they are) as i am. even when friends say " oh you lost so much weight, what size are you now?" i always say i'm a size 14. why can't i be honest with myself and everyone else? and why when i go into a shop that only does up to a 14 i feel like the girls are looking at me thinking " she'll never fit into that" anyone else experianced this?

Yeah definitely I'm a size 14 now but still go to pick up a size 16. I was buying shoes last night for a wedding and my sister told me she saw some lovely ones in Evans.........well it killed me having to walk into that bloody shop again...........even if I'd seen something I liked I wouldnt have bought them...........had to shop there for bloody years:scared2: