Alex Brecher

One of the LBT moderators contacted me about the following issue one of our LBT users is having with our web site: "A bandster just discovered that you can do a "google search" using your screen name and all of your LBT posts will pull up. It's one thing if someone logs into LBT and reads the post. But it seems like a major violation of privacy when someone can just do a "google search" for that same info. Is there anything that can be done to block that from happening? Bandsters have posted their pictures, a lot of personal information, a lot of heart to heart talks back and forth, and they feel "safe" at LBT. Now this has members afraid." This is a really good point but I'm not sure what to do about this problem. If LBT is not indexed by Google how will new LB users find our web site ? We receive most of our new visitors and users through Google. It is possible for me to block Google from indexing LBT but I'm not sure this is really the answer to the problem. I'd love to hear what the LBT community has to say about this issue please. Please vote in our poll since your opinions will weight heavily on my decision to allow or to ban Google from indexing LBT.

LOL You're very welcome. I started this site while I was recovering from my LB surgery. I was searcing the internet for a community of other bandsters but I found most of the sites difficult to use. I'm really really glad that so many people have gotten encouragement, support and ideas from LBT. You guys and gals should thank the moderators since they're the ones doing all the hard work!

I'm not going to take sides but I received a fax rebuttal to Dwane's post and I'd like to share it with my fellow LBT users. I believe in freedom of speech and unless I receive a court order I will never remove a post from LBT. There are always two sides to every story and I'm glad that we have the opportunity to hear both sides of this story. "To whom it may concern, I just wanted to clarify a thread published in the www.LapbandTalk.com web site by Dwane Breeden the allegations his making about Dr. de la Garza aren't completely accurate for several reasons. First, Dwane Breeden underwent surgery on October 7, 2000, more than four years ago, one important fact that he didn't include in his comment. Secondly, in his post the patient mentions that he paid over $10,000 USD for the surgery. After checking his medical files we see that he paid a significantly lower amount, less than $7,000 USD. He also claims that his doctor recommended him to go back to the US for a blood transfusion, however what happened was that he was offered and recommended to stay in the hospital in Monterrey. But after speaking on the phone with his sister, who is a nurse in Michigan, she suggested him to go back home, and he followed her advice. The doctor preferred him to stay here for observation, however since the patient insisted that he was feeling better and asked to leave, he was released from the hospital. The patient was also aware that the Lap bad surgery, as any other surgery, involves a certain amount of risk, and he was also informed that he had to stay an extra day for observation and still decided to leave placing his own health at risk, against the doctor's advice. In addition to this, we really disapprove of this particular method of defamation against the good name and prestige of Dr. Javier de la garza. He has helped more than 1,000 patients during 9 years of practicing the Lap band surgery, and this kind of comments posses an intention of harming the doctor's reputation and it is biased with no solid fundament. We would like for this statement to be taken off this website because of it's doubtful nature if you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me. Sincerely, Nina B****** OCA Hospital PR Representative"

You're a moderator and I had to edit the moderator profile to allow this option. See I answered!!

Ok, chat is here Just click on "Chat" which is a link in the center of the top navigation bar. Mods if you'd like you can make sticky posts of scheduled chats.

Ok, I'm going to set up a chat room within the next week or two.

Zoe, Any luck yet ?

How many users did you have at most using the chat room ?

I'm thinking about adding a new chat room. I'd like get an idea how often it will be used. Please respond to the poll I've posted.

I think I fixed this issue. Please let me know if you're still having problems.

Hi Zoe, Thanks for the offer! I'm going to PM or email you with the info.

I personally used Dr. Christine Ren at NYU. The entire procedure, follow ups and support has been great. Her web site is http://thinforlife.med.nyu.edu/ .

Sarah, That's one of the most amazing stories I've seen. I can't wait to see his before and after pics when he gets down to 175Lbs.

I had to remove our old logo when I upgraded the forum. If any of you would like to create a new logo for our site I'd really appreciate it :cool: If I don't get any responses within 24 hours I'll get one of my design guys to take care of this for me.

Very interesting. I usually have pretty bad allergies and I recently had a small fill without any side effects.

I wasn't able to feel my band until I lost a significant amount of weight. Now I can actually see it in the mirror. I've heard that they now make new lower ports that don't stick out that much. Who knows maybe one of these days when I get to my goal I'll have an upgrade

I always drank diet soda so it was never a diet issue for me. Once I got banded I didn't touch any for the first few months. Lately I've started drinking it again but I leave the soda open for quite a bit so it looses most of its fiz I talked to my doc and she said that the issue was more discomfort, I always thought that the gas could damage the band but she told me that wasn't the case.

Thanks!! Sorry about my (VERY) late reply.

Good luck! We're glad you found our site BTW...who is your insurance company ?

It really depends on your doctor and insurance. My insurance (Oxford) covered the first 2 fills but I have to pay for the rest of them.

Happy Thanks Giving! If you're going to eat turkey and you're banded make sure to use lots of gravy Dry turkey can give you a bad PB.

Sue, You stand corrected!!

According to the Inamed guidelines found in the lap-band patient vooklet ( http://www.inamed.com/pdf/health/94829F_LB_Patient_Book.pdf ) you should keep food and drink "separate." They don't mention any specific times. Two hours sounds extreme but I would always follow what my own doctor advises.

My port isn't large or wide at all, it just sticks out a little and I was worried if I lost anoter 50 Lbs it would be sticking out even more.

My port is starting to stick out and I asked my doc if there was anything I could do once I got to my weight loss goal. I figure it'll be more noticeable once I loose more weight. She told me that they now have a flat port which doesn't stick out that much. I wonder when this came out ? She said it's a pretty simple one day procedure to replace the port once I'm ready or interested.