Alexandra

What are the policies at your job regarding jury duty? And do you work for a large or small company? My office is small, 7 people, with only one or two typically who are on salary (the others are on commission only). If a staffer gets called to jury duty, the company continues to pay the salary while that person serves. It's never happened that the jury duty was more than one or two days, but I'm told that even if a staffer were impaneled for a few weeks, they'd pay the person anyway and either work around her absence or get a temp. My husband works in a deli, and just served two days of jury duty for which he was granted...the opportunity to make them up on what should have been his regular days off! I'm ticked because one of these days is TOMORROW, the Saturday of a holiday weekend (and Sunday is a regular workday for him anyway). ARGH!! Am I wrong to be ticked? Normally, if he hadn't had jury duty and was asked to work on a Saturday, he'd be able to decline or get paid overtime if he said yes. But because he had jury duty this week he not only has no choice in the matter, but he doesn't get the overtime pay! It seems to me that employers should permit their employees to fulfill their civic duty without hardship. Hell, it's only once in a blue moon in a small business. Am I wrong? I guess if this were any other week it wouldn't bother me so much, but it really rankles on Memorial Day weekend. How does it work where YOU work?

Sleepyjean, this really resonates with me. I have a terrible time talking about my weight issues (in real life) and will do anything to avoid it. Thankfully, with the band you lose weight slowly enough so that people won't automatically leap to the conclusion that you've done something other than diet. After a while, though, they will indeed ask. But by the time they do, you will very likely be far enough along to have embraced your new lifestyle deeply; it won't be the "off" switch you have used it as in the past. And this is where the band really shines, anyway: you can suck down a milkshake or two, sure, but you won't be able to accompany it with Big Macs and french fries, or whatever your pre-banding poison was. Falling off the wagon, post-band, is NOTHING like doing it pre-band.

Well, I don't know what CalPERS means, but if you have yet to find someone who's had it covered you may be up against a big wall.

Yvonne, what state are you in? Blue Shield is not the same from place to place. And who is the planholder--is it a group plan or individual? You should pull out your contract and see what the exclusions are. Don't trust any customer-service rep on the phone to give you accurate information. I only believe things when I've been told them two or three times by different peopole. :grouphug:

For everyone who complains about the extensive pre-op testing, READ THIS!! This is exactly why those tests are done. Dody, I'm so glad the found your condition before something serious happened!! Good luck with your treatment and I hope your banding will be back on track soon. Whew!!!

Oh, my, what a horrible experience. I'm so glad you are able to come here and share it. How are you doing now? Are you healthy and healed? There's a certain degree of leap-of-faith every time we go under the knife. Errors and complications are bound to happen to a certain percentage of people. The best we can do is prepare as best we can, and cross our fingers.

Well, the law says that employers are not required to pay hourly employees for hours they don't actually work at their jobs, no matter what the circumstances. This is one of the big drawbacks of not being on salary. My husband gets two days off a week, normally Friday and Saturday. This week he was on jury duty on Tuesday, so he swapped his Friday off for that day, being a good guy and all. When his jury duty went into a second day, I just assumed they'd give it to him, since he was accommodating about the first day (I didn't think he should lose a day at all, silly naive me.) So the employer isn't actually doing anything wrong, just being penny-pinching and obnoxious.

I've actually been surprised by the changes in my boobs. They've improved! I was at least a 44DDD before, and now I'm a 38DD. They're not any perkier than they were before, but in other ways they're a lot better. The skin color is more even, for example; veins are a lot less obvious and the aureolas are not as huge. My underarm stretch marks are not as prominent, so I'm a lot more comfortable in a bathing suit. And as time goes by, my chest skin seems to be shrinking more, so the headlights are starting to aim forward rather than down. (Is that too much information? :cake: )

My theory about this is that it's the way the stomach tissue reacts to the added pressure of a tightened band. When saline is added and the band tightens, the stomach tissue itself may "thin out" as a reaction to the pressure--a defense mechanism to allow the body to continue to nourish itself in reaction to a blockage. Perhaps after a couple of weeks of steady pressure, the reaction lessens and stomach tissues relax to their normal thickness, and the stoma gets smaller. It certainly is a common-enough phenomenon, and for some people it can take more than two weeks. Some less. But since restriction is a function of more than just the amount of saline in the band, it makes good sense to allow your body to live with it for a month or so(especially women) to see where it settles in.

Penni, Wheetsin's right. My darling hubby is, unfortunately, not a salaried employee. He gets paid by the hour--as does everyone who is not the owner in his store. Wheetsin, thanks for asking!! That job Quest is still very much alive. I had the interview earlier this week, and now have to wait while they go through their other applicants. All I know from the search committee is that they "hope to make a recommendation to the Board in early June." The job I referenced above is my current position. If I get the new (old) job, jury duty days would be paid in full. A service of any length of time would just mean I'd have TWO jobs for a while. I guess this isn't uncommon with lots of people--I heard one of the Enron jurors say that often they'd be done for the day and go home and do their regular jobs, at night.

Nope. He's the sort that if his boss wants him there, he's there. The sad thing is that bosses never appreciate that sort the way they should be appreciated. He's been working for this deli for 15 years. In the deli business, that's THREE lifetimes. You'd think they could cut him some slack once in a while. :cake:

Yep, I found the same info from elsewhere (see my post above yours). Drats. But it's not even the money so much as the timing. He's going to get $100 for his service but he'll never get the Saturday back.

I tried to check the laws but couldn't really find a clear source. He was called for federal jury service, and since they do allow for exceptions based on financial hardship I'm guessing it's not illegal for employers to withhold salary. (Ultimately, that's the reason he was excused--the trial was expected to take 6-8 weeks, and there's no way he'd be able to go that long without a paycheck.) ... Just found a good source: though most employers pay employees on leave for jury service, employers are not legally obligated to do so in every case. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employers must pay full salaries to exempt employees who are absent from work for less than one week to perform jury service. However, the employer may deduct any jury duty fees that the employee receives from the court. The FLSA does not require payment when an exempt employee is absent for one or more weeks during which no work is performed. Employers are not required to pay nonexempt employees while on leave for jury service. The same requirements apply to employees who must appear as a witness or a defendant in a court case. Unfortunately, my husband is a non-exempt employee. Phooey. :cake:

Yay, Karen!! Next step might be a small unfill and patience. Thank goodness Trink is behaving!!

I'm absolutely going to hurl. Am I the only person who hates marshmallows?

I'm absolutely going to hurl. Am I the only person who hates marshmallows?

I agree, I think this is wildly off the mark. Willbethin, we need lots more information before what you say will be considered credible. Sounds to me like a poor attempt to shill for a doctor.

Freeradical, this has been asked at my doctors' pre-op seminars in the past. The answer is always "are you healthy now?" Prior medical conditions and surgeries are taken into account and evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Banding is really a relatively minor surgery and the device has a pretty small impact on the body (assuming apprpriate fill), and the important thing is that you are in the best health you can be in before undertaking it. I haven't heard of any prior surgeries or conditions that would automatically exclude people from banding. Good luck!!

Leener, I agree that your experience is normal. You need a fill. And just a point on the Medicare: Medicare isn't saying she can't have a fill, just that they won't pay for one yet. All insurers have various rules like this. Personally I don't think this is a bad one: if they said 12 months that'd be different, but 90 days is not unreasonable. Who knows how many future complications such a conservative approach may be preventing? Leener, our doctors have said that they find people who take on fills slowly seem to do better in the long run, and I can see why. Try not to get impatient; your days of greater restriction are coming. :hug:

Julie, so glad you're OK!! Blood from the mouth, no matter what it looks like, is definitely scary indeed. What lay people don't know is that it can be caused by all sorts of minor things, not just serious ones. Thank goodness it wasn't serious in your case, Julie. Take care and feel better soon!!

Julie, sound like you were lucky! I guess it depends on the reasons for the testing, but when I went last month I was on the table for a good long while. I must have drunk almost 16-24 ozs of it; they had to re-fill the bottle more than once. Normally, like for a fill, it's more like you describe. But I think for more in-depth diagnostic examination it might be a little more involved.

Thanks, Leatha!! I'm blushing. Randi, I sought out my letter for the pertinent section: The long-term goal may be to reduce my excess body weight by 80-90%, but a loss of even 50% of my excess weight would drastically improve my health and nearly eliminate the long-term risks caused by morbid obesity. LAGB patients achieve their weight loss in a more gradual manner than RNY patients, with only a FRACTION of the risk. But achieve it they do, and the evidence is multiplying all the time. There are significant advantages to this procedure over bypass surgery for certain individuals, specifically those like myself who, although suffering from morbid obesity, are in otherwise good health. I have two small children and simply will not take the risks inherent in more drastic surgical procedures. The fact that the weight loss that will follow the LAGB procedure is more modulated than that following the RNY--but no less permanent--is precisely one of the major reasons I believe it is preferable for me. Indeed, I personally have previously experienced a 75-lb loss in a period of 12 weeks, and can attest to the physical, emotional, and psychological disruption that followed. LAGB will result in precisely the result necessary to greatly improve my health without endangering it--in other words, “effective.” Though the letter is a bit dated now, you may find it and the other posts in this thread helpful.

Randi, one of the reasons I used in my appeal letter--in addition to playing the "safer" card--was the slower weight loss. Back in 1990 I went on Optifast, and lost 75 lbs in three months--pretty much RNY speed. To my surprise, there was almost nothing "fun" about it. At the end of the three months I didn't recognize myself; I'd been fat all my life and this was literally like an overnight transformation. It disturbed me on physical, psychological, and societal levels. (For example, it seemed like I didn't have a single conversation that whole year that wasn't about my weight. EVERYONE wanted to know what I was doing--there was no pretending that it was natural. Finding something to wear was a daily challenge, and not in a good way. I was a bridesmaid that spring and was getting married myself, so there were LOTS of trips to the tailors.) 12 years later, faced with making a similar decision, I knew I didn't want to go down that road again. Losing weight that fast JUST.ISN'T.NORMAL. It's not safe, it's not sane, and since I wasn't in medical crisis I couldn't find a single good reason to go that route. Banding makes better medical sense.

If you're just talking about the barium test, it's nothing. The liquid isn't really thick; it's like the consistency of whole milk, maybe? Just less tasty. You don't have to drink it fast. At my recent test they'd tell me to take a mouthful and hold it, and then swallow on their cue. Change position, do it again. If they know you're having trouble swallowing or have tight restriction, they'll let you adjust the amount accordingly. Good luck and I hope everything checks out great!

AsiaFit, that sounds like a really unpleasant experience! As for what to do now, I'd suggest waiting three or four weeks to see if you ever develop any restriction from this fill. That may sound like a long time, but please wait a MINIMUM of two full weeks to see how you feel. Many, many bandsters report fills "kicking in" after some period of time, though they didn't feel a difference right away. IF a really good period of time goes by and you feel no difference at all, then you really need to have your band evaluated. Was it your surgeon trying to do the fill? I'm surprised they couldn't see whatever the problem was under the fluoroscope; that's usually how kinks or leaks are found. From your description it sure sounds as though there might be a blockage of some kind; it's not supposed to take two strong hands to squeeze Fluid in. That sounds totally wrong. Your doctor needs to get to the bottom of this and fix whatever is causing the problem.