Alexandra

Janet, beautifully said!! I can't add a thing. Hay4943, the question is are YOU average? I didn't think so! :bananadoggywow:

The silicone is non-reactive, I've never heard of anyone having a reaction to it. It wouldn't be the material of choice for medical implants if that weren't the case. And just last night at a new patient seminar, someone asked about having an allergy to titanium. The doctors were surprised--evidently it's HIGHLY unusual for someone to have a reaction to titanium. But evidently Inamed makes a band without titanium in it, so if you know you have a titanium allergy there is another kind they can order for you.

Oh, Robyn, I know how you feel with the reflux, but can't imagine how frustrating it must be with no port to get the Fluid out! :bananadoggywow: I'm so sorry you're going through this. My recent bout of reflux had me sleeping in a reclining chair for a month. Even then I'd wake up occasionally with fluid filling my mouth. But it did turn out that an unfill fixed the problem--there was nothing more wrong than being too tight. But I think PBing and vomiting just makes the problem worse! If I were you I'd stick to liquids ONLY until you can figure out what else to do. Don't even try to eat solid food; it just isn't going through. It's going to hang out in your pouch or esophagus, irritating things and making the situation worse. I learned that the hard way. PLEASE stick to Protein drinks, clear if you can handle it, and non-acidic beverages (no o.j. or tomato juice). Prevacid helped me too, but I really think it was the unfill that made the most difference. Good luck, and PLEASE take care! Every vomiting episode may be prolonging your misery. Take it easy!!!

My signal is a deep breath, which means I have filled my pouch. This used to happen before I'd eaten as much as my head or eyes wanted, but I've learned that it means I am really and truly satisfied on a physical level. The hard part was accepting that mentally, but that's what the band is for--I wasn't able to sense being physically satisfied before on my own. Now I am, and it's amazing!

Hi Always, Welcome to LBT! You're in the right place for information and experiences about lap banding. I'm too old to address your first question, but there certainly are younger bandsters here who can help. --Excess skin is an issue that varies a lot from person to person, but IN GENERAL age is your biggest ally here. Genetics, how long you've been obese, skin elasticity, these are all things that no one can change about you and that have a big effect on how your skin will react to weight loss. Lots of people don't want or need cosmetic work done after weight loss, and lots do. Of course, much of that is in one's own perception of what is acceptable and what is not. In my experience, my skin is continuing to shrink as time passes, but someone else who looks exactly like me might have gone back under the knife once or twice. I just don't feel it's necessary. --Psychological reactions are unavoidable, of course, and they depend on your mindset and emotional/psychological state going in. Are you prepared to have food become a MUCH SMALLER part of your life? If not, don't have surgery. If so, you'll be able to deal with the fact that role food plays changes dramatically after banding. It's not an overnight thing, and it's not necessarily easy, but it's what makes banding work so we have to allow it, embrace it, and accept it. --We can eat anything we want; individual reactions may vary. You may find that your tastes change, but there's no prohibition against any type of food post-banding. Good luck, and keep asking questions!

Happy birthday, lovely lady!!

Desertmom, I just want to wish you the best with whatever you decide to do next. Living with constant pain and discomfort is no way to live, and I know I'd rather bt 60 lbs overweight than have to compromise my entire quality of life because of pain. I hope they will do the testing, find out that something easily fixable is wrong (like a hernia or something), and you can be repaired. It's just not right that you've been suffering for so long. :bananadoggywow: Please keep us posted. Good luck!!

You can do anything you want with a band, once you're healed. Not to worry! Wakeboarding sounds like fun. :biggrin1:

Hi Questions! Blue Cross varies from state to state, so no one can give you any specific information without knowing which state you're in. Also, you may have an employer-based plan, which will have different benefits and features than standard plans. I know there are states where Blue Cross does indeed cover bariatric surgery, including banding. Have you investigated why they say they won't cover it? Many people have succeeded in getting denials overturned, depending on the reason for the initial denial. As for PCOS, there have been other discussions about this. Search for PCOS in the Search feature and you'll find them. Good luck, and keep asking questions!!

Liberation. Liberation from food, from feeling guilty, from hating my lack of control, from not being able to be an effective parent, from feeling like I don't fit in the world, from hating to meet people, hating my reflection, from hating to shop, from hating to get dressed, from hating to get UP in the morning and face another day at 340 lbs.

I was drinking, even chugging, until after my second or third fill. You are not going to hurt yourself, but there will come a point when you just can't take it in as quickly. And I have nothing to add to Janet's advice about solids and weight gain (or weight-loss-stall). DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT!!! You are already way ahead of the game, and this is all about your health not numbers on a scale. Just be good to yourself, take the solid food slowly, and stay calm!

No kidding, Kare. I almost wrote to Honda thanking them for making their windshields so tough! It literally saved my life.

Kare, thank you for taking the time to write all that! We can all benefit from your expertise, I know. Love to hear the insurance agent's perspective! And you are so right on the emotional repercussions, too. Last fall I was hit by a piece of metal junk that fell off a truck in front of me; my windshield was shattered right in front of my face. I wasn't hurt, but everyone who saw the windshield told me how lucky I was to be alive. For months after that I was very nervous driving past the spot where it happened. Car accidents suck. :confused:

Not I, but let me know if you find out. I need to do something about the list of losers in the total weight lost thread!!

Oh my god, Wheetsin, how awful!! :hug: I'm so sorry!! Thank goodness no one was seriously hurt. Sounds like you did everything you need to do, except have your hubby take a long hot bath and go to bed early. Poor guy!

Hi Patti, Welcome to LBT! I'm sorry I don't have any information on Dr. Andrei for you. Is he in Aetna's network? Or would you be going out-of-network for benefits on the band? Good luck!!

K@t, you're asking about positive experiences we've had because we've been (or are still) overweight, right? Not NSVs about losing weight. Correct me if I'm reading you wrong... I had to think about this but there is definitely one thing I have had better in life because I've always been fat. And that is: friendships with men. Time and time and time again I've been "the friend of the pretty girl" who always got passed over in favor of my gorgeous good friend. But on several occasions that I can recall, the flame that was between the guy and my friend sputtered out (sometimes unpleasantly) while MY relationship with the guy remained strong or even got closer as I nursed his wounds. To me, this has been a plus (once I got over the high-school anguish). Several of my female best friends have been extremely pretty--not just normally so. So they'd always attract a lot of attention. In college especially I got a lot of "who's your friend?" comments from guys, because my roommate was widely acknowledged as one of the great beauties on campus. But 20 years later she's recently ended her second wildly unsuccessful marriage, and I'm still very close friends with one of the guys she got dumped by in school. So I'd say having a better sense of my worth as a person is a result of being fat all my life. I was never "the pretty one," which meant I had to be "the smart one." And I personally think that's worth more in the long run.

I'm not sure what you mean by saving your favorite posts. If you are looking for a thread you want to refer to frequently, check your User CP and see if you have subscribed to it. Your subscribed threads show up in your User CP as a list, and that way you can get right to it. As for saving individual posts, no, you'd have to just copy and paste the text into another program to save them (like Word).

Hi Cjade, welcome to LBT! What sort of information are you looking for? If you're a little more specific people can answer better. Are you thinking about getting banded?

Tina, your options and rights vary considerably depending on where you live. Call your state's insurance commissioner and find out what your rights are with regard to purchasing individual or small group health insurance. Then call a health insurance broker and see if they can help. Don't try to deal with carriers directly--half the time the people talking to you have no idea of the laws that may apply. Good luck!!

My options may vary a bit because I'm a moderator, but when you click on "edit" isn't there an option there to delete? You should be able to delete posts, I believe. If that's not an option, you could just delete the whole text of the message and leave it blank, I guess.

Hi everyone, The moderators and site owner have determined that it makes sense for users to have the ability to edit their own posts indefinitely, so that ability has been restored. From here on out, though, users do not have the ability to delete entire threads--even threads they start themselves--so if you've ever been prone to doing so keep this in mind. Thanks for your patience while we worked out the details!

I sort of thought she was asking two different questions, which is why I only answered the first part. You're right; I read it too quickly. I don't at all think there's anything wrong with what you requested. Please contact me privately if you still need it done.

Speaking for myself, I do think it's treading on thin ice to retrieve and re-post information--when said information was deleted in the first place by someone who had full rights to do so. That's why it doesn't seem like a good idea to allow those rights to extend indefinitely. To everyone: There's been no attacking and there's no reason for ANYONE to take anything said on these threads personally. Let's keep the discussion on the points at hand, and not whip it up into a "war." Thanks!!

TBM, I'm sorry my comment came off as my "pulling a card" on you. I really didn't mean it to sound snotty. (Bolding mine.) Well, if it was mostly posts last time that explains why it would have had less of an impact on me. As I've said, I agree that posts should remain the property of the posters and they should have the right to edit or delete them at will.