GeezerSue

like at Scottrade or one of the other discount brokers, you can open an accunt for $500. I think I opened my account with a whopping thousand dollars...or two. You can make small quantity purchases. Each purchase costs either $7 or $12, the lower price if you just say "buy this," the higher price if you say "buy this at a price no higher than ___." So, the fewer shares you buy, the more it costs per share because of the commission. (ie--if you buy stock that costs $10/share plus commission, ten shares will cost you $10.70/share, a hundred shares will cost $10.07/share, because the commission costs are spread over more shares.) I didn't buy Inamed, because I thought it had done its thing, but I bought Johnson & Johnson, since their clinical trials are over and they should be about ready to market their product. I made about $11/shqare, but panicked at the vioxx/Celebrex thing and sold. Had I held on, I'd have made another $6/share. But like my best friend says, "If we had ham, we could have ham and eggs...if we had eggs." Happy trading. PS--some discount brokers give free trades to members who send new members their way, so if you have a friend who trades, go through that person. https://scottrade.com/

...and put bumper stickers on strangers' cars? Oh, wait! You just did! Never mind. Such tactics speak to this doctor's ETHICS...and I now know all about him I need to know.

http://lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?t=5688&highlight=rumbaut

Returning to add: LuAnn, I wouldn't let them submit with a BMI of 34, until I read my insurance coverage. If the criteria is 35 with comorbidities...I'd wait, seriously, until after a bag of chips and all.

...at my height, the difference between a BMI of 34 and a BMI of 35 (which, with your comorbidities ought to do it) would be: •a medium to large bag of potato chips the day before the exam. That salt would cause me to retain enough weight...which, at my height, is only five pounds...to move me from 34 to 35. •I'd skip my morning diuretic...to retain yet more fluids. •and, I don't know the condition of your reproductive system, but there are days some of us weigh more than we weigh on other days. You might want to schedule the exam for one of those heavy days. Sue :::doing my part to legally use the system as it is:::

This might help: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15623442&query_hl=18

Well...then I can't invite you to come with me when I have MINE removed...if I do...but if I do it's gonna be damned soon because I'm almost in my 60's!

Alex is the expert on how to communicate with the insurance company. I was just trying to focus your efforts on how to "beat" their argument. (On another support site, I "insulted" someone because I felt her letter sounded to much like she was trying to prove she "deserved" the surgery...which wasn't anything her insurance cared about. Nor did they care about her low self-esteem, or any one of a number of other things that were mentioned. Insurance companies do not approve surgery we "deserve," they approve surgery we are "entitled to.")

I went through something like this immediately after banding, except that I wasn't trying to eat anything. Your immediate problem is hydration while the stoma is swollen. Forget food. Do NOT try to eat anything solid...and I have no idea why you were not warned about that...but, forget any food for AT LEAST three days. The quesadilla irritated the stoma and the bread just made it worse. It needs a few days off. In fact, the stoma is so swollen that the brain thinks something is stuck, and is sending gallons of saliva down there to try to "wash through" whatever is stuck...which just gives you more stuff to pass through a really tiny hole. Then, you have to get Water in and if you don't you'll end up getting fluids IV. What Rumbaut had me do was eat ice chips and the occasional teaspoon of Maalox. But focus on the ice. (I know that many people use WARM water, but rumbaut had me on ice chips. Whichever works better for you.) Also, spit. I know you're not getting any sleep. So plant yourself on several pillows the bed or the sofa with several layers of towels and a small trash can lined with trash bags and stop swallowing all that saliva and just spit it out. You may finally fall asleep and drool a lot. Don't worry about it. Just pull out that towel and go to the next. The less slime you're trying to deal with, the better. This will pass, but when it does you need to go back to Clear Liquids for a few days, the slowly add full liquids, the pureed, etc. If at any point you irritate the stoma and start with this routine again, go back to square one and go even slower. If you cannot get fluids in, you will need to go to an ER and get hydrated. I've met people who were very swollenlike this for a week or ten days post op. Now you know that you are someone who is very sensitive to fills. Good luck. Good luck.

I don't read that the way you do. To me, it says "We cannot and will not approve anything that is not as good as or better than conventional therapies"...and "conventional therapies" usually means RnY. If that is the only basis on which they have denied the claim, then your job is to prove to them that it IS as good as or better than RnY. None of the other stuff--letters and documentation, etc.---matters. So before you send all of that stuff off, call Don Mills at Inamed and ask him for the citations (in peer reviewed medical literature and such) which establish that the band IS as good as or better than the conventional therapies. I don't mean to sound bossy on this point, but I think people get so wrapped up in trying to get the band, that they miss the details. The deal is that once they have denied you based on their excuse that the band isn't good enough, the ONLY argument that matters is that the band IS good enough...not how much you deserve it or messed up your life is now or how much better it will be after you lose weight, or that sort of thing. In fact, when our daughter was denied for BR surgery, the letter included the cites for their side of the argument. I used other points made in THOSE SAME ARTICLES to argue our side and they could see that it was just going to be enormously difficult to win a debate with a mom who had nothing better to do than read medical journals, and she was approved. Just remember that you need to focus on providng them with data which disproves their data, and therefore undermines their argument...which also would include other plans which a) have a similar efficacy and safety clause, and approve the band. Good luck.

I have to disagree here on a couple of points...no matter HOW you lose 100+ pounds, it is very unlikely that you can do so without saggy, baggy skin afterwards. Hell, many, many normal weight women need plastic surgery from stretched skin from a 40-60 pound gain during a particularly "fattening" pregnancy. Stretched skin does not "reform." And I disagree with your position that bypass is the right surgery for the super obese and band for lightweights. I don't think the more experienced band surgeons would agree, either. Some superobese do great with the band..and some lighter weight MO's don't.

If you're talking about an open enrollment period at his place of employment, you don't need to take a chance. Call the insurance company--or check their website--to determine their policy for covering bariatric surgery. (And don't let them get away with saying it has to be "medically necessary." When they told me that, I said, "So, if any doctor says I need this, you're going to pay for it, right?" THEN, they found the criteria.) If it looks like you meet that criteria, change insurance in November, but change back the following year. Unless the insurance is $1000/month out of pocket, you'll still save money. And even if THAT doesn't work, see if his employer offers a Section 125 account, which will let you pay out of pocket with tax free money.

All a bra will do is keep you from rolling over them in your sleep. (I LOVE massage therapists...mine wanted me to use an old Edgar Cayce cure of flannel pads of...I dunno...cod liver oil (?) wrapped around my hanging pannus to make it go away. Yeah, right.) I'm happy with my breast reduction and my tummy tuck and, if I lose 100 pounds, I'll do it again.

I'd go for protein and water.

Anyone, who has any (or no) bariatric surgery CAN lose all of his or her excess weight. But there is NO DATA supporting the concept that any surgery will cause us to lose ALL of our excess weight. The best outlook appears to be the DS at about 75-80%, then the RnY and the AGB at about 65%. We can all STRIVE to lose all of our excess weight, but to EXPECT to do so would leave an awful lot of people very, very disappointed.

It seems that the New Zealand doctors DID finally publish the results of a study regarding pre-op diets!!! I wish to point out that the Optifast diet is a different diet than the one they were pushing at the time we corresponded and that they still think of it as a "test of compliance," to predict how well we will comply with instructions AFTER band placement. But it seems that--according to this study--if you live on Optifast for a couple of weeks your liver (and everything else?) will be somewhat smaller. http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/fd/os/2004/00000014/00000009/art00005;jsessionid=4nin938vafmfw.victoria

Okay...I wasn't going to mention this, but guitarman is right. Three years ago, I read that the New Zealand LapBand doctors had their patients undergoing a liquid diet to "shrink the liver." BTW, it was not as strict as what's being done now. Little by little, doctors started adopting this procedure. I wrote to the NZ doctors to ask about the diet. They were doing a study at the time, to "prove" their theory. But part of their answer was that if patients were not ready for the diet, they didn't have the necessary self-control for the surgery. (Asses.) Well, I still can't find the results in the literature...and I know surgeons who never have had such a protocol and have records as good or better than those Kiwi docs, so...IMHO.. The shrink-your-liver diet is a bariatric surgeons' urban legend. Not only is the proof that this accomplishes much more than giving patients the runs not easily located...but funny how none of the other surgeons I've mentioned this to have even heard of it. Relax. Oh yeah, post-op, I asked my surgeon about it. He said, "Your liver goes 'this-a-way' instead of 'that-a-way,' so it wouldn't have mattered." Oh, well.

Not a good place to research bypass surgeries....HOWEVER, my second choice has always been the DS (actually, the biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch.) I many STILL go that route. The band works for about 80% of the band patients. I'm in a category...partially because I'm insane, but also because I'm older...that may put me in the 20%. When my band is tight enough that the weight loss is "happening" at a reasonable rate, I have reflux. When we loosen the band, I stand still. I'm not happy with either, so I'm still considering the DS. It's a bypass surgery, but quite different from the RnY and my insurance covers either...and not LapBand. Research them ALL before you decide. Good luck.

I think that when we think in terms of "cheating," it means that, in some way, it's a kind of game we're playing and the REAL issue is if we can do what we're used to doing without getting caught. Which isn't what this is about. (And when I use the word "we," I am including myself.) Just a point of view...

Alex...the complications in the US, if any, should be reported to the FDA, because the band is an implanted medical device just like a pacemaker. I don't know where the doctors in other countries are supposed to report complications with devices. (Hi...I've been really, really busy...but thought I might know something about this. Probably, I was wrong.)

It not the wisdom teeth, so much as the dry sockets. I'm sorry for your pain. I remember this experience from forty years ago.

A nurse at my doctor's office says her husband is no longer addicted to alcohol. He's now addicted to AA meetings. A friend of mine divorced her huband because he opted to replace his drinking with hallelujah-religion. These guys are both just as obsessive and just as out of control--and obnoxious--with their replacement addiction as they were with the original one.

His name is Roberto Rumbaut Diaz and he is one of the surgeons who did the pre-FDA trial work on the band. He has done THOUSANDS of band placements, he is a band patient, and he's one of the guys who taught the current mentors how to do the band. He is one of the pioneers. And, he works out of a hospital that is a teaching hospital...where your nurse will have only two or three other patients...where you have your own room, bathroom and shower, and a guest bed for a family member.

Congratulations, Rhonda, on your good experience. But let me add that there ARE reasons to be concerned about being banded far from home...see Lisa's post about HER experiences. And, not to concern you, but most of those who have had problems with the band did not experience those problems right away. I don't mean to rain on your parade, but just to show both sides of the issue.

I drink sparkling water all day every day. I just pour it, let it sit, stir a little to get rid of some bubbles, and sip slowly.