faithmd

BJean: What can I say? Sometimes I share too much! I'm sort of an open book.

LOL! I won't be delicate :heh: The largest guy I had was about 11 inches long and you couldn't get your hand around it. He was the second worst lover I ever had. :faint: The worst one was a man who was 6'9" or 6'10" tall, he wore size 22 shoes, he had hands that could easily palm a basketball with nice long, thick fingers. His nose was a nice big, aqualine nose. I thought I'd be in heaven...:clap2: Well, I remember once saying "Is it in yet?":( as he was grunting in the midst of his "O" I guess it was...oops! That relationship didn't last much longer...:bored

Georgia, how are you doing this week? I saw on another post about wearing a certain outfit and it not lasting long. So I take things are still tough for you? I really hope it gets better. You are a very inspiring young woman, I can't wait to get banded and start getting serious about my body as you have. We all have our bumps in the road, or our crosses to bear as it were. You can get through this! Is part of this the strong conflict between what you want to do and the religion that you have been raised with? Some people do change religions, sometimes things just don't seem the same to them when they get older. Sometimes we realign our belief systems as we learn more about other beliefs and ideas, we discover ourselves, we discover things about ourselves. I was raised Methodist and became Catholic when I was in my late teens because that's what I found myself drawn to. I know that's not the greatest example, but I think it just shows that we can and do change. I'm not saying for you to renounce your religion and belief system, but you are struggling right now. Therapy is a really good step for you to take. Perhaps a therapist not in or related to the Church may be beneficial as well. Someone who will help you see the bigger and broader picture without focusing so much on immorality. You need to sort through many other conflicting issues (as I'm sure I do, too-we all have issues to sort out sometimes). I have been following this thread for quite a while and have been completely amazed and inspired by your strength and have felt sadness that you haven't found what you want in life. You deserve it all! Everything you want and more.

I think it depends on what your employer says. If you don't want to tell them you will be having a surgery or procedure (you don't have to tell them what for), then I'd suggest scheduling some vacation time. But if you plan to tell ANYONE at work, I wouldn't call in sick at the last minute. I'd schedule sick time.

Welcome Ragdoll! This is a great site to come to for information and advice, I've found most of my information here (beyond what the surgeon's office has told me), by that I mean the practical, how to live with it information. Here's some threads about time off work: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?t=31539 http://www.lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?t=31467 http://www.lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?t=24060 http://www.lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?t=27726 Here's some threads about long term success: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?t=26123 http://lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?t=16051 There are a few studies that are fairly recent that show the rate of weight loss about five years out is nearly the same between RNY and the band. That tells me that the RNYers are gaining theirs back at that point, and the bandsters are pretty stable. I'd much rather lose a bit slower and not have my intestines cut and parts removed. Again welcome!

I would suggest if you are finding problems, you PM Alex, he needs to know about these things. And he's asked us to PM him. Hope it starts working for you soon, I use that feature all the time.

Nope, no trouble at all, but I click on Advanced Search right away.

Wow!!! Lap_dancer, you posted the very corsette I wore on my wedding day (though I looked no where near that good in it!) and that you loved Halloween...Well, that was when I got married! Halloween, 2001. I love Halloween, too!

Hello, this is a frequent question and certainly a valid concern. I'm going to list a number of threads that discuss banding versus bypass and hopefully reading what lots of other folks have struggled with will help you in some way. Also, you have to remember the band is not a magic cure-all. The band will not cause you to lose weight like the bypass does. The bypass works because you are starving, actually malnourishing your body. But the body can really only be fooled for so long, it's a smart machine. You ever know anyone who had bypass and then a few years later they are gaining again? The body knows, and it adjusts after a while. The band MUST be worked. You still have to make good food choices. The bypass sort of keeps you honest, for a while, about things like sweets (dumping syndrome). But again, that can fade. The band requires work, it does help with portion control. You still need to exercise and do all the things you would normally need to do to lose weight. The band is a tool. But it is REVERSIBLE, it does not require removal of any part of an organ, and if it fails, it can always be converted to bypass or another procedure later. http://www.lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?t=32584 http://www.lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?t=32616 http://www.lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?t=32079 http://www.lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?t=30997 http://www.lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?t=28724 http://www.lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?t=28690 http://www.lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?t=27483

It's 30lbs for one inch in length (supposedly), but I'm not completely convinced. From my, uhhhhh, "experience" I can fairly definitively say there is not consistent correlation to fatness of the fingers or width of the feet having any positive relationship to the girth of the penis. Nor has my experince been that hands from palm to tip of middle finger equals the length, nor (sadly) has shoe size, nor nose size told me anything about what I found when I unzipped the package... I have skipped this thread over for far too long! My BFF is a urologist, a gay male urologist and unfortunately he concurred that my experience is likely the reality. Wouldn't it be *kind* of nice to be able to look at feet or hands or noses and know that you were going to be faced with a well-endowed member? I mean, men can see (for the most part) what we have to offer in the boob department. Of course, that doesn't account for the motion of the ocean or the wiggling of the pole theory. Though I do agree with this to a point, I have unwrapped a penis or two in my day that no matter how skilled of a partner he was, it just wasn't going to do a thing for me Those are the men who need to become PhD's in Oral Gynecology.

I am so glad it was a good experince for you, HPB! I'm holding out hope my fills will be as good when I get there.

Glad to hear all of you have different experiences and once banded I *may* still be able to eat some of my favorite foods (nuts, grapes and citrus fruits).

14lbs=1 stone or about 6.4kgs

I don't know if this will help, but here's a link to a wonderfully inspirational and very soul-bearing thread started by Krystal. Hope there are some suggestions in this thread that will help, too: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?t=33351

Mmmmmmm, olives! I love olives, but I think we all know I'm proudly not in my right mind! I've found the Rapid Blast Tylenol at Target as well.

And this one will likely never happen, but I think it's a big dream dress to wear (and it can never hurt to dream!)

Here's one of the dresses I want to wear one day:

Okay, maybe a little of a Bloomin' Onion! But honestly I've changed my eating habits so much that the "bad stuff" doesn't really interest me anymore! (Never thought I'd say that!)

I was 330.4 when I stepped on the scale this morning at my PCP's. WooHoo! I get the fact that the insurance company wants you to lose something on your MD supervised diet to show that you can follow orders, but... My ins co requires a 12 month MD program and 5% loss of your excess weight. Which for me would have been about 9#. My starting weight was 344, but over the course of the year I got sick and was off work and on meds that made me very sedentary for almost five months. Well, I gained lots of weight. My ins co said that the letter my cardiologist and the letter my PCP wrote (both saying that it wasn't my fault and that I am losing now that I'm fixed) were not convincing enough and that I had to lose all I gained, plus the original 9#. I had gained to 371, so I had to lose back to the 344, then the additional (original) 9#. I applied last month at 348 (down from the high of 371, but still up from the original 344) and was denied. So for the last week I have been drinking one or two SF low carb shakes or EASAdvantEdge drinks or Atkins drinks and eating salads and chopped veggies and 1/2 cup of cottage cheese a day. It wasn't awful, but I wanted to slather some A-1 sauce on the arm of anyone close to me and start gnawing. So now that I've "weighed in" and it's official, I'm heading to Outback! I'm on my way right now. Though I will not be having a potato, probably only one little piece of bread, if any, and no dessert. I just want a big slab of meat!

Do you have a favorite flavor? The "Everything" and the "Garlic" sound good to me.

Awww, thanks. But the last week or so all I've been eating is slimfast low-carb shakes and chopped fresh veggies and salads. So I'm sure to gain a little once I bump from my now nearly 800-900 calories a day back to my approx 1500-1700 a day. I had to make 335 by today, in order to get approved, so I had to do something drastic.

As a woman who works in Neonatology and regularly cares for humans that are born at 22, 23, 24, etc. weeks, I believe that life begins when a fetus can sustain itself with minimal assistance. 22 or 23 weekers RARELY live, 24 weekers have a much higher chance of survival than 22 or 23 weekers, but the question then becomes what type of survival, the complication rate is astronomical at that gestational age. I know, I know, many folks will say they know someone who was born at 24 weeks and is fine. But those really are few and far between. My point is that in my mind, a fetus is not considered a life until it can be born and actually survive with my intervention. Basically to me, abortion is not murder if there is no chance the fetus could survive outside of the womb, even with medical intervention. Now that doesn't address the whole topic of late-term or partial-birth abortions, for those *I* do not agree with a woman having a late term abortion if the fetus is healthy and she is healthy, but that is not my decision to make. I would prefer to see a woman carry that pregnancy to term and put it up for adoption, but what I want shouldn't mater, it's not my body. But the question is what does late term mean? If it means 20 weeks, then that isn't late term to me, that fetus would not survive outside of the womb even with intervention. If it means 22 weeks, same thing. Past 24 weeks is where my personal cut-off is. That having been said, many ultrasounds and amniocentesis tests don't show serious complications until near or after that time. If my fetus was going to have life-threatening conditions or had a defect that would cause a lifelong problem that will significantly impact the quality of life, then I would argue that it is my right to then choose to terminate that pregnancy whenever I found out this information, if that was my decision. Depending on when I found out about any of these possibilities, I may choose to carry to term and then allow comfort care only. It is such a personal decision, and one that cannot be made lightly. I would never tell another person to terminate their pregnancy if (for example) it was discovered that the fetus had a left hypoplastic heart defect. I would be there to completely support whatever their decision was and I'd gladly take the best possible care of that baby once it arrived. But I know for me, that I would choose not to continue with a pregnancy like that (again, unless I found out VERY late and then I would choose to love and make the most of every moment I had with my child until s/he passed). I am only one person, and that would be my personal choice. I fully believe that this is a personal choice, not one to be dictated by someone else. It is something to be decided upon between the woman carrying the pregnancy, her partner(depending on the situation) and her doctor.

Here's the link to one of them: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?t=17998

Congrats on your surgery! From what I've read, walk, walk, walk. It will help redistribute that gas in your abdomen and help it work it's way out. Do the absolute best you can to stick to the diet your surgeon gave you, you can do it! It's only a few weeks out of your life. Good luck!!

bigthunder, again I suggest you contact Walter Lindstrom (a WLS attorney), ASAP. He has had RNY and now has the band as well. He fights a good fight from what I've heard and is very knowledgeable. His website is www.obesitylaw.com</p> <p> </p> <p>Here's a link to his FAQ's: http://obesitylaw.com/faq.php His site says the sooner you get an appeal to him, the more effective he can be, if you appeal two, or even three times on your own, you may have exhausted your appeals with the insurance company. I remember reading on his site once that he prefers to get your case in your second go-round. Good Luk!