TheCascadian

You're under NHS? I'd get on that chunnel-train to the continent and buy myself a lap-band instead! 3 years is FAR too long. I started THINKING about this surgery in November of last year and am having surgery in March. And I drug my feet a lot! I wish you luck.

Hello all. My parents sort of let me choose my own faith as a child. I attended various churches and read a lot of books on religion, becoming something of a minor expert in comparative religion. And, knowing as much as I did, of course I picked D) None of the Above. How could I choose a "correct" faith and consequently damn the rest of the world to being wrong, if not living in perpetual sin or even eternal damnation??? Were not all major faiths at least AIMING toward the same good goal? Because I saw through the different trappings and felt all the different paths were really one, I became an ecumenist. I would further classify myself as "Pro-Faith" but "Anti-Organized Religion". If people don't understand why I have a problem with churchs, mosques, temples and wacky cults (Ahem, MINDLESS DOGMA COUGH! AHEM) then I guess I can't explain it to them. I'd just direct their eyes to the Middle East or the story of Reverend Jim Jones and call it a day... I do pray, I do believe in higher power(s), but I don't go further than that. If they want to be named in specific or if they have marching orders for me personally, I'm sure I'll hear about it. Until then, we have a very casual association! I try to be a good person; I think I *AM* a good person. And I don't need a priest, a church, a fatwa or a master to tell me anything about how to live my life. I respect other faiths to the same degree they respect mine. Which I guess makes me sound like a real intolerant jerk! LOL. Anyway, live-and-let live is a motto for me. Glad to see so many different faiths represented here. Rock on.

Janiee, You're welcome. I wish you the very best in this difficult time. You deserve to have a happy, healthy life. We all do, in fact.

I just read and laughed through 34 pages. Whew! Time for my .02 cents: I actually love to lick my ladies WAY MORE than I enjoy recieving oral. I jokingly call it "getting my vitamin P". I'm not sure anything gets me harder than doing this. Besides, I think I already had the best BJ in the world from an ex-girlfriend who could probably strip the chrome off a trialer hitch! Most women before and since haven't held a candle to that one girl- she knew how to do it right. I told her she should seriously give classes to other women, but she responded with, "What, and lose my edge in the market?" LOL! She was a redhead, btw.

Don't beat yourself up yet. Instead, go for a long walk and walk off whatever you ate... At the very least you can feel like you've been "punished" afterwards.

Uhhh, I'm prolly gonna feel stupid... but what's an NSV?

Right on, we got stickied.

Great ideas, thanks Kat!

Last year I got a new job in law enforcement and had to pass the run and other physical testing during the Academy. I was preparing for MONTHS by moderately dieting and jogging 3 miles every other day and doing pushups/situps and weights. During that time I was very strict with myself and did not gorge on huge meals or nasty sweets. During that time I did my best to push myself harder and faster. During that time I gained about 20 pounds of muscle AND fat. I never lost inches or visible gut. I looked fatter at the end. I made it through my Academy with honors, but I had to listen to my fellow cadets say things like, "I can't believe you can run that fast! Good job." Heh. Thanks. *I* couldn't believe months of effort had not been rewarded with a slender body and scads of cute women throwing themselves at me. I realized I needed help but felt hopeless. When I returned home, I continued my running and exercise and diet. And I continued to gain weight. When my knees starting hurting really bad from all the abuse, I finally stopped and decided it was time for surgery. I am done. I will not diet without surgical help. I will not do high-impact exercise until my weight drops under 350. I have convinced myself after years of dieting and exercising with my best and most faithful efforts- and failing constantly- that I will need some serious assistance on this trip and am getting it. I needed a tool and I'll have it installed next month...

My high weight was 425 freaking pounds! I used to go down to shipping and recieving at my job and get on the industrial package scale to weigh myself! Talk about embarassing, but I was on a diet and HAD TO KNOW, ya know? Besides, I'm a guy, so it was always like a big laugh with the coworkers that I was such a massive dude... I carried it really well at 6'6", but I was dying from it nonetheless. I'll never go back there, though. It's banded or bust now.

Thanks guys, the support here is always top-notch. I've been all over the site in the last few weeks reading up and I'll keep reviewing the ABUNDANCE of info on here. Lots of people like the EAS drinks and I think I'll try some. I already got my bullion cubes and powder, next I'll get cans of broth and stock up on fruit juices. Nerves are jangling, I'm getting sort of worried. I went out and had an outrageous meal and Chilis: chips and Salsa, a Peppercorn Burger with fries and a paradise pie for dessert! Of course I split the appetizer and dessert with my friends, but it was deee-licious. But I'm a dieting expert, so saying goodbye to my Chilis for a while isn't going to be too hard. I'll return for their delicious chicken fajitas once I'm banded and healed, don't doubt! I figure doggy bags will be my newest friends. LOL.

My personal request will be for a "sleeve" or "vertical" gastrectomy. It is sort of like a really PERMANENT lap-band, they cut out most of your stomach but leave your intestines alone. I'm skittish about re-routing my intestines and if the lap-band surgery doesn't work out, or later if the band fails and I need additional surgery, I'm asking for the sleeve surgery as my revision. But I'm going for the lowest-impact procedure possible now, just seems like a smart idea to try it out and hope for the best. What should you do? I don't know. If you can handle taking Vitamins daily for life, gastric bypass DEFINATELY works for (most) people. I can't say anything bad about it, I know a lot of folks who saved their lives by having it. The sleeve gastrectomy is sort of uncommon and I'm not sure if your doctor would have any experience with it... You need to do a lot of internet research and talk to your doc about ALL the options on the table. Sorry if I'm not being helpful, but I can't speak for your body and wish you lots of luck. And I wouldn't worry- the band is a safe and quick surgery. It's always good to have a plan B "just in case", but I wouldn't stress too hard about it!

I just scheduled my nutritionist appointment! LOL. Kat, thanks for the support. I can't wait to get on the bandwagon, so to speak. Any great suggestions on what I should purchase as far as food supplies go?

Two days ago I was cursing myself out for not moving forward in the pre-testing phase... I made a few calls and suddenly I have a surgery date! WHoo-hoooo!!! Now I've gotta get a nutritionist and a sleep study appointment QUICK! LOL. Okay, now the nerves are kicking in a bit... Just a bit though.

NBJEN: Check out my other thread about Dr. Earl Fox! (you can search for my posts in my profile or look it up in the Doctors section) Long story short, he has a clean record and is a member of the ASBS.

Hahhahaha! Today was a good day. Well, the problem solved itself. I'm NOT religious at all, but I do have faith in a higher power and I prayed about this... Coincidence or not I'm happy I did: Turns out I don't EVEN HAVE a PCP through my insurance and I don't need ANY referrals! I can go to any specialist I like whenever I want for any reason! So Dr. Dagg is completely superfluous at this point, I don't need anything from him! *SCORES* Called around today and set up my psych consult. Got into contact with the hospital for my pre-operative testing and am awaiting a callback. I'll find a nutritionist and make an appointment with them tomorow. I'm really on the way now, I'm SOOOO glad I called the insurance company!

Hahhahaha! Today was a good day. Well, the problem solved itself. I'm NOT religious at all, but I do have faith in a higher power and I prayed about this... Coincidence or not I'm happy I did: Turns out I don't EVEN HAVE a PCP through my insurance and I don't need ANY referrals! I can go to any specialist I like whenever I want for any reason! So Dr. Dagg is completely superfluous at this point, I don't need anything from him! *SCORES* Called around today and set up my psych consult. Got into contact with the hospital for my pre-operative testing and am awaiting a callback. I'll find a nutritionist and make an appointment with them tomorow. I'm really on the way now, I'm SOOOO glad I called the insurance company!

My surgeon is Dr. Earl Fox at the Surgical Weight Loss Clinic in Tacoma, WA. I live in Seattle, WA. Good luck with your band, thanks for the support!

I stopped running and dieting when I hurt my knee for about the 99th time. That's when I started researching the lap-band. I was just FINISHED with failing and decided it was time to get this problem solved. So yeah, I've gained probably 10 pounds in the last few months eating whatever I please and lying around like a lump. I'll get back on the bandwagon as surgery nears...

Omigosh... So young. Quick, MODERATORS!!! Gotta lock up the Lounge, man! Start carding at the door! :Banane43: Seriously though, good luck with your band! I'm actually relieved to know that you are starting to fight it now. I wish I'd been more proactive at an even younger age.

This is an awesome question! As I said, I've never been thin. However, I am ALWAYS thin in my dreams, unless the dream is somehow a horrible one about my weight. My dream-self is a tall and average build with lean muscle. My real shape is a pear with a pear-shaped head. Think GRIMACE from the Mcdonalds adverts! LOL. I don't know if I'll look like my dream-self or not, but I'll keep you updated.

There are definately either different (but related) diseases, or different levels of the one disease that are affecting each us in our own way. We definately are not one-size-fits-all on here! Do you think you'd have trouble maintaining a healthy weight on a gastric bypass surgery?

I was on Xenadrine for a while, back when it still had Ephedra in it. The only result for me was intense paranoia and skittishness. I started having panics attacks whenever the phone rang or it was "too quiet" in the room for a while! LOL! I never tried Phen Fen... Ah well, heart damage is a real bear. Sucks that you found something that works- only with fatal side effects. *sigh*

Thanks, I figured you guys would appreciate it. I'm always amazed that WLS "deniers" (yeah I stole that one from Al Gore) don't look at it rationally until you put that little "conundrum" of the thin bypass person versus the thin regular person in front of them... I have a pet theory that morbid obesity is just some genetic side effect of being famine-resistant. We are OBVIOUSLY hard to starve to death, since all of our surgeries effectively put us in a famine-like state and still can fail at keeping us thin! I tease my skinny friends that when the apocalypse happens and there's no food, I'm gonna be looking AWESOME riding around in my Jeep like Mad Max. ;D

I had a minor/friendly debate with a coworker about the merits of obesity surgery. But I think I might have made some progress by the end of it. We were talking about all of our coworkers who have had gastric bypass and how great they look. I mentioned that they had inspired me to get banded and he asked me about it. He listened for a moment and then, in a very friendly way, began to question my diet, exercise and personal history. We are normally very open with each other so I didn't feel he was prying or being nosy, but my answers didn't seem to satisfy him. He suggested elliptical trainers, cardio, seeing a nutritionist, eating 6-10 times a day, the usual clap-trap. He basically stated that surgery really was unnecessary that that fat people should just work harder. He said they are eating too much and if they just ate a normal 2,500 calorie diet and did some cardio they'd shed the pounds and be thin. I pointed about that my diet was well under 3,000 calories and that I worked out regularly for years and was gaining weight the whole time. He responded that I must have a thyroid condition. I told him he was dead wrong, that I'd just had that test last week and have perfect thyroid function. Clearly, he didn't get it, so I tried to explain things to him a little more, to no avail. We went back and forth on it. Finally, I got a bit fed up and pointed something out to him (coworkers names changed to protect the innocent): I said, "Jim is thin and healthy, right? So if he got the bypass surgery, what would happen to him?" Coworker says, "He'd prolly be really sick and might even die. His body wouldn't be getting enough calories! He's too thin to have the surgery done." I responded, "Exactly. So Peter was really fat, got the bypass surgery done almost 3 years ago and ever since then he's been thin. In fact, he's about the same size as Jim, right? Same height and weight, right?" He agreed this was true. Then I laid down the clincher: "Why isn't Peter now dying from malnourishment and hunger? Why is he struggling to maintain his weight loss even eating tiny portions and exercising, all while Jim still eats whatever he wants and never exercises and stays the same weight?" My coworker looked stumped at this idea, that clearly the patient's starting body weight was irrelevant for a permanent surgery like gastric bypass... But I was just getting started. I said, "If what we ate and how we exercised were the solution for morbid obesity, there would not be very many morbidly fat people. It took a massive rerouting of Peter's digestive track to get him to where diet and exercise even have a chance of controlling his weight. He and Jim may look the similar on the outside, but inside they are hardly the same species.' 'They are obviously processing and using calories very differently or else people who had bariatric surgery would all eventually get too thin and die off. Instead, even with surgery, some people never lose all their excess weight and have to put in constant effort forever just to stay thin!" He seemed impressed by this and said, "I never thought about it that way, but you got me with that one. If what I said was true, Peter should be really getting sick by now!" He was laughing ruefully and I was getting into it, so I continued on my rant. I said, "Have you been on a strict diet and exercise regimen every day of your life to stay thin? Or do you generally eat what you want and exercise when you feel like it? When you gain a few pounds, does it really take more than a few weeks of mild effort to shed that weight?' He laughed again and agreed that he didn't really do ANY of the things he was suggesting I do and that he easily lost weight. I kept on my rant: "Normal people maintain a healthy weight with nary a thought of diet or exercise. Obese people gain weight almost inexorably. Some fat people cannot control their compulsive eating due to mental health issues, but most of us are simply hungry too often or for too much AND our bodies happily convert everything we do eat into fat. It packs on easily and burns off hardly at all. We are not normal and someday doctors and thin people are going to realize that, stop putting us down and start looking for a cure to the disease we have- a cure that doesn't involve chopping into our guts." He threw up his hands and surrendered the point. Though I was off on quite the tangent, it was all in good fun. He could tell he really got my goat even though I ultimately won the debate, so I guess it was sort of a draw. Anyway, I do think I made progress helping him understand what we go through. No, more than that... I think he understands now just a little bit about WHAT WE ARE. It was a good conversation, so I had to share it with all of you.