DeLarla

"Lisa, This is what I'm talking about. Margret" Margret, WHAT are you talking about? You didn't even say anything. Now, who are the people YOU know that I know? Why are you afraid to answer this simple question? Can anybody help me here?

When you lay an egg, you hope it hatches. She shouldn't have laid it. Makes you wonder what Marg's motifs are. So far she posted someone else's letter, she's lurking in profiles, deleting posts, making threats, and refusing to come clean. I've told her before that the law provides for fairness of game, yet she refuses to tell me who these mutual people are that we both know - the ones she planned on using against me.

Ban the Band? Watch your mouth! Follow the above (excellent) advice and spend some time learning comprehension. If you read carefully you'll realize that I'm the LAST person on the planet that wants the band removed from the market! Margret, do a search and see how many countless times I've said, "I'd do it again in a heartbeat." Ban the Band? No F-ing way!

MARGRET, WHO ARE THE PEOPLE YOU KNOW THAT I KNOW? And what do we win? Was this a contest? By the way, please re-read what I wrote, understand the sentence, and maybe even look up the word "rhetorical" in the dictionary.

Ass? Haha, I said ass! Moderator, please spank me.

"One could argue, in fact, that it improves the industry, wouldn't you think?" Vick, you hit the nail on the head. Nobody wants the band to go away. I don't know why I waste my time on Margret since she can't comprehend the importance of aftercare, honesty, integrity, etc. I want what I paid for. How is that a bad thing?

This makes it 9 times I'm asking: Margret, you threatened me and said you "know the same people I do." Who are they? Do I need to take steps to protect myself?

Margret, I've asked you about 6 times now to come clean - you threatened me and said you "know the same people I do." Who are they? Do I need to take steps to protect myself?

Margret, I've asked you about 6 times now to come clean - you threatened me and said you "know the same people I do." Who are they? Do I need to take steps to protect myself?

In response to what Leatha wrote about "the lady I spoke with when I had my slippage said they stress over and over the aftercare aspect of the band. They tell the docs who come to the seminars, 'if you are not prepared to provide the aftercare/followup, you do not need to become a band surgeon'. So.. hmm." Just so you all know, I read this in Inamed's Literature. They DO require their band surgeons to have adequate and reliable aftercare. But when I talked to them on the phone, they say they have no control over it. As far as Margret deleting her posts, I also saw her lurking around in my profile again. Margret, why are you stalking me? I've already told you that if you have something to say, please say it here in an open forum. I'm not comfortable at all with stalking or harrassment issues. And if you spend some time actually reading the entire post instead of selecting what you feel like seeing, you'll see that nobody wants to put Inamed out of business (unless I missed something.) We simply feel that they should take some responsiblity for doctors that aren't taking care of their patients. Is that so hard to comprehend? Meanwhile, nobody said you can't speak your own opinion around her, but once again, if you "read" the posts around LBT, you'll see that we're all here to support each other. Nobody wants to hear any marketing schemes like how faboulous one doctor is regardless of how many people he hurt. You started this ugliness a long time ago but for some reason came back to stir the pot again. You know darn well that many of us have severe problems with Dr. Lopez's lack of aftercare, so for you to come here and try to belittle our experiences by saying how grand yours was is simply in poor taste and manners. Penni is not the one deleting the posts. Now explain why you keep going to my profile when you already know so much. Margret, I've asked you about 6 times now to come clean - you threatened me and said you "know the same people I do." Who are they? Do I need to take steps to protect myself?

Payback is a bitch! Zoe, is that comment about the original Numero Uno to get me back for all my junk food talk? YUM. Don't you dare go there without me! Wrong, wrong, wrong.

I like the idea of us all seeing for ourselves exactly what's going on. I'd like to take it one step further and see everyone's incisions. I didn't think much of my scars after the initial surgery. But I remember how extremely impressed I was after Dr. Kuri removed my port, and his female assistant stitched me up. Her work was impeccable compared to my other wounds. Is there a band-placement issue, or shoddy workmanship Where am I going with this? Whatever is done, it needs to be done with finesse. Do we really want to be the group of hard-ass woman that remove the band from the market and leave all our fat followers without the tool that saved our lives? Boy, Lisa's in a deep mood tonight, isn't she?

This morning, Larry from Inamed told me his mom has a band. She can't eat in the morning because she's too tight, so he recommends having something warm, like tea or coffee 20 min or so beforehand to warm up the esophogus. I always liked having the morning restriction because it kept me from eating too much. But if you want to have the protein bar, maybe try Larry's suggestion and have a cup of tea 1/2 hour before. Maybe that will help. Just a thought.

Welcome, Khadija! And Minny, I'm a Libra, too, so I can totally understand how hard it is to make a solid decision! The damn scales in our heads just gotta be perfect, don't they? I'm having a lot of problems with my band. But I'd do it all over again if I had to. I learned there's a 4% morbidity rate for gastric bypass patients, and the LapBand is under 1%. Considering my bad luck, 4% is pretty scary.

Larry admitted being really good friends with not only Lopez, but other popular band doctors as well. It's like a great big boys' club - they all seem to know each other intimately. So far I've heard both good and bad about most of the surgeons, and all from reliable sources. I take EVERYTHING in Bandland with a grain of salt. It's so hard knowing who to trust. I feel like I'm living in a spin-off from the Stepford Wives or a Stephen King novel. Is this all real?

Winkin' at Greg... but I can't get their crust recipe down! It's famous!

"I highly doubt they will tell you he is a goon." Michelle, my eggroll almost shot out of my nose with that one. Zoe, I'm in total agreement that Black and Decker would be 100% responsible if the product caused injury. But just like going to the Band doctor first, you'd have to jump through hoops with Home Depot's upper management, customer service, etc., to make sure it's the product, not the user, right? Heck, did that make an ounce of sense? If my Black and Decker electric drill hurt me, I'd go straight to Black and Decker. But if it simply stopped working, I'd go to Home Depot. All depends, I guess. This whole Black n' Decker analogy makes me laugh when I think of Rosie O'Donnel's stand-up when she refers to Madonna's "vibrator by Black n' Decker." Anyone remember that?

Mmmm, carbs. Feelin' ya, sister.

Lauri, maybe you're like me and need to eliminate snacking, period. Some of us can eat little amounts all day, then there's those of us that constantly have to put something in our mouths. That's why my current goal is to eat only 3 meals with zero snacks. The constant need to chew and swallow - even if it's only on celery - is my biggest problem. Just a thought????

Inamed employees are excellent at remaining politically correct. They are very careful about not saying too much, while remaining informative. They won't tarnish a doctor's name (in my opinion) but they may say things to sway you to a good doc - it's a potluck, ya never know what you're gonna get. As far as someone having no restriction, that's all too common for a variety of reasons. Number one is erosion, meaning if someone suddenly has no restriction, there's a chance their band has eroded. But less drastic could be that many doctors "sneak up" on restriction. They only give small fills, which is something Inamed recommends. A small fill might not feel like anything. So the doc keeps giving these small fills till restriction is achieved. Another reason is maybe they punctured her tube with the fill needle. Fill Fluid can leak out. She should have an Upper GI and/or an Endoscope, or better yet, seek a 2nd opinion. I've learned to get as many opinions as possible - the winning doctor is the one who agrees with what someone else already told me!

Vick, good question, and I have part of the answer. NO, doctors do not always report problems. I know this firsthand since many months ago I reported some things to Inamed that they weren't aware of. They did tell me that Dr. Kuri is excellent at reporting all problems - not just erosions - but port infections, ports flipping, port revisions, erosions, rejections, etc. The only way Inamed can track problems is if they get the information. I posted a long time ago, and Penni, Michelle and others have repeated posts that it's our responsiblity to contact Inamed with every single problem instead of relying on the doctors. Inamed was unaware of my problems till I contacted them, but now I'm probably a household word to them! I know that Penni reported her own problem, too. Spread the word - ANYONE HAVING THE SLIGHTEST PROBLEM, PLEASE CONTACT INAMED. This is the only way advances can be made, research can be completed, data can be compiled, etc. Good question, you get a gold star! Larry was trying to explain how Inamed can't always take responsibity or know everything a surgeon is doing. He compared the band to a tool we might by at Home Depo. Something like if we buy a Black and Decker tool at Home Depo, we won't go to Black and Decker if we have a problem, but instead we'd go to Home Depot where we purchased it. It wasn't the best analogy, but unfortunately, I doubt Black and Decker would give a damn if my electric saw stopped working - they'd tell me to bring it back to Home Depot. However, if my Black and Decker power saw broke in pieces and injured me, you better believe I'd have Black and Decker on the phone begging me to repair my injuries (which is what I kinda told Larry.)

Laurie, maybe you need to change your goals. For the first six months I didn't have any number goals. My goals were to be happier and to want to live. Maybe you should change your goal to "from now on I will eat like a normal person." Normal people have days when they eat more than they should have, but they don't hate themselves for it. They just move on. You are completely normal. If we don't screw up from time to time then we can't call ourselves human, now can we. Good for you for realizing you ate too much pizza and for sharing it with us because we all love you, pizza and all. I did the same exact thing over the weekend. We went to California, and my husband HAD to have his very favorite (since there's no Numero Uno in Vegas.) But the next morning, I ate 2 pieces of pizza while everyone was asleep. The dogs weren't even awake yet, so I can't even say I shared bits with them! And I'm someone that's never, ever been able to eat in the mornings because of too much restriction, but the pizza slid right down. Be good to you.

"How can that be? Thats strange since Ortiz just told me he does 4 to every 1 of Lopez's" Michelle, in response to your post, I don't know how it can be! It's hard to trust anybody these days. Inamed says Lopez is the best and does the most surgeries. It sure would be nice to get to the bottom of it. I wonder if Inamed is quoting recent activity. I'm sure Lopez was way ahead of Ortiz in the beginning when Ortiz went solo, but maybe Ortiz is now in the lead and Inamed hasn't collected current numbers???? How can we know for sure who's telling the truth?

Karen, you forgot to tell me how you are feeling physically. Are you sore, sick? Do you have any ghost restriction? I'm here for you (duh, but you gotta call me.) xoxo Love you bunches.

CARMEN STOLE MY GOAL WEIGHT! GIVE IT BACK. Rock on, girl! I'm only up 3 pounds now (better than the 6 pounds I was up.) And where is Gross Darcy? It's not like her to be gone so long.