Wheetsin

Flabuless, if you want to scuba, do it now. Don't let weight hold you back. I dived as much as 80lbs heavier than I am now, and I know I was not a pretty sight out there in my wetsuit, but who cares. Don't deny yourself the experience because you haven't hit the weight you want. Just bring lots of weights.

Yes, you can scuba post band. I called Inamed and spoke with them about a few times. I got two different answers. Once I was told it's completely safe, but advised not to go beyond 60ft (I have a deep diving specialty under my advanced cert) and once I was told that anything down to recreational depth would be fine. I asked them specifically about the integrity of the band under increased atmospheres and they said it wouldn't be a problem. Any gas would just be compressed, and on surfacing would only expand to its normal size, so that wouldn't be an issue. Hope this helps.

I PBed 3 days after surgery, and a few times with just 1cc of fill. For me, the band itself provided some degree of restriction, even while empty. So don't fret over PBing before you're filled. I'm going to bring up another side of the issue. And that's to trust your surgeon's judging on when it's time for a fill, and not be upset if he tells you it's too soon. I say this because I've been overfilled, and it's not fun. I was overfilled and had to PB, and over the next 6 or 7 PBs in the next 3 hours I became irritated and swelled to the point of complete closure. This meant I couldn't get my own saliva down, so every few times that I swallowed I had to PB again. If you're self-paying for your fills, think of it this way. What's better -- to pay for one fill when you're reasonably sure that you need it, or to pay for a fill that you might need, and then have to pay for an unfill, and then have to pay for a third fill to get you to where you would have been if you'd waited in the first place. As for your surgeon upsetting you, did you tell him? If not, do. It's hard to expect a behavior change if you aren't making it known that the behavior is unacceptable. He should be receptive to the feedback.

I've always known because 99% of the time it has been a gradual thing. Slight discomfort, something not feeling quite right... pain setting into the lower abdomen... pain setting into the hips... (start thinking uh oh, this may not just go away)... pain setting into the back... (start thinking uh oh, this probably isn't going to just go away)... salivating starts...(pretty sure this isn't going to just go away)... starts getting hard to swallow, etc. When my throat kicks in, and it gets hard to swallow, it's PB time. All of this happens in the course of about 15 - 30 minutes, depending on how much of the saliva I swallow, and how quickly I start spitting into a toilet, whether or not I have to try and hold it back or I can let 'er rip, etc. The closest I've come to an unexpected PB - was not unexpected, all of the above happened, it just happened in a greatly abbreviated timeline of about 2 minutes. That's because I stupidly added fluids onto a stick. I knoew the minute the liquid hit that I was in for trouble. BTW, don't do that, it magnifies the pain factor about 6x.

I have said this more times than I can count, but I truly wish the vote campaigns (e.g. Vote or Die) would taper off. People are feeling more obligated to cast their vote because it's their right and their duty, but they're casting uninformed votes. What's worse - not voting at all, or voting for something when you don't know what you're voting for? I don't have any official numbers on this, but I know in a discussion we had at work during the last election -- there were about 11 of us talking, and 3 of us understood what the candidates stood for, what the ammendments really meant, etc. The others cited reaons for their votes including, "Liked his name", "It's my favorite number", and "I saw it on a billboard". (Marketing is effective afterall) These aren't kids, either. I was the youngest of the bunch. And most people involved in the discussion have at least as many investments in the outcomes as I do, if not more (e.g. children).

The motive of paying was essentially to get people to show up. "Was" last time I really studied this (in undergraduate university when Crack and PP made its way into classroom discussion). I would assume that hasn't changed too much. Few addicts are going to seek voluntary sterilization because they're concerned about the ethics of having addicted babies or burdening a welfare system, or because they are concerned about their ability to raise a child. They're going to do it because they see some immediate gain for themselves. To an addict, cash (next to drugs) is probably the biggest motivator to do something. Offer an addict "free sterilization" and see who shows up. Offer an addict "$200 for sterilization" and your turnout will probably be much greater. I'm neither condoning nor condemning the practice, just trying to answer the question.

I know. I saw my cousins two weeks ago. Some of them, anyway. They're all quite deep in their religion, being life-long members of the local Catholic church. More specifically, I spoke with them about politics. Eventually. The conversation started with them asking my opinion of one of their classmates who had become pregnant and was being urged by the father to have an abortion. By virtue of that discussion, we evolved into something more political. The eldest (in her 20s) commented that she was a republican, which surprised me because I never had her pegged as a political creature. She's nice, but rather checked-out. I asked her why she said she was a republican, and she said, "Because I am conservative." So I asked her what conservative meant and she said, "It means I'm a christian." I asked her if liberals could be christians, too, and she said, "Not according to our church." *sigh* My little anecdote is so sad on so many levels.

I'm a liberal and an atheist and I don't hate them. I've been through this logic on another thread when I was told a series of things that atheists hate. I'm not familiar enough with Michael Medved to know where that leaves you. Perhaps he belives that "liberal christian" is an oxymoron. (?)

I missed 4 days here and don't even recognize this thread anymore. That's so cool. :biggrin1: TOM, did you hear the segment NPR had about this Friday? I believe it was right after the Katrina trailer fiasco/debate. It was VERY interesting. They are prediciting that in the next 5 years, one in five mortages will be foreclosed because of sub-prime mortgages. So it may be bad to be a sub-prime lendee, or live in a neighborhood where there's likely to be a large number of these lendees, but it could be a great time to start construction on a new apartment complex. Or a great time if you could warm up to the idea of buying up foreclosed homes and reselling them through low down payment, high interest loans.

You can try, but you're probably not going to get anywhere. Appeals are most effective when you're trying to get your insurance to agree to cover something. Exclusions are -- well, here's a very simple version. When your employer wants coverage, they get bids on the coverages they want and what it will cost them. Sometimes to save money or because they just don't want the coverage, whatever the reason, they will opt to drop certain coverages. These are called exclusions. When an exclusion is in place, it means that your employer has declined to pay for that coverage. There's NOTHING the insurance companies can do about this. Asking an insurance company to pay for something that's excluded is like walking into a store and expecting to walk out what things you haven't paid for. It just isn't going to happen. So what avenues do you have? The option to exlcude is owned by your employer. You can try asking your employer or HR rep to reconsider the exclusion, but one person isn't normally enough of a driving force tfor them to reconsider adding the expense.

I need the "I don't know" button. I can speculate, but it's all just guessing. I've tried switching things up - eating more, eating less, eating different, refeeds, changes in exercise, etc. I track my weight on a calendar, and on 2/7 I weighed the exact same I do today. This is how it has been for me for... oh... 5 - 7 months now. Occasionally I will have a 2 or 3 lb loss, then noooooothhhinnnnnnggggg. On 12/8 I was 265. So I've lost like 10 lbs in 3.5 months. That's far below even the low end of expected weightloss, and I still have 70 - 90 lbs to lose. In theory I should be able to do much less than I do now, and still lose weight. Oh, I will add that I do drink fluids with my meals sometimes. Small amounts. It has never made a difference in the amount I eat, or in how long I feel full.

No, that's not a challenge, it's truly just a wonder. It got me thinking.

I wonder if objects that don't have religious inferences on them are really offensive to any group that would protest the currency.

And I am not limiting "foreign" to mean Persian Gulf countries. I mean it as in - outside of our own sufficiency. Countries with many fewer resources (in all aspects except perhaps motivation or initiative) are kicking our asses here. What's our achilles tendon? Is it Big Oil and the power of lobbyists? Is it bad inheritance from shortsighted administrations? Past or present presidential ties to the Saudi power families? Something else?

I've read that book. People like that scare me. :heh:

We've seen worse from president's than wearing drag. I don't care who the candidate is. If I agree wtih them and I think they will do good things, they can wear a halter dress and heels. That's one less pair of heels I'm tempted to buy. See, they're already helping my economy.

I tried editing the above message for clarity, because I don't think I did a good enough job of being specific, but it's taking too long. I should say that theory is one of the backbones of how science works. And I don't think that publishers (or any other stakeholders) would be opposed to teaching other theories around the origin of man or ascension of man, we just don't have that many other theories going in this area. There's an old, old theory (that began with presocratic philosophers) that man rose up out of the water, but that's still an evolutionary chain -- the only real difference being the progression of what evolved into what. Still evolution. Laurend could speak better than I as to current theories, but last I was a student we just didn't have anything else that fit into the existing evidence and could be taken as a theory.

Actually yeah, that really is science. Is the backbone of how science works. Science gets an idea and then tries to disprove it. It considers what it is unable to disprove. Theology, on the other hand, gets an idea and sets forth trying to implement it as a truth. There is a very large and very fundamental contrast in this difference. Do I understand correctly, that you would prefer that scientific theory not be taught in science class? Or is your perspective more aligned to something like, offer science but also offer creationism? Or perhaps neither. Are you opposed to kids learning about atoms and molecules and ions and cations and particles and all that good stuff, without mention of god? Is it only biology (and specifically, evolution) that might be challenged?

Liberals aren't really trying to force everyone to recognize gay marriage, they would like to see the government recognize gay marriage. Big difference. The government recognizes god, but I am not forced to recognize god. The government could recognize gay marriages without forcing you (generic) to recognize gay marriage. Partial euphamism for accept. I can't think of a single liberal who would make, "John, Nancy, and Sally accept gay marriage" their goal. Liberals don't really care what John or Nancy or Sally think or accept because they aren't John, Nancy or Sally. It's much more about the institution, and the unequal distribution of social value. And lots of other things, too. Personally, pick a name out of the phone book and I couldn't care less what their personal beliefs are. And I'm not intolerant of them. If they tell my friends Randy and Steve that they cannot marry, then I care about the inequality and judgment - the factors -- the consequences not the antecedent.

Oh, I missed this... Well, if you mean exercise walking, it's really bad. I've been neglecting my exercise, which is why I won't complain about not having lost any weight for a REALLY long time. If you mean general walking, great. I never had mobility issues. I just had energy issues. Now I'm much more "spry" as I'm told... but I' also told "You never walked like a fat person"... yeah, what does that mean? Sleeping is fine too. Never had apnea or anything. In fact, I didn't have a single comorbidity. Good BP, good blood levels (my bloodwork from January came back with high cholesterol... UP from the regular numbers I've always had before!), no meds, no diabetes, etc. Except it's different to lay in bed now. When I lay on my side I can feel where my hip bone is, instead of just feeling this fat pad. And when I lay on my back, my ribs & chest bones stick way out and look really creepy. I can feel my ribs now when I stand, too. Not feel them like boney, but I can feel the very bottom rib, and you can see it. Can see my shoulderblades and the top part of my vertebrae too. We're talking YEARS since that was last the case.

I use Dove, and just today tried their new "Cashmere" kind and Love Love Love it! I was always a Secret kind of girl, until one day in college I got a free Dove trial, when it new. Tried it, loved the way it felt, hooked ever since. So if you like Dove, try the new cashmere kind they have out. :clap2: My boobs aren't big enough to need anything under them. I'm still a (somehow) perky C, so my boobs don't really touch my abdomen THANKFULLY. And there's bra between me and there anyway. I do deodorant under my stomach. I was getting some irritation there as my skin got droopier and droopier, and plus - well - it gets stinky there. The deodorant took care of it completely. DH calls this routine "putting on your lipstick", he says it looks funny (haha funny, not weird funny) because I just make a pass with my deodorant just like putting lipstick on a big giant (lower) lip. Because my belly hangs like a ")" flipped over. My thighs definitely touch. Hell, they touch halfway down to my knees. I have big thighs & hips. But I don't chafe (am I spelling that correctly?)... probably because I'm usually either wearing pants or capris. I don't do shorts. I do lots of skirts (last year & this, but never before) in the summer, and I've never noticed any problems... but it's also possible I just haven't been doing enough walking to get there. I used to have this ring of fat right at my waist. I don't know how else to describe it. Like it would "flab" out over my pants if I wore tight pants, would start on the sides and wrap all the way around to the back. At my fattest it would "meet" at the small of my back and make what I always called my "floatation device". That's gone now, just barely barely visible on the sides, but I'll be damned if my hips and thighs aren't just gigantic still. Ok, so what other "ways to make life easier when you're obese" tips can I share... I'll have to think. Right now I'm just waiting for the day I can sit down and not feel my stomach, or look down and not feel a double chin.

I've not heard of that... *thinking* I do get stomach pain fairly frequently when I eat. Have from the beginning. It just aches a lot of the time. And when something is stuck, I feel it in my stomach and not chest/esophagus area. I've *never* felt a golf ball. Never anything in my chest area, except for general restriction feelings. Everything associated with a stick or PB is in my stomach to start (around the area of my bellybutton, which is actually much lower than the stomach), then progresses to my hips, them to my back, and the last place I feel the "inevitbale symptoms" is in my throat. But I've not had to wretch or heave from the "real" stomach... Hmm... Ok, here's a wild guess. And I don't mean this in a "you don't know what you're feeling" way. And I'm not trying to tell you this is what it is. But I'll throw it out there as something to think about. Any chance it's coming from the esophagus, and just feels like the stomach? I know it does for me. Here's why I ask... When you vomit, the contents of the stomach are going to come up. Your stomach doesn't hold things separately...so if you're only bringing up the Water, or the soup, I don't think it would be coming from the stomach... because once it hits the stomach it's part of the "melting pot" of stomach contents, and would no longer be just soup or just water. So maybe you're feeling part go through, even enough to cause a temperature change, but then something is clamping down and not letting the rest through? I know when I PB I get the chilld, watery eyes... and I'm shaky afterward, and often get a runny nose and feel like I just need to go take a nap. Sometimes it's the *yak* -- ok, so what were we talking about? But not always. Depends (I think) on what has to make it's way up, and how stuck it is.

I've not heard of any of those. But I think Harold & Maude is hilarious. Not that it's here...nor there...

This has already been answered well. I know people who have had both. Keep in mind since this is a lap-band site, the best most of us can do is tell you anecdotally what the advantages are - not lots of personal experience. Advantages... four I can think of. 1. You're not held as accountable for what you eat. It's easy to get the lap-band, and not lose weight. It does take comittment and work with the band. It isn't a "hand out". 2. Faster weightloss. I will add the caveat that the bypass patients I know, while initially happy their weightloss was so fast, now state they wish they could go back and trade -- get a slower weightloss, and not have the complications they're now living with. 3. There are some foods you just absolutely cannot eat, and some that you absolutely cannot eat without major pain (dumping). With the band you can eat many, many more foods. If you're someone who does not bypass procedures have... you're forced to not eat many foods. (A good friend if mine is over 2 years post op and can eat pepperoni, Peanut Butter, sunflower seeds, cottage cheese, and real eggs over hard. She cannot tolerate any other foods). 4. Little follow-up. With the band you do have to go in for follow ups (fills) in order for it to work properly. Fills continue for as long as you need them. With the bypass it's more of a one-shot thing. So while you'd better REALLY hope it works b/c you're SOL if it doesn't, you don't have to go in X number of times trying to hit your sweet spot.

Are you truly vomitting or just "PBing" (bringing the food from your esophagus, but no stomach acids or anything). Because depending on which is happening, advice may be very different.