Wheetsin

BTW, unless you're for some reason required to disclose detailed information, which I can't imagine but I've never worked for DOT so maybe, try holding back a little information. Maybe tell them "I had a medical emergency, and once I had recovered the position had already been filled" or "I ended up having to be admitted to the hospital the night before the job was to start, so I missed the first day." Something like that, maybe.

Have you thought of changing careers, even just temporarily? A job is better than no job. Go to a Target or Wal-Mart or something, retail, etc. Benefits + pay, even if the benefits aren't great, it will give you more to save toward your surgery than no job will. Does that make sense?

Just tell people you had surgery a few days ago, and didn't want to event hink about missing the wedding, but you have a graduated diet and can't eat the food just yet. No need to specify the surgery type, and if anyone wants to probe for more info, just ask them, "Why do you ask?" or tell them it's personal. If you don't want to mention any surgery, just tell them you were sick earlier that day and scared to eat much of anything, but will maybe try some crackers later that night. Why no drinking? Sip on Water or juices (if kids are coming, I'd think there will be juices there).

You NEED to stick with the food stage you're assigned to. Because something might go down doesn't mean it's OK to eat it. The food stages are there for a reason, e.g. to give the band a chance to get secured in position. Pushing the food stages can very well jeopardize the chances that this will happen. Things chewed well doesn't make them mushies, "mushy" or "soft" or whatever refers to the ORIGINAL value of the food, not the value once you've chewed it up. See this thread: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/675012-post7.html And this one: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/726734-post2.html

HOW the HECK do your interviewers know you had open heart surgery? You realize that's not something you have to tell them in an interview, yes? And I'm assuming your shirt/tie/jacket covers scarring. So how is it that open heart surgery is even coming up in an interview, and how are the "see"ing it?????

Bikini, you're just going to have to research your options. You've asked who excludes, but obviously we can't provide information on every option available to you, and it's the same with this question. I would suggest making a list of what's available to you, and then go to OH. Somewhere at some point they had a list of patients and what insurance they had used. Go through that list and make a tick mark next to each of your options, and then count up who has the most tick marks. Or, get your list of plan options, and start calling the providers and ask them if it's covered. That's going to give you much, much more reliable information that we can. A "horse's mouth" kind of thing. As you'll see, your thread didn't go more than one post without diverging away from individual plans. Not only can most people here not tell you the difference, but they don't have them. If you want someone to tell you what insurance to get (first of all, good luck), then you might want to rethink how you're going about getting your information. Maybe post a poll on type of plans, then when/if you have other individual plan users identified, follow up with them to see what they used.

Next time you have sex, call up your girlfriend and say "You owe me $10", then don't tell him what you had bet on.

When it's an employer exclusion, you really can't do much other than asking your employer to cover it. There are more strategic ways of doing this than others, e.g. by appealing to that "common sense" (ROI) rather than just saying "please" but it really just boils down to their choice. CrueFan - appealing her insurance will not get her anywhere when there's an employer exclusion. The insurance company owes her nothing because it has never been paid for WLS coverage. Her insurance company has never been paid for the WLS option, so of course they don't owe it to anyone, squeaky wheel or not. You can't have never paid for something, and then demand they give it to you for free. Employer exlcusions have NOTHING to do with them hoping you give up.

I don't watch soaps and I'm not sure I've even heard of Guiding Light. (Ok, I did watch a few seasons of Passions TIVOed from SciFi because I went to school with one of the actors and thought it was hilarious). I'm confused tho. A RL actress on the show had lap-band, and now they've worked it into her character's storyline? So the actress WAS fat on the show, but is NOW skinny and has also NOW gotten a gastric strap while skinny? Or she wasn't on the show until she was already skinny, and now her skinny character has a strap? (Replace skinny with average, normal, etc. - it's just easier to type).

Marketing 101 -- to hold most male interest, it has to be competition. Think of TV shows or networks that might not typically cater to men (style, gardening, food, etc.) and chances are that in the last 5 or so years, there has been a HUGE increase in competition-based shows to try and bring in the male viewers. It doesn't matter what the subject is, if it's a competition you can get the average guy to pay attention. Guys need a "team" to "root" for, or some sense of "winning" over someone else, etc. So try to see it as their way of being interested, even if it's second-hand. They are guys, after all... :biggrin:

I'm beginning to think more and more that surgeons, outside of pre-op diets, advocate for lower carbs because most people do lose weight with carbs decreased and the more weight you lose, the better their numbers are. I've seen very few surgeons distinguish in their diets between simple carbs and complex carbs. If I didn't eat my complex carbs, my food pickings would go way down, they're among most of my favorite foods. In fact, they will say "avoid carbs" in one sentence, and "eat beans" in the next... which is just going to confuse 95% of the population out there who is going to see the somewhat high carb count of the Beans and not get why they can eat them...

The carriers don't bother me either. No kids yet, still a few months away from that, but I help my friends with their babies and when it's sleep time, it's much nicer to remove the carrier seat than unstrap them from a regular baby seat. And in restaurants doesn't bother me either, the restaurant should be seating the people in a place where they aren't obstructing customers (e.g. don't put a couple + carrier at one of those tiny 2-man booths). I've never seen a carrier put on a chair at a restaurant unless the chair was flipped over. Some restaurant chairs re designed so that the legs make a 4 point support for standard carrier sizes. Usually I see the carriers in one of those "hammock" type holders, or mom and dad will put it on the table with them, so they can interact with the baby as they eat. I also don't care for it when people place the carrier over the children's seat of shopping carts. I've witnessed more than one tip over so I personally don't trust it to be a safe arrangement. Either the dad carrying, or cross-wise across the actual cart part. I see mothers carrying their babies all the time, just not so much while they're doing tasks easier accomplished with two hands. We've started looking at strollers, carriers, etc. and I know we'll be buying a carrier, and using it. That doesn't mean I will never hold the baby. Does it also bother you to see children who have outgrown their carrier, but aren't yet suitable walkers, pushed around in strollers? Do you think they should always be carried, too? Or is it just the ones young enough to still be in carriers?

I've not come across any bandsters from your area. We go through Salina every odd year on our way to the Lindsborg Hyllningsfest, but that doesn't get you help with support. Hope you can find someone, and if not - we're here virtually.

I'd pay the cost of a lap-band for someone like Wentworth Miller to be my slave, and then I'd just make him stand there so I could look at him. Mmm. Or Bob Villa, 'cause we're hoping to sell our house in the next year or so and don't want to do any maintenance. But not that creepy ebay guy. So wrong on so many levels.

Stalls around week 3 should be expected.

Has your doc ever tested your potassium?

You know, OP was clueless and tacless, that's for sure, but there is a lot of drama here. And I don't mean RnR drama, I mean "boo-hoo" drama. For example: OMFG day 1 of pre-op and I'm STARVING and I don't know what to do! Probably since you're fat and have been dieting less than 24 hours, and have ingested sustenance of some type today, you're not starving. If you really were, you'd probably be trying to eat your fingers because starvation hurts and we revert to core primal instincts in our reptilian brains to avoid it. So quit telling us you are, and more importantly -- quit telling yourself you are. It's going to be as bad as you let it. OMFG give up rice? That's horrible! Now to me, a building full of puppies and cash burning up completely with nothing intact is horrible, not your MAYBE innability to eat rice. And I bet that if you really took the time and put things into perspective, it wouldn't really be that horrible after all. Scary - sure. Intimidating - perhaps. But horrible? I dare say not at all. Now, is it really that horrible? THis is the worst pain of my life what do I do? Unless you're remarkably blessed with a pain-free life, this probably isn't the worst pain you've felt in your life. I've been through some pretty damn painful things, and when I rate them, my top 15 or so are waaaay beyond "I could get online and have enough rational thought left to post about it." So probably it's not the worst pain ever, since you're able to be here sharing it with us. And probably you should quit telling yourself it's the worst pain ever, because the more you say it the more you will believe it. I don't think we do people much service when we validate irrational thoughts for them. And we all know there's a lot of people out there looking for those who will do just that. E.g. someone breaks up with their boyfriend, and wants to sit and cry about it for 3 weeks because life has no meaning. The worst thing you can do is say, "You're right" or "You have every right to cry" or "I would do the same thing". We say that to try and make the person feel better, but what are we really accomplishing? It's no different here. When a pre-op diet is horrible, and we say yes, it is -- I wonder how much of their drive to do it right we've just killed. "Stinking thinking". </rant>

It's possible, they could cancel your surgery or opt to do you open (cut wide open, not laparoscopic). The main purpose of the pre-op diet is to reduce the size of your liver. If the surgeon gets in there and it is not reduced enough, s/he may not be able to proceed.

tapshoes, when I was in a similar situation as you, back when I lost weight quickly - hehe, I would buy 3 sizes if having something really mattered. The size I currently needed, and the next two down. Then come the day, I would refund whichever 2 didn't work. Saved my butt several times.

Everyone I personally know had to have at least 3 visits with Sabapathy. A few people needed more. Christinapereze, I would suggest Dr. Malley. I've never met him, but I know a handful of people who were banded by him and they're very fond of his practice & methods. And from what I've been told he does MX fills.

Keep in mind that the "per week" guideline is a long-term average, not a week-by-week expectation. I went 6 months last year losing about 3 lbs the entire time, and very very rarely do I see a week-by-week change on the scale, but my long term weightloss average is still about 7lbs/wk.

Skip the Gas-X, people don't realize Gas-X is for intestinal gas. Post-op gas is from them filling your abdominal cavity with gas to make things easier for the surgery. It's not gas that is inside your intestinal tract or the result of something you ate, which is what Gas-X is designed for. http://www.lapbandtalk.com/792743-post2.html

Down about 185 lbs (no, that's not a typo, I was that fat!), about 40 left to go.

Oh oh oh! Kind of like "ADHD" which should be more like "MPDGMEA" (My Parents Don't Give Me Enough Attention). :redface: Just throw some drugs at them, they'll calm down, so it must be some kind of actual disorder. (Sorry, yes, I think we blame an awful lot on "things" that could probably be boiled down to remiss, lazy, inexperienced, etc. parenting). But I don't want this to turn into a throw down of people who disagree, so I'll just add the standard disclaimer that the above is my opinion only, and worth exactly what you're paying for it.

This doesn't even make sense to me. If one shot + 30 seconds didn't get you drink before the band, it shouldn't get you drunk after. Nothing about the absorption of our anatomy has changed. The alcohol still hits everything it hit before, still has to go through everything it went through, etc. The shot rule is often true for people with malabsorptive procedures (e.g. RNY), who are often told they will be able to tolerate a thimble of alcohol at most (because their absorption is all outta whack). But for us, especially with liquids, it should be as though nothing is changed at all. I can tell you that the shot + 30 seconds isn't a rule, absolutely not, because it doesn't apply to me. I've never been drunk before or after band (I've drank, just never get drunk) but I've had shots. And I've had large/strong drinks. So it would stand to reason that if it changed because of the band, it would have changed with me, but is has not. (BTW, not arguing, just trying to make sense of this. I think it might be one of the BS things our surgeons tell us to help their numbers and promote better choices... kind of like the diet that we don't need to be on because of our bands, but it helps us lose weight quicker... alcohol is going to be comparable to a milkshake in that regard).