MacMadame

Okay, so how would you know that some skirt you were trying on in the store was cut on the bias? They don't put that on the tag as far as I know.

The mortality rate for lap band is 1 in 2000 compared to 1 in 200 for bypass. The fact that someone knows someone who knows someone who has a friend who died doesn't change that statistic.

I am not a very good girl, I'm afraid. :tongue2: I thought I'd make this thread for people like me to ask the rest of you stupid questions that females are already supposed to know the answer to but we don't. So my first question is: What does it means when someone says their skirt is "cut on the bias"? I read that all the time in chick lit books and it drives me crazy because I can't figure out why someone would know or care about that and why the author thinks it's important to say.

Yes, one of mine has always been bigger than the other. Apparently this is pretty common but most people don't have a big enough difference that it hits you over the head with it. But I do!

I don't have a magic wand but the SPAMers keep sending me info on how to make it bigger anyway.

I wouldn't say anything. What's the point? :thumbup: She's entitled to her opinion and you are entitled to disagree. I might tell her that slagging on my friends in my presence was unacceptable, but I wouldn't waste energy trying to get her to change her mind.

Not really. I am not such a hypocrite that I would totally abandon my beliefs about free speech just because someone hurt me or my family. I would do everything in my power to make sure the abductor was put in prison for as long as possible, but I wouldn't sue NAMBLA as a group saying it was their fault my kid was abducted.

They were defending free speech that particular case, in fact.

EAP = Employee Assistance Program It's a program some companies have so that if you have a problem with something mental -- like stress or substance abuse or marriage problems or even problems at work -- you can use the program to get help without the company knowing about it. We have a contract with United Behavioral Health and you can get an appointment for just about anything no questions asked.

I made sure to use a dietician and counselor who were in network. At the time I had insurance that has an exclusion for WLS but for the dietician we said I was there because of my blood pressure and for the counselor, I used our EAP plan which doesn't really care why you need the referral. So I only had to pay co-pays.

You can get Water intoxication if you drink too much water too quickly and water intoxication can be fatal. Some lady in our area drank a lot of water trying to win a Wii and she died from it. Also in our area, there was a fraternity hazing incident that resulted in a death. However, it's not just about how much you drink but how fast. Your body can process an tremendous amount of water in a day -- something like 15 liters -- if you just spread it out.

Same here and ... I don't even have a band yet and have no idea which one I'll end up getting. But lies and misrepresentation chap my hide and I couldn't let them stand! The Realize band is a good band. It had better results than the old Lap Band system and that's why Allergan changed their bands to have some of the same features as the Realize band. It's ridiculous to say that a band that has been in use for over a decade with excellent results, brought in some innovations that all the lap band manufacturers now use as a matter of course, and jumped through all the FDA hoops to get approval is "crap" and if people say that, I'll post to challenge them and make them back that up. (Not that they've been able to.)

Not everyone who gets bypass has dumping syndrome. Something to think about. You should think of the lap band as being for life anyway. It's true if you have a big problem, you can have it taken out, but typically that doesn't happen. The idea of it being reversible is that you will not be stuck if it turns out you are one of those people who reacts badly to it, not that you take it out when you get to goal weight (an impression some people have).

Studies show that Lap band patients keep off about 50% of their excess weight on average. So if you end up being average, you'd lose 75 lb., not 50 lb. But you don't have to be average. Plenty of people on LBT have gotten to their goal weight and kept it off. They do it by making real lifestyle changes and following the rules. If you think you can do that, there is no reason why you can't be one of the people who makes it to goal too.

I got WLS for Dummies and I was less than impressed. 1) I did a lot of research too so there wasn't a lot in there I hadn't already learned. 2) They tend to lump all WLS together. Sometimes they remember to say "oh, lap band patients won't get dumping" but sometimes they don't. So it's hard to know how accurate the info is going to be for me when I have my surgery.

The last time I was at what my goal weight is now, I was a C cup. So, no, I wouldn't be getting implants. A breast lift, maybe. But probably not. I like to avoid surgery and just getting a lap band is a pretty big step for me. If I end up with one of those hanging aprons over my tummy, I would get a tummy tuck though. At least I think I would. I guess we'll have to see. First I have to get the band (damn insurance)!

That's a good point, snowbird. I talked to a surgeon's office that was very proud of the fact that they had a 0% erosion rate. But they'd only done 50 bands! Plus they hadn't been doing them that long and some erosions happen after a few years. That's just not a big enough sample size to know what his true rate is.

This is considered not to be a safe rate of weight loss though. 1 to 2 lb. is easier on the body and what diet programs are geared towards. It's one of the problems with surgeries like bypass -- the rapid weight loss actually causes problems in some people. Have you been checked for slippage? In the complications section there are a ton of people who had slippage after 2-3 years and their symptoms sound like yours. Actually the odds of winning the lottery are much, much lower. Slippage rates for the band are actually pretty high. They are around 3% world-wide according to the latest published stats. That's 3 people out of every 100 that get banded! I have to say that slippage is the one thing about the band that concerns me and has me continuing to search for alternatives. I prefer a solution that does not have such a high failure rate. I think complications should be under 1% for an elective procedure. Unfortunately, I have not found one yet that I think will work as well for me and I'm too old to wait another decade for more advances in combatting obesity. So right now getting a band in the Fall is still my plan. I don't know if I'd call those people haterz, but many of them are freaking annoying! The guy who was going to go on tv and write a book and wanted to warn us all of the evils of the band and how he's found the "real" solution (even though he still hasn't lost all his excess weight yet let alone kept it off for at least 5 years with his "real" solution) was annoying. So was the one who wanted to know if the band was a "hoax" because it "didn't work" for her. The other annoying thing are the people who come here post about how someone they know got the band and THEY DIED, few details are supplied and what details are supplied seem unlikely, and then they disappear. I'm not talking about things like Denyell's dh ... telling Denyell's friends what happened was very sweet of him. I'm talking about posts that appear to be about nothing but trying to stir up trouble and it's pretty clear the poster doesn't really know anyone who had a lap band and died. When I first opened this thread I thought that kind of poster and also the people in real life who go on about how WLS is cheating was what it was going to be about, in fact.

I'm sorry but that makes no sense. If you do more surgeries, you will have more erosions in absolute numbers but your percentages shouldn't change. Here is how it works: Doctor A in 2005 has done 100 lap bands. Has 3 erosions. Erosion rate is 3%. Doctor A in 2006 has done 200 lap bands. Has 6 erosions. Erosion rate is 3%. Doctor A in 2007 has done 300 lap bands. Has 9 erosions. Erosion rate is STILL 3% even though he now has 3x as many erosions as he's had before. If Dr. Lopez-Corvala's erosion rate is 6% -- double that of the world-wide average, then he's got some explaining to do because his erosion rate is entirely too high.

I don't want the people at work to know until after it's a done deal and I'm somewhat on my journey. This is not because I'm ashamed. It's because I've had bad experiences before with everyone at work knowing my business. I figure if I gradually let people in on it and only after the fact, this will cut down on all the comments about how I shouldn't do it beforehand and, even more importantly, cut down on all the watching everything I eat and questioning it and asking stupid questions and making stupid comments.

UHC says they won't cover the sleeve because there is little data as to it's effectiveness -- only one study of around 25 people that showed no weight loss at 3 years. That surprised me. So if you have a link to the study that shows good 2 year results, I'd really appreciate it.

I've been to WDW and Disneyland while on diets and did fine. There are actually healthy choices in the parks if you look for them. I say carry a few protein bars, just in case, but don't plan to eat all your meals out of your hand bag.

I'm practicing eating like a banded person now. As a result, I've lost 10 lb. But whenever I go below that, I get ravenously hungry. I'm hoping the band will fix that for me so that I can continue losing.

I went with what my last goal weight was the last time I lost a lot of weight. I looked pretty good and felt really good at that weight and I was a size 12 which is easy to shop for. OTOH, if the lap band really does it's thing for me and limits me to 1200-1500 calories, those online calorie calculators say I'll get down to 110-120 which would be what I weighed in HS/College. If that happens, I won't fight it. Right now I just don't believe it will happen.

This means they won't cover it if you just want to lose a few pounds. But they will cover it if you have co-morbidities or you are morbidly obese. I went through this discussion with one of the insurance companies my company uses. That's what they said it means. (They had the same language.) Of course, after doing all this research I get my open enrollment packet in the mail Sat. and they've changed the plan I was going to switch to and now I have to make all those phone calls again!!