MacMadame

Did your doctor say you will be able to use protein powder the first few days after surgery? Most of them want you on clear fluids for the first couple of days.

I think you're screwed. If it was your company's exclusion, you could appeal to the company to get them to pay for it, but if it's private insurance, there is no one to appeal to.

I would just submit the 3 month multi-disciplinary records and a copy of their policy that shows they accept that in place of the 6 month doctor supervised plan. Sometimes the reps on the phone don't always give out accurate info and you have to push them to follow their own policies and procedures.

This is the sort of detail that varies by insurance company and by contract. My insurance company, for example, only counts high blood pressure as a co-morbidity if it is not well controlled by medicine. But other insurance companies consider it a co-morbidity just if you have it and take medicine. IOW, you need to talk to your insurance company to find out what your policy says.

I would define a miracle as something that defies the laws of the universe. Say turning Water into wine by passing your hand over it. Or resuscitating the dead. I would call most medical "miracles" cool and happy occurrences, not miracles. Ironically, the season-ending episode of How I met Your Mother was called "Miracles" and dealt with this topic... Marshal as calling everything remotely wonderful as a miracle and Robin was pooh-poohing them all.

There have been people who reported passing out after getting a fill and their doctor explained it as a vagus nerve issue. So it does happen.

Cars aren't going away though. And I don't see them as any more evil than washing machines and vacuums and other labor saving devices that we all use now instead of alternatives that would have burned more calories.

There have been other complaints about LA of SF... do a search on this site and you'll find them.

Most docs in the US push bypass. In other countries the lapband is the #1 procedure. Most of the reasons I've seen for the docs to recommend bypass over lapband have seemed pretty lame to me and often times contain misinformation (like saying you'll have to have your lapband replaced every 15 years -- not true). IMO you should always go with the least risky option unless there is a reason that you know lapband won't work for you.

Ah, it's a territory thing. :cursing:

Why would your PS tell you not to go to your BS about a problem with your BS?

It's not ranting and raving to say "Don't rant and rave".

Any article which tries to pin the problems of the world food supply and global warming on one single cause, and a pretty small one at that, is just lazy journalism and lazy science. They are making the obese scapegoats just like SUVs are scapegoats.

It really depends on your insurance. Maybe you should talk to Obesity Law. (ObesityLaw.com) about it. They'd know what kind of questions you need to ask your insurance company and how to interpret the language of the appeal.

Thank you so much for taking the time to tell us about this. I'm sorry for your loss.

No, I don't think it works. At least for me, I can lose weight that way but I can't keep it off. I can't keep it off because of extreme hunger and never feeling full no matter how much I eat. The band is supposed to help with hunger as well as portion control and that's why I want one. I've dieted for over 30 years and was never able to keep the lost weight off even one time. I'm not doing it again.

Nope. They are just hairy. Oops. I wasn't going to post about that. :thumbdown:

I have. I think the point is that no one stops brushing their teeth *forever* if they forget one time. Yet how many times has someone you know said "I went on a binge last night so my diet is ruined so I might as well eat this cake today too" ? Diets aren't like mirrors... if you break them they aren't broken forever.

You're welcome. :woot:

You should do a search ... there are about 10 threads on the Realize band and you'll get more info than you ever wanted to know!

Yes, but the comparisons are often negative... as in Sally has lost 60 lb. in 3 months, why haven't you? I think that's worth complaining about. :woot:

I was going to post something about my toes but I grossed myself out. :woot:

I think part of the problem is that the surgeon's office does tell them most of what they are asking about... but that's the key, they "tell". Most people can't take it all in and latch onto a few items and forget the rest. My GP's office always sends me home with tons of written material that repeats what the doctor told me. Some bariatric programs do that too and they repeat info and have lots of classes too. I think that all helps. Of course, some programs are better than others and I get the impression that some programs really don't tell patients this stuff and that's a shame.

I hate that comment... it's dumb. Boys don't really knock down anyone's door, for starters. I've found that if you want boys to be all over you, you have to give out a certain vibe. It really has little to do with weight or looks. But the problem is that the kind of boys who are all over you when you put out that vibe are the kind a sensible person wouldn't want! Sometimes our society gives out a message that being thin solves all of life's problems. Well boy-girl problems are more complex than that! Yes, it will be easier for people to see the "real" you if you aren't overweight, but that won't solve every problem. I also got "you're going to look great in a bikini" when I last lost lots of weight. Um, no. I knew I'd have batwing arms and a poochy tummy, stretch marks and also a surgery scar right down my middle. It made me feel bad when they said that at first, but eventually I just translated it into "you'll be so happy when you lose the weight" since I figured that's what they really meant. :woot:

It used to be that you had to be a size 12 to be a plus size model. At least that was the standard about 10 years ago when a relative of mine was doing it. Yet you just said PS here I come. :thumbup: I think what happens is that our images of what is normal get distorted. Then, we may not actually try to achieve those images -- since our brain knows they are often fake, what with airbrushing, camera angles and such -- but the images work on a subconscious level and cause us to enter into disordered thinking which can lead to disordered behavior which often just makes it worse because it sabotages our efforts to be healthy. I think it's really important to understand how the media works and to be constantly on guard so that we are in control and not them. Otherwise, we can get into a situation like a lot of my thin friends where no matter how thin they are or how good they look, they beat themselves up because it's not good enough. I can see this happening now with my 9 year old and it's pretty depressing and I feel pretty powerless against it. I talk to her and show her realistic images and talk some more, but I'm just a voice crying in the wilderness and I'm afraid I'm not being heard.