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How do know that was a failure? Maybe that person wanted her loved one to look live a creepy zombie...

That's really the cruxt of the whole arguement. The age of consent in Texas. It's 17. You can marry earlier with parental approval, but this is not a clear-cut case of parental approval. Basically this whole sect looks and sounds like it's a means to allow select, older men to have sex with numerous (and sometimes underage) women. Has anybody caught the media interviews with the older women of the compound? When asked if any of them had ever witnessed abuse, or witnessed a 16 yr or younger who was pregnant, they responded with basically "All I know is that my daughters are clean and pure". Hello? Sidestep the question? I am usually for less (much less) government intervention into private lives, especially religious lives. But in allergations of abuse, they have to act. I, personally, am very suspicious of any religion that shrouds itself in secrecy and isolation. Perhaps that shows the shallowness of my opinions. Somebody in this thread posted earlier that some cults use the freedom of religions to set up a self-serving group. I think the degree of secrecy and isolation is inversely proportional to the validity of the religion.

Headhunter, a lot of people post unmitigated bullsh*t on here, trashing the band. That's probably why your story raised red flags. Surely you can at least see that your story, though it may be true, certainly sounds fantastic in the telling. If you really want to share, I have a lot of questions. Feel free to PM me if you don't want things out in the open. Nobody here would wish a bad outcome on you. I guess my point is, some people troll almost daily ranting against the band in an attempt to dissuade potential users. So when a story like yours pops up, we are naturally skeptical. I'll be honest....I'm still skeptical. Most of our doctors explained the risks and went out of the way to make sure we knew exactly what we were getting into. If your story is true, it is a gigantic anamoly in the lapband community.

I lost something like 23 lbs during my 10 day liquid diet, but my docs diet was very strict (protein shakes for meals, water and crystal light only between shakes. After 3 days, I was allowed to replace one "meal" - shake- with a small veg only garden salad). It helped me to know that the reason for the fast was to make my operation more safe (by reducing the size of the liver). I'm sure your doc has already explained all that to you. You can do it.

Sorry fellow banders, I can't talk about this topic any more. I can't really go into details why...let's just say that the uber-powerful bariatric syndicate is holding my wife and kids hostage. The WLS mafia is watching us all right now!!

Agree w/ Pix. A perfed colon doesn't have to be all the way transected, or anything. Even a "nick" can allow the harmful gut bacteria to enter the bloodstream. Although I was thinking the same thing RE: his "critical" status and his BMI. By my calculations he'd be around 200 lbs overweight. That has to be a challenge to any surgical team.

That is funny! I'm glad you took my above comment in jest. Whwn I re-read it, it came off as a little standoffish. I find faux pax's on TV like that "heart" thing extremely entertaining. When I was still practicing respiratory therapy, we used to play "ventilator errors on TV". It encompassed stuff like vents turned on but not connected to the pt, intubated pts that can "wisper", etc. Funny! (or sad, depending on your perspective, LOL) Sorry to hijack the thread. Now back to soapoperas....

Hmmmm...I hadn't considered that, Mac. I think you're right.

Green, It's my understanding that it's not a religious move, per se, but a movie about religious intolerance. Even athesists can be victimized by religious intolerance, no?

Snuffy, as a Christian, I must point out that just because you've never seen Linus or the Great Pumpkin, does not mean that they don't exist. Heehee. :rolleyes2:

Ok. I don't have my doctorate in physiology or anything, but I know a little bit. I suppose it is possible that he's telling the truth. If he is, then he was given zero post-op or aftercare instructions. Again, that might be possible if he had his surgery in Mexico, or elsewhere overseas (I'm not knocking those that got banded in Mexico, BTW). But if he had his operation in a hospital, then either 1) - this is this worst hospital known to man (but he wrote that the hospital was one of the "finest") or 2) he's full of shit. Because even if he had the most incompetant doctor in the world, the hospital (with potential lawsuits always in the back of their mind) would provide, in writing, postop instructions of what he needed to do, and what he should do if he feels there is a problem. He probably had to initial that he recieved those instructions before he even had the surgery. Onto the physiology: Unless his doctor totally botched (which is possible) port placement, it would take some length of time for a loose port to erode through the adipose tissue and then through all the dermal layers. Like somebody mentioned before, you'd think he would notice a lot of pain / bruising (from the bleeding that had to occur). The only way I can think of as to how his tubing would end up in the colon is this scenario: Band erodes a hole in the stomach, tubing somehow detaches and finds way into hole, and works way into colon from there. Again, it's possible, but I'd think it would be the equivalent of winning the lottery and getting struck by lightning at the same time. Bottom line, there are a whole lot of possibles, but they add up to improbables. I'd like to hear from some nurses / doctors on here what their theory is (uh, off the record, of course). Finally, OP makes a big point of "why would I come on here with my story?I have nothing to gain". Except....people get on here all the time to just be negative. And y'all can boo me all you want, but I don't know if a person that is 300 lbs overweight is an excellent candidate for the band in the first place. That much overweight may need a malabsorbive procedure.

Hey Greenchrysalis! Because I'm such an uber-geek, and spent many, many days working the recovery room as a respiratory therapist, I can tell you that everybody wears oxygen straight out of surgery (although most people don't remember very much about their recovery). It doesn't mean there were complications. Most likely, the writers / producers are unfamiliar with healthcare and the oxygen was to make her "look" all hospital-ly. I know...I'm one of those geeks that corrects tiny details about insignificant thinks. I can't help myself sometimes. :rolleyes2:

Ooops. Trying for sarcasm, failing miserably. I read about some nutjob somewhere that claims that dinos and men walked the Earth together. This was because he somehow had worked out, in his own mind, what era in time the Bible was written in. Keep in mind I'm a Christian. A baptist, at that. I don't see why religion can't co-exist with science, unlike Dino-man.

Normally I am of the Libertarian philosophy, and am against government intervention in the religious lives of its citizens. But in case where sexual abuse is suspected, I think it's the government owes it to the citizens to investigate. We could argue all day about the validity of polygamy as a religious right. Usually, I'd just be like.....whatever makes them happy, as long as they aren't hurting anybody else. But I saw a program on polygamous cults awhile ago (each family had, like 35 children, multiple wives). Here's the kicker: The families were on welfare to help with expenses. WTF?!? Apparently, this is done on purpose to cost the governments all they can. The cults call this policy "bleeding the beast". So.....our government gives aid to people who are thumbing their noses at the laws? I don't get it. My libertarian side says - several wives, whatever. But you have to be able to support them on your own dime!

Uh, but in America, we're capitalists, not socialists. We can't really compare to Canada in most things, because it would be an apples & oranges type of thing.

I live in Texas, not TOO terribly far from Jena. It was a bad deal. I'm sure you realize that the KKK and other white supremacy groups marched to "counter-protest". What a bunch of jackasses...

There're kooks in every religion. Even mine. As a Christian, I think people go awry when they inject their own personal opinions into theology. When I was reading the Bible, I didn't see any description of Noah's menu choices post-flood. What a stupid radio talk-show host!! Now about cavemen riding the dinosaurs.....that's totally feasable. :huh2:

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it really is that the benevolent airlines only care about protecting the normal-sized passengers from the evil obese ones.

No, B II, I was trying to make light (pun intended) of the situation by funny metaphor. The reason a person might have to buy 2 tickets is more for their weight (and, because the flight burns more fuel, the airline's profit margin is cut) than for spilling over onto fellow passengers. I think the airlines don't give a toss if the passengers are comfy or inconvienced, as long as they make money.

What do you people Have against Haiku answers I find them peaceful :huh2:

Laurend and Kat hit the nail right on the head. The airlines (and I am no fan, I assure you) are not discriminating based on a person's size. They have to go on how much weight the plane carries. The more weight, the more fuel that will be consumed per flight. The more fuel consumed, the lower the profit margin. The weight issue (vs. size) can also be looked at from a safety point. It's an extreme example (and 1-2 POS would not make such a drastic difference), but would you rather be on a plane that was target weight, or a plane that was dangerously overweight? That's why the airlines aren't hit with discrimination suits. If a person's disability was that they farted flames, and were denied a job working in a fireworks factory, would that also be discrimination? (We'll have to wait for a DS'er to answer that rhetorical question, I suppose)

Wow. Scoot over to the men's page (here, take this signed hallpass. They'll let you in) and look at all the guys that do NOT care what the BMI is. Maybe because us guys are all raging muscles under our fatsuits? I really think this dissing each other based on BMI is a "woman thing". *puts blindfold on and readies himeself for inevitable firing squad*

I'm all about supporting the band, but I think a more dramatic soap storyline would be for her character to have had the DS and have the other cast members deal with the nightmare digestive issues!!! That, I might watch....:huh2:

Juli, very witty metaphor. Unfortunately, if somebody is clueless enough to go on & on about your weight, they may be clueless enough that the joke is wasted on them.

A new civil rights movement? What rights are needed that you don't currently have? See, to me....that kind of talk diminishes what the older generations fought for. I understand your concept, but....the older generation fought for desegregation, the right to vote (as a "whole person"), the right to marry whatever color they wanted, etc. Sorry you got pulled over. My oldest son got pulled over with 2 friends. They got their person searched and the car searched. The officer asked the driver if he was known by the alias "whitey". I shit you not......you cannot make this stuff up. The were profiled because they were young. See, I think we're all in the Soup together. IMO, some black activists are doing more harm than good by emphasizing that the current generation are unlikely to achieve anything because "white America" holds them back. That would be very insulting to me! Statements like Jesse Jackson tends to make de-emphasize the power of the individual to accomplish.