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Agree with Med.Mike. The BMI charts are unrealistic (IMO) if a man has any substancial muscle. Waist size and bodyfat % will be a better guide that total weight, I think.

Medicare will probably loosen up on the requirements for being banded as more cases are viewed as "successful". If the government sees that they'll be saving money in the long run by avoiding larger weight-related health issues...they'll try to funnel people in. But that brings up the issue of "overloading" the docs. Wheetsin has a very valid point with medicaid pts and compliance. Perhaps the LB is not the right tool for that population.

We have a large Newfie (about 180 lbs, or so), but he's the biggest baby ever.

Sorry Snowbird...I'm addicted to elipses...If it's any consolation, that's how I speak, as well.

Hey Whip, as another dude, I can totally relate. What really struck me when I was on the liquid pre-op diet was how much of my socializing was tied in to eating one way or another. I guess I kind of had to "mourn" the fact that my old way of life was no longer going to be feasable. That's the worst thing, but also the best thing, if you think about it. I feel pretty confident that very few people could match MY love of food. During my initial doctor visit, they did a metabolism test on me. The results showed that I have a very high metabolism. At first, I thought the test was flawed (it showed I could maintain weight if I ingested 4000 calories / day), because how could I have gotten so fat if my metabolism was so high? When I really thought about it, the answer is that I was taking in an enourmous amount of calories........The point is, I love to eat. I'm almost 7 weeks post-band, lost around 45 lbs so far, and have never felt hungry, or like I was denying myself anything! If I can do it, you can do it, my friend....

Hey Gloucester. Have you / she given bodyweight exercises a try? They can be done at home (anywhere, for that matter) very easily. Because they build muscle, bodyweight exercises will raise her metabolic rate. Because the resistance is her bodyweight, the exercises won't build "bulky" muscle, like weights might. And if the exercises are done rapidly ("circuit training", in gym speak) it's also an excellent aerobic benefit. You can find lots of bodyweight exercises on the internet, or I can recommend a really excellent book. They're pretty fun to do, and there's a big enough variety where they tend to not be boring. Here's the million-dollar question: Does your daughter think she is too big?

Mommie, I don't know if this will help or not, but I'm in Texarkana, Tx and my pts (I work in a sleep lab in a bariatric center of excellence hospital) that have tricare (tricare south region, to be specific) usually get covered pretty easily. They need one (1) co-morbidity with a certain BMI, along with the other stuff (sleep study, psyche eval, dietician, etc.) Was all that clear as mud? Bottom line, tricare south region covers in Texarkana.

Except......there's not a big difference between what he's doing and prostitution. Note the wording of the ad. He doesn't say he'll be a handyman, or a laborer. The word "slave" has connotations of being an object, of being property, of having to mindlessly obey without having a say. Just makes me wonder what this dude wouldn't do for a lapband. Kinda creeps me out...

Ummmm....can't put a price on dignity.

Manatee, awesome work, man.

Big Rick and Ditto, It's all good guys! Post op, y'all will be laughing at how easy the surgery was. No worries...

I know that it's been posted ad nauseum but......that one guy just cries waaaaaaaay too much. I don't watch this show often, but every one I've seen, that guy is just a huge weeper. Grow a pair, dude.

Sorry. I'm from the south. I'll try to turn the southern-to-English translator back on.

When I saw the title to the thread, I thought you were angry at the computer!! :thumbup:

Sorry you had a bad experience, Sue. I work in a sleep lab, and it sounds like the one you went to was pretty crappy. Unfortunately, sleep labs are largely unregulated (only a handful of states require a license to work in a sleep lab. There exists a loophole where an unethical lab can literally hire a wino off the street, spend 1 night training him on where to place the electrodes, and set him loose on patients). The industry is trying to rectify, but it goes very slowly. FYI, some of the very worst OSA patients that I've had in the lad were the "buck o' five" types (very thin).....and snoring is usually very indicative of partial airway collapse. So....your rant I know......but it sounds to me like the doc wasn't coming out of left field on this one.

Hey Cajun. I hear ya on the RnY thing. Seems kinda drastic to me too. I'm only about 5 weeks post-band, but so far it's been both effective and easy, without the weird digestive issues that RnY and DS pts sometimes have.

So, Watcher (and I don't say this flippantly), do you think the problem will gradually diminish as the older generations eventually die off? Race relations were pretty bad for them, but things get better for each new generation. I mean, I was born in 1970 and things weren't horrible then. I think racism is even less tolerated by my kids' generation. Do you think things are getting better?

Qbert was the best! A little phallic, but still very cool!

You are absolutely right, Watcher. It's not a competition. So why is the plight of your ancestors worse than mine? My heritage is Indian. I'm not Irish, nor Asian, nor Jewish, nor Black. My people weren't immigrants. But here's the crux of my point: Whose peoples were done more wrong? Doesn't matter. That's my point. The more time you focus on the hurts of the past is time lost from today....right now. Clearly, I'm not advocating "forget the past". Do not forget, but move on. I think if you read what I posted above, you'd be hard pressed to find any hate at all....so were you accusing me or somebody else of hating? I think I've read all the posts in this thread and haven't found any hate yet. Earlier on, you said you wanted to start a dialog.......we can't start an open, honest dialog if you accuse people of hating when they provide a counter-point. Or possibly I'm taking your comment wrong? I'd like to go back and forth, if that's what you want.

Why is such a thing an impossibility, Tommy O?

Oh, I didn't mean to compare the issue of health vs. vanity with WLS. Heck, I'm enough of a libertarian to not care why somebody chooses WLS. My point was (and now that I read over my OP, I see the clarity was lacking) that if somebody chooses a particular WLS because they can still eat as much as they want, they may still have some significant "inside fixing" to do. As flawed an analogy as it is........suppose one is an alcoholic. The alcohol itself isn't the problem, but rather the over-consuption of it. To constantly battle this addiction, the individual has to come to terms with portion control (which in this case, I realize, would be zero). To constantly drink alcohol-free beer, although meeting the same goal in a different way, seems to be an incomplete treatment. Ok, it was a shitty analogy, but it was all I could think of off the top of my head. If a person opts for the DS because they have x amount of weight to lose, or their trusted doctor prefers that procedure, or because they want to look really good really fast.....I have no problem with anything like that. But to choose the DS because it's "easy, and I can still eat as much as I want" sounds like denial to me.

Because you haven't turned in an "A" paper, fairy.......heehee

I'm ok with a black president (and I'm a redneck, for goodness' sake). It's the liberal ideology he brings that I have a problem with (let the flaming begin). Watcher, I understand what you're saying about the older generation having a hard time getting over the 60's. But........can't all ethnic groups kinda claim the same thing? I'm a goodly part native american (or "injun", if you live where I live). My people struggle with the same issues you speak of. For a long time there were "No Irish" signs everywhere, similar to the Jim Crow laws. Asians were used as disposible, cheap manual labor for the railroads and mining. I don't get the "no liberation" thing. Liberation from what? As wanky and platitude-istic (I'm good at making up words) as it sounds, looking backwards at old hurts only divides us as a nation.

uh........thanks Wheet......nice visual.

Yeah.......one of the posters on the other forum actually wrote that she decided on the DS because the DS support group she attended (just for info) met at an all-you-can-eat buffet. That was really the thing that hit the "WTF" switch for me.