anonemouse

Yep, I agree with this completely.

I'm hoping it will. I've had great results so far, and I've gone from having hair basically all over the front of my neck and along my jawline to only having a couple of spots on my neck that are about the size of a dime each. From what I can tell so far, all the visible hair follicles in both of those spots seems to have had a reaction to this last treatment. If I need more treatments, though, they've said that they aren't as expensive as the whole package was. I think it's something like $50 if it's less than 10 hairs, a little more expensive for more hair. Believe me, don't let yourself get talked out of laser treatment because of the pain. Even as painful as this last treatment was, I'd still do it again in a heartbeat. And seriously, this treatment was over in less than 3 minutes with the wet laser. even with the tech going over a few spots multiple times. It really hurt, but it was FAST. It probably would have felt better, honestly, if I'd had the same technician that I'd used for the other treatments. The other one was better about stopping for a bit when it was getting too painful for me. This one would only hesitate a few seconds if I flinched away from the laser. I'm definitely going to try to save up for more laser treatments. I'm hoping that my eventual tummy tuck will get rid of most of my abdominal hair (TMI, probably), but my leg and arm hair is very obvious. Even after shaving, you can see my leg hair follicles because I'm so fair-skinned. And I've been waxing my arms, so I'm tempted to just do laser on them.

I just had the 4th of my 5 treatments. Good news is that this is working wonderfully. I had a great skin reaction to the laser, so I'm hoping that the hair at those spots won't be back (a good indicator of positive results is a temporary reddened bump appearing at the hair follicle). Bad news is that they got a new type of laser, and boy does it HURT. The old one was a dry laser, this new one is a wet laser, where they use gel on your skin. It's much faster than the old one, which is great, but it's more painful. It's not so bad at first, but then it seems to build up and winds up excruciating.

Too true. :biggrin:

I REALLY want that on a t-shirt, but I don't think it would go over well here in Kentucky, lol!

That's what I was worried about when I went on my 2nd consultation, since the PS said that she would use a lollipop incision instead of the anchor incision. The other two surgeons I had consultations with said that they'd use the anchor. That was one of several reasons why I chose not to use that surgeon.

Like I said in another thread, lack of post-op knowledge is understandable to me in situations of emergency surgery. I don't think there is any legitimate excuse to not be knowledgeable about what you'll likely be going through after an elective surgery, especially in this day and age, regardless of what terminology is used. And that goes double when it is an elective surgery that for most people will take weeks, if not months, to arrange. Yes, your doctor should inform you, but you shouldn't rely on him/her and the staff to make sure you get all the information. Whether you and your doctor call them fills or adjustments, you should know you'll need them BEFORE you get sliced open.

Definitely report her, but try to stay above her own behavior when you act. You want to have as most credibility as possible, and you will lose credibility if you lose your cool with her. I know it would feel so good to let off steam at her, make comments, or as another poster suggested, imply that you'll slash her tires. But DO NOT DO IT. As it stands, it appears to other people like a bitchy nut harassing a coworker. If you snap and react, it will start to look like two warring coworkers, which won't gather very much support for you. So, I know it will be hard, but try to keep your cool. Definitely stand up to her, but do it in an adult fashion. Report her, be very cool when she makes remarks, etc. Don't revert to high school.

I have the 4cc Inamed/Allergan band. I got 1.8 ccs with my first fill, got another .5 at my second fill two weeks later, and another .5 at my third (about 2.5 months after the 2nd fill). I think that's what I got, anyway. I can never keep it straight in my head, lol. I had hardly any restriction with the first fill, but seemingly hit my sweet spot with the second one. At least, until I lost enough weight that it loosened up. The third fill was rather tight at first, but I'm very happy with it now. I sure learned the hard way to stay away from bready things, though! PBed for the first and only time ever on a bite of pizza and spent 3 1/2 hours in absolute pain. It's really amazing how knowing that you'll be in extreme pain will break a carb addiction! Whenever you plateau, it always helps to evaluate what you're doing and maybe change it up a little bit. Do a food/calorie log on Calorie Counter, Diet Tracking, Food Journal, Nutrition Facts at The Daily Plate (or a similar site), change up your exercise routine, maybe vary your calorie intake (some days go lower, some days higher) etc. When I regained some weight (due to drinking those really high calorie cream sodas), I never changed my ticker, because it was a reminder of where I wanted to be. I sure got sick of seeing that number, though, and knowing that I either still hadn't gotten down to it again or that I was stuck there. But, it was a motivator, because I wanted to see the darn thing change! And it finally is, thankfully!

I actually had the opposite experience. I'm 5'3" and when I was in plus sizes, I could rarely find clothes that were short enough. At Lane Bryant, for example, their "petites" were usually about 4" too long. Literally, one time I ordered a pair of supposedly "petite" exercise pants from them and when I tried them on, the cuffs covered my feet so that only my toes were sticking out. I've always found that manufacturers/designers thought that women grew taller as they grew fatter.

Lol, I thought it was just me! And on another note, I feel like bragging a bit today. I'm sitting here in my first pair of size 10 pants since elementary school! I'm loving it, except for the fact that I recently bought several pairs of size 12 shorts that I haven't had a chance to wear yet, so I'm going to have to try and hunt up my receipts so that I can return them (and I'm pretty sure I threw them out).

Yep! The surgeon I chose was the most expensive of the three I consulted with, but not by much. And of my top two, she was the only one that offers Cosmet Assure insurance, so I think it evens out.

I think Alex would probably be very enthusiastic about making another forum. Maybe make a thread in the Questions forum or PM him directly, I'm not sure which would be fastest.

Oh, no problem! I realize that this is a sensitive subject for a lot of people, and I probably wasn't as sensitive as I should have been with my first post. And see, you DO have willpower. If you didn't, you wouldn't have thrown that food away! Kudos to you for doing that! This whole journey is easiest if we just take it a few steps at a time, and that was a great step to take. :thumbdown:

Yep, I also had consultations with several surgeons. One had a few good photos on her website, one had a lot of good photos on the website she shared with the surgeon she was partnered with, and the one I chose had the basic website with no photos. The first one was very good, and probably would be my second choice, because her book of photos were just as good as the ones on her website. The second was, well, okay. Her office was very stylish and very commercialized towards encouraging plastic surgery and her website is probably the first one that pops up if you search for plastic surgeons in my area. But I wasn't as comfortable with her or her book of results. The one I chose has a very basic website and office (no plastic employees or super-stylish and modern furniture/fountains/etc.), but does amazing work (both plastic and reconstructive surgery for adults and also does a lot of pediatric reconstruction/cosmetics) and is very highly regarded. Sometimes, the best surgeons are the ones that aren't in your face every time you do an internet search for plastic surgeons in your area.

Mine are Brisbane Bronze right now (OPI is wonderful), but they were bright florescent green a week ago. I have a thing for odd pedicure colors. My absolute fave so far is OPI's Blue Moon Lagoon, which is a holographic blue/aqua/green. They've discontinued it, though, so I'm trying to hunt for it online.

Don't necessarily go by the way the websites look. The surgeon I've chosen has a fairly basic website with no before/after pictures up. The way I've heard it explained is that the really good surgeons don't necessarily have to rely on website traffic to get their business. Now, I'm not saying that really good surgeons WON'T have pics up, but that it isn't that necessary, in many cases. For many of them, they get their business through word-of-mouth referrals from their patients and people that know their patients. That's how it is with the surgeon I chose. When I saw her pictures in her office, they were mostly very, very good. And the ones that weren't as good, she explained why they weren't and also told me how they could have turned out better.

Believe me, I understand that. By the time I went for my second fill, I'd gained back all but 7 pounds of what I'd lost during my pre-op diet and immediately after surgery. I definitely had a lot of periods where I was REALLY scared that I wasn't going to be successful at this. I do agree with something that WCFG said in his last post, we all have to have willpower at some point. Maybe not the willpower to say "No!" entirely to a bowl of ice cream or a platter of cupcakes, but maybe the willpower to only eat a single serving of ice cream or one cupcake. Believe me, it's something that we all have to deal with, whether or not we're currently successful bandsters. Recently, I even gained back almost 10 pounds of what I'd lost, simply because I'd found a recipe for home-made cream sodas that were literally about 800 calories each. And I was craving them HARD. I'd drink at least one a day, along with eating a lot of full-calorie mozzarella cheese that I'd melt and brown in the oven. So yeah, that weight came back. I had to find the willpower to pour my ingredients down the drain and not buy any more. It was hard, but I still had to do it, because I'd rather lose weight than drink a very yummy cream soda. It took me a while to lose those pounds again, and then I plateaued. I've only recently started losing weight again.

Whoops, I went and opened my mouth about the stuff I said I wouldn't in another thread here in RnR. Let the fireworks begin.

Not sure how you read into my post that I was taking it personally, because I wasn't and I'm not. I was simply making a statement in agreement with the gist of what another poster said. In fact, I wasn't even talking to the other people that posted in the thread, I was talking to you, based on your past posts in this thread, the posts where you said you were considering a revision, that you like to eat things that the band doesn't really restrict, and that you aren't exercising. I wasn't saying that you were taking that possible revision lightly, but I was warning you that you were likely to run into trouble if you revise and go into that surgery assuming certain things, like you apparently went into lap-band surgery with certain assumptions. And I'm sorry if you think it's an attack on you, because it's not. The fact is, you've admitted in this thread that you had certain assumptions about what lap-band surgery could do for you, assumptions that weren't accurate. I do want to pull one comment you made in the above post out and go over it, though. "No one jumped into this lightly, it was well planned out, we were all screened, we all researched and we paid a lot of money for something that has disappointed us." (emphasis mine) Can you honestly say that you really researched this surgery, though, if you continue to blame your surgeon for not telling you certain things about the lap-band? For example, I believe you've said in the past that your surgeon failed to inform you that sweets-eaters might not do as well with the band as they would have with the bypass. That's something that could have been found very easily through research. And yes, that was my exact point, when I mentioned the member here that has Cushing's Syndrome, that not everyone has it. In fact, it's an extremely rare condition. That was my point. Those people that DO have it, like Vinesqueen, have a reason that they aren't losing weight that is truly out of their control. They can't help the fact that they've got a brain tumor that prevents them from losing weight. That is why I said that it was "legitimate." I have a lot of sympathy for you, I do. This road hasn't been all roses for me, either. I've got quite a bit of acid reflux that I deal with, I had a very hard time losing any weight in the beginning, and I've plateaued and even gained weight (now losing again) since being banded. But you know what? I also don't consider you "a band failure." Why? Your band hasn't failed. You may have been using it incorrectly, due to being overfilled, but now that you've had an unfill (I think you said that, anyway), hopefully it will be working correctly. But you also have to take responsibility for doing half the work and exercise and NOT eat stuff that goes right through it. And honestly, I have no problem with people that are really having issues with their bands supporting each other. In fact, I think it's awesome. That's what the complications forum is for, after all, to be that safe place you mentioned. But you didn't post in the complications forum, you posted in the rants and raves forum.

I agree with this. I wouldn't have phrased it quite so strongly, lol, but I do agree with the gist of much of what was said. Complaining of plateaus is legitimate. A plateau isn't the band's fault, though, and in many cases it isn't the person's fault, either. Sometimes, our bodies just have to take a while to adjust, and we may have to reevaluate what we're doing. Those people's bands have not failed, and those people are not generally band failures. Yes, some people do have underlying undiagnosed medical issues that prevent them from losing weight (Vinesqueen, for example, had Cushing's Syndrome). But, those people are going to be in the very tiny minority, as such difficult-to-diagnose diseases are pretty darn rare, in most cases. For many people, it really does come down to what you put in your mouth and what you make your body do. I can understand being upset about not losing weight, but it really isn't legitimate to place the blame for that on the band if you admit to eating the wrong foods and not exercising. Now, again, I wouldn't have phrased things in quite such an inflammatory manner as WCFG, but he has a point, if people bother to look past the rest of it. And I know most of us hate the word I'm going to use, as we have all had it thrown in our faces too many times by thin people. Some times, it all comes down to having some self-control. I know it's not easy. But that's really what it boils down to at the very end, having the self-control NOT to do things that will just harm you in the end and to DO the things that will help you. Believe it or not, we will ALL have to use it, at one point or another, to be successful at banding. Experienced bandsters know how to eat around the band. They know what happens if they stop exercising. The ones that have been really, really successful have learned that they have to use self-control to stay away from "cheating" foods (or at least, limit their intake) and that they've got to exercise a certain amount. They probably don't like it, but they've got to do it or they'll start regaining weight. If it would help you retain some self-control to have a revision to another surgery, maybe that's the best course for you to take. But there is no guarantee that you won't be in the same situation after having that surgery. For example, not all bypass patients experience dumping syndrome, so if you revise to that surgery, don't go into it thinking that you're guaranteed to start feeling really icky if you eat something that you shouldn't.

I agree with you, to a certain extent. I personally feel that the onus lies on the patient to make sure that they are educated. I think the doctor and his/her staff should do their best (from an ethical standpoint, if nothing else) to inform the patient, but I think the patient should make sure that they are informed, especially when it comes to elective surgery. With emergency surgery, it's understandable when patients aren't sure what's what when they're recovering and getting back to the life they lived before surgery. But I honestly don't think there's much of an excuse when it comes to an elective surgery that usually takes weeks, if not months, to arrange. So, I have to admit it quite irritates me to see so many people on the board blame their surgeons for not informing them of things, when the majority of the information is so easily accessible. I really want to ask them if they bothered to do any research at all before jumping on the surgery bandwagon. I generally manage to hold my tongue, though. But I also won't make posts that commiserate with them and heap more blame on their surgeon, simply because I feel that the ultimate responsibility for making sure the patient is informed about everything that comes with banding was the patient's.

Yep, my doc was one of those that let her patients skip ahead on the diet. I ate pureed stuff while I was in the hospital, and I had scrambled eggs the day after surgery. Now I really wish I'd paid more attention to the stuff that was said on the board about the post-op diet. If I'd known then what I know now, I would have said, "No thanks!" when the doc told me I could eat solid food whenever I started to feel hungry again.

Extremely well said, Wasa. I went to church every Sunday for 18 years. I WANTED to believe. The problem was, I didn't, and nothing I did or hoped or thought was able to change that. It's very difficult to be a non-believer in this country, and I don't think many believers understand just how difficult it is. People think nothing about talking about God, about their disgust towards "perverted" lifestyles, about their disgust towards or dislike of non-Christians, etc. because they automatically ASSUME that the person they are talking to is just like them, a Christian. How do you think that makes the person they're talking to feel, if they're an Atheist? It sure doesn't make us feel like saying, "Aww, that's okay. You just feel strongly about that because you're a Christian." It sometimes hurts and it's honestly scary, in some cases. In most places in this country, if you admit that you're an Atheist, you get "the look." You know, the raised eyebrow, the slight (or in some cases, more than slight) look of disgust. Living in the Bible Belt, I don't publicly proclaim my Atheism, unless I feel like I am surrounded by like-believing people or otherwise feel safe. Yet, I'm supposed to feel less offended by having my very personal, very strong beliefs attacked because I'm not a Christian?

I've got a $500 deductible, so at least I don't have to pay the whole quoted price. But still, I would have liked to save that $500 to either use for plastic surgery or for stuff that I can use my employee discount on that I decide I can't live without (so far I've been really good, just bought a tea kettle and some candles). At least I've got some extra cash at the moment, which is more than I could say before I got my extra jobs.