anonemouse

That still seems unethical to me, since they're billing someone that hasn't received a service yet. Now, I can understand making arrangements that detail the fees that are to be paid upon surgery, before the surgery occurs. But actually making people pay money for a surgery that hasn't happened is odd, IMO.

And let him know that she did it on a major surgery board that has thousands of people visiting it. His reputation's at stake.

Unfortunately, Wendell, I won't be PMing anyone anything at OH. I had them delete my account after I got attacked by Psycho-Bitch.

Wendell, you should contact Dr. Kuri and tell him that Sandy's implicated him in breaking US law. Maybe that'll light a fire under her.

But wouldn't it vary, based on which insurance it was and which policy? If they knew my insurance wouldn't pay $50k, why did they send them the bill for $50k?

Case in point, my band surgery. The hospital/surgeon billed my insurance for close to $50k. My insurance took off more than $18k off that, basically said, "no, this is what the charge is."

Program fees are one thing. That's acceptable, in my mind. But requiring the portion that insurance doesn't pay before the future patient has even received the medical care? To me, that's unethical. How would they even know how much insurance would pay? Every time I've had something expensive done, insurance discounts what the doctor initially charged, and doesn't pay the whole fee. I mean, yeah, I've had to pay my deductible and my portion of the bill, but the actual cost of the surgery was reduced from what the doctor originally billed insurance.

But you can have a statement to the effect of "PM me for my website address, it's VERY interesting." You aren't breaking any of the TOS, then.

Seriously, try to find out the IP of any emails you received from the OM and email the mods here about having them check it against usedtbfat's IP. If it doesn't match, you haven't lost anything. If it does, you have a bargaining chip.

I somehow managed to nearly fill my PM mailbox in just a couple of days. And I had just cleared it out, too! Went from 4 messages to 225 before I knew it.

Yep, I'm about to bring out my fuzzy socks, too. My feet feel like ice cubes, and they take forever to warm up in bed. I can't wear slippers, but I loves me some nice furry/fuzzy socks.

Go to your control panel, then go to edit profile. The area to change the user title is the first option under optional information.

I've found a few highly rated recipes at recipe sites. One was for a tofu-stuffed manicotti, and it got incredible reviews. Honestly, with new foods, I don't try them unless I've found recipes somewhere that has a rating system so that people can come back and say if it was good or bad. Take a look at Recipezaar: Where the World's Recipes Are and All recipes – complete resource for recipes and cooking tips. I think you can sort the recipes by how well they were reviewed at both sites.

It really depends on the type of tea. Some teas are completely nasty (I tried a green tea today that literally tasted like liquid grass), but some are really good. There are so many different types of teas, different blends, flavors, strengths, etc., that you just have to try a bunch to see what your tastes are.

I've had three fills, to a total of 2.2 cc in a 4 cc band.

I like sweet drinks like pina coladas, where you can't taste the alcohol. One of the major reasons I don't drink is that I hate the way I feel afterwards. I get major hot flashes if I drink any alcohol, and I do mean any. I start sweating, my face turns red, and I honestly feel like I'm about to either puke or faint.

I told my parents and one of my friends, back when I was first looking into it. The friend kept quiet, but the 'rents didn't. I didn't have to tell anyone that I knew, they'd already done it for me. I mean, if someone asks me, I'll tell them, but I don't volunteer. I figure that my personal life isn't any of their business.

I've found it to be generally less of a problem, primarily because I'm not eating the amounts or types of foods that I ate pre-band. I may have a piece of cheese or have a little cheese on veggies or in soup (especially french onion and chili) occasionally, but I'm not eating a whole cheese pizza or an entire platter of garlic cheese bread. Before, I'd just live with the consequences of eating those foods because I loved them and enjoyed eating them. Now, even if I do eat something with dairy in it, it's not as much as I used to eat, and in most cases, not as often.

They already make many of your medical decisions. Insurance companies tell you which doctors you can see, which hospitals you can go to, what treatments you can get, etc., etc., etc.

Don't forget the bashing posts that are obviously about Wendell or Dee or newbies they think are Wendell or Dee but really aren't. Those are completely ignored by the mods. And yes, it would be so horrible to have the truth about Sandy come out. After all, warning anyone on the board about her would be impossible and mean, since that would be invading her privacy and betraying her trust. And we can't do that.

Yup. Although, I can't say never. After all, I've never been in a position where I had to make the decision between abortion and birth, so I can't say for certain that I would never decide to have an abortion. I'm not going to tell a woman she can't have an abortion when I don't even know what I would choose, if I were in her position.

Ooh, sounds good.

I just don't understand why it's performed of often in the US, when there are safer and equally effective (or maybe even more effective, according to recent research). I can understand someone who is in imminent danger of dying, so heavy they can't do even minimal exercise like walking, having it instead of being banded. But for people who aren't in serious danger of dying right this minute, and who can start doing exercise, I don't see why they choose bypass, unless it's because they want easy weight loss that they don't really have to work for. Again, I understand that for some people, they've let their obesity get to the point where they have to take very drastic steps. Take my parent's friend, for example. The man was HUGE. I mean, not just extremely obese, but very tall, as well. Nothing he did would work, in terms of weight loss. Right before he had surgery, you could tell that he wasn't in good health, disregarding the obvious obesity. His skin was gray, he was bigger than ever, and he was constantly coughing and having problems. He finally had RNY last year. Of course, he was also eating at Olive Garden within a relatively short time of having surgery, so who knows how well the surgery will work.

Come to speak of it, that reminds me of OH, too. People can't just look past the single thread they don't like, they have to complain to the mods that it's "taking up too much space and being posted too often." WTF? It's ONE freakin' thread. Pull up your big girl panties and ignore it.

Oh, of course. And the ringleaders were folks who don't even come to the board anymore, at least not that I've seen recently. What the hell do they care?