anonemouse

Hey Jaqui, who was your surgeon? My original surgeon was Dr. Olsen at Centennial in Nashville. I had to switch because of insurance issues, though.

I usually just go to a used bookstore. There's a MASSIVE one in Knoxville called McKay's Used Books.

You are very welcome!

I can't help you with the first, because I am not banded yet. The second, though, I might be able to help you with. The long-term (well, up to 10 years post-surgery) weight loss statistics for banding are equivalent to the long-term statistics for RNY bypass. The last scientific article I saw even made the implication that banding MAY be more successful than bypass after 10 years. They couldn't come right out and make that conclusion, since they didn't have enough evidence yet, but they hinted at it. And that paper was a summary of all the results published in English-language journals that were from studies with more than three years patient follow-up and more than 100 participants. The results they showed were that the 8-year results for banding were statistically identical to the 10-year results for RNY. That leads to the question of how the 10-year results for banding compare with the 10-year results for RNY. If the 8-year banding results are identical to 10-year results for bypass, the 10-year banding results would probably exceed the 10-year bypass results.

Thanks! I can't wait.

Reggodess, I agree with you to a certain extent. I don't think that surgery should be the first option. If a teen was 30 or 40 pounds overweight, I think your solution would be best. But a severely or morbidly obese teen isn't any more likely to lose the weight and keep it off than you or I are. It isn't magically easier for them to lose that weight. Two hundred pounds overweight is two hundred pounds overweight, regardless if the person is 15 or 45.

You guys are great, you know that? You've got me rolling over here, picturing PBing all over my uncle.

Believe me, one glitch in your credit CAN hurt you, once it goes on your credit report. I know this from experience. I cut my hand a few years ago and went to the emergency room. Did you know that you are billed twice at the ER? I didn't. Once from the hospital and once from the doctor that you see. Apparently, the doctor failed to get my correct address and insurance information from the hospital workers (I know the hospital had it because I got mailings from them later and my insurance was billed for their portion). Since I never got a bill from the doctor, I thought everything had been taken care of. I got a couple of calls from a collection agency, telling me that I had hospital bills that had not been paid. So, I did what anyone would do, and called the hospital. Those were all paid. So, I thought everything had been taken care of. Not so, apparently. I got a copy of my credit report a few months later, and it had a delinquent medical bill on there. That one single bill dropped my credit rating from excellent (around 780) to verging on bad (around 625). And the credit rating continues to go down as long as the bill remains unpaid. So if you don't get that resolved, it WILL affect your credit. My credit is still recovering. It doesn't matter that the bill would have been paid if the doctor had bothered to get my correct address or had gotten my insurance information. Once it's on your credit report, it stays there for 7 years, even once you get it paid. It will affect your credit for the entire time it is on there.

I haven't seen her around for several days.

See if you can get your doctor to give to a prescription for Chantix (or whatever it is) to help you quit. From what I've heard, it makes it very unpleasant to smoke.

I have to agree with this. Take my brother's fiance for example. The girl's about the same height as I am, eats every couple of hourse (usually junk), and weighs maybe 110 pounds. She eats thousands of calories per day, way more than I do, yet is literally half my weight. Another example is my college roommate. I lived with that girl for four years. She literally ate Pasta almost every single day, sometimes for every meal (other than Breakfast, when she ate a sugary Cereal like Lucky Charms). She loved cheese bread and would frequently make it to eat with her pasta meals. She was also incredibly inactive. She gained a little bit of weight over the four years, but not more than 20 or so pounds. And how did she take it off? She did yoga for about 20 minutes a day and the weight melted off like butter. Genetics really is the key, I believe, to a lot of peoples' weight. Some people can be couch potatos, eating thousands and thousands of calories from junk food, and not gain a single pount. Or if they do gain, it's very easy for them to lose weight. Other people watch what they eat, are very active, and are still fat. Now, I'm not saying that genetics is the entire problem for everyone. But it does determine if you are predisposed to obesity. It determines how easily you gain weight and how difficult it is to lose it.

I have no problems with severely depressed people seeking out euthanasia, as long as it is not a short-term depression. If you've ever been severely depressed, there is as much pain there as there is with physical ailments. It may be mental pain (or even physical, as depression can cause physical symptoms), but who are we to say one person's pain is any less important and worthy of being relieved than another person's? Of course, I don't think it should be allowed before seeking out all possible assistance from therapists and doctors, but if their pain (physical OR mental) can't be relieved, then I say that the patient should have the right to put themselves out of their misery.

I don't know if the media created people like Paris. I personally feel that they've always been around, people getting what they wanted when they wanted is and getting away with everything, just because of who they are. Maybe the media just exposes it more now. I mean, yeah, Paris is a well-known figure to everyone now because of the media, but simply being the heirress to the Hilton empire and being so rich seems like it would probably have gotten her out of quite a bit, even if the media wasn't like it is. It's just more obvious and public now.

Yep, I will be 24 in just over a month and a half. I've always been told that I am very mature for my age. I was never one to do all the "teen" stuff. I always felt like I was much older emotionally than the people my age. Heck, it's not how old you really are that matters, it's how old you feel!

That's disappointing. It's always looked so good.

As a whole, the Disciples of Christ denomination is actually fairly liberal, for a Christian denomination. Of course, that's relative. I met a lot of wonderful people when I was going to church. I also met some horrible, bigoted people that used their religious belief to excuse their bigotry.

I went today for my 4-minute session. I used a vertical system, and I like it! It's a little warm in there, but there is a strong fan sucking air through it, which is nice. One of my big objections to the horizontal beds is the sweaty feel that would probably happen, with being right up against the acrylic. I think I am going to go again on Sunday.

Oh, yeah, that makes it even worse. My family is relatively diverse, both in political beliefs and religious beliefs. My dad's family was raised in the Disciples of Christ denomination in Nashville in the '30s, '40s, and '50's. Obviously, that did not lend itself to racial tolerance, a fact that makes itself known more and more as they get older. One of my uncles converted to Catholicism when he married, and one of my aunts became Southern Baptist when she married. Another aunt is very liberal, as is one of the other uncles. As you can probably imagine, family gatherings can be quite tense, as none of the family members knows how to keep their mouth shut. (Except me, I tend to shut up and observe, since I am the only Atheist I know of in the family, and that fact would not go over well. Plus, it can be quite entertaining at times.) Hey, it makes for good, if occasionally a little too spirited, conversation. :heh:

I am so sick of the editing problems! I wanted to add to the above post again, but don't feel like taking the time to edit it. Anyway: I've always wanted to try brie en croute (is that how you spell it?).

I am not a fan of funky textures/flavors/smells, so I've never been able to eat blue cheeses, cream-style or farm-style cheeses (cream cheese, neufchatel, cottage, etc.). Literally, the smell makes me gag. What's brie like? I've always wanted to try it, but didn't want to spend a chunk of change on something I might not like. I tend to stick with harder, more mature cheeses, honestly.

Eek! That's horrible!

I think the judge was so pissed that she's been given special treatment, and that he was being asked to give her even more, that he gave her a harsher sentence than he probably would have. I don't blame him, though. We've seen so many cases where celebs get away with a slap on the wrist, it's nice to see one getting what she deserves. And to me, she was released because of who she was. Another person would not have gotten out of jail because of the reasons she did. Yes, if that hadn't happened, she may have been released early anyway, but it did happen. And I think it rightfully pissed off the judge.

I hate that I do it, but I guess I view people through tinted glasses sometimes. I think we all do, though. I have been exposed to so many people that fit the stereotypes I mentioned earlier, that it does color my view of other people in those groups. And then I meet people on here that fit that stereotype (at least, in my interaction with them), and it colors my opinion of those groups even more. (Note, I'm not referring to you, Gadgetlady. I think we can generally get along, and we actually agree on a lot of things, even if we have to agree to disagree on others. Plus, I think we both like intellectual conversations. )

I have talked to pro-life folks in real life. And the ones I have talked to have been not necessarily hateful of women, but definitely believe that women have their place and that they should stay in it and they have disdained women who dared to get out of their pigeon-hole of being a wife and mother, and being subservient to men. Do I think that there are different folks out there? You bet, but I've not been in contact with very many. It may be different in Southern California, but in the South, there are those stereotypes for a reason. To be honest, you probably think I am intolerant of super-conservative Christians. And I am, to a certain extent. But that's because I know what many of them are like where I'm from. The vast majority that I have EVER been in contact with (some of my family included) have been racist (latently or obviously), sexist, homophobic, etc. That is the impression I have been given of conservative Christians. Again, I know intellectually that the stereotype is not true of all conservative Christians. But I think that, like all stereotypes, there is truth to it, in some cases.

Here's an interesting page, basically quotes from years past, concerning the "decline" of evolution: More And More Apparently, evolution has been supposedly "declining" for the last 180+ years.