anonemouse

Ditto. I read some of the old threads (from back when they were apparently banning people left and right). PLEASE don't get that crap started again. It had to be THE most annoying shit to read through. Made me want to gouge my eyes out.

There's only a few people who I think deserved it more, one of which is that nutso that leads the "God hates fags!" group. His name isn't coming to me at the moment, but I think that his existance is massive proof that there isn't a God.

Mine said that a small hiatal hernia wasn't a problem.

I've never been able to eat much of anything that has been sweetened with artificial sweeteners. They have a really weird taste to me. For example, when I drink iced tea, I can only use enough sweetener to cut the bitterness. I can't use enough to make it actually taste sweet or the strange flavor comes through. The closest I can come to describing the flavor is that it tastes like metal. The artificial sweeteners (doesn't matter which kind, they all taste like it) taste like I'm sucking on a dime. I've just gotten to where I like drinking my tea with no sweetener in it. I love sweet iced tea (I'm a southerner, of course I do!), but only if it is sweetened with sugar. Otherwise, I can't tolerate it. That's one reason why I never drink Crystal Lite or other sugar-free drinks or even eat sugar-free foods that are made with Splenda. They've got a funky aftertaste, and in many cases, they're TOO sweet.

I hope not. Nuttiness like that runs in the family. The rest of them are probably just as wacked out as the parents.

I would look online. There are lots of online stores that sell really pretty lingerie for decent prices.

Do you have a family history of diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, etc? If you do, that could work to your advantage. I was approved by my insurance and will be having surgery on July 3rd (yay!), and I have a BMI under 40 and no comorbidities other than prediabetes, high cholesterol and trigycerides, and PCOS. But, I have a very severe family history of heart disease and diabetes, and my mom had to have both knees replaced because of her obesity.

I just got an email from my surgeon's office manager. She said that they were moving my appointment with the surgeon up to June 13th and that they had scheduled my surgery for July 3rd! I am completely thrilled! My appointment with the surgeon was scheduled for June 27th and I hadn't even gotten a surgery date yet. I thought it was going to be sometime in late July. I can't believe this!

I can't believe the baby's mother. She's just as nutty as her husband. I hope she is never allowed to be in the same room as her baby ever again.

I love really natural looking jewlery. You know, turquoise, carnelian, agate, coral, stuff like that. I also really like pearls, mainly black or golden ones. Although, a stately white pearl necklace is beautiful. I like some of the colored gemstones, like my birthstone peridot, but most of them just look cold to me. I am not a fan of diamonds, mainly because I can't get over how inflated the price is. Emeralds are rarer than diamonds, yet diamonds are a whole lot more expensive than emeralds. All this is moot, though, because I never wear jewelry. I hate the feel of something on my skin. It makes me feel very hot, for some reason. I can barely wear my watch. If I get hot, I have to take it off, and that makes me automatically feel much cooler.

I saw it today and it was very cute. Like Nathalie said, it wasn't as good as the first one, but still worth paying to see it. At least, for a matinee. I don't know if I would pay to see a regular showing.

I love my Sony Vaio. I've never had good experiences with Dell laptops, and their customer service sucks monkey balls. I've had misgivings about HP ever since they merged with Compaq because I used to have a Compaq desktop that completely died within 3 years of buying it (and I had to have the monitor replaced within a week because it just stopped working). All in all, though, if I was buying a new laptop today, I'd get another Vaio. I just love it.

Get this, they arrested a student at Falwell's university because he had exposives and was apparently planning to "make sure protesters don't interupt his funeral."

Not all licenses have your weight on it, though. Mine (Tennessee) doesn't.

My mom was initially upset, then was supportive after she went to the seminar with me. Eventually, though, my dad (who doesn't like it at all) got to her and she is not very happy with my decision now. She had the nerve to tell me to not have the surgery, but pretend I did, and lose weight that way. I was literally thinking "WTF? Are you that stupid?" Now, I just don't discuss it with her much. She's too negative and life's too short to stress myself out over her opinion. I mean, yes, it would be wonderful if she was happy for me, but it's not necessary. What's important is that I'm happy with my decision.

I've looked into having the procedure done before (not to the extent of asking my doctor, but did online research), and a lot of the sites that I found had a statement somewhat to the effect of, "Young, childless women may have difficulty finding a willing surgeon." It sucks, because it basically means that we are royally screwed. Either we run the risk of possibly having to have an abortion or we never, ever have sex.

Yeah, Alexandra is right. That practice is not in any way illegal. The US government will take money from whomever is willing (or not, in many cases) to give it to them.

The website seems to be loading at a snail's pace, which is odd since I have cable internet. It's not constant, though, just occasional. But when it does slow down, it's SLOW.

Why? This one seems to work quite well. It is possible to have more than one conversation in a thread.

Because all surgeons have to start somewhere. To me, it is like a doctor learning a a teaching hospital. When they leave that hospital, they may be rudimentally qualified to perform any number of surgeries, but that doesn't mean that they are the surgeon you would want operating on you. Or you can think of it along the terms of a nurse. When a nurse passes her qualifying exam, she's a nurse. She's as much a nurse as someone who's been a nurse for 20 years. But there is a massive difference in the amount of experience. Would you really, truly want a brand new nurse treating you, one that hasn't necessarily learned all the little tricks, rather than a nurse that's been in the business for 20 years?

Barely qualified is, to me, anything less than 100 surgeries. Even Inamed doesn't consider surgeons that have performed under that number to be "experts." According to Inamed, surgeons only have to perform 3 band surgeries before they are certified.

But they are both surgeries. With ANY surgery, you have to balance several factors. Cost, surgeon's experience, convenience, etc. For many people, the experience of the surgeon wins out. Not everyone lives close to a world-class hospital. Many people probably figure that if they are having to travel to get to an experienced surgeon anyway, they might as well travel to Mexico and use the most experienced surgeons in North America. Yes, cost is a factor. The fact is, some people either can't get approved by their insurance company, or their insurance company will only partially cover the surgery (as in my case), or they have an exclusion. And, some people just don't want to take the time to fight for approval. Some people decide that they are willing to pay for the most experienced surgeon available. You'll find, though, that many people took out loans, borrowed money from relatives, or saved for years to go to Mexico. When someone is messing around with your internal organs, you don't want it to be someone that, based on the band manufacturer's policies, is barely qualified to do the surgery. Believe me, I am very laid back, but not when it comes to my health. I don't want to put my life in the hands of a surgeon that has a high complication rate and I don't want to put it in the hands of one that isn't that experienced. To me, it would be like asking an eye surgeon to perform a heart surgery on me.

Firefox rocks! Seriously, I love it. It seems to load a lot faster than IE, also.

The procedure may be becoming quite common, but that doesn't mean that all surgeons are equally experienced with it. Seriously, if you were having heart surgery, would you rather have a surgeon that's done 15 of the procedures, or one that's done 1500?

So, since there seems to be a consensus that the gathering will probably be held in Vegas, when will it be?