BJean

I paid all of my deductibles up front before my revision surgery. I paid the doctor, the hospital and for all pre-surgical tests. I was told that I had pre-paid EVERYTHING. That was in April. The bills are still trickling in. $13 here, $250 there and practicaly every number inbetween. They claim part of the anesthesia wasn't covered by my prepay, some test or other, some assistant or other, etc. Plus they often bill me twice for the same thing in one month - in other words, double billing. In the first instance it happened, I paid it without realizing it and the jerks billed me again the next month after I had already paid it twice. Who knows what all these random charges are. A lot of them don't even show what the bill is for. Just a charge relating to that surgery. If I don't pay them I'll be reported to the credit companies and wreck my credit. If I try to talk to someone I spend half a day first on hold and then holding while someone is supposedly checking after which they come on the line and promise to call me back. It is the biggest mess! And people like patty want to keep this system? They fault our president and congress for wanting to make it better? Are they crazy or just plain stupid? Or perhaps wealthy beyond belief so that it just doesn't matter to them?

Hey you've been hiding out under that rock again. What we did in Iraq had nothing whatever to do with defending ourselves. And nobody who is aware of what we did believes that defending ourselves was Bush and Cheney's motive. We dropped bombs on innocent people. There were some bad guys there that were gumming up the works for America - meaning they controlled things that we wanted and we needed them out of the way - so we killed people and we left a nation in chaos because some of us thought we deserved to get what we wanted. We killed innocent people for greed. There is no way that God would endorse our actions in Iraq. And you shouldn't either.

If that's you, you look fabulous!

patty: People have overtaken land everywhere on this earth. It's our history. You can't blame "Christians" for this. The blame is on "people". You (and people like you who claim to be Christians), are the ones who say going to war is fine with God. Granted, Christians are not the only ones who think that war is necessary. But the irony and hypocrisy of "Christians" wanting war is disillusioning at best. Where in the Bible does it say that invading a land and killing it's native inhabitants for the purpose of taking their natural resources, is okay? That's what we did in Iraq and you've defended that action. And the guys who set the whole thing up claim to be good Christians and even Bush claimed he was there doing that job because God ordained it. I'm with Llyra, stop being so wishy washy and hypocritical. Own what you say you believe in and own your interpretation of the Bible. When I remarked that Jesus stood for peace and love, you told the story about him losing his temper in the presence of the money changers. So since you believe that war and displays of anger and outrage are condoned in the Bible, stick to your story.

MEN wrote the Bible and men included all the references to God and scripture on our monuments, anthems, money and buildings. Belief in God and the Bible may have inspired the use of those words, but God did not literally do any of that. To put it all on God as if he demanded it or as if we would somehow be sinners if we didn't do those things, is ludicrous. As for the ACLU, you've been drinking the kool-aide too long. I know it is very popular to bash the ACLU, but without them you would not enjoy many of the constitutional rights that you have today. There have been many folks who have tried to change the interpretation of the Constitution but the ACLU has defended it to the letter. And you should be proud that there is an organization devoted to it. As you said, all men are sinners and that includes some who would sell you down the river to further their own personal agenda by taking away your constitutional rights.

You need to go see "Eat, Pray, Love" because there are two lines in it that pertain to your extremist spiritual beliefs. One has to do with God living within us. The other about the person who is too consumed with God and herself.

Christie you're doing GREAT too! Congrats. whatever you and your husband are doing, it is working well for you. I do think that it is very important to keep the right kinds of food handy to eat at that 2 to 2.5 hour mark when we get that "hungry" or "empty/achy" feeling. If you wait too long to make a choice, that's when I could get into trouble by eating something that is handy that I shouldn't be eating.

We actually have one of those Margaritaville machines that shaves ice. I just haven't taken the time to figure out a low-cal flavoring to make it happen. It does make good margaritas (none since I've been sleeved tho) but there's no reason you can't make other non-alcoholic slushie drinks too. I am actually thinking about making a slushie mojito drink for company tonight. I went to the Dallas farmer's market and bought big beautiful limes and a mint plant. I've never heard of frozen mojitos, but why not? It might be my first alcoholic beverage since sleeving - except for a taste of wine a couple of times. The wine just doesn't sit well with me. Kinda burns my stomach, know what I mean? And thanks for the encouragement. Yesterday was tough for me. I don't know what happened. I just kept snacking after dinner on cocoa dusted almonds and regular almonds. Sort of like I used to not be able to quit when I was out of control. But today has been fine and I have had nothing but healthy, small quantities of food all day.

Btw daisy, I hope that one day I'll see my ticker saying I'm 5 lbs below my target weight like yours does! Or 1 lb from goal like Jane's! You gals rock!

Amen to that! A good friend told me not to live in the past or I will miss the present and not be ready for the future. She's right! Onward and upward! At least we did finally get ourselves moving in the right direction. Hurrah for us!

I do take Calcium + Vitamin D and that definitely makes a difference! Swiftflow you're doing amazingly well!! We share our surgery date. You're way ahead of me but I have less to lose and well, you're a guy.

Well those kids are very fortunate to have such a great mom!

I feel so lucky reading all this. I get the empty feeling, but not true hunger like I did pre surgery and with the band (when I was, like nurse ally, hungry ALL the time.) But I never take PPIs. Acid blockers, right? This subject has come up before and I've felt like maybe I'm somehow missing the boat. I have taken maybe 2 tsp of Mylanta since surgery and that's it. I don't understand the difference between you all and me. I think I do get that acidic burn occasionally, but nothing that I can't live with. Are those occasions harmful? Should I not ignore them?

I'm trying not to be depressed. You have a small child which means you're much younger than I. You're getting the help you need to become normal when you're in the prime of your life. I've spent the better part of my life being obese. I'm trying to live in the future instead of being depressed about all those wasted years. What can be very inspirational to some is sorta depressing to others. shake it off you nutball! Ok. I'm over the pity party. I'm fine now. Move along, nothing to see here... :biggrin0:

P.S. Let's all hope that clown that impregnated Bristol Palin gets his own reality show so he can pay child support. Otherwise, by patty's standards (making children pay for their own mistakes) Bristol is on her own. Did she graduate from high school? Heck if so then she should be able to get a job and pay for child support and medical care, right? A job at McDonald's pays how much now? Well if that doesn't work, she can always write a tell all book. Man, this free form thinking is underrated. No wonder patty has such a good time posting here.

patty: "... the father of the child will have to help her. Fathers pay support for that reason." What father? You want girls to be forced to have babies when they may not even know who the father is. So since want that, you better be prepared to pay for the needs of that child because the girl won't be able to work since she has a child to raise. She can't afford child care because she doesn't have a job. She can't afford medical care because she doesn't have a job. She may be an orphan herself so you can't expect her parents to pay for her mistakes - oh wait, you don't believe in that anyway... she's got to learn the hard way from her mistakes, right? So patty, you personally better be ready to pay for all these babies you're so anxious to force girls into having. Not all of them are Sarah Palin's daughter.

I was just fixin' ta point out the ridiculousness of the comparison but you did such a good job of it, Cleo's!

Thanks for posting this. your adoring fan.

Dude, I don't use it against "us." Go through all my posts and show me when I did. :thumbup::thumbup::rolleyes: Besides, I wouldn't dream of insisting that you drop one of your favorite words from your posts. But I definitely find it interesting that you like to claim that it wasn't you who first began using it so frequently. You're a laugh riot. :rolleyes:

Got this in the mail today: I want to thank the OFA supporters who stood with House Democrats as they raced back to Washington this week to cast a vote on a state assistance bill. I'm proud to say they passed the bill yesterday and the President immediately signed it into law. And, because of it, hundreds of thousands of jobs will be saved -- including an estimated 14,500 public school teachers across Texas. Republicans called this bill a "bailout" and a "handout." They called the police officers, firefighters, and teachers whose jobs were on the line "special interests." And nearly every House Republican voted no. But Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats did the right thing, reminding us again of what we're fighting for in the upcoming elections. When voters cast their ballots in November, it's up to us to make sure they remember who's fighting for them. It was from someone who works for the president.

Cleo's your last paragraph is exactly what I was thinking in response to pattys suggestion that kids just need to take care of their aging parents. I do agree that some people could take care of their aging parents, but certainly not every aging parent. Some aging folks don't even have children. People are living much longer these days and many of them are living with horrible debilatating illnesses because of new treatments and medicines. Many of those people require nursing care and medical equipment that cannot be installed in private homes. Trying to answer the problems of our aging population with one simple solution of home care is assinine and stupid. I would said naive but I had to consider the source - the person with all the hands on experience.

And btw, you continue to use the word HATE in your posts. Either you have that in your mind or your heart or both. If you didn't, you wouldn't think to use it so often whether you're accusing someone else of hating or whether it's really you who is feeling that emotion. The fact that it finds its way into your writings so often, one must conclude that it is definitely in your head and probably in your heart. Sorry dear. It is what it is. Unless you're just playing games here, of course.

You silly goose. I was responding to your posts. Are they real or are they some made up tripe that you put out for fun and games? Either you believe what you write or you're just playing a game. Either way, I'm merely responding to what you write.

As usual patty, you have it backwards. People have constitutional rights. YOU want to take them away. We aren't wanting to take them away, we want people to be able to choose how they live in a free society. Our country has promised people that they have certain rights - you do not believe in certain things and so you wish for them to be outlawed which would effectively take away those rights that we've been promised. Like same sex marriage. You said: "Everyone will have to stand before God one day and give an answer for what he has done in the flesh, whether good or bad." And of course we know all about that. But what you don't understand ad nauseum is that we do not have to stand before YOU and give YOU an answer or explain anything about what we've chosen to do in the flesh to YOU. Because YOU are NOT God. And furthermore, you have no right to tell us how to live our lives by passing laws that take away our right to live as we believe - not as YOU believe.