Betsyjane

Sounds great to me....... Looking forward to it.

Wait, I'm still stuck on not speaking in church or teaching, and "If I do any of these things and have, I repent of my sins." You must be from a very strict sect. Stricter than Mary practiced. Wow. I've always thought it would be a relief to have more answers than questions in life. I've not experienced that.

My insurance company says "We don't cover any bariatric surgery."

I've been an atheist, an agnostic, and now I love God. I would not have wanted to be discriminated against at any point in my life. I respect good people who make humane choices in life.

I'm a grazer too! It was my biggest concern about getting banded. I asked my lap band Dr. about it, and he said the lap band helps tremendously with that, and that the "will power" is still needed, but very little of it, compared to before the band. He even introduced me to former grazers who are banded, and they seem to have stopped without a major sweat. I do know though that I have to get away from this computer....I am so used to eating the whole time I compute! In fact, I saw the other day that they have developed a submersible keyboard, since everybody eats at their computers and gets crumbs in them. This one is totally washable.

Congrats on the 13 years! I'm also not going to spend energy bashing atheists. Would rather spend that energy bashing criminals. Just hard for me to see why bashing gays is worth energy with all the horrid things we need to fix, like people dying in war and a governement that protects the abuser of Senate pages. Odd priorities...seems like we've forgotten how to do any critical thinking.

I'd rather put my energy into registered sex offenders not getting married and having kids. Stopping vicious criminals from getting married makes alot more sense to me than stopping committed couples from it. We ought to be encouraging loving couples....... Married for 20 years, last month

Hi Randi. I know! I know! Some people won't get it. I went to the first seminar at the lap bandd doctor's office and didn't tell anyoine I was going. I wasa so glad. When I told my husband about it after that, I was armed with the right words to say and the right way to educate him. Then I told my mother. The response from both was really good...much better than if I had told them before. Not sure if I'll tell anyone else or not....People who just say diet and exercise to people like us are happy to live in a shallow world, and that's fine with me. I'm in my fifties and wish I'd been able to do it 20 years ago.

There's always a medical vacation to Thailand.....

Hmmm. Maybe if I didn't sit in front of the TV watching Dr. Phil, I wouldn't need a lap band.

Why do any of it? Is it to reduce the fat around your tummy too, so your band won't loosen up so fast as you lose weight. I'm just trying to figure out why I'm not supposed to do anything pre-op......

Oh, anbd back to Dr. Phil's House of Duh, only watch it if you want to see yet another made up freak show. It's kind of like verbal professional wrestling.

(snicker) With that story, he should be a guest on his show.

I am bewildered... My Dr., whose analogy that is, mostly just shrugs, but he does say there are different ways to place the band, and different methods and timing of fills. He also, of course, thinks his way is the right way. He also says that people who were banded even a year ago didn't ahve the advantage of the latest tehchniques. He says there is just getting to be enough of a body of research to begin to develop best practices. Let's all sing! I enjooooy being a guinea pig!

I'm scheduled in a few weeks, and he just said to not eat like its the Last Supper and eat and say goodbye to all my favorite foods. He said not to gain weight...... I asked him about it and he said he doesn't have a pre-op liquid diet or anything.

For comparison, here's what Dr. Spivak said....The procedure is 1 hour, then 1 hour recovery and 1 hour of testing, etc. and then home. Other than typical post-op instructions, he said to take a Flintstones chewable Vitamin with Iron. liquid Diet for 1-2 days. Go slow and stop when full. coffee, tea, diluted fruit juice. broth, blender Soup, skim milk, Jello, popsicles, yogurt, sugar free pudding, cottage cheese, applesauce, oatmeal, grits, cream of wheat, V*, protien drinks Soft Diet for 4 weeks. Add: soft fruit, cooked veges and fish, eggs, anything with the consistency of baby food. No liquids with or 30 min after eating. Regular diet afterwards: Eat only at meal times. Avoid cheap calories. Chew well. The Burning Theory of Food: NEWSPAPER: Foods the body can use quickly, best fo losing weight. Fruits and vegetables. KINDLING; Food high in protien, moderate to low in carbs and fats. Skinless chicken, fish, legumes. LOGS: Slow burning foods. To burn these you must a very active, like a marathoner: Pasta, breads, whole grains rice cereals. WET LOGS: Fats that take a long time for your body to use: Oils, butter, ice cream, whole milk, nuts, chocolate.

I'm ready to give up. The doctor I carefully chose and was enthusiastic about doesn't take Medicare. Medicare only covers people in their Centers of Excellence. So I called Medicare and was told there are no bariatric surgeons and I should just call general surgeons until I find someone who takes Medicare and does lap band. I refused to hang up, insisting that somewhere there must be a list of Medicare Centers of Excellence, since they apprived them. After 20 minutes, she was able to give me the name of 2 hospitals locally, with no phone numbers and no surgeon's names. Medicare won't apy for outpatient...only inpatient. So I called one of the hosptial's bariatric units and the woman who answered refused to answer any questions, saying she needed a coordinator to call me, but that she wouldn't do that unless I gave her all of my personal information first. By then, I was tired,a nd told her I wanted to give her my first name and phone number and I wanted a call back. She said she could only list me as anonymous then, and it would be a long time before I'd get to the top of the list. So I hung up, and went to thir web site and gave them feedback about how they have lost the surgery since their front door was too bureaucratic and uninviting, and explained what had happened. So now I'm worried thqat any place that accepts Medicare is going to feel too crummy to me and I won't have confidence in their surgeons...or in their ability to get me through this well. Right next to the website for this hospital was a link to an article ab out 40% of bariatric patients developing complications. Yikes. When I clicked on it, there was no such website. I'm in a nightmare. I need to go catch my breath!

Thanks, Shawn. We need a rich benefactor who will foot the bill for all this stuff! Think we can do that too? Reading this site allowed me to ask intelligent questions of Dr. Spivak and crew. Yep. I'll keep hanging around.

I guess WHAT you eat, whether it's a cup or a half cup, is going to be the biggie. He gave me a list of nutritional guidelines and recommended alot of resources. It may be what everybody else has gotten too, but I'll figure out how to summarize all that stuff and post it.

Last night, my Dr said to eat 800 a day, 3 meals of 1 cup of food each. The other bandsters that were there were surprised that he said that. they are succeeding, and are eating 1200.

I don't know if it's the same with other Drs, but with Dr. Spivak, there were lots of bandsters to talk with, and one bandster who wasn't successful. Dr. Spivak spent alot of time presenting and answering questions in a group and also individually. He didn't ask me to do alot of pre-surgery testing and there was no psych component. I don't have to lose weight before the surgery but he does ask that you don't gain weight before it. He has an amazing reputation and lots of experience. So...as of tonight, I know for sure that he can do his part. Now I have to make sure in my head that I can do my part. I don't want to be in that 15% for whom it just doesn't work well. Hard to imagine doing well after failing on diets for life! I have lots to think about, including which way to pay for this thing..... But as soon as I have that settled and send him my recent blood test results, I'm good to go. I'm excited!

I'm curious. And does the band help with your Cushings symptoms?

No meaning to food....Wow. Wouldn't that be nice.....

Dr. Pyhil is a guy who makes a great living saying all those things we'd all like to say to people...but don't....whether it's helpful to them or not.

I think it's like anything else. Lots of good info, but also overblown promises because it's the new craze. By the way, the Dr that wrote it claims you can email him, so I did-twice-about gaining wieght and asking for advice. Never got a response. Maybe too busy at book signings.....