Clothing needed for Ohio family. Original Post by Loraine May at 3:59 AM EST on 02/24/2006 Byesville, OH - RNY (05/06/2005) - Dean J. Mikami, M.D. I have been so busy trying to get this Extreme makeover home invasion pulled together for my friend Patty that I am plum tuckered out. If anyone is interested in helping with some gently used items for this needy family it would certainly be appreciated. Patty is my neighbor *****cently lost her funding for home health care, and a home health aid. She is homebound and super morbidly obese and can no longer move around. She is responsible for caring for her adult mentally retarded brother and is having real difficulties doing so. I have been working with all my gastric bypass support groups to collect size 6 x women's clothing and size 55 jeans and 3 x shirts for her brother Leonard. They are in desperate need of gently used towels, wash clothes, dish clothes, and personal care items. Baby wipes and Gold bond powder. Toothpaste, shampoo and toothbrushes as well. Since becoming homebound Patty has gotten very depressed and suffers greatly from celulitis and chronic severe lymphadema . I have been helping as much as I can by doing her grocery shopping, cleaning, and laundry. When I was doing their laundry that is when I discovered that all of their clothes were stained badly and torn apart. Even at this size, these people deserve the dignity of having decent clothing on their bodies. They are unable to afford personal care items like shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, Laundry soap, bath soap etc. They are both in need of undergarments and socks. Patty wears size 6 x and Leonard wears size 55 jeans and size 3 x crew neck T shirts. Since they are homebound any magazines, paperback books, Music CDs and used DVD's would be greatly appreciated. Next Saturday March the I have arranged for a group of volunteers to help deliver these items, and we will clean their home from top to bottom. I have a local beautician who will give them both haircuts, manicures and a day of beauty treatments while we are busy scrubbing and doing laundry etc. I am feeling so blessed by being able to do this for this wonderful dear lady. She is just my age and suffering so badly. I wish that I could convince her to look into gastric bypass surgery, but that has to be her choice. I guess what I am trying to do by "project Patty" is to show her the kindness of complete strangers and that people care about her.and that with the love and support that she can return to life outside of her living room again. I thank you all for listening and hope that you can help by sending any items that you can find around the house that they might be able to use. If you are interested in helping or just sending a card of encouragement please write and ask for my home address. Please pass this information along to anyone who might have gently used items to contribute to help make this project a huge success. If you are interested in being on the cleaning crew please contact me as soon as possible We need all the hands and strong able bodies we can get to help with some spring cleaning and delivering the clothing etc. We are also in need of someone who knows how to hook up a dvd/vcr player up to an older television set. Thank you all for your help. I knew I could count on you to help make this happen. Lots of Love and Hugs, Laura I thank you all for your help.

I will post a pic of it when I get it. It might be a while though. I have a appt with my plastic surgeon on March 29 and I want to see what he says first. Even though I don't have loose skin on my back I just want to make sure if I should do it before or after plastics.... Hugs Ange

I am also a military wife with Tricare and I was told the same thing about it having to be medically necessary. However, there are many ways around that.. such as rashes developed from the excess skin, pain from the hanging of the skin, etc.. I know of people here that have had their plastics paid for by Tricare and others that have not. I think that patience is a virtue with Tricare especially in this area. Hurricane Katrina has our whole program down here messed up, so it is hard to even get follow up appointments, our hospital was flooded and everything is running day to day here. I wish the best of luck with your endeavors. Happy healing.. Rhonda

Wow! you've done a great job for not having exercised at all. Yes, that will help and if you want to kick-start the loss, you can go to a liquid protein diet for 5-7 days. It is a safe way to get it going again. Curves will be fine for a short term but once your body gets used to the machines, you may find it not challenging enough. JMO Congratulations on your success and good luck going forward. Toni 267/157/135

I am new to this site and kinda stuck in a rute, I will be one year post op march 25th like all of you, I have gone from 280 pounds to 147 and froma size 28+++ to a 8/10, but I don't feel I am done loosing, I really haven't lost any in a month or so, how can I get it going again? I would love to lose anoth 10-15 pounds...I also havn't done any exercise in the past 11 months, and want to finally join curves, will this help me? Sherri Toronto Canada Dr. Omalley( rochester)