Mike, Fred Harris is your best choice. His record speaks for itself. I researched getting obesity surgery for four years. I spent three and a half days at Mayo and decided to go with Harris. My surgery was done on July 5th and I have lost close to ninety pounds since meeting him. Like you I "insisted" on Lap. Dr. Harris could not guarantee he would perform it on me. He said that he would try but if he got in there with the scopes and found something that worried him he would open me up. You can't "feel" with metal scopes like you can with your hands. Made great sense to me as if I had some type of tumor growing I would want that addressed first and foremost. When I woke up I found out he did do LAP on me but had he not I would have easily dealt with it. The man is very good at what he does and this goes way beyond the weight loss procedure he performs. He has performed over 900 gastric bypass surgeries and has never lost a patient. Should you have any questions about him email me at [email protected] and I will help you any way I can. Thanks, John Collins

I am still having trouble with this...at 7 months out. Finding a variety of food. Good luck, and just experiment with different foods. Get your protein in first, then the fruits and vegtables, then the carbs.

Wow, that is tragic! This happened to a freind of mine near Marshall a few years ago. He and his girlfriend were living together and also did not have insurance. Here are a few thoughts... When it happened to them, K-Mart gave them some free clothing and toiletries. It sounded like this is a program that they sponsor because the fire department told them to go there. I don't know if it is exclusively done at the store in Marshall, or if they still do it or not, but I thought that was very nice. Good Will is also a good option to start rebuilding their wardrobe. A lot of people donate really nice clothing to Good Will and the prices are great. Another idea is that we did a fund raiser for them by selling Whopper meal coupons from Burger King. The deal is really good for the people buying the meals, (Less expensive than if they had just bought the same meal at Burger King and Burger King actually matched the money raised up to a certain limit. If there is a Burger King in your area, you might want to check into that. We had about 5 or 6 of his co-workers selling and we raised quite a bit of money to help them get started. We also organized a group of people to come and help clean and salvage anything we could. The second floor was mostly smoke damaged and we were able to save some things. The heat up there must have been incredible because everything upstairs that was plastic melted, even though the fire did not get up there, the light switches melted and hung like a string all the way to the floor. Another small group did a food drive to restock their cupboards. People brought bags of food and they combined it all and dropped it off on their doorstep. We thought that they might feel awkward accepting it, so we just decided not to give them any reason to feel uncomfortable around us. They never knew who had done it. Finally, one of the best things that came out of this bad situation was that a woman I work with was talking to her kids about it and they really couldn't understand how devastating it was. She asked them to imagine how they would feel if they woke up the next morning and everything they had was gone. No clothes except what they were wearing, no food, no toys, no anything. The kids came back a few mintues later with their piggy banks and asked her to take them shopping for the people who lost their home. She took them and let them pick things that they thought that the couple would need. (They did not know that she added a lot of money to their piggy bank money to pay for it.) What a life-lesson for those kids though! Your family will be in our thoughts and prayers. Everything will work out, although it may not seem hopeful at first. Take care, -Mike- P.S. You mentioned that part of your response to the shock of this has been to eat. I am an emotional eater too, so I know it is hard, but try not to let this push you down the wrong path for your health. Hang in there! You're not alone.

Cool. I will keep that in mind as we are planning to move to Rapid in the fall. My sis is transfering to BHSU and I want to take my preschooler to Rapid so I can get her involved in activities. I'm tired of being so isolated here in Fort Thompson (no ballet, gymnastics, or preschool here for her to attend). There are no support groups here either, and I've thought of starting one myself. Anyway, by the time the move takes place, I hope (God willing) to be post-op and on my way to better health and more activity.

josh is conscious and knowhe has medical issue doctor are tring to wean him off of the ventilator when not on it he is breathing on his own100% but rapid still on dialysis every other day doctor optmistic that his kidney are healing as he put out more urine asking for prayer for his emotoinal stateas he has a long hard road ahead of him ila