Hi all, just wanted to let you know I updated my profile and I got my approval letter today, YAY, I will be a loser soon!

laura, get some stuff on your profile! if you need help getting photos on there, let me know, i'll help you.

I understand that the memorial is a very real and scary thing! It was one of the reasons why I waited so long to have my surgery. What you have to keep in mind is that with WLS much of the success and complications ride on the skill and expertise of the surgeon. I know that with my surgeon he has never lost a patient and has very low complication and resurgery rates, like 2%. He has been performing the RNY procedure for over 10 years and performed barriatric surgeries for over 30 years. I would not have found these things out unless I went to my surgeons seminar. Most are free and no obligations. I want to let you know that if I remember right an obese person has about a 15% chance of getting to a normal weight and staying there for a lifetime. A person who has had the lap-band procedure has about a 70-80% chance of being a normal weight for life. And a person who has had RNY bypass has about a 90% chance at a normal weight for a lifetime. Even considering all the risks I knew in my heart that I would die prematurely in my 50's or 60's if I did nothing. I feel that I have made the best choice for me and see a more complete life in the future. Please research more and good luck with the weight loss on your own I hope you are part of the lucky 15%.

Maggie, I know exactly what you are talking about! I had those same issues too! Everything came out wrong and nothing made sence. I guess I had trouble with it maybe since I was 14 and then after high school and I joined the working world with ADULTS it went away (i'm 23 now and had rny on 5/4/05). I cant entirely speak for you but I know that for me it came from being outcast and made fun of and beat up since I was 8. Thats when the genetics took over and I became an overweight child. When you throw puberty and high school popularity into it everything gets scrambled. I think it has to do with saying something in the past in front of someone or a group of people and being made fun of and pointed at because of it. It will get better, try talking to a close friend on the phone for hours as practice or your parents or try writing out what you want to say. And maybe you can talk weird as I call it and find a few people who actualy understand everything that you say and mean and they talk weird too! I have found a few friends like that as well. Just remember that you dont have to get nervous about talking to adults and professionals like in the Dr office, I have never had an adult make fun of me unless I start laughing at myself for stuttering or saying something like "how do you SMELL your name?"

hello everyone, I havent posted in a really longtime, I have had a long journey... I have been seeing doctors and going to appts since September. At first I was scheduled to have my Lap Band Surgery on April 25, 2005. But then my Insurance company (GHI) denied the surgery. So from April to now I have been battling with the insurance company. I did 2 appeals then finally I filed for a Internal appeal. Well today was my High School graduation and when I got home I check the mail and it was a letter from the insurance company. I got nervous because the envelope was a bit thin. But when I opened the letter the insurance company decided to over turn the decison and that they approved my lap band surgery!!!!!!!!! Oh I was so happy!! What a great graduation present!! So tomorrow I have to call my suregeons office and I will get a date!!! I am so happy!!! -Daniel Castro