Dolittle

That is sad. I don't know if she could be banded at that young of age, But even if she could be, she can't eat crap like that and expect the band to work. As all you bandsters know, you can't lose weight eating like that. She'd have to have her parents change the household eating lifestyle to proper food groups, if they didn't, she's just eat around the band and maybe still gain weight. Only time will tell.

The IRS knows your going to have some cash out of pocket expenses, but you should have your receipts for all the big stuff. Here's an example, I live in Western Illinois, I drive to Chicago to fly out to San Diego. My drive is about 320 miles round trip, so,, the IRS has a set deduction of like 25 cents a mile. I also write off the parking fees at the Chicago airport while I'm in San Diego, tolls I had to pay and if I walk across the border and grab a taxi, I write off the $5 for the Bus/Trolley from the airport to the border and another $5 for the MX Taxi, double if its a round trip. Plus my airfare out and back. Ask and get receipts whenever possible. I forgot to mention in a previous post that when you write off medical expenses. You also write off what you normally spend during a normal year,, like all your dentist bills, prescriptions, your family doctor visits, chiro, eye glasses, etc, etc. If you have insurance for your normal everyday medical, you can only write off what you paid out of your pocket, not what the insurance paid. IT ALL ADDS UP! YOU'LL BE SURPRISED. Remember,, your trying to beat the 7% gross rule. Here's another example,, say you went to the OCC for your band and paid $8000. You also had $500 in airfare and say another $100 in mileage to and from the airport, parking, etc. That totals $8600, but you made $100,000.00 this year in salary. Using the 7% rule, you can only write off anything that excides $7000. You spent $8600, so technically you can only write off $1600. So the key is to write off everything that you spend for medical for the whole year. I hope this makes it easy for everyone to understand.

I wrote everything off on my taxes the year I was banded at the OCC. I never heard a peep out of Uncle Sam. I listed everything pertaining to the band and the surgery and came up with a huge amount. In order to write it off, I think it has to excede 7% of your gross income. If I'm wrong, someone please email me and I'll correct this post. You can write off all you expenses that goes along with it. Examples would be,, #1, your surgery, your RT airfare for your surgery, RT car mileage to the airport, fill trips and the RT airfare, Meds, Tolls, Taxi's and tips. Also,, as you lose weight, you can donate your clothes and write that off too,, make sure you do an itemized list and use the values the donation store gives you. They usually have a printed list with values as a guide. If I missed something, same as above, email me and I'll add it to this post. The only negative there is, if you have a large income, it will be hard to meet the 7% rule.

I'd advise contacting your surgery coordinator regarding this. They have a list of fill centers and doctors they can refer you to.

I wouldn't advise driving into MX. I'd park at one of those border lots and walk across the first foot bridge to the Taxi stand. Have the OCC address printed on a piece of paper to show to the cab driver. It's $5 for a taxi to the clinic, and $5 back to the border taxi stand. I personally like taking the bus from the airport to the trolly station and then riding the trolly to the border, then walking across. If you drive into MX, make sure you have MX auto insurance,, They'll throw you in jail in a heart beat if you get into any kind of accident and you don't have MX auto insurance. They drive like nuts down there,, so your odds of having an accident are high. Plus, most car rental companies won't let you drive their car into MX. If you have any questions,, feel free to email me.

I'll be at the OCC August 11th through August 14th. I hope I can meet all of you while I'm there. Maybe have a margarita or two. LOL. If your at the OCC, ask Gloria at the reception desk where I'm at. I have a couple days where I'm scheduled for some dental work and I'll be over at the Cosmed Clinic talking to Dr. Quiroz about his new plastic surgery clinic, which is scheduled to open sometime late this year. I don't know which hotel I'll be staying at as of now,, but I should know by the time I get there and I'll post that. All you newbies and first time fill patients can ask me anything you wish concerning the lapband or my recent Lower Body Lift. I'll do my best to answer your all questions. C ya in TJ.

Here in the Midwest, September is one of those transition months. Summer is turning into Fall and then Fall into Winter. Having Lap Band surgery in September is a life changing transition for you. If your scheduled for surgery or a fill, this topic is where you can meet new people just like you. So, Let's hear from all of you that are coming to the OCC in September.

There are other recovery places down in TJ. Check with your plastic surgery clinic. When Cosmed opens their new clinic this fall, they're going to have their own recovery floor. That will be a big plus!!!Alot of plastic surgery patients rough it out in a hotel room, I guess it depends on what your having done. If your having a lower body lift (LBL) I wouldn't want to be holed up in some hotel. Those LBL are toughest surgeries to recover from.

After surgery, many patients experiance this, a lot of it comes from the big change in your diet, some of its from the surgery drugs. Go get some "Milk of Mag", it works wonders!

I think its still at least a couple months out. With the world economy and local labor problems in TJ,, the opening has been delayed several times. If I was a betting man,, I'd say maybe late fall before the new Cosmed Clinic will be in operation. I've heard its real nice and they're going to have their own recovery floor.

I had 2.3cc's in my 4cc band, I had lots of restriction, almost too tight. When I had my band refilled, I opted to only have half of the .5cc's put back in. I have good restriction now. I was never one to take much of a fill to have restriction. From the get go I had restriction, even when there wasn't any saline in my band. I think I was borderline when Dr. Ortiz place my band, maybe I should have had the 10cc band instead of the 4cc band, but it worked out. At the beginning, after I lost some weight and lost my restriction, I remember my first fill was only .4cc's. I've personally never had a fill over .5cc's at one time. I'm thinking of coming down to TJ when Cosmed opens their new clinic,, just to hang out and have some fun. They're all pretty good people down there. I'll have Dr. Martinez at the OCC check my band and decide if I should bump my band back up to the fill I had when I was down there for my LBL. We'll see.

I went to Cosmed Clinic for my Lower Body Lift (LBL). Cosmed is owned and operated by Dr. Quiroz. It's about a block west of the Lucerna hotel. Dr. Quiroz and Dr. Ortiz are buddies. Being a Dr. Ortiz patient will get you a free consult if your ever in TJ. You can also contact Joyce at Cosmed, She's Dr. Quiroz's coordinator, her email addy is joycepalau@cosmedclinic.com . She's real busy,, so it can take days for her to return your inquiries. PS,, she's really a nice lady too!

I had .5cc's removed from my band the day before surgery. Dr. Martinez thought with all the IV's being pumped into you during surgery he thought that you could swell internally and end up with to much restriction. Of course I gained weight afterwards with having no restriction, WHICH SUCKS!. He didn't recommend a time frame that I should stay unfilled, but it was 3 months before I could the .5cc's put back in. So I went through Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years with no resrtiction and I was an OINKER!

Exercise is a great helper. Any is better than none. If you ask 99% of the successful old timers, you'll find they had some sort of daily exercise to help with their weight loss.

As far as I know or heard, you don't need the passport to get into Mexico,, but you better have it to get back into the USA. The passport rules changed at the beginning of June. Go to www.state.gov to read the new rules.

After a full summer of picnics and fun, many have scheduled their lapband surgery and band adjustments during the month of August. This topic is where you can meet and hook up with those who are coming to the OCC during that month. It's fun when you kind of know who's going to be at the OCC at the same time as you. You've met here at the forum and soon you'll get to meet them in person. So, lets hear from those who are scheduled for the month of August.

As far as I know,, once you go down the path of self pay,, or you have no insurance coverage,, you will have to pay for the fills yourself. When I tried to get my insurance to pay for the lap band, my employer had no WLS of any kind written into the policy. Which ment that any aftercare wouldn't be covered too. I don't know of anyone who had to self pay and then got their insurance to cover fills. If they did,, I'd like to know how they got it done.

You can deduct anything that pertains to your lapband surgery that you paid out of pocket. Like the surgery,, transportation, tolls, milage to and from the airport, airfare, everything, LOL. Plus fills and etc. Many forget to count your regular medical stuff that you pay for during the year. Like office calls, the co-pays, dental, vision and any meds. It all adds up!

Just a reminder,, those of you that give your old bigger clothes away need to keep an itemized record. You can write off your surgery, transportation, etc, and those clothing donations on next years income tax. Most places that receive donated clothes have a printed guideline you can use to come up with a value on your donated clothes. Everything helps when it comes to taxes.

Here's another fact,, American Doctors make a whole bunch more money off the Gastric By-pass than the band. In the area where I live, the Gastric by-pass surgeons dragged their feet when it came to offering the lap band option to their weight loss surgery patients. They weren't very happy about it and are still not happy. Remember,, it's always about money in the weight loss surgey business. I guess if you were a surgeon and could make 3 times the money on a by-pass over the band, which would you want to promote? To make up the money,, they only fill a newbie bandster with little blind fills, so they can ding the insurance a few extra times. One of the biggest complaints I hear from these patients is that it takes them forever to get restriction. It drives me nuts when I hear these types of stories.

A lot of people know I was banded and there's some that don't. If I had to do that part over again,, I wouldn't tell anyone. I took alot of grief from family members and others about going to Mexico and getting the band. I was very successfull with the band and then family members tried to pressure other family members into getting the band. It was one of those " see how well he did with the band,, why don't you get banded" It stirred up a lot of crap and in fighting among the family. LOL. I almost thought it could have been a Jerry Springer show topic. LOL. I took crap from people about the Mexico thing too. People just have misconceptions about Mexico, heard that was a terrible place to go to for medical care. Truth is,, there's good and bad surgeons all over the world. If you do your homework, you can pick the good ones. I had such good results with the band that 6 months after I had been banded, my wife came out of the blue and wanted to be banded too. No one knows shes banded except me and its worked out real well. The surgery is so easy, no one will be able to tell you had anything done. They might notice your not eating like you used to, but Lori, the OCC coordinator taught me this trick, when your around people and your having dinner,, eat slowly and eat till you want to stop,, but push your food around the plate a lot, it makes it look like your eating more than you really are. Also,, just tell people your going out of town for a little short vacation get away. When you get back no one will be able to tell you had surgery. But,, do what you want to do,, My opinion is that my life would have been a lot easier if I would have kept it to myself. PS, don't ever feel embarrased that your banded, you should feel proud that you have made a smart decision to take control of your weight problem.

If you have been banded for two years or more, they recommend you have an endoscopy to check for erosion and stuff. If your ever in TJ for your fill, the OCC has a local TJ doctor that does endo and colonscopies. You'd have to email Rene at the OCC and see if its still available and what your out of pocket costs are.

All newbies go throught this anxiety thing. Everyone is scared of change. The band is a great tool. Yes,, It does have a learning curve to it. You'll learn what you can eat and what you can't. Some foods go down way to easy,, some just get stuck. You'll learn stuff like that. LOL. The biggest change you'll have is that you won't be eating like you did before. The band, with a proper fill, does work. Yes,, it takes a little work from YOU. But when you see yourself loosing weight, you'll LOVE YOUR BAND! I also want to add that just because you get the band you think that's it,,, noooooo,, it helps to add some DAILY EXERCISE into your routine too. Also,, don't ever think your too old. It's never too late, I'm 55 and I wish I would have done it 10 years ago when I first looked into it.

I don't know how I found out but someone told me it was JazzyJudes Birthday today. 28,,29,, something like that. She looks so young! How does she do it?

Hey CB,, are you going to Cosmed? Say hi to everyone down there if you are. Also,, don't forget to take some before and after pics. We'd all love to see the old and new you.