I admit to being biased, but the first name on my list: Bill Peters. Scranton PA, 570-969-2527. He risked everything to save my life and I will never, ever forget that. I will also never forget that he walked out of surgery to take my call when I had an emergency. He does not do RNY to DS revisions, but unless you are in that particular category, you need to call him FIRST in my book.

Second preference: Dr. Dave Greenbaum. www.drthin.com or www.duodenalswitchdoc.com . One site is updated, the other isn't, but his current phone number is on both. He's a fine guy and a very fine surgeon. He's a worrywart/mother hen and I love that about him, even though it means that he's too quick to send up flares about "too much weight loss" and not good enough about his supplement regimen.

Add your glowing references here please!

Wait a minute. If getting your stomach rebuilt to be congruent with a Bic pen refill is the be all and end all of WLS, WHY ON EARTH TALK ABOUT ANOTHER PROCEDURE?

Oh, Wait, We're talking to/about psychotics,. Nebbermind.

YOU  are the troll. I, on the other hand, have been here under ONE ID since 2002, pissant. Try again, troll.

Mittens needs to be loved at every turn in HER definition. Meh. Who gives  a **** She decided on VSG and needs to go away from here and hang over there. Very simple. VSG issues are not DS issues, end of discussion. Apparently I was the first one to bring this up to her. Ask me if I give a **** what she thinks of me. She belongs on the VSG board, not on the DS board. Her issues are different from DS issues. This is not rocket science or brain surgery.

If the morons, I mean minions, can't figure the simple **** out, why should we care? But I can promise you that I am NOT going to pretend that VSG issues are the same as DS issues just because DSers have a VSG. This is ******g stupid to the max. It's like saying type I diabetics and type II diabetics who take insulin are the same. Good Lord, they don't even have the same ******g DISEASE. You wanna shoot the messenger? Have at it, ****heads.

Yup, my CBC/CMP results make me a ***** ROFL.

Try again.

Please, provide your very non professional, non binding, strictly personal opinons here.

Top of my list: Dr.  Husted and Dr. Pomp

Secondary list: Dr. Brolin as a bait and don't switch guy

Next?

I see you're getting inspired :-). Do you have any input about those microwave dinners and their relative carb content? (Brands versus entrees versus whatever?)

Love the meatballs with shredded cheese piled on top!!

Sure, throw em in frozen. Just be sure you have LOTS of time to cook.

Hmmm, okay. Regarding slicing: Yes there is a right way, it's called "across the grain." If you are looking at your hunk-o-meat and seeing strands, you gotta cut across those. If you pull your meat and get strings, you need to cut across them. Think about this concept with your next hunk o meat and it shoudl make sense. This is MEGA important with lean cuts of beef like flank steak, shoulder, skirt steak etc. You gotta cut them DIAGONALLY across the grain or they are inedible. So, no strings allowed on the meat and you're going in the right basic direction. Improve on this basic concept by holding your knife at a 45 degree angle when you slice.

Tenderize your hunk o meat with something acidic. Wine in crockpot to tenderize beef will NOT hurt kids, alcoholics or anyone else. Think about Beef Burgundy (Google that) and Julia Child. French people would have long since died out if cooking beef in booze was harmful. Ditto basically every European except British. And the Brits are known for their ****ty food, right? Nuff said.

Quit using water to boil your meat. That's disgusting and English. Icky poo. Be civilized and use wine or beer and don't boil it. Sear your meat off first and THEN put it in the pot with the veggies and booze. But don't boil it. YUCK YUCK YUCK. Good Lord, that would inspire everyone to be vegetarians. (My MIL boils her meat and grosses me out. At last Easter she gave me custody over the potatoes and gravy, in which I invested lots of fat and booze, and they LOVED it LOL.)

ROFLMAO @ towel spa!! I scoured every thrift store in a 100 mile radius of my sis in MT. Best scores were closest, in local senior citizens club shop, two separate visits that involved multiple tops and bottoms each....One visit scored me a London Fog calf length 100% down THICK THICK THICK coat, the other a gorgeous car length black leather jacket....Each as but one of many items, tops and bottoms....SEVEN BUCKS each time.

Other lovely items included NWT Levis and Wrangler jeans for fifty cents each and similar scores..... Anything other than clothing would have cost too much to ship so I restrained myself.

OH did I mention my fabulous cowboy hats? Found Charlie the Hat Guy (who is a well known entity on the fair and rodeo circuit) and got one of his marvelous wool barrel racer hats for thirty five whole dollars including horsehair hatband.....please Google such an item from real hatmakers......Am howling in anticipation of wearing his work in New Jersey, had to mail it very carefully. My faux cowboy hat is purple and studded with rhinestones ROFL. Got mailed inside Charlie's hat cuz it's a little smaller than his work. It'll probably go over better in NJ than the real thing. BWAH.......

What do you mean by "dry"? Is this a literal lack of moisture thing, or the meat is dry/not chewable, or something else?

How do you cut the meat? Across the grain, at an angle, long ways, something else?

This "dry" description means different things to different people. Sorry to bug you for details about what seems obvious to you.

I wish we could give you far better news hon. **** hugs*****  Have a good cry, sort your emotions out and then start over with the whole issue. I really hate that so many people are dependend on insurance :-(. I paid cash for my (virgin) DS and would cheerfully have paid a LOT more to get it done. But I know this is rarely an option.

Hang in there and don't rush into anything. We will do our best here to help you. Sometimes our feedback will sound abrupt or harsh. Remember that we do this all day, every day, for no compensation. We see a unique view of the WLS population this way, and so our feedback is free of many restrictions and concerns that you might otherwise encounter in people concerned with sales or marketing.

There are ways to reach your goal. But it might take quite a while to get there. Go slowly and thoughtfully.