DeLarla

Hey girl, are you feeling any better today? Did you get any news from the doc?

How about now?

Are you back yet?

Super duper, Tooper! Darcey, you lucky girl. You got a band before hitting the big 300. You're in good hands with Ortiz and Martinez. I look forward to following your journey. Peace n' love.

Shallow? Are you crazy? Sharing pictures is such amazing inspiration and therapy for a lot of us. Those pictures look like father and son, not Leo and Leo. Your a skinny little kid now, which is EXACTLY what I want to be when I grow up. You blow me away.

Fine, Miss Penni, I see how you are! If you & Michelle leave me behind, there will be a serious price to pay - mark my words.... is that a pallet of Cheetos in your driveway?

I have squared shoulders now, like a marine, not the Pillsbury Doughboy. I can fit a lot more clothes into a load of laundry. Picking stuff off the floor is graceful and ladylike. Before I looked like a Sumo Wrestler (sp?) going after the last fallen peanut M 'n M. Last night I tried on size 22 pants hoping for a Christmas miracle but they didn't fit... they were too big. Boo hoo. I started in size 28. Last night my friend bought me my first pair of size 20. When I'm done posting this I will stand up but I won't have to use my hands to make sure the chair doesn't come with me. How many of you have had chairs stick right on your butt?

I LOVE THIS POST! Awesome, good job, congrads, woo hoo, and right on! Thanks for sharing cuz I can't even imagine getting to a medical goal. Good for you.

My suggestion is to be patient... a few nice people around here know how to do it, but it's quiet around here due to the holidays. I posted a similar question a long time ago, and somebody offered to fix my picture for me. I'm sure someone will respond soon. For now, did you try saving it as a .jpg file?

I wish I wrote that! I've seen it before but just got it again so I had to share. Love it!

Human body makes no sense. If you put mush in, mush should come out. We are all aliens. Good point, Zoe. I had the opposite problem to the extreme after surgery. Couldn't stop pooping to save the planet.

Time to get down and dirty. I had major problems in this area many years ago. You have to train your body to make poopy at the same time every day. It took a long time for me to get on schedule, but now I can set my clock to my potty habits. A good solid walk first thing in the morning gets things moving if everything else fails. Think movement, dance, walk, laugh... when you move, so will your bowels. Works for me, anyway. Every - body - hang - chung... (singin' along.)

Yeah! You are TOTALLY normal! If your heating pad is the kind that has the moisture pad, that helps a lot. My heating pad was my savoir!

I didn't mean to confuse anyone - I've never heard of port erosion either. I don't think the port actually becomes infected, it's the port incision area that becomes infected. If the area around the port incision is warm or hot, red, swollen, itchy (any signs of regular infection) then you need to have it looked at. If it's leaking fluid, does the fluid look, smell, or appear infected? An infection in the port area can lead to erosion from what I've been told. My port wound became infected, so they removed my port. Since then, the wound has been open for many months, and it leaks liquid. But several doctors have looked at the liquid, and none of them think there's any infection. I will be having an endscopy soon, which is the only 100% effective way of detecting erosion. If I have erosion, they will remove the band during the endoscopy procedure. I will not have a new band placed unless I win a lottery or meet a long-lost rich relative.

Staci, you can have erosion with no symptoms at all. However, one big symptom is sudden loss of all restriction. If your band erodes into the stomach, food will pass right through. My friend didn't even know she was eroded till she went for a fill, and her doctor saw it under fluoroscopy. She did, however, say that she had been vomiting. There's still a lot to learn about erosion, so the best advice is to listen to your own body, and have your band checked via Upper GI and endoscopy frequently. If your band feels weird, or you have sudden changes in restriction, or if you get a port infection, these are things that should alert you to contact your doctor.

I just reminded myself of my best friend, Debbie, in grade school. She was the only morbidly obese child with me 2nd in line of chubbies. Her mom was awful too. Her mom loved me and hated Debbie. Her mom was so abusive, both physically and mentally. Debbie and her sister were wearing women's elastic waste pants in elementary school. Their mom would go on ranting raves for no reason. Once she made Debbie pour bowls of cereal in every single dish in the house, then she had to eat it all, then she had to wash all the dishes - right in front of me. She was crying the whole time, and I wasn't allowed to help her. Gee, how do all us girls get so fat? Say it with me, "Thanks, Mom."

I got fat along with my sister and brothers from stealing money from Momster to buy junk food. We also stole food from neighbors' cupboards. I had to be the lookout for my older brother and sister. Sometimes we just stole cake batter, which was one of the only things my sister knew how to cook (add water, mix.) Kids have killer survival instincts. We never ate the crap she put out, we'd flush it or bury it in the backyard. Once she made horrifying split pea soup (no ham) with crunchy peas in unflavored broth. I gagged mine down cuz I was afraid of her, but someone flushed theirs and flooded the toilet. When the Momster found out, they both pointed their fingers at me, so I had to gag down another heaping bowl. Truly disgusting, especially for a kid. We all grew up with eating disorders. My sister just lost 63 pounds on diet pills and is afraid to go off them. Scary cuz they are really bad for you, but she's struggling to keep the weight off.

Penni, the damn Pacific Ocean is in your back yard. USE IT. Don't nobody go feeling sorry because she needs to get away, because some of the most beautiful beaches in the world are 1/2 hour from her front door. Now GET OUT AND PLAY MZ. PENNI!

Shelly, I'm rotten to the core. You are PBing and all I can think of is what moonpies and goo-goos are. Geeze, psycho food girl here. I'm actually jealous of your restriction. I have great restriction, but I've only PBd about 2ce. Seems like anything will fly down my hatch. Inamed suggested drinking something warm first thing in the morning to open the band up. Larry Fulton said the esophogus needs to "warm up." Probably not the best medical terminology, but try starting the day with warm tea and see if you can gradually get other liquids down after half hour? Just a though. You are one the top Band Goddesses, so we need to keep YOU healthy!

Bandgate? Looks like a job for DeLarla.

Kimalicious.. I LOVE it! That's a GREAT name! Much better, just in time for all that glorious snow. I walked this morning when it was still dark - cold and windy but the kind of cold that Darcy would just laugh at. I have very good friends in both San Antonio and Ft. Worth. My Ft. Worth friend already sent me a picture of the pretty Texas snow from this morning. Nice!

Who the heck told you that you're not allowed to crawl up in bed for a day or two? And a five-pound gain is a huge thing for any of us to deal with... it's not the five pounds that matters, it's the fear of gaining more. We are all in the same boat. So if crawling in bed for a couple days with a remote control, a box of Kleenex, and all your girlfriends' (and Band Pals') phone numbers is what it takes, then JUST DO IT.

Carol, do you really think mentioning alcohol is smart? Did you MISS the part where I was running around the back yard in a red lace thong after a few buckets of your famous marguerites? And Vera, I remember you raving about the eggs Bene. I'm all about dinner at Bellagio! Carol, guess what? I was wrong (and right) cuz Chris's football game is the same night. This works out awesome! What time is the show? Michelle, thanks for noticing! Guess who took that picture? Miss Chloe did! She's only five and she takes such nice photos!

Biggun. First, let's get rid of the name. I remember when New Hope had some insulting name. Now she's New and she's got Hope and she's doing great. Give yourself some positive encouragement. Feel beautiful today, you deserve it. If that's your real last name, I'm so, so sorry! But it reminds me of Al Bundy making fun of women's huge boobs. Lil Kim has been taken. How about Kimba or Kimlittle?

Megan, men like gas & pooping. With a smile like that and gas to boot, you'll be hitched in no time! Hell, if I can get a man to the altar, anyone can!