AshevilleEddie

I'm with Wendell on this. I had an episode a few weeks ago - one morning I just couldn't keep anything down. Called the docs office and went in. I honestly thought I had a stomach bug, but he did a pretty big unfill (2 cc) and I was fine. I had not had a fill for several weeks prior to this episode and don't know what brought it on that particulary day, but at that point I was definitely too tight. I had to push a lot of liquids the rest of the day because I was on the edge of being dehydrated. Plus, if you're not drinking any supplmental protein, that 3 oz of meat is definitely nowhere near enough. I try to keep mine at a minimum of 60 g per day. As for the morning restriction, my doc says a lot of his patients experience that. The esophagus and stomach are muscle, and tend to warm up and relax as the day progresses, thus allowing you to eat more the later it gets. He doesn't care if I don't eat breakfast as long as my Fluid and protein intake are where they should be. If you have to force lunch, you're at an increased risk for a slippage (or increased vomiting, which can in turn also lead to slippage). I know you like the faster weight loss that comes with the increased restriction (so did I) but I'd go for a slight unfill.

Pre-op I was on 100 iu of Lantus (basal insulin) daily, plus 10 mcg Byetta injections before lunch and dinner, plus 1000 mg of Metformin twice a day and had horrible control. I'm now on no meds (yeah, you heard right - zero) for diabetes and have pretty much non-diabetic blood glucose levels. I'm down so far from 262 to 224 and from size 46 pants to mostly 40s (plus a few 38s and even one pair of size 36 shorts!). Another 20 pounds or so and I should be able to look down and see my, um, toes. :heh: Yeah, it works.

Well, this is the first chance I've had to post since our extra-long long weekend. I've had the week from hell at work. I pretty much HATE my job right now. That's a shame, because I've been there for 8 years and used to love it. Anyhoo, the vacay was a blast. We climbed up Lookout Mountain at Rock City (supposedly you can see 7 states - don't ask me how you actually know you're seeing them) and weren't even tired! We took a lantern tour of Ruby Falls, which is in the middle of the mountain (yes, inside the mountain), rode a steam-engine train, went to the TN Aquarium and ate dinner at the Chattanooga Choo Choo. Oh, and we got massages - it was the best I have ever had! If anyone's planning on visiting that area and wants a kick ass massage, I'll give you the guy's name and number. On a band-related note, I was really concerned about gaining while we were up there as I don't have near as much restriction since my 2cc unfill, but I'm still at 224. I have an appointment with the doc next Tuesday, so I'm sure he will add at least part of that back. Edd, welcome to Bandland! The gas pains will pass, I promise. If you're getting the back pain, try lying on a moist heating pad. Sean had the shoulder pain and that helped him a lot. And don't forget to take your pain meds. They will be your best friend the first several days! Hi to all the new folks! :welcome2: As always, it's great to see fresh meat, er, new members of our little family! :heh: Hee hee!

Hi family, Just dropping in for a quick minute while I'm here at work. Sean and I are leaving this afternoon for a mini-vacay to Chattanooga, TN. Just us, no kids! Woo hoo! So I may or may not be posting anything until Monday or so. Don't want anyone to think I'm MIA...

Fortunately I didn't have to do liquids for 2 weeks. I'm not sure I would have had that kind of resolve...

Damn, Faith...don't hold back, tell us how you really feel!

I agree with both you guys. I have a hard time with the death penalty - don't really believe in the whole "eye for an eye" thing. In theory, it would seem like it costs more to house an inmate for the rest of his/her life, but how much money is spent by the government on appeals to death sentences. Besides, being incarcerated is not a vacation. I think spending the rest of one's life with absolutely no freedom is pretty good punishment. And putting a child molester/murderer in with the general population? Stellar idea!

Eddie St Johns, FL Banded 5/17/2007

What is this, the week for band issues?? I had to go in yesterday for an emergency 2 cc unfill. I started vomiting (not just pbing unfortunately) yesterday morning. After the 5th time I decided I should call the doc's office. I thought I had a bug or something, but the doc seemed to think I was too tight. He was apparently right on that issue because immediately after the unfill I was able to hold Water down, something I had not been able to do all morning. The bad news is that it wasn't my regular doc (he was on vacay) - this doc doesn't do many fills. Can I just say OWWWW!! He had to fish around in me for four or five attempts. Finally he said "if I don't get it this time I'm sending you to the hospital for radiology to do it." Well, I'm not much for prayer, but I muttered a few at that point! He wound up hitting the port, but it HURT! I don't normally even flinch when I get a fill (with no lidocaine, mind you) but he even numbed me and it still hurt like a bitch. At any rate, I don't have much restriction now. I had a fill scheduled for the 11th so I'll probably wind up with just part of that unfill going back in. On to more pleasant subjects. Hi Flipper & Donna! It's always good to see fresh meat, er, new folks! LOL! A while back, I mentioned a roll call...I think it's time for that. If everyone could just do a quick post with your name, location and band status. Let's do them as separate posts so they don't get lost within a longer post. I'll go first...

HAHAHAHA!! Eww.

Hi all! Just checking in post-weekend. Hope everyone had a good one. We went out with our Rainbow RV group. I got a nasty sunburn cause I WENT WITHOUT A SHIRT! Yes, I did wear sunscreen. I just didn't reapply like I should have. But I WENT WITHOUT A SHIRT!! And wasn't overly self-conscious. That's a big thing for me. Everyone was very supportive of my weight loss so that helped. We were at the beach this trip and we had a sand sculpture contest. Guess whose team won?? :guess Jo & Juli, I know the feeling of not being able to eat real food easily. Since my last fill it's been tough for me too. In fact, I had a fill scheduled for tomorrow and called rescheduled for three weeks later. Hiya Peach! Nice to have you aboard! Stevee, what's the latest? We want an update!

Some time back I started a Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered thread in the Support area. Sometimes we deal with issues that other folks don't. We do have some supportive Str8 folks - some are regulars, some pop in from time to time (Green has posted once or twice). Feel free to stop by!

Thanks for the compliment Stevee, but I don't know if I qualify as remarkable. I am however, pretty fortunate. We're not rich, but we do make enough to have a nice (not luxurious, but nice) home and support our RVing habit. :biggrin1: As for the extra $60, let me clarify. I'm pretty much copying and pasting what I e-mailed to you Stevee, so if it sounds familiar that's why. I’m a notary & one of my clients came in yesterday to have some documents notarized. We don’t charge for notary services, so when she asked how much she owed me I obviously told her “nothing.” Well, she pushed $60 at me and told me to buy myself lunch. I argued with her for several minutes, even telling her that I would just deposit it into her account after she left. She told me she would be very upset and hurt if I didn’t take it. (Of course I did remind her about my surgery – she already knew – and asked if she realized how many lunches that would buy me!) Anyway, I wound up keeping it. I was thinking about it last night and decided that since everything happens for a reason, that I was meant to pass that along to Stevee. So I did. Nothing remarkable, nothing heroic...just me being me. You see, I'm honestly an incredibly selfish person (don't believe me, ask my husband) but I do believe in helping others when I can. All of us have our families of origin and our families of choice. You guys are members of my extended family of choice. I've never met any of you face to face (yet) but you have been more caring and supportive than many of my local friends (and family of origin) and I love you all. So there was never any question in my mind about helping Stevee. I just got lucky enough to have extra to pass along. So I'm done waxing sentimental and am changing the subject completely. Has anyone watched Burn Notice on USA? We've only missed one episode. It is such a cool show. And for the guys (or our beloved St8 grrls) - is not Jeffrey Donovan freakin' HOT?? :flame:

Thanks Green! I spend a lot of time in the GLBT thread. I do check in here from time to time, but there just hasn't seemed to be a lot going on. You know me, I love to get in the middle of shit. Why don't you start some for me to jump into???

Awesome! Keep us posted...

Eww! Spears of green?? Poking up from there?? Double eww!!!

Hey Bubble, I don't have a clue how those things work but I just noticed your ticker...WOW! You're almost there! Congrats!!! :confused:

Count me in too. We are family, after all...

Hey, how have I managed to miss this thread for so long? I could swear I looked for a Florida thread months ago! Oh well, glad I found you guys. My name's Eddie and I'm in St Johns (halfway between Jax and St Augustine). I was banded on 5/16/07 and am down 36 pounds so far. I haven't read every single post on here - is there anyone else from N FL?

Hey Edd, don't go letting the Lesbians think they're the only ones who can use power tools safely! We've got plenty of them and know how to use 'em! Not that we get much time to, of course...What part of Tampa are you in? Sean and I are going to be in Crystal River this weekend. We're planning on relocating further south in a couple of years (after our daughter graduates from HS) and Citrus County is one of the places we're considering. It's far enough off the beaten path but still relatively close to Tampa, Ocala or even Orlando. We want to get out of what Sean refers to as "Suburbia Hell." We're pretty much over all the development up here and would like to end up somewhere where it's a slower, more laid-back pace. Anyway, most of our other choices are a little further south so we'll have to meet up when we're closer to you. How far is it from Tampa to Crystal River/Homosassa anyway? Mapquest says it's about an hour, but it's never quite accurate. Welcome to the latest newbies! I'm starting to lose track of how many folks are part of our little family here! I'm certainly not complaining though! Maybe we need to take a roll call one of these days... I seem to be stuck again. But this time I'm not frustrated cause I know it will starting moving again. Besides, I'm still psyched about being able to buy clothes in the 30's! But it's still a very strange feeling to not be able to find anything that fits me because everything is too BIG!!

Every doc is different. I had to do low-carb, low-fat for two weeks to shrink my liver. I've read that others have to do a week or more of clear liquids! Follow your doc's orders and you'll do fine. The extra protein is a good thing though, because it will help you heal faster.

Jack's not alone. I was on 100 iu of insulin (Lantus) daily, 10 mcg Byetta twice a day and 1000 mg Metformin twice a day. I was banded on 5/16 and I'm off all diabetes meds. Hang in there...

Hey family, Just had to go pick up a couple pairs of shorts and a few shirts. We took s shitload of clothes to our WLC for their clothes closet. I've been buying $10 WalMart khakis and the like to get me through, but we went to Kohl's this afternoon as it's pretty close to the house. (Backtrack for a moment here - it's time to shop for school clothes so I had taken DD to pick up a few things last night and found myself a $5 pair of Dockers jeans at Ross so I wanted a shirt that actually fits to go with them). DS had gone and gotten most of his stuff today but still needed socks and underwear. So we all piled in the car and trucked it up to Kohl's. Well, not only did they have a shirt to go with my new pants, but they also had almost everything else in the store on sale, a lot of it on clearance. In addition to the shirt I went there to buy, I found 2 pair of shorts and 3 other shirts. We won't even talk about everything Sean found - ALL of his was on clearance. PLUS, it sales tax holiday week here in FL! Talk about cheap! Anyway, the real purpose of this post is the size of the shorts. Are you ready for this?? First understand that the smallest pants I ever remember buying myself were in high school and they were 40s. One of the shorts is a 38 and the other is a 36! And those 40s I was so excited about getting on a week or so ago are actually quite comfy now... Woo hoo! :bounce: Juli and Pamela, we all want to hear about P-town! We'll have to see who's around when we head north next spring. Maybe we can meet up with someone from the group too! And speaking of next spring, thanks to everyone for the wedding congrats! There will be a little reception down here afterward, so if anyone wants to truck it to FL you'll all be more than welcome! God knows it'd be cheap to feed you!!! :heh: Love you all...

Hey guys, Just had to go pick up a couple pairs of shorts and a few shirts. We took s $h**load of clothes to our WLC for their clothes closet. I've been buying $10 WalMart khakis and the like to get me through, but we went to Kohl's this afternoon as it's pretty close to the house. (Backtrack for a moment here - it's time to shop for school clothes so I had taken DD to pick up a few things last night and found myself a $5 pair of Dockers jeans at Ross so I wanted a shirt that actually fits to go with them). DS had gone and gotten most of his stuff today but still needed socks and underwear. So we all piled in the car and trucked it up to Kohl's. Well, not only did they have a shirt to go with my new pants, but they also had almost everything else in the store on sale, a lot of it on clearance. In addition to the shirt I went there to buy, I found 2 pair of shorts and 3 other shirts. Cheap! PLUS, it sales tax holiday week here in FL! Anyway, the real purpose of this post is the size of the shorts. Are you ready for this?? First understand that the smallest pants I ever remember buying myself were in high school and they were 40s. One of the shorts is a 38 and the other is a 36! And those 40s I was so excited about getting on a week or so ago are actually quite comfy now... Woo hoo!

One more little thing this morning. I have a wedding reception to plan...mine! Sean changed his mind about getting married in Canada. So he got down on the one proverbial knee last night! WOO HOO! We're gonna be legal after all!!