Suzzzie.

No way! Dr.Ellison at WTLSC is MY doc! Haha. How cool. He's such a cutie too. :welldoneclap: When is your surgery?

Nope, I'm single. My 2 best friends know. One of them lives wayyy down in TX though, so that does me no good. Lol! My friend that lives here, she was going to be my driver, but now she is starting a new job and doesn't know if she'll be able to get the day off. She was so nice about it though and talked to her husband and HE will be driving me, and sitting around all day waiting for me to be done and then take me home. I have the best friends! As for going back to work so soon... I have to work every other weekend. I work on an Oncology ward, so we don't usually have alot of heavy care patients. And I have a bad back (chronic since I was about 18 years old) so I was thinking if any lifting should come up for a few days (weeks?) I will complain about my back and get someone to do it for me. I don't like lying, but I don't want anyone to know about the band. I guess I'm fearful of failure and not actually losing weight with it? I don't want people looking at me everyday trying to figure out if I've gotten skinnier yet. I know. I'm crazy.

Lol. I'm finally getting caught up wioth everyone after being gone last week. Sorry for the multiple posts tonight! Good luck to everyone getting banded tomorrow!

OMG. I am SOoooo sorry that happened!! Obesity is the last ACCEPTABLE prejudice. If you look around everything always has to be politically correct. We can't make fun of whites, blacks, hispanics, asians, Jews, Christians, handicap, etc... But FAT is everywhere. The movie Norbid (or what ever its called, with Eddie Murphy.) And he was in the Nutty Professor movies. There was Shallow Hal. Actually MOST movies make fun of fat people at some point. The new movie 'Knocked Up' - Yep. The guy is slightly overweight, not FAT at all, and in one scene the girls sister says something like "Look at how fat he is. He can't even get out of the kids playhouse." WTF? If he was black or handicapped there wouldn't have been a joke tehre at all! Also, if you've ever seen the Deuce Bigalo movies (which I think are funny) there is a large woman in that movie that does nothing but eat eat eat, and you hear people thoughout scenes that she is in yell out something like "Thats a HUGE B*TCH!" ... One night a few years ago I was walking from my car into Wal-Mart and a car of young men (sound 20-something years old) drives by and yells that out to me! I was mortified!!!

There IS liquid Gas X. I swear it! Lol. I was working in my hospitals GI lab a few weeks ago and I know I saw some. Am I crazy? Maybe I'll run down there tomorrow and try to snag me some. Lol!

YOu are very lucky to have so much support! I'm sure most of my co-workers would support me, but I'm still not telling anyone. My own mother doesn't know I'm doing this... and I tell her everything! Haha. Too funny about your co-workers! How cool would that have been to wake up too?

In the upper left hand portion of every page there is a spot that says "UserCP" just click on it and it will take you to a page to see every thread that you are subscribed to that has a new post. Its how I get here everyday. Quick and easy. :myscared:

I have a question for you: When do you plan on returning to work? My surgery is on my day off (a Friday) but I am supposed to work the next day. I plan on calling in 'sick' that day... but then going to work on Sunday. What do you think? (I'm asking you, cause you're a nurse too, so you know what its like.) None of my co-workers know, so I need to be able to pretty much be able to WORK, except lifting... we rarely do any lifting without team effort or the use of a lift. PS. Thanks for adding me to the calendar! I love seeing my name next to a date!

HAhaa. Sorry, I just can't help myself - It's the nurse in me... I know in MY hospital that I can page a doc for something and I may not get a call back until I've paged several times... could be an hour or longer. Now, I don't know this specific situation what happened, but PLEASE don't blame the nurses! It's kinda like blaming the waitress if your food sucks. Lol. Your waitress does not cook your food, and the nurse cannot write your discharge orders!

Use your call light, make them work. I"m a nurse and I HATE lazy nurses!! They give the rest of us a bad name! Also, tellthing the doc won't do anything, they don't particularly care. They have NO authority over the nurses anyway. If you want to complain you need to seek out the Nurse Manager or get in touch with a patient advocate. Even if you've already gotten to go home, you should call and make the complaint to the proper department. Soooooo glad you are doing better!!!!

Thank you all for your support. I just get so anxious and want everything to happen NOW. Lol. But June 15 is just around the corner now. Can't wait to hear from all of the June 1 bandsters! Happy weekend everyone!

OK, I'm REALLY behind in posts on here, I'll try to catch up this weekend... but I had to pop in to say that ... I GOT A DATE! Lol. I was in Las Vegas this past week and on Tuesday morning the surgery center called me and set me up for surgery on JUNE 15, 2007!!! Only TWO more weeks until I can start living my life again!! I'm so excited! A friend asked me if I was scared at all about surgery, and not being able to "eat" like I always have. (She's considering lap band too.) I am totally 100% NOT scared or worried about surgery. Food... thats a whole other issue, but I'm ready to change my life, thats why I'm doing this. I'm just so stinking excited!!!

I have sevral deal breakers. ANY drugs is OUT OF THE QUESTION. No heavy drinkers (occasional social drinks are fine.) He MUST have a job and his own car. I have to be the only one he is dating. Maybe I am asking for too much??

I KNOW!! I totally agree with you... But here is something I heard at a WW meeting once - that you shoujldn't judge someone who is 'smaller' because they may have already lost a bunch of weight that we don't know about... also that we shouldn't be bitter just because they saw themselves at a weight that we were at a few years ago and decided to do something about it NOW vs. waiting until they were THIS big. While I DO get annoyed with people who are only like 45 pounds overweight, I need to remind myself that I too was once ONLY 45 pounds overweight. Does that make any sense? And TRUST me I know how you feel... I need to lose 220 pounds...to reach my goal of 165.

I look at this calander and am so frustrated that I don't have my date yet! I didn't get a chance to call the surgery center before 'end of business' and I will be in Las Vegas all next week...so if they don't call me next week I'll be bugging them first thing Monday June 4th!! Its killing me. Literally! I want so badly to start the pre op diet (mine is only 48 hours though!) because right now I keep thinking of foods that I won;t be able to eat for a very very long time...and food that I will never be able to eat again, cause I only eat them when I binge - like ice cream (which I just ate almost a whole 1/2 gallon of!!!) - I need to get a GRIP! I'm having anxiety about not being able to binge eat anymore. How sad is that? Does anyone else miss the IDEA of eating until they pop? OK, so I'm crazy, I know. Food is all psychological for me. It makes me happy and it is my friend. I just feel sad that I won't have it anymore... and yet I am SOOOOOOOO ready to give it up and start a NEW HEALTHY life!! Anyone else have these thoughts/feelings? Or am I losing it?

There are quite a few KS/MO people here! Too cool! I live in KC, north of the river. I'm being banded at WTLSC by Dr. Ellison ... HOPEFULLY soon. I'm going to bug the heck out of them and call tomorrow to find out when they will get back with me about a DATE! I have also noticed that there are a few nurses here! Always happy to see sister-nurses!

PS, the tredclimber is also FABULOUS. But, I can only do about 5 minutes on it right now. Its a GREAT workout!

As far as tredmills go - i don't like them! I can burn double the calories in the same time frame using the elliptical. On the tredmill I feel like I'm just walking walking walking forever... but on the elliptical I almost feel like I am running(!) and I haven't been able to run in YEARS. Lol. At my gym both the ellipticals and tredmills have TVs and DVD players on them, so that helps pass time too.

Has anyone seen the commercials for the new TV program Big Medicine? It will premeire on May 28 on TLC. Here's the website: TLC :: Big Medicine It looks very cool. I can't see where it says they do the bypass, or lap band ... maybe they do both? Anyway, just thought I'd pass this along, in case anyone else was interested in seeing it! STILL waiting to hear back from my surgeon about a date!! I am so so tempted to call them today to see what the hold up is. Lol... "hold up" - I just had my first consultation 2 weeks ago. I think I just feel like its taking so long cause I've wanted this for about 4 years. Oh well... I'll be in Las Vegas next week, so that will distract me for a while... Have a good day all!

OMG! I totally know what you mean!! I can't even tell you how nice it is to know that I'm not the only one!! Yes yes, misery loves company... OK... so new concern! Only my 2 best friends know I'm doing this. I was talking to knoe of them tonight and she asked me "So do you think you'll be able to stick to the program?" OMG!! I told her 'Of course! The Band won't let me binge!' ... But is that REALY true? I know you can 'cheat' the band by eating ice cream, chocolate, or drinking your calories... What if I choose one of these methods as my new 'binge'? It's really made me think about things. I know that the Band isn't a CURE, merely a TOOL. I know to consume the proteins, then veggies, then fruit, pasta...etc... I've read so much info on the Band that my Surgeon laughed at me. (I'm a nurse, and I don't really like doctors too well, so I gotta know whats up here!) Maybe I'm just overthinking things now? I KNOW I want to go through with this... It's the best decision for me. And, no, she wasn't trying to talk me out of it or put doubts in my mind. She is considering the Lap Band too, and was just getting info from me. What do you guys think? I know right now our main focus is just to get through our pre-op diets and get Banded... but what about after... once you are able to eat real food again... what's YOUR plan?

23 pounds is 23 pounds! But, yeah... I would probably want it off faster too. Maybe this fill will do the trick!! Good Luck!! I got my pre-op packet in the mail tonight. Its so exciting. I can't wait to find out what my surgery date will be!

I haven't had surgery yet. I'm hoping that they will call me today with my date!! I'm a nurse, and I've researched the lap band for soooo long that I feel like I know quite a bit about it - but I STILL have questions! There are questions that I forgot to ask my surgeon too. HAha. Good luck to you!

No no no! Haha, that would be HORRIBLE!! No, the port is implanted just under your skin, and a layer of fat. They access it (to fill/unfill) using a needle, kind of like a shot. When I went for my consultation the Nurse Practitioner let me 'see' hers and feel it. She is pretty thin now, and I couldn't even see a bump there, but when I applied slight pressure I could feel it. Pretty groovy! GOOD LUCK!

Janine, were you talking about me? I live in Kansas City MO. ANYWAY... I LOVE the calander! Can you update and re-post it when we get more dates? Cause I know I am still waiting for my date. I'm REALLY hoping that they will call me TOMORROW with a date!

Only my 2 best friends know... and it will stay that way until I am ready. I have many reasons for not wanting to tell people... A few of my family members have had gastric bypass years and years ago, and have gained all of their weight back. I know that they would all try to talk me out of it. My mom has struggled with her weight since she had her first child (my older brother) and I grew up doing weight watchers and jenny craig and all sorts of diets with her. Surely she'd be supportive? Nope. My mom is a huge old chicken. She would think the risk of death and complications was far too great. I'm perfectly healthy right now... in spite of the fact that I weigh nearly 400 pounds. No diabetes, no hypertension, cholesterol is only 98... But I WILL have these problems later. At this weight I have to expect to develope these things, and they run in my family. Even with all of this, she would much prefer that I just exercise and control portions. But ya know what? I'D prefer those too! I've tried and tried and obviously haven't been able to do it very well. My co-workers know nothing. I've arranged my consultation and pre-op for my days off. When I have surgery I will try to schedule it on the Friday before my weekend off so that I have 3 days recovery. That will have to be enough. I'm a nurse, but I work Oncology, so I don't have much lifting to do. Even though it is hard to keep such an EXCITING thing a secret from all the people I care the most about, at this point it is just to keep the drama down. I know that after the surgery, after I star to lose weight there will be questions. I will select who I do and don't tell. I will probably tell my mom within a week after surgery, just cause it is so hard to not share things with her. Wow...sorry so long winded!