vinesqueen

oh Geeze! I'm so sorry Christina! I don't check the boards everyday, and so I missed this. Sending you tons of white lights! I'll light a prayer candle for you tonight too.

scales lie. Lie, lie, lie. I view them as a general guideline. But you probably have a bum scale, take it back.

I still have a cast-iron stomach.

Economic Left/Right: -6.25 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.13 Left there with Ghandi, Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama. Pretty much exactly where I thought I would be. And NO! Kathy, you are not a Neo-con!

Hello Dovie, I think just about everyone goes through the "is this the right thing?" freak-out phase before getting the band. It is, after all, a huge step. It is a radical step, and not one that is taken lightly. It could be that the surgeon's office you have chosen is not a full service clinic, and they arelly are just concerned with the surgery part, and not so much the touchy feely end of things. I really don't know. You might call and see if tere is a patient co-ordinator that you can voice your concerns with. Maybe an omsbudsman?

well, even then, I don't know that even if they give up, can they be labled as a failure? I've given up trying to lose weight. At least until after I get some kind of resolution with my tumor. I think as long as there is a band, I'm hopeful. Sure, it's not doing a whole lot of good for me right now, but there is always the future. I know that there aqre a lot of reasons people decide to put their weight loss journey on hold, sometimes our lives become so... beyond our control that we have to say "enough" and go on to something else. Be that moving one for a week, a month or a year. But that doesn't mean that we will never return. I think that is one of the beautiful things about the band.

if your pouch is still full of water, then no, probably don't drink anymore. Are you getting the slimes? can you swallow your own spit? If you can do this, I think perhaps sipping something warm might actually help. And yes, I've gotten stuck on water, so I know it hurts. In the morning, try something warm. I just worry that you will let yourself get dehydrated out of fear. Sip, sip, sip.

Wow. If you, who have had such great success are being labled as a failure, what does that make me? Sussess and failure are so subjective. What one person considers to be failure is another person's success. I'm sure there was no malice intended 'Sho. Some people simply have no clue what their words come accross as. I think because you have worked harder than most people have had to proves anything but failure. I think this opens up somethin wider though. Failure. I know that probably everyone who's gotten the band has tried everything possible to lose weight before banding, and none of those things worked. Perhaps they were worried that the bad would be yet something else that didn't work for them. Interesting though that I never get such PMs...

you poor thing! try HOT! try using a heating pad and sipping something like hot herbal tea. Cold for many of us makes us tighter, and I know that stress makes me tighter too. Sorry you had a fight, and I hope that gets better too. Be kind to yourself.

No Kathy, no slow loser for you, but I'll spot you the "stuck loser!" (((((hugs)))) Okay, you've been on a plateau for a few weeks. Really a frustrating place to be. So you've had a couple of sodas lately. So you've had some medicinal chocolate. SO WHAT! We love you anyway. Gotta get moving though. If you are at the bars, get dancing! Shake that bootie, all night long baby. As for the sodas, there is some research that diet soda contributes to obesity. I drink the occasional soda, and I do mean occasional, like maybe a bottle a month. But I only drink sodas that are sweetened with cane sugar, and don't have any high fructose corn syrup, which in my mind, is the only truely evil food. The sodas are more expensive than your typical can of coke, but it's a rare treat for me. I think everyone has those fluctuating restrictive days, and they are sure frustrating. I know that for me it is helping me understand my Cushing's, that the days I'm really restricted are the days my cortisol levels are high. (I'm such a science experiment!) I don't know how to help you ride them out, but if yyou are *too* restricted too often, I'd schedule a small unfill. So you haven't been excersizing. Get moving woman! get out side and play with those kids, make up a huge 5 gal bucket of bubbles and play with the kids. Get a giant rope and play jump rope with the neighborhood kids. Get some rollerskates, go dancing, do some yard work. Move, move, move! You don't have to "excersize" to get moving. Maybe you just need to change how you are moving. Call your local parks and rec department and see if there are any belly dancing classes in your area! I know how hard it is to be motivated when you don't *see* any movement on the scales. Are you tracking other things? I haven't seen you start your "Tattooed TX Mommy's Amazing NSV List." Please go and talk a good look at your NSVs. Perhaps you are compacting, and losing inches. We see this over and over where people will hit a plateau while their body catches up to all the rapid weight loss. Be kind to yourself. Never give up, never surrender!

Hi Caeleb, welcome to the board. Yup, this probably best belongs in General, but that's okay, it just means that fewer people will see this. So, I think you are basically asking if the band will be good as a preventative measure?That's a very interesting concept. As for your BMI, if you are banded, I would need to caution you most strongly to understand that with that low of a BMI you would mostlikely lose very, very slowely. Of course, I'm not a fan of the BMI to begin with, but that is a different story. Kind of sucks to be told "you aren't fat enough" and I think you would need to speak with a couple of qualified surgeons, or a good clinic. I think the folks I used are exceptional, but there are many exceptional clinics available. Your needs are different that someone who needs to lose weight but with no co-morbidities, different that someone who is "just fat." Even with as little weight as I've lost, I don't regret my my banding.

one of my dad's favortie hobbies was doing the laundry. I grew up thinking that it was "man's work" to do the laundry. I don't think my mother ever did a load of laundry when i was a kid. She didn't teach me how to Iron, because she said she had better things to teach me. ... Like how to roll the prefect joint. My mother-in-law bought me an ironing board, and my sister-in-law couldn't believe I don't know where my iron is. I have a vague idea where it might be. Like, I know it's in the house. Probably.

The only part I worry about is the damage it does to the young. My younger sister was a trophy bride until she got too old to be a trophy, and was traded in for a younger model. Her entire sense of self worth was only tied to what she looked like, not what she was or new, or anything else. She's since realized that she has value beyond what her face, body and hair look like, she's realized that she has value simply because she *is*. I worry at the impossible standard of beauty, the foolish trout lips, the boob-jobs, the botox injections and such will continue to even more outlandish actions. I worry that eventually there is no way a young woman will ever feel good about the way she looks. I wonder how many of us on this board are truely happy with how we look now. I know that I've had some plastic surgery to repair the damage from a really bad motorcycle accident. Reconstructive work, but this has also helped me feel better about my body. I know that I'm plannig to have a breast reduction and lift, and I'm going to have a tummy tuck. I don't know that my motives are pure reconstruction, since I know that I will feel better after these procedures. But I will also look better, and clothes will fit me better. That's important because I don't have a team of tailors making me the custom clothing that would fit me. But I suspect that I am very different from most people. I don't give a damn what people think about my appearance. But then again, I don't think they are paying attention to me either. I figure they are all wrapped up in their own thoughts and concerns that someone as boring as myself goes un-noticed

I took about a week off, maybe two weeks, then I was back at my pilaties, walking, abs, and I think week three I started horseback riding.

Ironing is what you do once a year with your antique lace tablecloth that fits your enormous dining room table that is coved with husband junk except when we have parties. My in-laws cannot believe that not only do I not know how to Iron, I don't have the slightest bit of interest in learning how. My ex-husband expected me to iron his Navy uniforms, so I ironed them wrong.:faint: I mean really, who in the world would iron when permanent press was invented?

HU-ray! I have no idea what a VBS is, but HU-ray for both needing a smaller shirt, and recognizing that you need a smaller one!

I do think they are inevitable. But the band is not surgically induced bulimia, no, no, no. I rarely if ever PB, but I do get stuck a lot. I'm putting off going for another unfill because, well, I don't want one, but I've realized that I've been moving to soft foods more and more because they don't get stuck and they dont hurt. Time for an unfill. Anyway. I really think that at some point in time, a Bandster is going to get the slimes and PB. I know that my restriction is not constant, and neither is my husband's. A food that you had no problem with yesterday will decide to turn on you today. It's a fickle practice.

Nykee, your honesty and "realness" never fail to amaze me. 'Sho is right, start documenting, start getting things charted by your docs. What you have said shows medical neccesity, not cosmetic. I think you are sort of stuck in the middle. You've come so far that you cannot see that light where you came from, but you haven't gone far enough to see the light where you are going. And that is a diffiuclt and discouraging place to be. (((((Nykee)))) 'Sho, that is so wonderful about the bathing suit! But I honestly cannot think of an NSV where I have mixed feelings. I will have to do some thinking about that. I cannot offer any thing constructive about your scars. But then again, I don't care if people see my scars, it doesn't have an affect on me what people think about them. It doesn't even occur to me that people might think anything about them for that matter.

47 pounds in 9 months is a great loss. And that would definately remove you as a turtle. (that's a good thing.) However, I think people have not been responding to you on this thread because I know that I, for one, and slightly horrified that you would be doing you own fill/unfill. We do not know if you are a qualified medical person, and we don't know if you have had the proper training for band maintence. This is really scary because we are afraid you are going to seriously damage yourself, your tubing, your port or something. You said that you cannot afford the $100 for fills, but can you afford the cost to replace something should you screw up? We worry, and we are, I think, collectively agast.

Well, the current step is to try to get these headaches under control. I did accupunture last week, but the head aches are no better, but my energy level is higher.

I have a blue 1992 Saturn S, with 170,000 miles on it. DH has a green '99 Ford F-150 with the extended cab, and the Spudboy drives a '96 Toyota. We also have a pair of Kowi motorcycles, but mine is still broken. No car payments! Huzzah! The main reason I haven't bought a new car, besides being a full time student, is that even though my car is a '92, I consistantly get great gas milage, almost never less than 30MPG, and that was only because I got stuck in the traffic jam from hell. (3 hours to go what should have taken 30 minutes.) If I'm going on a long freeway trip, I get about 38-40 MPG.

no, no news yet. I have been concentrating on my mother for the last month or so. Physically she's doing really well, her surgeon is pleased with her progress. Mentally she's still a head-case. But she's been a head case all my life. Since she's on here way to being better, now it's time to concentrate on me. I have a new PCP and am using a new health clinic, and they are taking me seriously.

Odd, I've never experienced this. Or at least, not that I can remember. Certianly not since banded. food smells have triggered desire to eat, but not hunger. As in, mmmmn, Cinnabons! But I know it would take me about an hour to eat a small one, and I have no desire to spend my time that way.

I've never, ever had a problems with a straw while banded. Personally, I get *less* air with a straw that just drinking out of a glass. Silly straws for everyone!

Hippo birdies! Two Ewes!