Cocoabean

I asked about it during a CPR class. The teacher was a paramedic. I was told they do not check ankles for medical ID. They'd like to know about the port, it could change placement of the pads for an AED--and also let them know WHAT that lump on the (insert location of port here) is. I usually wear one. I recently took it off. I have a bracelet and a necklace. I switch off. I suppose I should put it back on. I had the necklace on when I went to urgent care last year. They never even acknowledged it...but I wasn't unable to speak for myself at the time.

Don't call me old... 3 years 2 months banded. No complications at all. Maintaining with ease.

Shammah, welcome back! Did I see on FB that you have a sinus thing going? That can explain the tightness. I seem to get tighter when I get sick. Just recently had a cold and got tighter. Ugh.

Ok, I am apparently going to be paid.

DOH! Just had to look at your siggy line to see where you are! I am stressed. That's my story and I am sticking to it! p.s. I am wearing my French Quarter sweatshirt tonight! I was down that way last year for some training. Back when the Govt had money!

Hey all. 10pm Eastern time, still no agreement on the budget. I am informed I am essential for shutdown operations, so I have to report next week for as long as it takes to close the offices down. My district manager (who will also be furloughed, my immediate manager will not be) says the shut down will be 3 or 4 days. Hopefully long enough for them to work out a deal and order us fully back to work. Some of my co-workers have already been told not to come in on Monday unless contacted that a budget or another continuing resolution has been signed. Oh the joy. I am also told that I will not be paid for work done next week until a budget is passed...this I already knew. Darn, I was looking forward to some time off! I am fortunate that DH and I are not living paycheck to paycheck. Vicky, my grand-nephew has Asperger's. He's in 2nd grade. It's not easy, is it? I LOVE Swedish Meatballs! Send some this way! Are you in California? I am down in San Diego. So our neighbors are away this weekend, so we are babysitting Stella, the golden retriever! Butters just loves her so much! And I love Stella therapy! Just what I need for this weekend while being glued to the news.

Thanks Michelle! You can do it, too!! Woot woot!!

It really is no one else's business, but when it comes to weight loss, there isn't the taboo about asking questions. Also keep in mind that after banding there may come a time that you will have issues when eating with a group and if they do not know, it causes even MORE questions. A lot will depend on your personality. If you don't mind evading or lying or omitting parts, then fine. I am guilty of asking questions of someone I saw losing weight that I didn't know very well. Thought perhaps she had found the "magic bullet." She had gastric bypass. She is the one who got me thinking that WLS might work for me. If she had prevaricated and said I am watching my portions (which is true), I might not have followed the path I did and gotten a band -- and lost the weight -- and gotten my blood pressure and blood sugar under control. I personally don't like to evade questions. I also didn't want to say I had my gallbladder out, because then what do I do if I DO need to have it out? Say I lost my appendix? Oh wait, had that out in 1996..hhmm...lost a toe? nah Do a search on this topic, it has come up several times over. You'll get all sorts of ideas on how to handle it!

Yeah! What he said! Your surgeon's office might have a clothing exchange. Congratulations on your journey!

Hey Everyone. Deb, so sorry about your dad. It sux. My sis lives in Daytona! I think off of Clyde Morris, I think. Elcee, should have explained for you! Still no agreement on a budget, so as of tomorrow afternoon, I will be furloughed until further notice. Once an agreement is reached, I will have a job to go back to. So today and tomorrow are spent doing everything I can think of to be certain that everything is totally caught up before I head out tomorrow. What is too funny, the highest paid employees are considered essential and will report as usual. The lowest paid are not and will be furloughed...ok then. Karen, congrats! Woohoo!! Crystl, I hate the E word, it should be stricken from our language!

By my third day post-op I was ready to eat my dog! He was just lucky he could move faster than I. But, words of caution....fish can easily get stuck! I am not talking about tuna from a can, but a filet...getting stuck and retching this soon after surgery can be a very bad thing. Doctors put us on liquids during the post-op phase because they anchor the band down with just a few stitches and they do not want the stomach to grind during the healing period. Liquids and mushies don't cause grinding like solids do. But, some doctors move the post-op phases along quicker than others...so there is some difference of opinion as to how long we need to be on liquids and mushies. Try your best to stick with what YOUR doctor has ordered for you. He or she has reasons for those orders. When I told my doctor how hungry I was when he called me at 3 days post-op, he moved me from clear liquids to full liquids, I was in heaven! I was expecting to be on clears for a week, but I was healing so well he let me move faster. Give yours a call, maybe you can move along and have something more substantive.

You are probably on Tricare. Do a search of Tricare's coverage and see what they require. I believe they require 100 lbs overweight rather than BMI, but I am not sure. Your doctor will want some sort of "proof" that you have tried the diet and exercise route. WLS should be the last resort. Being young, I can hear some doctors saying you could not possibly have tried. Yeah, right. I was put on my first diet at 10 years old. So, if you have any weight watchers records or something like that, bring it with you. So you can show you are serious about this. Gym membership would be great, too. If the doctor does comment on you being so "young"....many of us wish we could have had this done when we were much younger. How different my life might have been to have a stable weight when I was in my 20s rather than waiting until I was 43 to be banded. I say good for you! Best wishes!

I like to graze as well. My experience with the band is that it takes away the constant drive for food. I am no longer always hungry. That makes the battle with grazing easier. Without the physical hunger gnawing at me, the drive to graze is easier to defend against. The obsession with food is reduced. When I am satisfied physically I sometimes go a few hours without even thinking about food. That is something that NEVER would have happened prior to banding. It's no longer a two front war. Your experience may vary. I don't believe that all grazers will fail at banding, but it is something to consider.

Thank you. Add to it, I am a federal employee. Don't know if I will be coming to work on Monday. The highway to get home is closed right now due to a shooting in one spot, a crash in another. New news...MIL said no to a proposed treatment by the doctor, multiple trips to a lymphedema clinic for her legs. She can barely get to the bathroom, but doc expects her to go on trips to a clinic 30 minutes from home. SIL cannot take her because she "works." Babysitting her grandchildren for her stay-at-home daughter-in-law. SIL expected that DH would take her, DH asked MIL if she wanted to go, she said..well, I don't really think so, do you think I should? So, he said it's up to you, if you don't want to, then no, you shouldn't. SIL won't be pleased. DH told MIL that she needs to tell SIL she isn't going. DH told doc MIL said no. He said too bad, she could be helped by it. Yeah, and fall down the front steps and break a hip in the process, too. He's also said she'd be helped by every treatment he's prescribed that hasn't helped. I DO know he is fighting an uphill battle with someone whose body is failing. So, as my mother often said...."Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?" Elfie, the snacking is under control! yay!

Hi Vicky! Welcome to our humble thread! I've seen your posts elsewhere. I am not sure if it is California or the doctor or the hospice. I do know it is frustrating, and the doctor is suddenly reluctant to sign hospice orders. I also know that my MIL will not say what she wants and my SIL who has the most influence on her is grabbing at every last straw to keep her alive. I also know this is one dysfunctional family.

Thanks, Melody, that is great advice. The munchies, I think, have stopped. I got stuck at dinner last night. Ugh, not bad, I quit eating as soon as I felt the touch of pain, so all was well. But still a bit unsettled this morning. That is usually enough to get me back in control. Perhaps he had noticed I was eating a bit more and the food police was not the nicest way of telling me, but his way of communicating right now. We handle stress so differently, he lashes out, I clam up. Neither way is grand. So, we keep on keeping on. I got on the scale for the first time in a while last night. Well, since we got back from the cruise. My weight is stable. So, I am not eating too much. Which is what I told him yesterday when Officer Foodie came out. I was eating some Sunchips while doing laundry and crocheting. He made a crack about inventing a machine to shovel the chips in so I would not have to stop what I was doing to eat them. I said thank you, but I don't need that. I am maintaining, you are not allowed to comment. Which was all fine, until I took a verbal swipe at him...but he responded touche. Incident over. For now. We made it through yesterday still speaking to each other, yay! But I am sooooo glad it is Monday and I am back at work!

Yes, seems it does. DH is not handling the stress well at all. The "food police" is back. For the first time in a very looooong time he is watching and commenting on what I am eating, and trying to tell what I can and cannot have. I guess because he feels so out of control with his mother he is trying to control me. Ah, life is grand! I know there is no dignity in death, but one should be granted some in the act of dying. But then again, she is not being at all vocal about what she truly wants. So the doctor is just guessing. She doesn't have a health care proxy. It might be different if she said flat out, "Doc, I am done with all this, I am ready to stop all these pills and trips to the hospital and let what is going to happen, happen." But she won't. And the last 2 or 3 days, I have had the munchies something fierce!

It's cliche, but true. Try not to compare yourself to others. I lost at a rate of 3/4 of a pound per week. Slower than the expected 1-2 pounds per week for most patients. I was seeming my fellow band mates losing much faster than I. But I kept marching on. And you know what? I now wear a size 10, sometimes an 8, and I have been there for a year now! I am wearing out clothes before I grow out of them. How exciting is that!? Time keeps moving, whether you are losing 5 pounds a week or 2, you will still get to your goal. It might take a little longer than you'd like, but you WILL get there. That's the thing with a band. You are doing a drastic diet that comes to an end. You are eating right and creating habits that you will continue forever. Keep doing what you are doing! You'll get there!

My sister is a Hospice nurse and said the same thing. But I called the Hospice and got the same information the doctor gave us. I guess in California it is different. Hospice will ONLY treat the condition that is ending the life. The coumadin is for the atrial fibrillation, which will not be part of the terminal diagnosis. Doctor seemed unwilling to take her off the coumadin for fear of a heart attack or stroke that would be less than fatal. Needless to say, I am VERY disappointed in the Hospice care offered here. After seeing what good my sister has done in Florida. It is sad. All for a finger stick. She cannot get the services offered through Hospice. Nice.

This person needs to be reported to your surgeon though. If you got a referral from your surgeon's office that is. Unless it was a "test" of your band knowledge. To put misinformation like that out there borders on malpractice in my opinion. It's conceivable that a person might cancel surgery based on these statements and not get the treatment for obesity that they deserve.

OMG, Deb...that is sooooo scary! And so violating! Glad you are OK though. Crystal, yay!!! Way to go! Great investment in your health and future. Elfie, did they say if your stomach returned to normal shape right away? I understand sometimes the scar tissue leaves it still somewhat restricted. Lots of crap here. Mom ready to go oh Hospice finally. Then doc puts on the brakes. Due to a medication she is on for a heart condition, if he switches to Hospice, she'd have to go to the lab in the doctor's office weekly for blood work, rather than having the home nurse draw it. Hospice rules. She can barely stand up, much less go down the steps to her driveway. Way more to the story, but am too frustrated to go into it.

Melody, look at you gettin' so close to onderland! Woot!!

My surgeon says he gets a kick out of bandsters and all their words for burps! If I am burping it means I am not stuck. My hubby cheers me along, "good one!"

It can help with physical hunger, which can in turn help you battle other appetites. But, if you are bound and determined to eat when you are not physically hungry, you can find a way. Highly processed foods go down very easily! Even if you are not hungry, you can eat them. You should really address the food addiction at your psych eval, if you have one.

hhmm.....hair or fill, hair or fill.... pull the hair up, get the fill! Course I am one to talk, I've been cutting my own bangs for a year procrastinating getting a hair cut! I've been really hungry today. Wassup wid dat? Ugh!