Cocoabean

Nice, Elfie!! I have plenty of hobbies. I just need to have you come over clean out my crap (I mean craft) room! There is yarn from knitting and crochet, scrapbooking stuff, beading supplies, computer stuff, books, and goodness knows what else, along with my purse collection on that little room!

Hey Erika, I can still do rolls, well sometimes. At least I can do the smaller rolls. The larger rolls I do have to bite and let fall apart. What a mess, but still yummy. Another option is nigiri sushi. You can take smaller bites of that. As to last supper syndrome...It is hard not to fall into it, but in reality, you will be able to eat most of your favorites again. Just in smaller doses. If you have a long time between being notified of your surgery date and begining your pre-op diet, you can put on a lot of weight that you will just need to take off. I didn't get much of a chance to fall into the trap. I found out I was approved around the third week of Jan. On Feb 1, I started my pre-op. I think it worked in my favor. Best wishes everyone!

Oh my goodness! TAXES suck!! I just had 4 hours of my life sucked out of me doing ours and my MIL's. Too many changes this year! DANG! DH and Butters went camping to leave me to it. I hate it when DH stands over me screaming, "I won't pay!" So I send him off. Usually it takes me an hour and a half and I am done with both. Sheesh. Ok, whew! Oh Oh Oh!! I knocked off another lb!!! woohoo! So my goal is to weight what Bobs female dog Seven weighs! His male, B-dubs already has me beat! How fun is that!!! I haven't met very many dogs who weigh more than me before! I saw what was either a Scottish Deerhound of an Irish Wolfhound the other day. Or is it a ScottishWolfhound or and Irish Deerhound? Anyway, it was a huge beasty and so cute! Body way bigger than the animal expected it should be. Just killer. Where is my dog! He has become the best trainer ever! HB! Wow, that snow looks so pretty! I haven't the first clue how to drive in it, though! Elfie, love the poochie! She's a peach. Oh, and next time you are in the mood to clean, head my way, ok? I have a room that really needs the help of a great cleaner/organizer. Bob, maybe one of your dogs will sit on the cat. Liz: Well done with the sweet treat. You were able to enjoy it and still not go over your total allowance for the day. That is awesome, not being bad! Yay! that is the way we should use our bands, oooh yeah!!!!

Y'all are doing great!!! Keep up the good work! Yay!!!

Hey Bob, love your dogs. If you were to ask Butters all dogs are big, the rest are just squeak toys! :-) Illumination: Love Brewski!! He's awesome. I had a dog that dug up all my bulbs. He also ate all my rose bushes. Right down to the dirt! Dang, that HAD to hurt! Leigha, Jace is gorgeous, looks ready to ROCK! Humming Bird, Marley and Me was a great movie. After the movie came out, everywhere Butters went we heard, look there's Marley! Betsy! love Truman, he is ready to GO! I gotta tell ya though. There is a labrador rescue group here, it is where we got Butters. They had a yellow boy who was a special needs case, his name is Truman. I always had a picture of that Truman in my head when you would talk of yours, but realized it was not the same Truman. Nice to see the real one. The Truman here had hip issues. They got those fixed and he did find a forever home. We met him a few times at the dog park, before Butters started having his aggression issues. He was such a sweetie. Update So, I got on the scale last night, and I am down a wee bit more! Woohoo!!! :thumbup: My personal trainer is paying off! Too bad he and the DH are going camping. Maybe I'll have to walk by myself (yeah, that will happen!). Still feeling cruddy, so guess I am entitled to a couple of days off. DH goes camping when I plan to do our taxes, because otherwise he just stands there yelling at me that he won't pay! Yeah, lemme just fix that! NOT. So, I send him on his merry way. I get a couple of days free with the house to myself. I'll do the taxes this evening. Then I have tomorrow after work free, free, free!!! :thumbup: Ok, I owe, I owe, so back to work I go!!!

Wow! That is great! My surgeon took me off my BP meds when I had my surgery. I haven't looked back since. Now my normal is about 110/70! Wahoo!!!!

My surgeon told me a meal should hold me 3-4 hours. 6-7 hours is a long time between meals. Maybe you should speak to your surgeon or nutritionist about your expectations? Or perhaps you should break your meals up into mini-meals. I am allowed to eat between meals, just not to brainlessly eat. Planned out foods are fine. Junk food, not fine. Best wishes!

Hi Everyone! 2gooddogs--Welcome, wow you are doing great with the weight loss, keep it up!! Humming Bird, bowling is great exercise. Too bad you had a nail casualty! Wah. Bob, my surgeon took me off BP meds right away. You may be able to stop them pretty soon! That would be sweet! Gloria, happy anniversary, good job giving yourself permission to enjoy and then right ack on track! Illumination, Butters is a yellow labrador. He is named after the character Butters of South Park. Yes, well behaved dogs are welcome many places around here. It is very nice. Our next lesson we are going to a big Petco. That should prove interesting! Stuck on the first bite? Ugh! I hate it when that happens! I have started taking a moment before I eat and telling myself to remember to take small bites, eat slowly, and chew chew chew! It seems to help. Especially when I get too hungry and am ready to attack my plate! It's sort of like saying grace. Thank You for the food, thank You for the band, thank myself for eating slowly and chewing well. Sometime we'll have to plan a meet-up in Mission Viejo or something! Liz, I don't think being outed is too bad at this point. You have been successful and folk are going to gossip anyway. You might as well set the record straight. I did have one person whom I didn't really care for that approached me after she noticed I was losing. She was forever complaining that she was fat and needed to lose weight. Mind you, her weight was fine. She had a little bit of a tummy, but at age 60, I thought she looked great. When she asked what I was doing, I said eating smaller portions and exercising. No lie. That only lasted until she heard from someone else that I'd had surgery. Then she was all over me about it. She wanted it, how could she get it, why didn't I tell her the first time. On and on. Oh well, she finally retired. Thank goodness! Well, it's raining here today, and I am feeling cruddy. So I don't think Butters is going walking today. :smile2: He'll get over it, I am sure. He's enjoying laying by the fire keeping his old bones warm. DH wants me to make breakfast, so I suppose I should think about that--before it becomes lunch! Here's a few pics of Butters and one of me a few months pre-op:

Who said we aren't supposed to drink anything when food is stuck? My surgeon even allows me a little liquid with my meals. For me it is a quick way of ending a stuck episode. It brings it up with very little trauma. One of my first stuck episodes--that I walked and walked and waited out went on for 5 hours. Sliming, retching, and vomitting. Now, if I drink a few slugs of Water it comes right back up with no retching, and it is over. Which causes less trauma to my stomach?

It sounds to me like it was a win-win. You planned for it, plus you learned from it. You planned for a not-so-healthy treat. Yes, I make some bad choices sometimes, without planning for them. :smile2: AND, you learned that you'd have prefered a healthier choice! To me, after being banded, it isn't cheating--ever. We are no longer on "diets"--we are continually learning and adjusting. We make choices. Some are better than others. Some have more calories than others. Some help us on the way to weight loss, some don't. I think you did great!

If I chug Water when stuck it will start the lauch sequence. Up everything comes!

Humming Bird: We've only had Butters for 4 years. :smile2: But his behavior was getting so bad that I could not walk him any longer. So, we made the investment into private lessons and it has paid off! I could not imagine life without a pet, but that is me. Glad it is working out for you! Betsy, happy everything is OK, good for Truman for getting you out! Butters got to go to the mall today. It's a higher end shopping center where rich little doggies hang out. He did very well! We walked along and he ignored them all, even the ones who wanted to challenge him. Way to go, Butters! I got my walk in on flat lands. A good thing for me today, since I discovered this is indeed a cold, not an allergy. Blah! It is starting to get stormy out there! Glad we got out early!

You are just up the road from me!! Woohoo!!

Hey! I didn't even notice you were in CA. I am in San Diego, you anywhere near here?

Ok, call me a thread hoggie! BUT!!!!! Thanks to my poochy, Butters, I am down a pound!!!! Ok, he gets the assist, I get the credit! I am at an all-time post-op low!! 4 more pounds to a normal BMI! I can't even remember the last time I had a normal BMI. I suppose it was as I shot through it on the way up. :smile2: I just updated my ticker. I also took the upper end up to my all time high--since I include that number in my weight loss when people ask about it.

Mushy Masterpiece...a new definition of M & Ms....yum!

Ok, smarta$$ is me coming out, but what would God say to her breaking her Lenten promise of no food, and also breaking the "Thow Shall Not Steal" thing! Sheesh. :smile2:

Anyone seen Betsy today? I hope all is OK with Mark!

I don't even try white meat chicken any more. The last thing I got stuck on was fish. It was too funny (well, not really)...hubby and I were eating and I am telling him how I read here that so many people get stuck on fish, I can't see how, it is so nice and soft..yada yada... Then I get that far away look.....he says, "so, you know now how they get stuck on it, huh?" "'scuse me, I'll be right back...." Run off to the ladies room, urp it up, back to the table, "yes, Honey, now I know how people get stuck on fish."

Hi There again. I'll let Betsy speak to the malabsorption amount in RNY. All I really know is, it is a fact that there is more in RNY than there is for LAP-BAND as we absorb everything we eat :smile2: You ask what I would do? I would keep pursuing a diagnosis, that is for certain. I'd also pursue the band. This is my opinion only, of course--I have no medical training. The reason I'd choose the band over the other WLS procedures is that you are unsure of your thyroid condition. I would not want to permanently disable parts of my digestive tract. RNY -is- reversible, just not as easily as is a band. Also, RNY affects some other hormones, not sure if I'd really want that if I were already having endocrine problems. My thinking is that if you do get a band, whey you are hypo, you'll not really lose weight, you might even gain. When hyper, the band will help you with portion control and you'll lose, probably pretty quickly. Especially if you work the band properly. This is based on my hyper phase experience. I was HUNGRY. So I ate. Question for you, are the surgeons willing to do the band with the thyroid issues going on? Have you tried Armour thyroid? I've read that some people do much better converting it than the synthetic variety. Best wishes in your decision!

Hey everyone! Wow, lost happening. Some really good stuff going on at this thread! Bob, glad to see you are feeling better!! Should get better every day! Gloria, Happy Anniversary!!!! Yay!! Betsy, you and Mark are in my prayers! atgoalgal, I got the new test strips yesterday. I checked fasting sugar this morning. 101. Not bad, but I really want to see it below 100. I feel like I have let myself down seeing it 100 or over :smile: So I'll keep walking and working on it. Butters is loving our walks and his behavior improves each time we go out. He was a stellar student at our lesson yesterday! Liz, my throat is more scratchy today than it has been. Still not sure if allergy or cold. But it isn't really bad, so whatever. :smile2: Leigha, MIL was just released from the hospital. Not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Earlier today they were going to get her up for a walk but her blood pressure was too high, then suddenly they are releasing her? We are not sure if she is suddenly better, or if they have decided they have done all they could do. Yesterday they told my BIL's wife that a social worker would come in to speak with MIL and her children (presumably about in home or nursing home care). As far as we know that never happened. But it is possible that the social worker came in and she refused. She is very independent for 94. Perhaps the doctors have thrown up their hands. SIL is taking her home right now and hubby is going to get some prescriptions filled (which she will probably not take as she hates medication). I suspect she will not slow down and rest at home and this will be her undoing. Her granddaughter-in-law and great granddaughter are coming for a visit next week. She wants to host a party for them. She says it will be potluck, which she will never do because she is always afraid there won't be enough food so she always cooks the entire thing, so nobody brings anything even though they say they will. Yeah, dysfunction junction all the way! Yeah, you just got out of the hospital with pneumonia! You REALLY think that is a good idea?!?!? DH and I are boycotting the thing, as are his brother and his wife. Ah, ain't life grand? Did someone say LapBandTalk meeting somewhere? I'm there!!!!! How about the Mall of America? We can all buy new clothes! No sales tax! :w00t:

Hello Again! Biliopancreatic Diversion is generally used for the highest BMI's I believe--due to the very high risk of malnutrition. That is a very effective procedure, but at great potential risk. RNY also has malabsorption. As I can barely remember to take my Multivitamin, I did not really want to have to take many prescription Vitamin pills each day. At a seminar I went to there was an RNY patient who spoke. She showed us her packet of Vitamins. It was more than all the pills I was taking for cholesterol, blood pressure, and the like combined. I chose the band for the above reasons. Plus I like that it doesn't reroute everything and can be unfilled if for some reason I should need extra nutrition. But I will say, after my experience with the band, all positive--that if for some reason I have to have it removed, I would not hesitate to convert to RNY if that is what my doctors felt was needed for my continued good health. My surgeon will not do a band on someone with diabetes. As RNY has an immediate effect on blood sugar, he feels RNY is a much better treatment for diabetes than a band. As I am not diabetic, he was fine with my choice to have a band. Ah, Topamax...I started it last September for migraines as well. I was told most people lose weight with it. SCORE!!! Yeah, well, if a drug will make 95% of people on it lose weight, I am in the 5%. Initially I lost about 5 lbs in a few weeks. Then that came back. But my migraines are much improved. I am also one of the chosen few who when my thyroid was high I could gain weight. Most people lose when that happens. But with the band, I have successfully lost weight. I aids me with the portion control I so desperately needed. My timing for surgery....went to info seminar with my surgeon in August, had surgery the following February. I did not have to do a 6 months supervised diet. It just took that long to get all the testing done. I also had a psychologist that took 2 months to write the letter saying I was ready for the surgery. Why it took that long I don't know. My meeting with him was 20 minutes. GRRR! I did go through my insurance, if you are self-pay, I understand it can go much faster. Getting too hungry...that gets me into trouble with the band because I will either eat too fast or take too big of a bite. Either one can cause trouble by getting food stuck. So, before I take a bite I stop myself and do some self-talk to slow down, take little bites, and chew, chew, chew.

Hey Jen! Well done with the sandwich. It's amazing how our perceptions change over time, isn't it? I was talking to my boss one day while he was eating lunch. He had a chicken breast and some rice. He went to take a bite of chicken and I nearly knocked it out of his hand cause it was such a big bite! I had to remind myself that I am the one banded, not him!

We have tried calorie restriction in the past, yes. The difference now is that the reduced amount of food satisfies me for longer than it ever did before surgery. If your hypothyroidism is being treated, it will not be a factor. Best wishes in your decision.

Hey Bob, Sorry you are not feel all that grand. :w00t: I have only had a few surgeries, but each time I hurt like heck. My theory is that even though we are out, our bodies still feel the pain and tense up. I have absolutely nothing scientific to back that up. :smile2: Hopefully in a few more days you'll be feeling fantastic!