loopylou

check out: http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/82603_ent_jones.html doesn't say heaps except that she was 'thinking about it' 2yrs ago.

Just back from Docs and he says its "normal" - just as the princess says

Bumping for Nickie456

Sorry Nickie I dont know, but I think TrishS asked a similar question in a post the other day - I think the thread was called 'stomach pain' - I'll bump it up to new posts for you. Hope you feel better soon

I'll be thinking of you and sending positive vibes your way

Dear Alice, My DH And I tried to do Atkins once, he went gang-busters but I couldn't seem to do it. When his sugar cravings disappeared mine seemed to get worse, I felt very discouraged:( . Months later I discovered that my gut was all out of balance from taking antibiotics - in other words I had too much yeast in my tummy:eek . Now apparently the yeast feeds on sugar and carbs, so when you stop eating that stuff they 'kinda freak out' (thats the medical term for it) and make you feel worse. I found that once I started to get rid of the yeast my sugar cravings diminished:cheeky . I dont know if this helps much but it might be worth looking into - if you find that you do have a problem with yeast I found the best product to be a probiotic called ThreeLac (and I tried lots of things - including anti-fungal medication from the doctor) - I can only get it online (in Australia), if you want more info check out: www.candidasupport.org

I have disolvable ones - just the tail end sticks out - it gets a bit itchy as it heals, but they are mostly gone now.

Hi Dani, I dont know if its normal but I have it too, I can really feel the port just under the skin. I am seeing my Doc today for post-op check-up, I'll ask and get back to you about it if you like

Jachut, Where in Oz are you? The lady in hospital next to me only weighed 86kgs and was banded by my surgeon in Perth - she had just been diagnosed with diabetes though so that was probably a contributing factor. If you are having health problems due to your weight I am sure that a surgeon would at least see you and talk to you. Go pour you heart out to a nice GP and get a referral and then they will have to see you. Good luck with it honey!!

I was told I could drink as much diet coke as I want - does anyone know why carbonation is supposed to be a problem? I know I burp alot more than I used to... teehee.

hehehehe if you move the curser real quick you can see the models - breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, OR stick bum out, suck bum in, stick bum out AND oops lost my elbows armpits and knees, oh there they are, oops gone again - very funny LOL

When... 1st August 2005 Weight then... 267lbs or 121kgs Weight now... 256lbs or 116.5kgs Size now... 20/22 Height... 5'7 or 170cms

They are amazing aren't they? I didn't live right near by (unfortunately) but a couple of hours away. We went to the Tulip festival with my IL's, it was gorgeous - they barely looked real, even when you get that close. And Yes I have seen a tassie devil, not a wild one though...

Hi Kel, I'm in WA and my DH takes Protein powders (for his muscles ) and he orders online. The powders are usally some sort of whey protein, which is then flavoured with choc or strawb or caramel mint toffee latte The powders can have added carbs, high carbs, low carbs, no carbs and everything in between, so I would suggest thinking about exactly what you want before you start looking or you may end up more confused than ever - like me :cheeky Most of the Docs here dont seem as worried about the protein stuff as they do in the states - not sure why... Anyway the sites DH uses are: www.thesupplementden.com.au and www.mrsupplement.com.au Hope that helps

Just to let you know ladies, my house is a disaster!!!!!! And either of you are most welcome to visit as not a draw in my house is tidy ....pity australia is so far away...

This is me striking a pose in the fields of Tulips that they grow in Tasmania (where I used to live)....

Hmmm still a bit small lets see what else I have...... Freya-cat!!! My beautiful fur-baby...

wow.... it worked.....kinda - look how little I look..... Ok lets try this one - a bit bigger this time.....

This is me .... (i hope.....fingers crossed it works)

gutted?? as in 'like a fish'???

What a goddess you are!!

Why is it that vitamin tablets always look like something you would give to a horse! not a human, especially and banded one!

I am yet to be filled and probably wont be for 3-6 mths due to some surgery complications, I am ok with pills at the moment but what do you do with them when you can no longer swallow them? Is it safe to crush all pills, or do you have to be more careful than that?

Shelley, can I just jump in and say that if you are flying home make sure you have some gas medication with you!! I flew home 1 week after surgery and found it uncomfortable, I think it was something to do with the air pressure. Goodluck with it all!!

My dad didn't want me. My mum wanted me with a desperation that was unnatural. My dad was very jealous of me as a baby, so much so that Mum was worried he would hurt me. I had a dummy (pacifier) until I was 4 - they were all taken away by Father Christmas - I assume in exchange for my presents. By then I had a little baby brother who was 2 and now Mums favourite. Somewhere between 4-5 I was sexually abused by my best friends/next-door neighbours older brother and his friend/s. I didn't tell my Smother as I was told that she would be very angry with me, and would want to kill me. I tried to tell my dad but he didn't seem to notice that their was something wrong when a 4-5yr old complained of sore privates. I think at this point I turned to food. With no dummy and so much pain where was I to turn but to food? And so began the tug-of-war between my mum and me. Mum was mentally ill, anorexic and food obsessed - she had been a very miserable child and suffered sexual abuse and had real trouble making friends. Mum put me, at this tender age, on my first diet. I needed nothing more than the comfort of food and all she could do was rip it from me. My brother was allowed whatever he wanted to eat. It was agony. For the next 15 years I was taken from diet club to diet club, psychologist to psychologist and put on every diet known to man. I was bribed, cajoled and blackmailed in an effort to get me to stop eating. I was the family's 'problem child' even though I was well behaved and smart and made friends easily. My early years at school were difficult - as I was teased terribly - but I seemed to have a level of openess that made it easy for me to make friends. In highschool I was queen of the nerds and I loved my brilliant, funny and gorgeously nerdy friends. So much so that when I had lost weight and looked great at 175 ( and learned that sexiness came from inside!! ) and the most beautiful and popular girl in school asked me to "come hang out with us" meaning the 'beautiful people' of the school, I said no. And I realised that all this time I had thought they had everything that I was really the lucky one - their lives were hollow compared to mine. I lost my virginity at 15 to a very gorgeous but insistent boy and was date raped at 18. To my shame I then chased the man who raped me and tried to prove to myself that he really cared about me!!??! At this stage I was out of school, overweight again and feeling very low. I was my mums best friend, her confidante, her spouse (emotionally anyway) and basically her life. I was emotionally blackmailed to comply to her wishes and squashed by her into almost non-existance. I was a 'born again' fundamentalist Christian from 16-22 and when I left the church it was the greatest pain of my life. I was so lost and hurt and angry. I lost all my friends and all my main hobbies - drama, singing and writing poetry - I just didn't believe anymore and I didn't think it was the most loving way to live anymore. I think I used the church as a way to escape my Smother. Smother lived her life through me, we had no boundaries between us, I was her and she was me. And it was my job to keep her happy. If she was not happy then dad yelled at me. He couldn't take his anger out on his 'delicate' wife but I was 'big enough' to deal with it!?! I ate to escape, I ate to rebell, I ate to carve out some space for myself in the world, I ate to give myself the illusion that I existed and was not just an appendage of my Smothers, I ate to cover my 'dangerous' body, to hide from next-door neighbours and boyfriends and dates, I ate to prove I was normal, acceptable and 'ok', I ate because food was my friend - it didn't judge or scold or guilt me, I ate because I was guilty for not being what my smother needed me to be, I ate to soothe and calm my pain, I ate to annihilate myself and become the perfect daughter. After University I was again about 175 and felt good about my body, I was sexy and pretty and voluptuous. I had a string of fun love affairs but always, desperately wanted to be loved. In 1999 I began to get sick. I had to stop going to the gym 6 days a week - how can you do aerobics when you have to run to the toilet all the time? The weight began to pile on. When I was 175 it was from working out - I still ate everything and binged regularly. In 2000, still sick and now about 200, I met my beautiful DH. Over the next 5 years I got sicker and sicker, heavier and heavier and more and more depressed. I was misdiagnosed with all sorts of things and put on anti-depressants. At the end of 2004 I had a 2mth stay in a psychiatric hospital as I had started to cut myself and become more and more unstable - by this point I weighed nearly 250lbs. Various pills, procedures, sessions and cigarettes later I was allowed to go home. My time there helped me to understand my childhood, my smother and my eating more. My psychiatrist was the first to mention the band to me. I said "isn't that for really big people?" and he said "you are really big!" OUCH!! So for about 8mths I thought and thought about the band, I researched and tried on the idea for size. And I liked it. My psychiatrist said it would force me to face my food issues and feel my feelings instead of swallowing them. So here I am, banded and batty. GOD, I love to eat. And not like skinny people who love food. I love to gulp and crunch and slam the food down. To stuff and squash and destroy that food. To tear and rip and force the food to behave. I love to control the food, to master the food to feel powerful in the face of the food. It sounds like the food is something that I am frightened of doesn't it. It sounds like the food is my smother. A mother who was never there for me, who tried to destroy my sense of self and who nearly did. I guess now I need to find another way to fight her, cause doing it this way is just hurting me... Thankyou for reading if you made it this far, but, truth to tell, it was most helpful just to write it down and put it out there. Thankyou again.