AlysonRR

I wanted to share (ok, overshare!) that after my surgery I had massive yeast overgrowth - not just skin rashes, but also thrush (yeast growing in the mouth and down into the digestive tract - white coating on the tongue, diarrhea). It was over the holidays so I phoned the band surgeon and asked him to phone in prescriptions for cream (for the skin) and pill (for the digestive tract) antifungals. I felt soooo much better a day or two afterwards. I wasn't told of this possible side effect, but I've talked to other post-band patients who had the same experience.

With me, once it starts it doesn't stop until I put antifungal cream on it... I'm not sure if that's always true, but it sure is for me. Good luck with treating the rash, and with your band recovery and progress :-)

Erica - When Alex sets it up again there will be a drop down menu (I think it's in the Edit Options menu) where you can select forums to ignore. I ignore all the state and monthly support forums (except mine), as well as other forums I don't identify with (support groups men and for specific religious groups, etc.). So when I click "New Posts" I only get posts from the forums in which I'm interested, which decreases the number of new posts I have to scroll through to find those I want to read. My method is to click "new posts", scan through each page, open each thread of interest in a separate tab, do another quick "new posts" scan to catch posts that were made after my last "new posts" click, then I select "mark forums read" in the Links drop-down. Hope that helps!

I love ignoring forums in which I have no interest - I wish the other (non-Lap Band) board I frequent had that feature activated. It really helps keep the "new posts" return small enough to review. Thanks! ETA: I'm sure I'm missing gems in the forums I ignore, but with limited time I have to be selective!

Alex - did you have to take this capability away again? I miss it!

It could be a yeast infection. Does it itch? The massive dose of antibiotics you get before/during surgery can cause an imbalance of your normal body flora (the bacteria and yeast that naturally live on your body). That can allow yeast to grow, particularly in areas where skin presses against other skin. If it's yeast you can treat with lotrimin cream - if it's really itchy the doctor can prescribe an antifungal with steroid. HTH!

Jill - I don't think you have to count calories. When I first started I just made sure my portions were ~1/2-3/4 cup. I started getting more interested in meeting nutritional requirements when my hair started falling out. I thought I probably needed more protein, or perhaps other nutrients. I have days (weeks) when I don't track my eating, but I make more progress (ie., have greater weightloss) when I'm tracking my food.

I didn't worry too much about carbs until I was eating solids. Some people don't concern themselves with carbs at all. For me, the time on liquids then mushies was a healing time, and refried Beans with a little sour cream is a good source of mushy Protein that wouldn't slow the healing process. HTH!

I try really hard to meet my fiber needs with whole foods. It's a rare day that doesn't include a high-fiber Cereal with added ground flax along with servings of vegies and fruit. I do add a fiber powder to at least one glass of Water or Kellog's K2O (a protein/fiber drink that I enjoy in ice tea flavor) because I can't seem to get over 15g with whole foods - the combo of fiber powder and K2O brings me up to the 25g I was told is a good goal.

Even with mild restriction I haven't found sushi goes down particularly easily. I can eat it, a piece or two, but it just doesn't feel right. I eat sashimi and I pick out the fillings of maki, but the rice and seaweed just don't taste particularly good. I haven't PBd or gotten stuck, but some foods just don't feel right. It's weird. I absolutely loved eating sushi and bread and Pasta, etc. But after banding I'm just not that interested. Really. It's amazing. I wouldn't worry about how your eating might have to change. You might find that your tastes are completely different after banding. If sushi moves down in your preferences, something else will move up to take it's place.

If it's a yeast infection (and I agree that's what it sounds like, and I unfortunately have lots of experience with external yeast infections) cornstarch will make it worse. You can treat with over the counter Monistat cream if you can't get into the doctor right away. Good luck!

I found similar information when I had to eliminate dairy from my diet to accommodate my nursing son's milk allergy. I was left feeling there was no other choice when someone recommended Earth Balance (Earth Balance). It's an excellent butter substitute for those who can't (or don't want to) eat butter. After seven years of using it (my second child was allergic, too) I can't stand the taste of butter any more, though what appealed to me initially was that it tasted enough like butter to be a good substitute. Now butter has a strong animal aftertaste to me that I really don't care for. I'm glad I found Earth Balance!

I saw an interview with her a while ago and she admitted to having become a "raving alcoholic" (her words) after her surgery. I've seen other articles saying that seems to be pretty common in gastric bypass patients. She went into treatment and recovered before having her baby - in fact she said that was her main motivation for recovery. It's very sad, but I'm glad she's gotten through it. Glad I got a band, too.

I haven't reached my 3 month anniversary yet - that'll be Mar 18th - so I didn't answer the poll, but I'm down just over 50lb right now. I seem to be a little more restricted after my fill last week - nothing stuck yet, but I had a bite of garlic bread and it seemed too bulky. My next weight loss goal is to total a 62.2lb loss, which I think I should reach by my 4-month bandiversary in April. That number would represent 30% of my excess weight lost!

We went to the Japanese restaurant a couple times while I was on soft foods, and I had either miso soup with lots of tofu, or teriyaki tofu. I like the teriyaki tofu - pre-banding I would have gotten yakisoba which is much higher in calories and fat, but I actually think I like the teriyaki tofu better. I made a meal out of the insides of lasagna at an Italian restaurant. I may have had a little noodle, but mostly I ate the filling - yum. While flan or custard would be higher in sugar than my typical meal, they might make a good choice if you were stuck out and didn't have many choices. Some restaurants have a "light fruit meal" that combines fruit with cottage cheese. I couldn't eat much fruit until later in my band journey, but sometimes they use canned fruit cocktail which is pretty mushy compared to fresh fruit What about tuna or egg salad sandwich without the bread? Hash or an omelet or scrambled eggs at a place that offers Breakfast. It does get easier! Now that I'm eating solid foods I don't have too much trouble finding something to eat when we're out - I typically order a meal that has solid Protein and vegetable, like a shrimp appetizer and a side salad, or edamame and sashimi (we eat Japanese a lot).

My family approaches education as a lifelong pursuit and I'm not at all concerned if my child reads late, or learns the times tables by rote, or knows specific dates in history. I think it would be difficult to gauge my children's progress via a standardized test because they don't follow the public school curricula upon which the "standards" are set. I fully expect my children to become productive independent adults with as many (or few) academic degrees as they choose to achieve in order to meet their personal goals. While I'm sure there will be tests in their future, I don't really see the point at age 6 and 9. Like a Montessori teacher, I see all their work and know whether they understand a concept or not. In my state a parent can exempt their child from the compulsory attendance laws (effective on students between ages 8 and 18) in order to homeschool if they either (1) have at least 45 credits of college work, (2) take a homeschool qualifying course, (3) work under the supervision of a certificated teacher, or (4) are deemed competent by the local school superintendent. We also must file a declaration of intent each year, cover the same eleven subjects as public schools (though not use the same curriculum or scope & sequence, nor use a particular educational method) and keep annual records including immunization records and either (a) a standardized test or (:blushing: a non-test assessment by a certificated teacher. All our records are privately kept - they would be requested if a child was being enrolled in a public school, but we don't show them to anyone, so there's no oversight in the sense you mean it. For my 9-y.o. I choose a non-test assessment - I basically write a paragraph for each of the eleven subjects telling what he has done that year. A teacher reviews it. I file it. I don't have to do any assessment for my 6-y.o. - the compulsory attendance law is only in effect for children ages 8-18. It doesn't mean she's not learning - "Birds fly, fish swim, man thinks and learns" (John Holt) - she's been learning every day she's been alive. But I don't have to jump through the state's hoops in order to keep her from being treated as a truant until she's 8. Sorry so off topic to the original post - you're asking some interesting questions and I hope I've helped answer them.

I read lots of anecdotal information on the homeschooling lists I read. Here's an example: Colleges That Admit Homeschoolers FAQ (Learn in Freedom!) Homeschoolers can be such an independent lot - one arm of the grassroots homeschooling movement came from the crunchy granola left liberal hippy counterculture, and the other from the ultra-conservative fundamentalist Christians who wanted to protect their children from the influence of secular schools and their denizens. I don't really know if it would be possible to study homeschoolers as an entire group. Homeschooling families are divided in educational philosophy, educational method, the appropriate balance of academics and practical knowledge, the importance or irrelevance of faith, whether their children have special needs or not, etc. NHERI (National Home Education Research Institute - Home) has reported statistical research about homeschoolers. NCES, a government group that collects education statistics, has done some research into homeschooling - use homeschooling as a keyword to search their website: National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Home Page, a part of the U.S. Department of Education Though there are estimated to be over a million homeschooled children in the US (NCES), that is still just a small fraction of the 50 million school-age children in this country. How to find a representative subset, and methods that would work regardless of the family's chosen path - it's difficult!

Do you agree that a parent has the right to choose public school or private school? That a parent can choose any private school they think will meet their children's educational needs and goals? There are Waldorf schools that don't teach reading until age 7 and don't let the kids use computers until high school. There are Montessori schools that don't have testing - it's obvious to the teacher by observation whether a child is grasping a topic or not. There are independent democratic schools where students vote on which staff to retain, and where the only subjects studied are student-initiated. There are independent schools where students learn from completely different curricular materials compared to the public schools. Heck, my niece transferred from one public school to another in a neighboring county and she couldn't pass the math tests because they followed a different sequence and she hadn't yet been exposed to part of the new school's curriculum. Homeschool families have all those options to choose from, plus as many others as their imagination and creativity can envision. How would you propose writing a test that would effectively gauge their progress? Testing is only a valid measure of education if the population being tested have been exposed to the same information. Since there are many educational philosophies, and schools and homeschools where a family can choose these alternate philosophies, testing will not be a comprehensive way of gauging progress. We don't insist on high stakes testing of private school students - we assume that if a parent chooses a private school and pays for it they are happy with the progress their child is making. Testing is why some families homeschool - I know several families who started homeschooling in the last few years when 'No Child Left Behind' turned into weeks of "teaching to the test" followed by a week of high pressure testing. So no, I don't think testing, at least as a sole option, would be an acceptable compromise between the desire of a family to guide their children's education and the desire of the state to ensure children are adequately educated.

How can the state ensure every child has a quality education? They can't. They can't even ensure every public school child has a quality education. That's why we have compulsory attendance laws, not compulsory education laws - the state can insist they attend, but cannot make them learn. Some schools suck, some teachers suck, some children don't get the information at the right time for their brain to learn it, some children are too worried about being safe, etc. The state and it's citizens should have the basic assumption that parents have the best interests of their children in mind when they make child-raising decisions, including education. Those parents who choose to abuse their children or neglect them have failed their trust and their children deserve our support in order to have a safe home. We don't take infants away from parents, or even monitor families, in order to ensure that every baby gets the same nurturing and opportunities. We assume parents have their babys best interests at heart and interfere only when it's become obvious they are not doing a good job. I think it should be the same with homeschooling. There are parents who are teaching their children all sorts of things I think are wrong, but in this country we have the freedom to think and believe different things, and to raise our children using the values and beliefs we hold. Children who are poorly educated, whether at home or in a public or private school, can go on to overcome their educational deficiencies and go on to excel in their chosen career. Some will not - they'll find crappy jobs and either be happy or not. But it's impossible to guarantee every child has an excellent education, whether at home or in a public or private school.

This isn't the first time CA has had a judicial ruling that homeschooling is illegal in CA - the last time was in the 1950s, and the current ruling relies on that previous ruling when it affirms that the only legal way to homeschool in CA is for a parent to be a certificated teacher, or to hire a certificated tutor. There was also an attempt in 2000 by the superintendent (or equivalent) of CA schools to prosecute all homeschoolers as truants based on the 1953 ruling. But there are several US Supreme Court rulings that affirm the parental right to choose their children's educational path, including homeschooling, so I don't ultimately expect this CA ruling to affect anyone but this particular family. I can think of many ways the judges could have ensured the physical safety of these children without affecting the education of hundreds of thousands of other students - pretty short-sighted. When a teacher or other school employee abuse a child they are rightly held at fault. The school may be implicitly at fault, if they did not make reasonable attempts to prevent the abuse, but no one points at the entire institution of public education and says "It's the schooling that's the problem". It's unfortunate that homeschooling usually only comes to national attention because of a family who is already being observed by social services. I want to yell "It's not the homeschooling that's at fault, it's the parenting!".

Glad it helped - hopefully you can strengthen your ankle and have fewer injuries, too. Has your doctor sent you to physical therapy at all? I went when I had the first acute knee pain and they gave me a series of exercises for strengthening the muscles supporting my knees/hips - they really help (gotta start doing them again - I'm procrastinating on exercise at the moment...). Good luck with your surgery, and I hope you and your husband feel better soon :-)

Yes - that's what I do now - split or crush the 100mg tabs when I have to. I did take one XL pill since being banded, but I got a fill the next day and was worried about the size, so since then I've stuck to the 100mg ones. Interesting that you can't take the XL, Donna, because I found that the SR didn't work for me. Funny things, those brains

Obesity and depression and/or anxiety can go together so I imagine it's not unusual for a bariatric doctor to discover their patient is on an anti-depressant or anti-anxiety med. I had been on Wellbutrin for several years before going through with surgery, and my doctor didn't say anything about it. I still take it, though when I'm tight I have to take the 100mg tabs several times a day (instead of the extended or slow release tabs once a day), and split them or crush them. I don't see why it would affect your approval. Good luck!

Melinda - I'm not very far along in my banding journey, but before losing some weight if I stepped wrong or bent down to pick something up off the floor one or both of my knees would "pop out", leaving me unable to walk without immense pain for up to a couple days. I was using a cane almost all the time. Within a week after surgery, when I'd lost ~25 lb, I was able to stop using my cane and I noticed my knee joints didn't hurt as much when I bashed a foot against something. And after almost 50 lb I have a much higher activity level and my knees haven't "popped out" in at least a month. So yes, in my case, the repeated injuries have decreased dramatically with only a relatively small loss (okay, it's a freaking big loss ). Hope that helps, and good luck!

What I think is interesting (and to me shows that the appeals court didn't realize what they were doing) is that the way the decision is written, this ruling invalidates the public school programs that have catered to homeschoolers (and thus brought education $ back to school districts) because the students enrolled aren't physically in those centers full-time. And many private schools would be illegal, too, since they don't always hire certificated teachers. So in an effort to keep two children under dubious increased supervision of a public school (don't public school children suffer from undetected abuse?), the judges have potentially impacted the educational choices of hundreds of thousands of families. It's as if a public school teacher hit a child and a judge closed all the schools in the district/county/state to keep children away from the influence of potentially abusive teachers... Or put all infants/toddlers into daycare so parental abuse of a few could be better detected. I think it's extremely unlikely this will be anything but a CA issue, and I don't think it will impact CA for long. Most other states have clearly delineated regulations that spell out how parents can comply with compulsory attendance laws while homeschooling their children. The US Supreme Court has ruled several times about the constitutionality of parental choice in education, inclusive of homeschooling. I think this is a blip.