sleepyjean

You can't write off ALL of it, but you can write off some of it. This topic comes up periodically and some people finally went and looked it up. This is from the IRS website: This is only the relevant stuff. You can read the whole section here: http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc502.html

It's to get you used to eating with your new restriction. You have to relearn what and how much you can/can't eat.

I took Lortab - it was great! But I don't know if it has codeine or not.

It's too bad there's no way to correlate this poll with the length of time you've been banded because I think that would make a difference.

Ugh. I totally overate yesterday. It wasn't a bona fide binge like the good 'ole days, but it was way more than the 1-2 cups of food I'm supposed to be able to get down. I at an entire CPK chinese chicken salad and two enormous handfulls of graham crackers sticks in one sitting. *gag* I've only been banded a few months and I've already stopped paying attention. Not good. I called this morning to schedule another fill.

They've been doing the band a lot longer in Mexico than in the US, so Mexican surgeons tend to have a lot more experience with this particular kind of surgery. They also have relationships with cosmetic surgeons who can fix you up post-weightloss for a decent price.

I remember that. I don't remember if it was teh same girl who came here, wanting the same thing. I just remember she got really mad when people suggested ways for her to make money or finance the surgery (rather than just donating to the cause, I suppose.) Boy did she come to the wrong place. Everyone here has had to sacrifice in one way or another to get banded, so for her to come here and ask for money when she hadn't even tried to help herself got a lot of people fired up. :scalesno:

Those bastards! It's a good thing I have a router and a really really good anti-virus program.

They decide once they get inside and can see your stomach. Bigger stomach=bigger band (and vice versa). There should not be a difference in restriction if the doctor gives you the right size band.

I agree. It sounds like you've got adware or spyware. There are some good free programs out there that can take care of that for you - though heck if any of the names come to mind right now. What browser are you using? I used to use IE and was constantly getting adware, spyware, trojans, and pop-ups. I switched to mozilla firefox about 6 weeks ago and it is much better than IE and Netscape in that respect. And it's free.

I agree. Also, it seems to me like it would be pretty easy to make a fake card and it's not like they have the staff to monitor you. From a business perspective, I can't see that it makes a lot of sense for restaurants to honor the cards.

am i the only one who has no idea what a mini-emmi is?

RNY pro: you're just about guar-on-teed to get all of your excess weight off. It's practically fool-proof. This surgery has been performed for many more years in the US than the band so surgeons in general are more proficient at it. Plus, there's not much follow-up. You can chew like a normal person and have liquids with your meals if you want to. con: DUMPING. The weight comes off really fast, which increases the likelihood that you will have excess skin. The surgery is more invasive, more difficult to reverse, and as we've recently learned - your "pouch" will stretch to accomodate more food. You'll be dependent on Vitamins for the rest of your life and have to deal with things like dumping. Besides that, you are in danger of winding up with a dispropotionately large head. I don't know why that happens. I just know that it does happen to some people. Band pro: faster recovery time. less invasive, less expensive, weight loss is more gradual (yes- that's a pro for me!). It's easily reversible. You can have the band adjusted if you find yourself gaining or eating more than you should. Adjustments are no big deal. You'll have an easier time convincing your loved ones that the surgery isn't that dangerous. con: You may not start losing until your first fill, or you may require several fills to start your weight loss. You'll have a medical implant inside of your body for the rest of your life, so you may have to deal with things like erosion, leaks, or replacement. You also have to deal with PBing, sliming, gas, food getting stuck, and lots of other fun things.

That's my birthday! Good luck - it will be a great day for you :-)

There are two kinds of people who lose weight: those who want other people to notice and those who don't. However, there seem to be a lot more people in column A than column B! In fact, I think there are only three of us in column B: me, myself, and I. LOL! If it gives you warm fuzzies to have people notice, then that's awesome. I know you'll get lots and lots of positive comments as the weight comes off. For my part, I'm way too self concious to like it when people comment on my weight loss. It feels weird to know that there are people looking at my body and evaluating. And I can't help but think that if they've noticed I'm on the way down, they sure as hell noticed when I was on the way up. I guess I was the only one who was "surprised" to find out how much I really weighed before surgery.

As far as I'm concerned, getting more attention from guys is the only down-side of losing weight. When everyone else in jr. high was learning how to flirt and talk to boys, I was at home reading a book. I don't date, I never have. Nobody bothers me, and I'm comfortable with that. When guys start talking to me, as they have when I've been thin in the past, I don't like it. It makes me uncomfortable because it feels like all of a sudden these new expectations have been placed on me. And of course it bugs the hell out of me that all of a sudden I seem so much more "worthy" of other people's time. It creates such a tremendous discomfort inside me, that it has always contributed to regaining the weight. That's why I found myself a good therapist before I got into this whole thing. I'm not sure how life is going to be after I've lost the weight. I just hope I can deal with it better than I have in the past.

I've never heard of this policy before! Do a lot of restaurants give you a discount if you've had WLS?

I was banded on a Monday. I could've returned to work the following Monday, I felt well enough, physically. But I took one more day to rest up before going back to work on Tuesday.

I understand the reluctance. I felt it before my first fill. I think when many people first get banded, the weight comes off relatively easily. You gain momentum and feel kind of proud. Once you reach a point where you're not losing so easily and it's time to get a fill, it can make you feel a little bad because - what happened? Two weeks ago, the weight was falling off your body, and now nothing at all is happening. It can make you feel disappointed or even a little ashamed. It reminds you of all the times you've gone on a diet and failed. What is wrong with me? Why can't I just do this? Getting a fill means admitting and accepting that you can't do this all on your own. And even though we all realize that (otherwise we wouldn't be here) it can take time for that to really sink in. You have to reprogram your brain to know that this is different. It's not a diet. It's less about willpower (or lack thereof) than it's about using the tool. Embrace it. Get that fill and don't look back.

I noticed last month that about a week before T.O.M., I had 3-5 days where I felt out of control. My brain was screaming carbs! carbs! carbs! I couldn't seem to help myself and I was deathly afraid that I'd start bingeing and never stop. Just like the good old days. (NOT). But once Aunt Flo's train arrived at the station, the urge went away completely. Now I've accepted that every month, there are going to be a few days when I struggle and during that time I focus not on losing, but on maintaining. $%^&$# hormones!

I can WALK! I used to have pains in my legs so bad that I couldn't go even one block. Now I go on 45 minute walks around my neighborhood.

The other thing that's new is hunger pains. I get them every day now because I don't eat until my stomach tells me it's time. Prior to this, I'd say it'd been years since I felt actual physical hunger!

It will get better. For the first 5 days after I got banded, it was really painful. Whenever I moved, it felt like a red-hot poker jabbing into my gut. I literally wanted to scream out loud it hurt so bad. I sleep on my stomach so I was pretty miserable. I wound up taking drugs that knocked me out for most of that time. Lortab, I think it was called. Great stuff! A week after banding, I stopped taking the Lortab. it still hurt a little bit to lie down and stand back up, but it was tolerable. And for about a month after that, I'd get the odd unexpected twinge that made me catch my breath all of a sudden. It will get better gradually. Just make sure you're getting plenty of rest and doing as little as possible to strain your tummy muscles.

If you ask me, the best thing you can do is forget you ever heard that. This journey is tough enough without someone telling you from the get-go that you'll never lose all the weight you want to lose.