Wheetsin

You can eat fiber as long as the fibrous foods are compliant with your post-op diet. There are natural remedies too - some fruit juices, etc. And chewable fiber supplements as well as stool softeners, gentle laxatives (Miralax comes in a tasteless, dissolving powder), etc.

General guidelines are BMI 40+, or BMI 35+ with 2+ comorbidities. Just because you aren't aware of having comorbidities doesn't mean that you don't have any. And there are many, many exceptions to those general guidelines. Perhaps a full physical, which you will need anyway, to document anything that could be weight-related.

Cards do not guarantee that you can order off of the children's menu, receive discounts, etc. All the card does is state (claim) you have a band. Your mouth can do the exact same thing. If they don't accept you asking to order from the children's menu, they're probably not going to allow you to do it just because you have a homemade card that says the same thing. It is 100% a restaurant's choice whether or not non-children can order off of the children's menu. I think I would have oddly refused as well...

I've posted instructions a few times, try here: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/718744-post5.html

I'm wondering - if nothing is getting stuck, so you're not feeling pressure from the food in the "pouch," then what is it that's giving you the feeling of so tight i thought i was going to explode? You should not feel the band itself, or its tightness around your esophagus. Normally "tight" is a description used for one's ability to feel very small amounts of food or drink sitting in the esophagus. But if you are tight, you are not able to eat much or quickly, as you've said you can. I wonder if you're feeling something else, and calling it "tight"?

I didn't worry about protein until I was out of my clear liquids stage. When I added protein drinks I found - especially in the beginning - a brand called "Six Star" to be the best.

Call your doctor and tell them the pain is so much that you can't sit up, and is interfering with your normal life.

My suggestion is to do what you say - pay attention to your body when you're eating. It takes a lot of us a while to learn by trial and error. As for the second fill, mine was 3 weeks after my first. There aren't really many "rules" about how to progress your fills unless your surgeon has guidelines or you're experiencing restriction.

Doesn't happen to me. I couldn't really tell you if it happens to others. I've never heard of someone having to pull mucus out of their throats using their fingernails. Sounds like you have some serious drainage going on. May want to talk to your doctor about some things you could do.

I know people who do it, but it's a very bad idea. PBing and the gag reflux are different things.

You will likely experience times when you can eat faster, more, and a wider variety of foods than others. This isn't yet reason for paranoia, it's part of your body's natural fluctuations. I would say to let the majority rule on this one. Usually, are you adequately restricted and letting the one time with the jaffel make you rethink your restriction? Or usually do you find you're adequately satiated with a reasonable amount of food?

The biggest thing for me is to get at the root. Understanding that there is no "you made me angry," but only, "x happened and my reaction to it was anger" also helps me. So - I figure out what I'm angry about, and then I figure out why I'm angry. From there, is it something I can change? If yes, what do I need to do? If no, why am I angry about it? That's overs-simplified, it's not always quite that easy! But that's what I do - look at the roots of the problem, and then look at them in terms of my ability to effect change. I'm not one to feel better after talking about it. if anything, I'm more angry because I just had to relive the circumstances of my anger. So I internalize. But you can't just internalize and stop there, so I try to internalize only long enough to resolve.

My first not-working-for-family job was a telemarketer. What can I say, I was 17 and they paid like $15/hour at the time, and it was super easy work. At the time there were two big rules: 1) you must get "no" twice before you can end the call, and 2) you can never hang up without two no's. By leaving your phones idle, most likely they have to go get a supervisor to give them permission to hang up. Gotta love it. My husband is more patient than I. He will politely decline. I answer, and as soon as I hear that pause or click indicating my phone is transferring over I either hang up or tell them to take me off their DNC list. If they're the type to piss me off and try to talk over me (another strategy they're trained on doing), I will act interested, have them read the the rules countless times, ask a bunch of questions, then just say "Nah, not interested." Here's how you can handle the mail version of telemarketing. When you get junk mail, duct tape the entire envelope to a brick. Leave the address part visible (only put the tape on the sides of the envelope). Then take it to the post office and tell then you are declining delivery. It is shipped back to the sender at their expense. :laugh:

Possible? Yes. Adviseable? No.

You should have told her it was reprehensible for her to lie about her son having a condition as sad as autism can be, just so that she could get the larger family room.

I think most surgeons advise seeking an anti-emitic. You get get them OTC but rx is also available. Perhaps call your surgeon and see what their practice is with this. Vomiting *can* post a potential risk to the band.

The average "entree" at most restaurants is enough to serve 3.6 people. Low-carb usually means high-fat. You just won't find many items that are low in both, outside of liquids. I had an interesting meeting with a dietician once. She told me that the Applebee's caesar salad (may not even be there now, this was about 6 yrs ago) had more fat in it than 3 sticks of butter, and more calories than an entire pie.

It's not the stomach directly, but involves the stomach. That's why the recovery food stages go from little action on behalf of the stomach (liquids) to full action (solids) progressively. Our bands need the scar tissue to develop - this is the "glue." The less the stomach has to work, the less motion elsewhere and the more the scar tissue can form. Here's another explanation, much more eloquent than mine. When you see advice on eating "so the stomach can heal" it's basically a semantic error. There is no healing of the stomach itself, but rather controlling the stomach so that the band area can heal correctly. (That's the long story short).

Sorry, haven't been around lately. "The Thing" is definitely the camera. It always is. Anytime he alludes to wanting to buy me something, I KNOW it's the camera. So my husband usually leaves work around 3:30. I made sure to be home by 3:45 so that if he had dinner plans involving anything special I'd have time to change & get ready. He doesn't get home until like 4:30 so I know right away that he has gone somewhere between work and home. And I hear a bag crinkling when he walks in, and he won't let me downstairs. Then I see it's a Wal-Mart bag. The camera would have been #1 bad gift, and I think anything from Wal-Mart has to be #2. So I end up getting: * Birthday card * Birthday card * Valentine's day card * "Just because" card (Rather than have to try and write his feelings, my husband tends to just buy as many cards as it takes to feel they will adequately express himself for him). And... * A huge bag of Reese's pieces (because I'm trying to lose weight and all) * A paperback book So (phew) I didn't get the camera, nor did I get anything worth sharing. Such is life with my husband during any special occasion.

Oh yeah - see lots of people going off their antideps to avoid this issue, which is a really bad idea. Here's part of an article you may find helpful: Mention it to your doctor. I know it can be personal/embarassing, but I promise you're not the first one to ask about it. Probably not event he first person that day. :eek:

3 is too tight, 2.5 is a bit loose. I'm at 2.75 (I think) and doing fine.

I need to do something like that (consignment). I've been saying that for like a year. I have 10 sizes' worth of wardrobes because I bought all new everything for each and every size I lost. Including shoes, jackets, etc. We have rented a storage shed and - I'm not joking - at least 80% of it is full of my clothes. My husband has a full-sized truck and it took us 13 trips, piling the bins & bags in the back, to get everything there. And I STILL have about 8 bags here around the house. I used to know the count, but I'm going to guess there's the equivalent of 35+ large "lawn & leaf" bags of clothes in there. I'm a total clothes whore and didn't worry about saving money, it was my celebration. So my question is - selling consignment - never did it. Do I just drop stuff off, they pay me one price (like a bulk purchase), then resell it higher to make their own profit? Or do I get a percentage as each item sells? I wonder if there's a limit to how many things I could take at one time because I pretty much have a whole boutique.

I love my spanx. I'm not going to need plastic surgery because I'll just keep wearing 2 sizes too small, and my clothes will act as a compression garment - squeeze that skin right back into place. That's my plan anyway. I like the spanx "higher power" panties but I don't like that, if you pull them high, and then have to bend over, they'll roll right back down. At least mine do. And I like the ones from LB that look kinda like 80s biker shorts and have rings of rubber in the leg to hold them in place, BUT when you wear long pants under them and have fat thighs like me, they give you the thigh's version of muffin top. Loaf top? And spanx keep your butt from eating your underwear. My new thing are tummy tuck jeans. Kind of an all in one package, and they feel good on. And usually I have an issue with jeans having "crotch bag" (the folds and folds of loose fabric in the crotch area), and these fit nicely.

This is why I love my job's flexibility and telecommuting. It doesn't matter when I start work or quit, as long as my job is done. If I'm in the office, I'm in whenever I want to be, usually by 9:30. If I'm not, I'm working at home in my robe - usually available around 7:15. It has been several years since I've had a job that required set office hours, but I seem to remember not having any problems. I always liked getting in early & being able to leave early, so traffic was never a huge issue. Just not liking to wake up.

It doesn't mean the shirt is too tight, it could be the way it's meant to hang. It's hard to tell. For me, I let how it fits in my arms/neck by the gauge. If something is really baggy in my armpit area, it's also going to be baggy in my neck. As for something more objective... The key way is the shoulder seams. The shoulder seam should start at the end of your shoulder. If it hangs below, it's too loose and if it's up higher or tight in through the armpits, it's too small.