NanaRenan

....and I sure 'ATE' my way to this point! Now I just need to get banded THIS MONTH! We tried on the 2nd. And we tried on the 7th. Now, everybody, QUICK -- cross your fingers, say a prayer, light a candle, whatever you can do to help -- PRAY we get to do the surgery this Tuesday -- August 14th. :sick Since I'm SICK of Protein shakes -- I picked this for my crazy hat, okay?? Pam<----going off to browse, I think I have a REAL photo of me in a hat I can put up!

And here I was confident that choosing LapBanding over Gastric Bypass insured there'd be no noticable hair loss!!:ranger: Yikes!:omg: My hair is almost to my knees and is already HALF the thickness it was 20 years ago!! I'm not sure WHAT it will look like if I lose a bunch after surgery!!! I'll be borrowing my daughter's "Hair and Nails" Vitamins from GNC....they really do seem to help hers grow faster! Maybe they'll help me hold on to mine.

One thing to keep in mind with any forum.....there is an unknown percentage of people who have the surgery, do great and never come back to report on it. Whereas if you have difficulties, you want everyone to know about it. So, there will always be a disproportionate number of 'horror stories' to read through. (Sorta like when you're pregnant and everyone has a nightmare tale to tell you! -- and I'm sure there are other analogies as well.) There are a LOT of positive stories here, you just have to make sure to pay attention to them and give them equal credence.l

I think someone mentioned this earlier. The one that nearly killed me -- LITERALLY, I'll die from the after affects if I don't get banded and soon! -- was THE T-FACTOR DIET! The 'anti-Atkins', if you will. Their big pitch was, "You can eat 47 baked potatoes with nothing on them for the fat that's in one hamburger". Aye carumba, when I think of all the nasty baked potatoes I ate WITH NOTHING ON THEM.....!??!?!? And Pasta and rice with nothing on it!!! I could've been eating HAAGEN-DAAS and I wouldn't have gained as much! If we'd known back then (late 80s, early 90s) that my mother was diabetic, I would've done a little research and realized that all those carbs were NOT a good idea. But by the time she was diagnosed I'd gained over 100 lbs eating bland, tasteless carbs!!:faint: Oh, well, live and learn!! I've been screeching ever since I found out that that stupid food pyramid is a death-sentence to pre-diabetics. Thank goodness there's finally some reform happening!!

I'm still not banded -- this week, prayers lifted! BUT, I've dieted enough to know my body and if I restrict too much for too long, it'll shut down on me. All appetite disappears and the losing stops. I HAVE TO 'cheat' for a day or two to get myself kickstarted again! Problem is -- unbanded -- the 'cheat' can snowball and lead from a 'day or two' to a 'week or two' and pretty soon, I've put the weight I lost back on. And my body is proud -- it successfully foiled another starvation attempt!!! My prayer is, with this TOOL (the band!) I will be able to keep those 'cheats' in proportion and under MY control. Pam<----tired of my body always getting the upper hand!

I've seen this phrase in several threads today and am uncertain what it means. Anyone care to explain what it means to 'eat around the band"...??:hungry: I'm assuming it's not a good thing.

I 'married' the romantic and realized I'd found a 'best friend'. We've been together 28 years and I love him a bazillion times more than I did when I was a starry-eyed bride! He's not 'romantic' in the classical sense. Not a lot of candy or flowers. But he always makes sure the air pressure in my tires is exact and that I get regular oil changes! And he never forgets to take out the garbage. That's okay with me!! Those things have to be done....I can buy my own candy and grow my own flowers!! Recommended read: Five Languages of Love by Gary Chapman

Hmmmm....either I'm blessed to live near a really great Wal-Mart or my personal standards are horribly low and I just don't realize it! :omg: LOL 28 years ago when I started keeping house, Wal-Marts were dinky-ish things you had to drive to really small towns to find. Then about 21 years ago, or so, I happened to live just a few miles from one of the first "SuperCenters" in the country -- it was called HyperMart. I guess I never got over the novelty of doing all my shopping in one location!! All these years later, I still do the bulk of my shopping at Wal-Mart. As to their treatment of employees, through the years I've known several people who work there and I haven't heard any worse complaints about them than any other retail store. I do think the demise of independantly-owned businesses is a shame -- but Wal-Mart is only partly responsible. We'd have to lambaste Home Depot, Lowe's, Target, and a couple of dozen other corporations, too.

Okay. I see. Thanks! Now -- what's a NSV?

Okay -- that's in Pasadena, right? Very close to where I'm going to have my banding done. Wish I'd read this in time to make it last night. Prolly won't feel like it if I am successful in getting my band on Tuesday! Maybe some of us could meet at the Target at 518 and 288!!!! Anybody game??:clap2:

I'm scheduled for Tuesday, August 14 -- this is my third attempt!!! I'm determined to try it however many times it takes!

Calcium is the most common culprit in leg cramps. Suplement with calcium any time you're going to be exercising or increasing your usual activity. I've been taking it for 25 years, since I was pregnant with my second child. The only times I've had leg cramps is when I got complacent and went off the regimen.

I've been shot out of the saddle TWICE inside of a week! First time, there was an oversight in the paper work and the cardiologist who referred me without actually clearing me was out of town until this week, so I was told to get dressed and go home last Thursday, minutes from the OR!:phanvan We found another cardiologist to give his blessing and today I made it TO the OR table and was out. They tried unsuccesfully to intubate me. By the time they realized they needed to use Fiber optic guidance, I was bleeding and swelling too badly for THAT to work, SO, they sent me home AGAIN --- still unbanded! **sigh**:faint: I'm just curious -- had anyone else had this happen,....once? TWICE?? Or am I just some freak of nature!!:help:

Today I'm feeling it -- throat sore, mouth all bruised up. I waited until almost noon to call the surgeon's office. They were wondering if my husband and I were so upset we'd decided to blow off the whole thing! I learned that the surgeon talked to the hospital director and told him he didn't EVER want to work with that anesthesiologist again! SO, I'm back on the schedule for this coming Tuesday -- I should be sufficiently healed by then. Dr. Miranda is bring in an anesthesiologist of HIS choice as well as a respiratory specialist to do the intubation. And I'm at the head of the schedule, not second or third place! Thanks for the support!

And it's completely possible to be raised an only child and still be starved for attention. These kids will always have someone to turn to AND someone to care for. I doubt they're any more likely to end up in rehab than anyone else's kids -- probably LESS likely.

I'm not sure. I had hernia surgery 13 months ago -- and have gained about 25 pounds since then...perhaps that could create the difference. I'm not sure. Tomorrow I'm calling my doctor's office back and asking if this is the only anesthesiologist I have to choose from. Again with the anesthesiologist----he was the one who caught the absence of the cardio's paper work and made a HUGE deal out of it. Today he wanted to know if I'd had the test done. I answered truthfully "No. The new cardiologist said I didn't need the test." He said, 'WHAT new cardiologist?" I explained that when the old one couldn't be reached until this week, my GP had found one who could see me and do the test last Friday....BUT, upon examining me and taking my history, he determine the test wasn't necessary. The anesthesiologist said, "You can't just do that!" and flounced off to call this new guy and/or rant to my surgeon. Either way, he came back and signed off on me. I can't help but be uneasy at the thought of facing HIM again. Sorry to check anyone's reality -- but no matter how much you might love your surgeon; the hospital staff and/or anesthesiologist may be a whole 'nuther ball game! Pam<----sorry, I'm rambling here!

I suppose that's one way of looking at it. OTOH, this could enable her to get a grip on better eating habits at a young age and spare her years or mental and emotional abuse and physical break-down. It's a simple fact that the longer you are fat, the longer it takes you to adjust. Would we really want her to experience 15 or 20 years of what we've been through before we 'approve' of what's she's doing? I've been told by more than one doctor that lap-banding is now common practice for adolescents in other countries -- because they know the sooner the domino-effect of obesity is arrested, the better the patient's long term prognosis.

The latest is -- I GOT SENT HOME AGAIN!!!! :cry This time I was out and in the OR when they made a mess trying to intubate. By the time they realized they needed Fiber optic help, I was too bloody and swollen to proceed. So....I was sent home to wait until I healed and we'll try again next week.

I got cancelled mere minutes before surgery last Thursday. Got everything sorted out and I am now back on for TOMORROW!!! I'm excited! Plus, I'm about to go have lunch -- possibly my last Diet Coke ever, actually -- with my first IRL friend from LBT!!! How cool is that!!?!

I admire and respect the Duggars. I know that I could not do what they do. But God saw fit to give me four and no more. As long as they are willing and He keeps blessing them, more power to them. At least those are 17 children who won't grow up believing they are entitled to have everything they can want or imagine handed to them. (I recently watched the show about them building their dream home -- they ALL had a hand in doing the work.) It seems they are being taught a form of unselfishness and self-sufficiency that hasn't been seen on a grand scale since the kids who grew up in the Depression Era. Those of us who followed them have a lot to learn about work-ethic and caring for others. Myself included. My husband and I had four -- with almost everyone against me having more than two. "You've got a boy and a girl, why would you want more? That's the perfect family!" Perfect for WHO? They had to do with less and learn to share more than most of their friends -- and still there is a measure of selfishness and jealousy. Some children frighten me with their insatiability. Sorry -- guess I'm just in a rambling mood. I'll hush now.

Instructions say to not drink with a straw to reduce the amount of air your swallow. But my blender sure whips a lot of air into my Protein shakes. And if I let it 'sit' a spell, then the protein filters to the bottom and I end up with a sort of sludge in the bottom of the glass. Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks! I'm so glad I'm not the only one!! I'm just surprised there isn't more said about it. I'm not much of a burper usually -- one I am doing a lot more than ever drinking these shakes. Of course, post-surgery I won't be drinking them as quickly, but still.....

Oh Mert!! I'm so touched you were thinking of me today!! But it didn't happen. Have to talk to the cardiologist and maybe have a nuclear stress test done before he'll sign off -- but he's out of town until Monday. So there was nothing to do but take out the IV, get dressed and go home. It was a SAD day. But I'm better today.

I got knocked out of the ball game very early with Dr. Speigel because he quit accepting Aetna PERIOD. I called Dr. Spivak's office, but when I happily announced that I'd met Aetna's criteria for lap-band, I was told that Dr. Spivak believes if you meet Aetna's Criteria for lap-band, you are not a good candidate for lap-band and he won't operate. What the....?????? So, I just gave up for a while. Then the diabetes came on. Then a heart condition acted up. My cardiologist referred me to Dr. Miranda and altho' I haven't been banded YET, they (and he!) have been nothing but marvelous to me so far.

Oh, and btw--I've only got a couple weeks clearance and my approval by Aetna could 'go away'!!!