NanaRenan

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'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'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.

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'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:

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.

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.....

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?

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'!!!

If you have ANY co-morbidities and see specialists for them, make sure that THEY have done every test or procedure and have cleared you for surgery. I was literally five minutes from being on the operating table when the anesthesiologist discovered there was no clearance document in my folder. His office was contacted and because he was out of town and my file there showed I'd never done a nuclear stress test that he mentioned once MONTHS ago....they couldn't authorize it. I was told to get dressed and go home. I was SO disappointed -- and I wouldn't want that to happen to ANYONE! So please make sure!

btw--skyeblu79.... If you don't mind my asking, why five months before your first fill?

That's the only one I can drink AS IS. I have to add a little strawberry yogurt or something to the Atkins Advantage Vanilla. I'm not big on 'sweet' tastes -- I did not get to be 321 lbs eating Cookies, candy and ice cream, I promise! It was Pasta, rice and potatoes that did this to me! And I just can't bear the thought of drinking 'shakes' ALL day long. So I bought 100% Any Whey Protein at the Vitamin Shoppe -- its pretty much tasteless and I can add it to Soups, grits, etc. I've tried it several different ways already and its gonna be quite doable, I think.

Thanks, Schexy! You are right about everything! LOL Well, I'm blessed to be surrounded by Sonic Drive-Ins where I live. They're are the best, but their Vanilla Syrup isn't sugar free, so its my big indulgence. At home, and at night, I make my own with Diet Caffeine-Free Coke and Sugar Free Vanilla Syrup I get on the coffee aisle at the supermarket. I even buy bags of the crushed ice from Sonic and will recycle their big styrofoam cups for days!! Tho'd I'd had my last one -- possibly EVER -- yesterday! But it was the first thing I said to hubby when we schelpped to the car -- me in tears -- this morning! ""TAKE ME TO SONIC!""

Why not!?! I got no where else to go! I did even suggest that hubby drop me off at a motel so I could just hibernate -- I really don't want to be around anybody and explain everything umpteen times. :ranger: You guys get to be the lucky ones.

I did nothing. :cry Got cancelled just as I was being wheeled from pre-op to OR. Cardiologist referred me for surgery, but never cleared me and he couldn't be reached -- out-of-town until next week. Color me 'bummed'. :help:

Despite my anxiety attacks yesterday, I was sleeping well when hubby's pager went off at 4 AM this morning. No biggie that I couldn't go back to sleep. And even better when I got the call to come immediately, surgeries scheduled ahead of me had been cancelled. Yippee! I get there, get gowned up, IV inserted, blood draw, X-rays done, etc., etc., etc. Literally about 5 minutes out of OR they find an important test was not performed months ago and the cardiologist is out of town until next week. So I'm told to get dressed and go home. I've cried myself dry of tears several time today. I know that "all things work together for good to them that love God", and I'm sure I'll look back and see things differently, but I'm just so sad right now. And its one of those things everyone around has no clue about. I think they feel like someone cancelled Christmas on a child. But its so much more than that. I feel like I was drowning in the middle of the ocean and for a week I had hold of a rope that was going to save me, but today that rope got snatched away and the boat sailed off and I don't know when it's coming back around again. The good news is, I didn't do what I WANTED to do with that sort of misery.... :hungry: Instead I drowned my sorrows in a vanilla Diet Coke and cried myself to sleep. **sigh** Anyone experience this happening?

Thank you, you are so right. In fact, I think I will probably have something akin to "survivor's guilt" as I encounter people who need this as bad or worse than I do/did. I hope it will spur me on to be truly and permanently successful! P.S. I was actually able to go to sleep and was sound asleep when hubby's work phone went off at 4 AM!!!