Trishadish

Hi Diane! Glad to see your post. I've been sort of MIA lately too. Just burning the candle at both ends with not much time to post. Glad to hear that Hannah was more of a dud for everyone. Thank goodness! Actually, it was great to be housebound yesterday afternoon and get caught up on projects. I'm in need of a fill...weight loss has stopped, but, to be fair, exercise has fallen victim to my busy schedule and I haven't fit it in. So, tomorrow is another day and hopefully I'll get back on track. Take care everyone.

Hang in there, Kat. I hope your stomach calms down for you and that it isn't a slip. Be careful in your travels! Betty: I am so happy that you are doing better. Welcome to the newbies! Hey, where's everyone else hidin' ? Happy Labor Day everyone!

Gosh, Betty, I'm so so sorry to hear this. Please be strong! You are in my thoughts and prayers. Get well soon!

Glad your yardsale went well on at least one of the days! They are soooo much work. I moved into my house a year ago and keep saying that I should have one. Too much stuff and need to get rid of it! Good to hear that you are flexible with meeting up one day soon. Now, if I only wasn't so over-extended all the time!!! I'm in Mercer County one day a month for a meeting, but now I have to get back by 6:00 pm for a class. That only goes through December, so we'll have to see what we can work out. Where are you in relation to Woodbridge? I used to work at the Parkway several years ago. Too long of a commute from Burlington County at that time. :smile2:

Micheale, Positive thoughts and prayers are with you! Come here to vent anytime. Sherry, what a visit with the bariatric folks you had! Hang in there and hopefully their initial guess about "eating the bandster way" will do the trick. Betty boop! Or, shall I say Betty Boobs! Hope you are doing well and can come back to check in real soon! Been thinking about you! :smile2: Take care everyone!

I have had only one fill so far and definitely need another. I called today and got approval to get another and would be given the "first available" appointment. It is September 29th! AARGH! I guess this is one problem of dealing with a major university hospital. Bureacracy! :eek: I have been at a plateau for 3-4 weeks. Lost 31 lbs after surgery but it hasn't moved since. Surely I have responsibility here because I can eat much more than I should be eating. But, if I had willpower, I wouldn't have needed the band. (Nothing compared to pre-band, but more daily calories than I need!) Anyway, I am glad to hear you are all doing well. I tried to contribute a post the other day and had my first experience of losing my post in cyberspace! I'll try to post more....we June folks need to stay in touch!

I know what you mean....I have been up late every night watching! Hey, I'd like to have your pickle recipe! Did you do the full canning process, or are they refrigerator pickles? A couple of years ago, I tried canning them with the whole Water bath process and they came out so salty. I want crispy, crunchy and garlicky!!! How's everyone else doing? We've been just a little quiet here on our NJ Chat board lately, myself included. On my home front, things are looking much better and just getting back to normal. Work is really busy as I work for a college and we are gearing up for the start of a new year. I work in HR, but I just agreed to teach a class once a week on Fridays. (Thinking I need $ for Christmas!) Plus, since my Friday nights are unfortunately kind of boring (definitely no chance of a night of fun "reckless abandon" for this chickee! LOL...) I'm envious of you other NJ girls getting together, but I am way down south here in no man's land bordering Delaware. Only every once in a while do I get a meeting or such that requires to travel northward. Well, here's my shout out to everyone! Let's hear from you. :wink2:

Good: Losing 31 lbs within 2 months of surgery. Losing more than 10% of your body weight really makes a difference right away. Feeling great now, not noticing the band and just letting it do its job. Knowing that one year from now, with hard work, I will to be down 100 lbs. Bad: At 49, feeling like I was hit by a Mack Truck for the first few days after surgery. Ugly: Knew this, but dealing with plateau’s and the reality that this is not a magic bullet that it takes hard work and exercise. It is just a tool.

Ditto! Thanks to everyone for their thoughts, prayers and positive energy! Mom is doing so much better and was released from the hospital this weekend. She's weak, but is on the road to a solid recovery. She may be 80, but she's the "energizer bunny" normally, and thankfully the bunny will make a showing in the near future! There appears to be no cancer and her heart activity is stable/controlled. :crying: I'm exhausted, but looking forward to things getting back on track at home and with my band. Today's a hectic day...trying to work out the logistics of getting my Dad & kids to a Phillies game today. I had bought the tickets about a month ago at an extremely inflated price. I bribed my BIL to go in my place as I stay home with Mom. My Dad is starting to complain right now of a stomach ache (he always does this when he has something to do, especially if it involves crowds). So, who knows, I'll probably end up at the game if he doesn't go. (Gosh, I hope not!) Anyway, I'll catch up more and read through the posts more later today. Thanks again everyone! Major "hugs" to all!

LOL Actually that was wishful thinking, out loud, on my part. I'm lonely for adult company when the boys are with me...I'm not sure I'd survive alone! After this last trip, one of the girls in my department at work said that she and a few others were going to make me go on a girls weekend. So, maybe it will happen after all. I can wish, right? Right now I'm still dealing with issues at home. My Mom had her medical procedure on Monday and has been in intensive care since. Good news is maybe not cancer after all, bad news is that she's had major cardiac issues since the procedure and some significant internal bleeding. Trying to keep positive thoughts here though!

Hope you don't mind... Thought I'd go ahead and start a July chat. Hope everyone is doing well! :biggrin2:

Ditto to this! Jess, you have done tremendous. My new hero....losing on vacation! You really have had great success. Kudos to you! Michaele: Welcome! I'm a relative newbie here too. The more the merrier! Betty: Rested, heck no! I returned to work on Thursday and they finally relocated my office while I was gone. (I've been trying to have things moved for months....) I still have lots of unpacking to do! Did you say 106 degrees? Yikes!!! We've been having our share of t-storms lately. The positive...my lawn no longer looks like the Sahara. :Banane34: Sherry: What's cookin' this weekend? Or, rather what's on tap? Pat: You are always so busy doin' something here and there! You must have great energy. Kat: I almost got to visit our local rodeo tonight for the 1st time. (They are Saturday nights only, Summer only). T-Storms has put it on hold until next weekend. Glad to see you back on this board! Donna: Good luck with your fill. I think that I will be needing another soon. I feel as if I can still eat more than I should. I was hoping that I could be one of those that needed just one fill. Not realistic though... Glad to hear you had a great vacation too. My next vacation is minus my kids! Diane: How's it going? You've had great success too! This question is for you and all the others that have lost...do you still steadily lose now or does it plateau the closer you get to goal? Or, do you mindfully plateau because you are comfortable at your current weight? I finally had my first "clean out" of my closet today. It's taken 31lbs for me to start to toss some of my current sized clothes. Yesterday at work, my side-zippered pants hung like pajama pants. So, they are going in the goodwill bag. They used to fit like "skin on a baloney!" LOL I have about a large trashbag full. Now, I just will have to work through the several sizes of clothes that I have sadly hung on to. It will be fun once my closet shrinks and I can fill it up with new clothes! (Okay, thats probably about 1 1/2 years away!)

Hola, Just returned from a two day road trip with my sons. As a result, I'm thinking now that there should be no more trips until they are through their teenage years. Tried to do this on a budget. Yesterday, was a visit to a great family amusement park. My sons said they wanted the "all day pass" ($30 each) rather than pay by ticket. To make a long story short, they rode 4 rides which would have cost me 8 bucks if we used tickets, but instead cost me $60 because they insisted they wanted the all day pass. I'm still ticked off!!! Then, on the way home today we did 2 free factory tours...a brewery and Herr's potato chips. (I was determined to go CHEAP today, especially after the amusement park fiasco). Suffice it to say, I was very happy to get home. I had my first fill on Monday. They would only put in 2 cc's in the 10cc band. Before it was even finished the nutritionist was whispering to me to call in a couple weeks if I'm not restricted enough. She said they are very conservative in their approach. It was done under fluoro with a barium swallow. Went very well. I do notice that I'm satisfied with less food sooner, but it is still well over 1/2 cup. Maybe even 1 cup. That's too much I think. That's it for now! I'll catch up more later. Glad to see everyone back. Especially you vacationers!

I have my first fill tomorrow and I have high hopes (I know -- probably not realistic) that a little fill will help with this hunger. I have been way above my calorie allowance of 1200 per day. Not enough to really gain, but enough not to be losing. We've had a number of storms here in NJ so I have not been able to do my daily outdoor walk at the park. On the positive side, I just got a Wii Fit for my birthday, and it is absolutely so much fun. So, I'm getting a little activity in for now! Hang in there June bandsters!

Hey all! I have been away at, er what do you call it, Bandster Hell? Gosh, I have been so hungry and have been giving in. I was doing so well staying at 1200 calories a day. The last week or so I'm at 1600-1750! Yikes! I have my first fill tomorrow. I'm a little nervous and I am very hopeful that a little fill will make a big difference. I have to look up what the post-fill instructions are...I think I have to be on liquids for a day then mushies for a few. Did you all have to do the something similar? My birthday was earlier this month and I was patiently waiting for my present which is a Wii Fit. It came a few days ago and it really is fun. Initially, my Wii Fit age was 65!!!! After going through some of the training exercises, etc, it is at a respectable 33. Whew! I had a week with one son away at boy scout camp, but the other decided to stay home. He was very lost without his brother. Unfortunately, with a busy work schedule I couldn't entertain him with things to keep busy in the evening. So, he is glad his brother is home. We are going away overnight on Tuesday to an amusement park in upstate Pennsylvania for a quick, cheapie roadtrip vacation. We'll do something again next month to sneak away for a long weekend or something. I'll be back tomorrow after my fill! :teeth_smile:

I use thedailyplate.com too. Really helps alot. If you want to edit the serving size that is showing on your plate or you want to choose the time of day that it was eaten, click the serving size to adjust. This will also open the drop down screen to indicate the meal or snack if you choose. If you want to remove an item, there is a red "X" to the right of the item. Hope this is what you needed....

Betty, Last Sunday I jumped in the pool for the first time since surgery. It was almost 5 weeks since surgery. My doctor actually said 6-8 weeks but I thought that was a bit much. I put bandaids over my incisions as a precaution but they were cheapo ones and were dangling when I took off my wet bathing suit. Hopefully it wasn't too soon for me to swim. I did try to do some Water aerobics and boy did I feel it all week. So, maybe that was not too smart of me to do. I love my pool. That was one of my kids' stipulations when we moved last year. There's one big drawback though. We have a medium sized decorative waterfall and pond behind the pool area. EVERY night a large frog sits on the top step of the pool then proceeds to take a lap or two before promptly exiting the pool. It is so gross! It seems to time this every night when I am letting my dog out for his final business of the day. Of course, this makes the dog crazy. This happened almost every day last summer and is happening again. At the end of last year, my son scooped out this large frog and chucked him about 100 ft + into the marshes. Must of spent the year working his way back LOL.

Pat, Diane & Donna: You girls look great! Sounds like you had a blast of an afternoon. I'm jealous. Donna, so you really are a Jersey girl! I am very familiar with the areas you mentioned. Before I moved down here, I was working at a college in Trenton and commuted from Burlington County. My sister is a real estate agent in Moorestown where your brother lives. I miss Burlington County but am getting used to it here. New Jersey is such a small state but it is very regional in nature. You made me laugh with the picnic! I bought a funny cookbook a few years ago with the same title of your picnic... :biggrin2: Sherry: How's the reflux? Any better? I miss your updates! It's been challenging here at home. I have my parents (83 & 80) living with me along with my soon to be 14 yo twin boys. My Mom has had some health issues and may possibly be dealing with cancer. A final test/surgical procedure will confirm or dismiss this in early August. Add to that the fact that they had investments in that failed bank (Indymac) and the stress level has been over the top at my house. :drool: So.... it's been fun. Not! I'm still plugging away with maintaining 1200 calories a day. Today, though, I definitely over did it. I went with some girls from work to Bennigan's and ordered from the appetizer menu. BUT...when I tried to look up the calories it was WAY HIGH. Ugh. Anyway, one day of failure and I feel really yucky. This was the feeling in the past that would make me throw in the towel. Obviously I can't and won't this time, but its hard to break old habits and responses. :thumbup: Tomorrow is a new day!

Hey....where did everybody go? Helloooo?

I have not had my first fill yet and I am definitely struggling with the hunger. I'm trying to stay at 1200 calories at day, sometimes a little less sometimes a little more. My first fill is scheduled for 7/28. I sure hope it helps! On the positive side I am down 27 lbs in 5 weeks! I ending up dusting off my bike and pumping up the tires (although my son says I still flatten the back one out when I sit on the seat... teenagers can be so sweet :embaressed_smile: ) I took a 15 minute spin in my neighborhood. I was wobbly at first but I did pretty good! Only thing is, my legs were so shaky when I got off the bike. It felt like I just stepped off roller skates! Yikes! Let's hope each time gets easier and easier.

One thing that my nutritionist mentioned at my pre-op class is that we'll all discover at some point that a food will be absolutely fine on one occasion and the next time its eaten it can be a problem. No explanation other than "don't be surprised if this happens...."

I'm from Salem County, formerly from Burlington County. Traveled to Hosp. Univ of Penn for surgery. (actually <25 miles from my home)

Wow, my surgeon must be extremely conservative...I was told no sooner than 6-8 weeks after surgery. I've been counting down with just 9 more days to go!

One more thing.... Has anyone had this problem? My stitches are the dissolvable type that are supposed to be internal. THAT's the problem...on the edge of 2 incisions there is stitch material sticking out. Ever so slightly, probably just one stitch, but there nonetheless. I tried pulling on one because I figured that the end that was inside of me probably had disintegrated already. Nope. (Okay, in retrospect, probably stupid to have done that). I'm hoping that they just need to be snipped and I probably could just go to my family doctor. Anyone have this problem?