HeatherO

I have never watched Modern Family but I am going to have to check it out now. I didn't know about Glee until it was mentioned here and I looovveee that show. :0)

Judy, I went to look for Under the Dome at the bookstore adn couldn't find it. You have gotten me in the mood for Stephen King again. His books are like candy for me. I love to read them because they fly by and are so interesting. The only one I didn't really care much for was called Gerald's Game or something like that. The weather is really getting beautiful here and Ayla and I have been out and about lately to enjoy it. So I went home last night and my husband is whispering dramatically to me . . . I wanna show you something. He told me that my son is on Youtube, lol. So I looked it up as fast as possible. It was actually rather cute. It was a commercial for speech. He is wearing the gray shirt with the red stripe on it. If you want to see it, it is here (but don't tell him I told you about it since I am not supposed to know, lol)

Lol, isn't that what you call them after you have had a couple . . . or a tower in the 'ville. :ohmy:

LOL, Michelle . . . you must be the 'mom extraordinaire' since I didn't even know his name and I have a wee one at home. Actually, the only thing Ayla watches is Yo Gabba Gabba but she loves, loves, loves it. When the theme song goes off, the world could be ending behind her and she wouldn't even notice, lol. Also I am happy that Mo has a new perky personality. After those all too miserable days, he deserves it.

Lol, I don't know what it is but there is nothing worse than getting woken up a few minutes before you have to get up. That drives me nuts.

It is the big black hole that sucks everyone mercilessly in. :0)

I had a similar problem at one time. It is true that you may not lose as much if you are too tight . . . but you have to make good choices when you have less restriction. I was wondering, did your doctor just give you an unfill or did he do a flouroscopy or barium swallow along with it? I was wondering because reflux occurs when you are too tight but you were eating larger volumes of food. I was just wondering if your pouch might have been dilated while you were too tight. If so, leaving the band more open is very important and may be necessary for some time to get your stomach back in shape.

At the risk of sounding like a commercial, I just wanted to mention that there are over-the-counter cherry chewable tabs called Nausene that are really helpful for this and are band friendly. I have used them a few times over the last few years and they have helped. I found them at Walmart and the local grocery store so they must be fairly common. I hope you feel better soon.

Hang in there!!! We all struggle . . . even those of us who have been at this for years. Just pick yourself up, dust off and keep trying again. Good luck.

LOL, I have been away for a bit but am back. Trying to play catchup on posts but ran out of time. Haydee, I saw your engagement pics and they were wonderful. :0) As far as your last post, there is a boob pic popping up on posts? I must have missed that one, lol. Pam, thanks for the message on FB. I have been sooo busy lately I haven't been able to keep up with everything. Laura, I am happy you made it to Vegas. I had to laugh with your comment about how wheelchairs make everyones rear at eye level. It just never occurred to me. I hope you are feeling much better. Also I loved Carson's birthday pics on FB. :0) The cake turned out great and I love that you were all wearing veggie tale shirts. As far as the question a few pages back about getting Ayla to take the Augmentin . . . I never discovered a good way to give it to her. It was a knock-down, drag-out battle everytime. The only thing I did learn to do is to leave the edge of the syringe in her mouth until she swallowed or else she would purse her lips and spew it all out. The worse part is that the dose size means you have to give it to her several times to get a dose in, twice a day for 10 days . . . we all hated it. Judy, I am happy the cortisone shot gave you such great relief. Everyone else, hello and I hope you are having a great week. I will probably have more to say once I catch up on the posts I missed. :0)

Michelle, I have been in the same situation where there was no focal point to the loss of a loved one. In that case, we just did something as a family such as a nice dinner, lighting candles, looking through photos, talking about old times. Also every year we spend an evening to "honor our ancestors" where we talk about and pay tribute to those who have passed before us. However, not everyone is an ancestor, sometimes it includes friends who have passed that had a special impact on our lives. Every family does things differently, but this aspect was important to us. My heart and prayers are still going out to you and your family. Haydee, You are my idol this week :0). Please send some of that motivation my way, it would be most appreciated. I could sure use bootcamp first thing in the AM.

There is one more thing I should mention. This week I am not quite loving my band. Next week I might be fine with it. Just keep in mind that my opinion is shadowed by how well it is working for me at any moment in time. :0)

Why you already said the reasons . . . Banding seemed like the best choice prior to being banded but what I didn't know is that the band could be so fickle. Restriction can be elusive. Either it is too loose, you eat too much and don't lose the weight or it is too tight and most things are PB'd. The sweet spot for me changes. I can tell you some days I PB from tightness and other days I can eat a whole chinese buffet if I wanted to, lol. Most days when I am at my sweet spot it means liquid breakfast, relatively mild lunch (I have to be careful with choices because my band will reject certain things) and dinner or after dinner could be a free for all. That is as good as it gets for me. With the sleeve, I feel like I would not be a slave to how fast things empty (or don't) from my stomach. When you reach capacity that's it. Of course good choices are still necessary and overeating consistently could cause dilation which is the same with all of the surgeries. However, capacity wouldn't vary completely based on time of day, time of month, current fill level, current stress level, etc. While it may not be perfect (no solution is perfect yet) it seems like it could be better than the band in my case. R&Y would be much too drastic and I have known people who become very sickly thereafter or gain their weight back. Anyways, that is my two cents for what it is worth considering I don't have real life experience with the sleeve. :0)

I feel the same. If you would have asked me anytime prior to pregnancy I would have been the poster child for banding. It worked well, I lost the weight and had enthusiasm galore. If you ask me now . . . it is a great choice for some but not all and complications absolutely do happen. I never had any hormonal problems prior to banding but I find that the band is exxxttrreemely sensitive to hormonal fluctuations in my case. Pregnancy and banding did not mix in my case. It was several emergency unfills and then a slip. Even if the chances of a complication are less than 5% (I forgot the actual rates and don't have the time to look them up) . . . if it happens to you it makes you 100% miserable. I never had health problems prior to banding . . . even with the extra weight I was as healthy as a horse and got plenty of exercise and good healthy food (albeit more than I needed, lol). My potassium was so low at a 2.5 when I was hospitalized that they said it was critical. I could have had a complication with my heart at any time and potentially lost my life over it. It took days of hospitalization and IV fluids before I was even healthy enough to consider having corrective surgery. Banding does work somewhat for most, but not for everyone and the risks are very real. Honestly, if I could start over from the beginning I would have also gone to a sleeve. Even with losing the excess weight and being on the cusp of a normal BMI post pregnancy now, it wasn't worth my experiences of last summer.

Laura, I can't stress enough how much changing Ayla's position when she was sleeping affected her with the ear infections. She was moderately normal during the day but was absolutely miserable at night. The only way she slept at first was in my arms sitting in the recliner. The doctor said that laying down causes the pressure to build up and hence the pain. That is why they are fine during the day . . . they are running around or sitting upright. If only I knew then what I know now . . . keeping her in a semi sitting position allowed her to sleep. Once she was in a car seat or swing to sleep she was semi-ok, if I laid her in bed she was screaming in 10-15 minutes. Good luck and I hope he is feeling much better already.

Michelle, I am so sorry for your loss and my heart goes out to you and your family and especially your father in law. I am so happy that you were able to bring the kids there last weekend as well. It was a real blessing to share that last bit of time with her.

Michelle, I love the beret, the colors are adorable and I would totally wear that. :0) Your daughter is a real cutie as well with such a sweet smile.

She absolutely, positively HATED augmentin. My husband and I had to hold her down. We also had to keep the medicine syringe in her mouth for a moment until she tried to swallow because otherwise she would purse her lips and we would be promptly sprayed with it. I didn't know little babies could spray before that point. :0) Unfortunately, Augmentin ruined her for all meds. She used to be OK with baby tylenol but after the augmentin for 10 days, she immediately wants to reject anything given to her from a baby syringe or other common applicator.

I had the same ear infection problem with Ayla and the issues kept occurring over about a months time. She had Amoxicillin first but within a day or two of finishing the rx she was having problems again. Augmentin finally fixed it. I also ran out of meds a couple of days early and I am conscientious about how much I give her. I had to get a script refill and pay twice for what I didn't get all of the first time. Her only symptom was screaming inconsolably after she laid down. The doctor said the pressure builds up when they are laying down. It helped to let her sleep in the swing or carseat at that time because it kept her in a semi sitting position and releaved some of the pain.

Happy Monday everyone!!! I am starting to wonder if Ayla will be an early walker. She is only 9 months and she is already pulling up and walking along everything. She also is balancing with only one hand on things most of the time . . . but she does lose her balance when she tries to stand and take a sip of something, lol. I guess it will happen when it happens, there is no rush. It is so unusual right now because she is so mobile - she actually follows me around now, lol.

Happy Friday everyone. Janie, I agree that Spring is a great time for a new look. Do you see a lot of people looking for big changes at this time of year? Haydee, welcome back from vacation. You are so lucky. I can't believe that the wedding is just around the corner. Michelle, I am happy that the kids decided to stop in to see your MIL. I think it is good for them. Susie, I am really curious how things are going with Gia as well. My son asked to go to the chinese buffet last night. I didn't really want to go much because my band is really tight. However, we went and, lo and behold, my band seemed to be open and I could eat a lot. I don't understand why it does that - or is there something special about chinese food with the sauces that makes it more like a slider food . . . I don't know.

One last comment . . . if you are going to have it locally diagnosed just to see where you stand . . . why not go on a liver shrinking diet for two weeks first. It will help jump-start your weight loss and you might just find your liver is an optimal size when you are tested. It can't be a deal-breaker if you resolve the issue in advance. :0)

I know of someone who went into be banded but the surgery was not completed due to an enlarged liver. She then later went on the "liver-shrinking" diet and was successfully banded. The liver shrinking diets do work if you follow them diligently. It is also true that many obese people have enlarged livers which is why most surgeons require the liver shrinking diet prior to surgery. You will probably be fine . . . the only difference between you and the majority of the rest of the people who had gotten banded is that you knew about the enlarged liver prior to surgery. Stick to your pre-op diet, talk to your doctor and you should be golden. Best of luck to you.

Happy St Paddys Day everyone!!!

I was wondering the same thing as Janie, Splenda or any sugar sounds odd with the other ingredients. However, I am definitely going to give that recipe a try. It sounds great. Laura, I am sorry you had such a rough weekend. Poor Carson. Ayla is going to a new babysitter this week . . . so far so good but we are only a day in a half into it. There are 3 other kids ranged in age from 1-3. One of the kids is a child that she has been with all day since she was 2 months old and they love each other. The sitters house is walking distance from my place so I feel lucky. To be honest, I really didn't expect it to go so smoothly. She just turned 9 months and she doesn't like strangers right now. She knows everyone in the home but only saw the others maybe once or twice a month for a couple of hours. She is also teething and is a little on the clingy/emotional side right now. Thank goodness everything is going well.