Allison

They make pill form cranberry suppliment pills with no or little sugar and only maybe 5 calories for 2 pills? They are specifically made for UTI prevention/treatment. They are in the same section that midol and other "femine medicines and products" are found in a drugstore. They also have these tablets that get rid of the uncomfortable-ness (ok thats not a word but moving on...) and such, I swear by them when I have a UTI and are made by the same company that makes the cranberry stuff, I think its called AZO or something like that? Its great to use before the perscription kicks in. Feel better!!!

One of my good friends read this book and now she is a vegan... She said something about milk being unnatural? I haven't read it nor do I really want to, cheese makes up most of my diet! Then again shes about 100 pounds and I'm more than 2 of her.... hahaha, so to each their own. Allison

Awww I love how you personalized your logo! So cute!! Congrats on the closer date!

Haha! Me too! I haven't been on facebook in like a month lol. I don't have a surgery date yet but my surgeon predicts it will be sometime in May if everything goes as planned! You should stop by the May 2008 thread and introduce yourself!! Its always bustling and full of excitment since we are all in the same stage, we came up with a name and a bunch of logos and stuff lol. Allison

Hehehe I'm pretty sneaky I guess. Now that I'm in college they don't really pay much attention to whats going on in my life anymore lol.

oohh thats beautiful! I love all these logos but I really like things kind of simple and elegant :cool: I'll definately save this one and use it if I am lucky enough to be a May Flower

Hey bandfan :frown: I posted a couple posts back about the conversation I had with my mom. SHE actually brought it up! She had seen some things in the mail for me from my surgeon. She was concerned about a lot but I know that I can teach her more and help her feel more comfortable about the whole situation. Thanks for all the support everyone and bandfan, I'm sure your mom would be very proud of you ! :regular_smile: Allison

Haha like, 5 minutes ago I made Pasta and melted real butter and poured it all over the pasta. Before that I had a chocolate eclair ice cream bar and I just finished another one a minute ago.... Tonight I'm going to dinner at my nanas house and will probably eat a lot there. Its just getting more and more out of control!!! I have to go on liquids 10 days before surgery and then 2 weeks after. I have no idea how I am going to be able to handle not having anything but liquids after all this :biggrin: glad to we all have to go through this! Allison

Haha ohh man I know what you're all saying. At first I really didn't think I was changing my eating habits that much, but I've started realizing that ever since this all started, I haven't been "watching" what I eat. I used to monitor what I puting into my mouth, not too crazy or anything cause I was still fat, but to the point where my weight was fairly stable. Then since I started researching all this I've been eating more and more, like my body knows whats coming and needs to "bulk up" some more hahahaha. Since October I've gained about 12 pounds!!!! I can't believe that, since my weight had been at about 209-212 all through highschool. As terrible as it sounds, I think we should all pig out a little while we still can, hehehe...

Thanks for all the support guys. SO telling my mom was actually really easy. AS SOON as we sat down, she asked me if I was looking into "that surgery thing we looked into back in September." Apparently she had seen some information from the surgeon that had come in the mail for me (I live with my parents.) We talked about it all, she brought up a lot of concerns, but they were all just a lot of things she doesn't know or understand about the band. I feel that if she learns more she'll be more supportive. I haven't told my dad, nor do I plan to. I know my mom will tell him, but my dad is an athlete who runs the Boston marathon every year. He is constantly telling me to just go for a run with him and the weight will come off... so Jessica I know what you mean when you say your dad is old fashioned, hard work kind of guy. Unfortunately I'm still in college full time and have to live with him :/ I'm so relieved to have gotten this out in the open with my mom though. Now I just need a surgery date so I can officially be a May Flower! Allison

Wow you don't have to go through all the pre-surgery stuff? Lucky! The whole process with my surgeon takes about 2 - 3 months, depending on how quickly you can schedual the sleep lap, nutriotionist appt, psych eval, etc. Where are you from?? Hope everything goes well for you!! Allison

I need to order that book. My surgeon has it in his office and highly reccomends reading it before you have the surgery.

SO I'm going to go have an early dinner with my mom at Fridays in about a half an hour. I think I'm gonna attempt to tell her about the surgery there. I'm soooo nervous I hate having "these talks" with her, regardless of what they are about. I really hope she is supportive of me. If you read some of my old posts, you'll see that she was sort of supportive in the past when she went to the seminar with me, but she quickly changed her mind and thought it was too drastic for someone who "only" (ha) needs to loose about 100 pounds. Ahh I'm freaking out!!!! I've been dreading this moment for weeks. I have no idea how to bring it up. Any suggestions????

Oh yeah and all the logos are adorable! I want to be a May Flower!

Bandfan, I'm sure your mom would be very proud of all your doing for yourself :bolt: SOOO, I have all the appointments with the nutritionist, sleep study, psych eval, etc. set, so I called the surgeons office today to ask to set up the second consultation, but the receptionist said that I have to go to all the appointments first, then they will send the info to the surgeon, then the office will call me to schedual an appointment. Ahhh I just want to start living! It feels like I've been waiting for this since I was 8 years old. I'm still hoping for a day in May before summer classes start on June 2nd. Congrats to everyone who has their dates schedualed!!!! Allison

Oh yeah and by the way... amamastime, that was a GREAT response. What an a**hole!!!! Thats no way a medical professional should have behaved, and you have every right to defend yourself!!! Good for you. and Laura P, thats a great way to think about all this. I didn't want to tell people at first, now I don't think I have to. Haha if you have an IUD and someone asks you why you're not pregnant then maybe I would tell them, haha. So I guess if someone asks me how I'm loosing weight I would tell them, but only if they are close to me Allison

When I first told my family and a couple close friends I was interested in the lap band procedure back in september, The reactions I got were mostly negative. Everyone said that I could just do it on my own and that having something in me was WAY too drastic. So now that I actually am going through with everything, my biggest concern is how to tell people. The only people that know are the two supportive friends I told back in September. I still have to tell my parents. I'm going to talk to my mom about it this weekend. At least I know I will always have the support of LBT!!!! :bolt: Wishing everyone good luck! Allison

Hey Melissa! Welcome! Glad to know your mom is on board with everything. I think talking with my parents is gonna be the hardest part of all this! I talked to them a while back and got really mixed results, so I haven't told them I'm actually going through with this now. I don't have a band yet either. Good luck with everything!! P.S. where are you from??

A couple weeks ago, one of the ladies I work with who is about 47 and slim, so obviously this had nothing to do with being overweight or being banded, had the sides of her neck start to swell. It just wouldn't stop and kept swelling and swelling until it looked like she had big balls in her neck! She had to leave and went to the ER. When she got there the doctor took one look at her and told her to suck on a lemon, making sure to get a lot of the juice and sour feeling towards the back of your mouth, near the molars. It went away almost immediately. It turns out her saliva ducts got clogged or something. Sounds like maybe what you had? Hope the lemon juice works!

Hey everyone! Thanks for all the imput, I really do appreciate what everyone has had to say! I'm pretty sure I will probably stick it out at my state school right now. I think I am just having a really rough semester right now so I think I was just getting scared off. I'm sure everyone has felt like this at one time or another. Next semester maybe I can get a job during the day and go to school at night or something. As long as I have a lot of options, I know I'll be ok, thanks for all the help again! Allison

Hey everyone, just looking for some words of wisdom perhaps. I am a college student in the second semester of my sophomore year. I go to a four year school and am currently an art education major, which also requires a minor in basic education, grades k-8, although I would prefer to be an art teacher in an elementary school, which where I live is grades K-4. As of right now, my parents pay for school, mainly because I work part time as a waitress and am completely broke. I'm taking a full course load now and I am HATING all these teaching classes! They are so hard! And its full of all these technical mumbo jumbo terms and such I can't seem to follow. A big part of me would like to transfer my credits to the community college down my street and get my associates so I can become a preschool teacher. Then maybe when I feel I am really ready I can go back to school and get my bachelors? Another part of me wonders if I should change my major to early childhood education, which I think includes Kindergarten teaching. I'm starting to doubt my abilty in all of these art classes and all of these secondary education classes I am taking with all of the future high school and middle school teachers. Just wondering if anyone on here has any experience in any of these jobs and would like to tell me a bit about their experiences, pay (if its not to personal, although I know theres not much we keep personal on this site haha) and school/certification. I'm just really unsure of what direction I would like to go in. I would greatly appreciate any and all feedback! Allison

AHHH I love american idol. This is the first year I actually enjoy most of the constestants. As of right now I would be okay with any of them winning, just not kristy lee cook. go home... you suck.... lol

Thanks for the suggestions! I actually posted a thread about this a couple days ago. I think I am going to stick out the 4 year degree thing. I know there are a lot of schools cutting art though, but there is this whole super complicated, hard to get into program for elemetary classroom teachers where I go to school (my gpa isn't exactly close to the 3.2 you need to be accepted). It is a lot easier to get into elementary schools as a specials teacher (music, gym, art) and I really want to be in the elementary schools. I'll just stick it out for now... On another note...! I've been able to schedual most of my appointments, I just need to finish filling out the multitude of papers for the psych eval, mail them back, and then wait to hear from them. Once I have the psych eval date I'll schedual an appointment with the surgeon to go over everything so I can get in as early as possible. The surgeon said that if everything with insurance is fine (which he has illuded to it being fine) he scheduals surgery about 2 weeks after the meeting. If I'm doing my numbers right that looks like a day in May!!! I know a lot can change and go wrong until then, but I'm doing my best to be optimistic! :thumbup: Allison

Hey everyone! So I have a fairly large lower back tattoo, that actually takes up most of the bottom half of my back, I call it my glorified tramp stamp, haha, I have another on my left foot. I was just wondering, since I got my tattoo almost 2 years ago, when I was baisically the same weight I am now, if tattoos shift around or change size, color darkness/lightness, or anything else that would make it look at all different with weight loss?? I would appreciate any feedback, post a pic if you can! :scared2: Allison

Haha I'm probably an apple, short and round, although I could also be an hourglass, maybe not with the tiny waist but whatever... lol. I think I would rather have a healthy body than a tattoo only me and a small handful of people ever see anyways lol. I do love it though, so I'm hoping it will stay the same. Thanks for all the comments! :thumbup: Allison