CyclicalLoser

Awesome ladies! Keep 'em coming! To be honest, I think every car is cool, even if it's a POS. Sometimes it takes me a while to think of something cool about particular cars, but usually there is something. I'm at a loss right now for the escort, other than the European version was nothing like the ones we had here in the states. The European ones were Rally cars and had cosworth engines. Very very cool. Nova's got a bad rap, I actually think they were a cool car. They have a huge following now, and I've seen some with superchargers sticking out of the hood (As all cars should be LOL). I love some of the colors out of the 60/70's. I seriously would love to have a Plum Crazy car. There is a person with a purple Challenger 392 Scat Pack in my parking lot at work. It is gorgeous. Green has kind of faded away, don't see many green cars now, which is too bad. The 4th generation Vipers have an awesome lime green pearlescent metallic color that is amazing. I grew up in an Omni that was forest green. Really a nice darker green color. And Charger R/T? Doesn't even need to be explained, wow what a cool ride. A classmate of mine bought the Hellcat version and he told me he still giggles like a kid when he punches it. He said it's going to get him a lot of tickets, and he said it goes through gas like it's free. I love the front ends and the rear lighting on the newer Chargers. I also think the Chargers and the Challengers are probably the most "truthful" replica of the 70's musclecars. Unlike the Ford Thunderbird, Mustang and Camaro, they didn't try to re-envision the car, they simply faithfully replicated it, but with some styling tweaks and modern performance. I bet that Hemi sounds awesome!

I'm going to have a potluck for your post! Just kidding. Kudos for working in that setting, both with the temptations and I can't fathom the abnormal things you see. I love the movie "Awakenings", maybe that is close? Maybe try to separate your work area from the food, even if it's moved a few feet. If you sit a lot, I bet if they are outside of an arm's length, that will help! Maybe when you have the potlucks, you could bring in a crock pot with some shredded chicken or some other healthier option. Never know, might even start a trend with your co workers "Wow that's really good! It's only xxx Calories?" BTW, I have a family member that is a PsyDoc (Psychologist) near Seattle.

Just curious, what did they do to close the incisions the first time? I had the silly little bandages when I had the lap band, and one of the incisions looked pretty bad, might have even got infected. This time? They used a product called derma-bond. It's basically glue. It has worked amazingly well. I've had scrapes that looked worse than these. Sorry to hear about the infection, but I would imagine you'll feel a bit better once you get enough Keflex in your system. I can only imagine how smells and food tastes now...

If this is not the appropriate place, I totally get it. I did a quick search and didn't see any "watercooler" type discussion areas, so I figured I make a thread and we could keep the off topic chatter in here? So that being out of the way, I'm a gearhead big time. Lived in the Motor City for a while and have 0w-40 in my veins LOL. Just figured we could talk shop here. LOL "Cars and Pouches" I suppose. I'll start first. I've had 31 cars so far, no I'm not loaded, and none of them have been spectacular by any means. When you live in the midwest a fun car has to be paired with a winter/beater though. I got tired of the beater idea, so I fixed it by moving here to California where the smog laws are incredible. I'll try and break down what I've had: 1980 GTI 8v 1982 Camaro Berlinetta with the T5 and the 305, the world's worst engine. That car I had to give away it was so bad. 1986 Pontiac Fiero GT. Oh how I miss that car. I loved it. Fun fact: The last Mid engine car GM made...(Well, until the c8 comes out next year and that will be awesome!). I sold it because of? Can't even remember to be honest. I was young, I was stupid. 1986 Ford Bronco II "Beater". Had the 2.9L v6, probably the 3rd worst engine ever made. 1986 Chevrolet Blazer (The S10 version). Had the 2.8V6 which was great in my 2800# Fiero...In a 4000# SUV? No way. Not that I recommend this, but I got it up to 83MPH on a very long downhill stretch of the road. That's how bad it was. 1988 Chevrolet Camaro RS/305. I thought it had the 350. It didn't, so I sold it. 1989 Ford Mustang LX 5.0. Now we're talking. The car was a POS, but man was it fast. I loved it, but I got rid of it because the oil pressure was getting low because I really did drive it like I stole it. 1987? Cavalier Z24. Can you say Torque Steer? Fast and fun, and cheap. Not bad on gas either. 1991 Chevrolet Beretta GTZ. Had the "Quad 4". Redlined at about 6800 RPM, which was really high for the day. 4 valves per cylinder, it was practically a Honda motor. I sold it because a mechanic lied to me about a bunch of stuff, and I didn't know how to work on cars at that point of my life. 1997 Dodge Dakota Sport 5.2. Leased it brand new. Also the last time I've leased anything. Ran great, really fast for a truck, loved the V8, but got terrible gas mileage. I sweat if you hit the gas, you could see the needle move on the gas gauge. I had an 80's Escort that was a real POS. I paid $500 for it though and it worked as a beater. I had an 80's Cavilier that was a "little" bit better than the escort. Not by much, but I paid $400 for it, and it was a better beater. I've had two more Camaros (So four of them). 1994 Z28 Automatic and 1994 Z28 Stick. The Stick one was built pretty good, had a cam and 4.11 gears in the back. I've had two SRT-4's. 2004 with a stage 2 turbo and a 2003 stage 3 turbo. These are great cars and the 3 that survive kids beating on them will eventually fetch a lot of money. I've had 2 more dakota's as well. 1994 5.2L to pull a boat and a 2001 4.7L to haul drywall and stuff. 2003 Nissan 350z. Pretty cool, but got tired of it. 2005 Hyundai Tiburon GT. I literally owned this car for 2 weeks. I broke even. I was happy. 2000? S10 with the 4-banger. What a POS. Every time I fixed something, somthing else broke. Had the top ball joint go out on me on the freeway. Try steering when the knuckle is floating around on it's free will. Amazing I didn't flip it or hit someone. 1990 Ford Ranger 4-banger. This was the goofy 2-sparkplug per cylinder engine. I literally bought it for $100. I put a lot of labor into cleaning it up, drove it around for 2 years and sold it for $1000. Not bad. Ran really well. 2006 Lexus IS350. Fast! Comfy! But it wallowed like a couch riding atop a mattress. Out it went. 2010 BMW 135i. First BMW. It really was the best driving machine I've ever had. Maitenance? Oh my gosh. $500 for a water pump? Just the part. I chipped it and had 400HP. Traded it in and bought a house. 2010 Kia Sorrento. Eh. A very light but nervous-handling SUV. But it was pretty quick with the V6. 2013 Dodge Grand Caravan R/T. Yes they make an R/T version, but sadly no HEMI. Got tired of SUV's that couldn't transport large items like dressers or big screen TV's I know I'm forgetting some, but If I'm forgetting them, then you know how lousy or boring they were. Next cars: I'm thinking about buying am older Infiniti FX45. It's made from the 350Z but has a V8. Who can say no to that? I also plan on buying a 3rd or 4th generation Dodge Viper once I'm done paying for grad school loans. I love everything about the viper. I got to go to the factory before it closed, and I actually got to interview Bob Lutz (The person who started the idea of the Viper) as part of my Thesis. No traction control, no nagging stuff, no back seat? The car will literally burn your leg when you step out of it. And it has that huge 505 cubic inch V10. It has a horrible yet brutish sounding exhaust. Sign me up, seriously. I'd take it over a C6 Z06 or a C7 Z51. It gets like 8 mpg in the city. I'm surprised California even allows them in the state. I do almost all of my maintenance now. I don't have an alignment rack, nor tire mounting stuff and I don't do body repairs, but I do pretty much everything else. I bought a MIG welder (Little Lincoln 120v box) so I could widen the seat on my Neon. Hey! A benefit of the surgery is I won't have to do it anymore! But...Enough about me? What are you driving, what have you had in the past, and let's start the stories LOL. No beer, but we got protein drinks! Look forward to wasting time just chit chatting about cars

Add me to the band removal, happy with my decision bandwagon. Sorry for the pun, but it was intended. Yay no more choking and other weird swallowing things!

The best defense is a good offense. Better to come from you first than through the rumor mill and have to clear up the untrue gossip. I let a lot of people know why I was going to be gone. In some cases I kind of had to as I wouldn't be working on their stuff for 6 weeks, and then others might have heard about it (Our rumor mill is exceptionally fast) so I freely tell them. This might sound crass, but I've taken the attitude "I don't care what one thinks of the decision or what one thinks of me". There are exceptions of course (God > Family > Friends) but just about everyone else falls into the "don't care" bucket. I know, I sound very shallow here. When I was younger I would care and so forth, but now I realized it really doesn't matter if frank or sally think it's a bad idea, or jim thinks I'm taking the easy way out. Sooner or later, we'll drop so much weight and our diets will change a lot, and people will put it all together. I kind of think when people try to keep it a secret, it adds so much drama trying to keep the genie in the bottle. Life's too short to go through all that trouble if you ask me. For fun, I told a nosy supervisor I was having surgery to surgically remove my head from my rear. He replied something like "Excellent, we've been wanting you to get that done for years!". I then told him the truth, and he asked me if it was "hush hush" and I told him nope, go ahead and tell whomever you want, it doesn't bother me. I'm sure it will go down like this: you'll get nervous first, tell people, they will react however, you will get excited about the surgery, come back after FMLA already losing a lot of weight, people might notice and they will say what they want, and at the end of the day you're going to feel great. (Wow that was a long run-on sentence!) Aside from that though, on a technical level, I'm almost positive whomever "leaks" the FMLA paperwork has violated HIPAA and confidentiality, "reasonably expected privacy" laws. If you really don't want it to get out, you could tell him/her that you don't want others to know, and that by law the HR department can't disclose to other people. S/he'll get the point.

I live on the side of a mountain, seriously. 150 feet of elevation from my house to the other side of the neighborhood. I used to do "the long loop" which was right around 2 miles, but sometimes went into the next neighborhood (Even more elevation changes) and did about 3-3.5 miles. Post surgery, maybe a week out, I did the "short loop" which probably has 60 feet of rise and about 0.8 miles. I did that with a cane for a few days, but then stopped because it is so hot here right now (100+ degrees F). When I decided to walk later in the evening, I got up to 2 miles, but then started having some incisional pains and stopped for a while. About 2 or 3 days ago, I resumed the short loop again. I don't know how much that helps, but I think it's better to go slow and not injure yourself, then to push yourself until something bad happens and then you're out weeks not doing anything -- but that's just me.

I have a female family member who had suddenly lost a lot of hair after taking topamax for migraines. She had clumps coming out as well, and the doctors couldn't figure out what helps. She's had some success with Nutrifol (Supplements), plus adding 10,000IU of Biotin. She also doesn't blow dry her hair, and she's tried a dozen different shampoos and so far likes "Thicker Fuller Hair" shampoo. She told me that she's not really growing more hair, but she's not losing it. She has not tried women's rogane though. She was prescribed some sort of special shampoo, but that just made it worse. I'm sorry you ladies have that problem - seems like it is less socially-acceptable for women to have thin or no hair. I'm not far out enough to tell for me, but the hair started turning white (About 6 months ago, before surgery), so if it falls out, then you can't tell I'm getting old! I hope that if you try the supplements it will help. They are pretty expensive though, I think she said the nutrifol was over $50 a month!

Watz pane mehdz? Just kidding. I feel I have a low tolerance for incision-type pain, but a high irrational fear of narcotic addiction. I took Hycet for less than a week - I think 2 to 3 days. I still have some pain, but I just deal with it. My back's been hurting for years, bulges in L4-L5 and L5-S1, spinal stenosis, etc... If you are worried about pain, you could always try a TENS device. I have one and it works wonders when my spine and I are having a disagreement

Wow small world, we are so close we can look outside and point at the same red sun and see the smoke from the Holy Fire. Aside from that, I don't know a whole lot about Cuban cuisine, except that I've been to Felix's in Old Town Tustin (Chapman). I know they told me that some people have a hard time with meats, especially dry meats, but maybe you could get ropa vieja, skip the rice and mash up the black beans? I'd probably try to limit the plantains. One of the strategies I've heard is to ask them to immediately portion out half (quarter?) on your plate and bring the rest in a to-go container. If it is really a self-serve, then try to grab a tiny plate - my nutritianist recommends no larger than 7". I'm sure you have heard it, but the "proper" size protein is the size of a deck of cards. Maybe bring a deck of cards as a reminder?

You are correct! To be honest, I would have absolutely loved to live during the 60's. The muscle cars from that era were absolutely awesome. I do remember the fanny pack invasion of what seemed like the 80's.

Have you thought about a pizza "replacement" - bear with me. Maybe take pizza sauce and some low fat cheese, along with (very soft) vegetables and bake them? It would not be the same thing as you won't have crust, but you'll have everything else. I posted a recipe a few days ago that I find a great replacement for pizza and other pasta dishes. It has Ricotta, Parmesan Cheese, Mozzarella, marinara, one egg, and a few spices. You eat it with a spoon, but I look forward to it every day. If you break it down into the servings, then each one is right around 150 calories, about the same as a protein drink. I was really missing my staples probably around where you're at, but now I seem to be fine without them. I can't explain it other than I suppose I wrapped my head around it finally.

I think you're on to something about the carbs. I was a pasta-holic before surgery. I'm not joking when I say I ate it at least 5 times a week for dinner alone. I am fairly certain I am getting more protein now than I did then. I also notice that my underarm area definitely smells now - for years I didn't emit any odors at all! I'm in the soft foods diet now (Well, very slowly going into it) and I have eaten diced peaches (in water) so maybe I do need to throw a few more carbs in the mix as well.

Thank you all, I'll have to give the breath strips a try. This will make you ladies laugh, but oh do I wish male purses existed and were socially acceptable. I carry around two cell phones, sunglasses, keys, wallet, and a few other things...All in two pockets When I need to carry tools because of my job, those go in the cargo pockets and then my pants end up weighing 20 pounds! I have been known to sling a backpack though, when I need to carry both of my work issued laptops, so I suppose that's as good as it's going to get (for now! )

Hmmm, I did see that Cinnamon was one of the helpful herbs. I wonder if a sugar free, saliva promoting breath mint would work? ...And I would have thought camel breath was from smokers...

That's what I call myself since I am in the middle of Ketosisville. I say that not in a negative way, but we all know how "pleasant" our breath can smell. What do y'all do about it? I was told gum ist verboten, so tic-tacs? Altoids? What's safe and works? Anyone I'm talking to thanks you for the remahhhhhhhhhhrks

Congratulations on your weight loss, but at the same time, I'm sorry to hear it might be too much. I don't have experience in this realm, I just got my RNY a month ago, so these suggestions might be silly. As far as protein, I'm really liking the premier protein clear drink. I don't care too much for the "regular" ones after the RNY surgery. Other than that, are you sensitive to fat intake? Perhaps integrate more healthy fats like fatty fish, avocado and transfat-free butter alternatives? I've read that sometimes fatty foods cause dumping, but I am not far enough out yet to experience this (Or hopefully not to). If you did need to go for revision surgery, perhaps the doctor could bypass less of your intestines, so you could absorb more food? I'm not sure if that is even possible, but just a suggestion.

I don't have what I would consider an eating disorder in the purest sense, so this advice is not from someone who has battled it. I can tell you that when I was going through the process, the psychologist wanted to know if I ever ate so much I purged. I explained there were times where I wanted to, but I didn't. She simply reasked the question, and when I said no I never actually purged, she was fine. I'm guessing they are concerned about self-destructive I also would note that it is really dangerous to overeat yourself after any of the bariatric surgeries. I had the lap band before, and yes, I did eat way more than I should have, and I was one of the "lucky" ones, but other people had band slips, esophageal dilation, or band erosion. With this and the sleeve, I would presume staple line leaks would probably be the largest danger, but even the best case would probably be a stretching of the pouch or sleeve. I have a friend who is an alcoholic. At least that is what he would say to you as soon as he introduced himself. He went through the AA program and hasn't had a drink for nearly 30 years. He explained to me that AA teaches "Once an alcoholic, always one". He was very concerned about transferring his coping method (food) back to that of alcohol. He went into the process very conscious of that, and thus far is doing very well with no problems. So I'm not saying it can't be done, but I would definitely not have the surgery until you can satisfy yourself, and your psychologist that you have it under control. I don't know if they have Overeater's Anonymous (OA) in Australia, but if they do, you might be able to find some people that had ED and had bariatric surgery, and see what they say. I'm mostly concerned about you causing physiological damage from even a single "binge" episode. I do say to take all of this with a grain of salt, I'm not that far out there myself. I wish you the best and hope it works out best for your health. One of these days I really want to visit AU, the home of Holden, which brought us the modern Pontiac GTO and the Pontiac G8...I only wish we could have gotten the Holden "Ute" but that body style doesn't do very good over here.

My insurance had no problem at all BCBS PPO. My only requirement was to show the weight loss wasn't working, a 3 month medically supervised weight loss program, and then a meager fee. So meager, I won't post it. I absolutely love BCBS, I will never switch.

I was put on a very strict 2 week diet that involved four protein drinks plus a normal meal every day. While not required, the bariatric coordinator did recommend drinking a bottle of magnesium citrate to "clean me out" before surgery. She said that she found that it makes it easier post-op. No bowel movements of (larger) proportions, and also less gas. If you're going to do it though, do it tomorrow morning. It took me several hours to kick in, and I was up most of the night. Doing it now makes sure you're not still in the "cleaning" stage when you come in for your procedure. BTW, I was a band to RNY myself. It is so nice not to choke and clear my throat every 10 minutes!

I got off the phone with my surgeon's office Nurse Practitioner and he asked me a lot of questions. At the end, he told me that I'm still healing and so long as everything is okay, not to worry about it. He told me if the pain doesn't get better within a couple of days they would make an appointment for me so I wouldn't have to go to the ER, I was also told to slow down on my drinking and he reiterated the 10# weight limit until 6 weeks. I'm very glad he got back to me when he did, I was about 90 minutes away from going to the ER. Thank y'all for helping me out. It's so strange that this pain kind of came from nowhere.

I actually passed out twice. It went down like this...I used to watch them insert the needle so I would not clamp up. They started "digging" and I passed out. They used the stuff that is like breathing fire to wake me up. I asked "Did you finish yet" They said no, I looked down and passed out again. They got the point. When they woke me back up, I asked the same question and they were done. I have all kinds of stories "I was so anxious..." but that one was probably the funniest. Well, except for the time that during an interview, an acquaintance I knew said "Hello Geoff, they know you know me" (He made sure they knew ahead of time so it was not a conflict of interest) and I said "Nice to meet you Joe". Boy that was a terrible interview, the worst I've ever had, yet I'm still working there today

There's not much more that I think I can add to what other people have said except that I feel I win the prize for anxiety - I passed out on a routine blood test because of anxiety. So I can say this, I asked the anesthesiologist beforehand if I could take a xanax because I already knew I'd nearly pass out from anxiety. They gave me the approval to take it 2 hours before my arrival time. In short, it helped quite a bit. It took them 20 minutes to get the IV in for the EGD because I was nervous, but it took them less than 30 seconds to put the IV in when I was on the xanax. I don't want to sound like the xanax made the anxiety zero, but I think it took it to what a normal person's level of anxiety was. For being put under, they gave me something in the pre-op room and all I can remember is being wheeled out of the room. I don't remember the hallway, or seeing the OR. When I woke up, I was a bit groggy (Kind of out of it and my voice was a little hoarse...not pain though), which they said was because of the tube that goes down your throat. By the next day though, I was back to normal. Like others have said, you're doing this for your kids. I can tell you as a research fanatic, study after study (Peer-reviewed medical journals) show that WLS has the best results for permanently keeping weight off. Also, at 33 years, you are quite young (IMO) and can heal much faster than someone more senior to you. You're going to do great I'm sure. BTW, I was as a Wright-Pat baby

Thank you Matt, I really appreciate the feedback. At 4 weeks out, I still feel very much like a freshman wandering the halls just trying to find class

I'm sorry I forgot to respond. Unfortunately the pain has gotten worse for me. My biggest incision is on my right side and is about 1.5" in length. I would say it is "Dented in" about an inch or so. I would say the first few weeks it was a bit sensitive, but the sensitivity went away after that time - up until about a week ago, when (I think) I had a hernia. When I was going #2 today, I pushed in on the dent because of the pain, and at one point, I felt a pop, and the pain got worse. The dent didn't change at all, but I'm fairly sure that something popped through a hole in my abdominal wall - something I can't see or feel. The doctor's office hasn't called back yet though and I will call them shortly. I don't want to run to the ER because it will cost (a lot) more for services, I'll probably get the flu from someone next to me, Also I'd rather not have an ER doctor, not really familiar with the procedure, perform an open surgery when (maybe) it isn't needed. Oh and then there's my anxiety. I won't bore with details, but when you have an anxiety problem like I do, to be effective, you have to double-think yourself - determine if going to the hospital is to satisfy the anxiety (bad - "giving in" and encouraging it) or if it is medically needed (good). I've thought about going to urgent care, and then see if they will admit me to the hospital, but at the same time, I don't want to go, pay the copay, and then have them tell me to go to the er. (us anxious types overthink just about everything as you can see)