Morsaille

Tracey, I am curious how you are doing with your health and weight post-erosion. Are the skills you learned while banded helping you "on the outside"? I have heard other eroded bandsters talk about how they still have a "pouch" and even a mild sense of restriction. Do you feel this? Is their impression even realistic? I know that stomach tissue is not play-doh... but would it be able to adopt a new configuration willingly after years of conditioning?

I used to take Biotin for my nails. It does take a while to show up in your fingernails just because they grow so slowly. It would take about 6 months to see the positive changes. I don't believe the same (6mos) would be needed for hair since it is the follicle you are trying to strengthen and not the actual hair. Just my opinon, I was raised in a salon, not trained in one. Lots of luck! If you find something that works, PLEASE let me know...

Thanks Ladies! I am working on him. He may an a$$ much of the time, but he is a hard worker and loving father. I trust that he will never cheat and he is unable to lie. He is annoying and manipulative because he is absolutely CLUELESS socially. We know that our marriage may not take permanently, but have dedicated five years to making it work. So I am doing my part. I make sure he tries too. Now if I could just get him to stop bringing home junk food! I appreciate all of you so much and think it is incredible that I have a comforting place to take a time-out even if it is the corner of my own living room. You all make my life easier and can make me smile even in the middle of one of those days. Thank You Oh and Flower? I agree with DayByDay. Your hubby could use a reality check too.

Sorry for the hijack Flower...

How about an hour? That is how much time I am allowed while he is home. It's not like I spend 4 hours each day... I check in for 10-15 minutes at a time, several times each day. I love him, but it is a huge double standard because he eBays for several hours at a time several times per week. We have discussed it, but he thinks it should be a perk for being the bread-winner. My two year old is even stingier with my time. I love them and make those allowances willingly, even if it pinches sometimes. I really didn't want to drag this all out, but I thought as a devil's advocate you should know. I was trying to be diplomatic earlier. Lots of love y'all and I am not mad at 'cha.

Thanks Jacqui- I am going to try this. I have had two fills and feel wide open and snacky all the time. I am fighting the good fight, but really was hoping to be getting more help from my band at this point. The waiting is horrible! I am more than ready to start peeling away the layers. Thanks for starting this thread Jeff. There are nights when I just want to scream in frustration and mourning for my $9,000.

I want to join the "My Husband Hates LBT" club! He loathed it until the saw some of the naughty humor threads. He was afraid I was having conversations that he could not relate to. He appreciates dirty humor. Now he just fumes in his little jealousy cloud. He doesn't like that I choose to spend time with online ghosts instead of with him. He says that he wishes that he could be more of a support for me post-op and resents that I need outside help. So... He makes it difficult for me to get to the computer. He interrupts my typing to ask me to find things for him. He keeps track of each minute I spend online. He gives me the 'silent treatment' for what feels like days at a time. I am almost ready to give you guys up.

Mostly starches from what I've gathered: Breads, rice, and pastas because they are hard to dissolve in your mouth and clump in your pouch. I have had "golf-balls of pain" on peanut butter, dried fruit, dry meat, a stray french fry, and Kidney beans. Just keep it moist and chew it unrecognizable. Fickle, Fickle band!

Wyld.. Congrats on the banding!! Have you practiced NOT drinking after meals? You should wait up to two hours and at least 45 minutes depending on your doc. I suppose it doesn't matter during your liquid phase, but when you start mushies... This is still the hardest thing for me. I was big on after meal tea or coffee, but not anymore, sniff. Hope your healing is rapid and painless.

Put faith and confidence in yourself! The band is great, but sometimes bandsterhood isn't all that much fun. It takes some time getting to know one another. For example, my band hates peanut butter before 2pm. Weird stuff you can only learn trial and error. Sometimes we fight. This band is a great tool and I love it. The other stuff happens, but we have each other to help figure it out. Read all you can and ask all the questions you can. We all want to help you in whatever path you choose.

April Fools Day is on a Saturday. Wake them up for School (or Church)? Once you get them all ready and are in the car... APRIL FOOLS!

Glad to be following Jonathan, I'd hate to be the only raincloud... I agree with him. He has learned more than I ever hope to on his banded journey and was pretty smart before, I suspect. Some of the fears you mentioned are happening to me. I lose hair, a LOT of hair! I call the hairballs my kittens. They are the size of my daughters fist; I get a new one every day. Even taking vitamins and pushing 60+ grams of protein daily hasn't slowed it. I burp so much more than I ever did before (and I like it). I seem to have more restriction from below than from above so that I can hold on to a lot of air which can get uncomfortable. I have thrown-up (PB) on perfectly normal and healthy food, I just missed a piece of Broccoli stalk the size of a split pea. You can probably count the LBT'ers who have never PB'd on one hand. If you have hot, chandelier hanging, sex now - you can have it soon after surgery, but if you are waiting to be comfortable in a new body, that can take as long as it takes. Sometimes never. For me, banding was the right choice, I would do it again. I don't much care how slowly I lose... as long as I am losing. If I thought for one minute I could have lost on my own, I would be band-less without my five gorgeous purple scars and huge bruise from my last fill. I am here to support you. When I was pre-op I wanted ALL the information I could get before heading into surgery. So here's the info ~ ALL of the complications happen to someone. That someone could be you. That someone could be me.

I thought of another one I haven't seen on here: One size fits all will finally fit me too.

I have the opposite problem that StrawartS mentioned. Fill anxiety makes me swell instantly! The fill doc then removes enough fill to allow fluids through and by the next day NO RESTRICTION. Geez, I have had two fills now, am at 1.0cc and have almost NO restriction. Sometimes I want to walk out of the office with a small overfill 'cause I KNOW it will lessen in 24 hours or less. The first time it opened up as I was walking to my car, immediately post-fill.

Leatha, first line at the very top is active. The underlined one. Here you go.. http://www.paleothea.com/quiz.html

Thanks for the fun quiz. I am posting so I don't lose this link, my sis will find it interesting. I am Artemis? I love nature, but could never hunt.

I'm with ya Jack! Like celery! I had a bite of lowfat potato salad and after setting my jaw to pulverize I realized there was a small bit of celery fiber that would probably start picking a fight with 'puckers'. So out it went. I have spit perfectly wonderful bites into the trash though. When the full feeling hits while I am chewing I weigh my options carefully. Spit, or swallow and PB.

Once it lets go and starts to dissipate you just might want the bloatedness back! Keep walking and the heating pad helps to relax the tightness making burping easier with less discomfort. It goes the other way too, so enjoy. Do anything soothing, like tea, or a good book (between walks). It came as a surprise most of the time at first in the form of a semi-painful hiccup.

28% - I am a Yankee! "A very strong Yankee score" It must have been my grandmothers influence. We were raised with a crick behind the house.

OK, the fill did not go so well. Was it just that this was a blind fill? Was it just my fat depth? I was impressed with both Dr. Chebli and Lisa, but I am a big bruised mess. He was patient, pleasant and devoted. Lisa is a crack up who loves to talk. He uses Lidocaine so the pain during was minimal, but the emotional trauma was significant. I must have had at least 100 needle sticks (I hate injections). I have 5 surface holes in a 3"x2" bruise. It is tender. On the bright side, the tissue damage may be like liposuction causing a reduced mass in that general area (unless it causes scar tissue). We had a hard time finding the port. It is very deep on my waistline. My biggest concern would be that he had no larger needles available. This probably would have been the problem-solver we were desperately seeking. He asked if I wanted to stop and I chose to continue. He was very concerned with my comfort the entire time. I ended with a 1 cc fill. Dr. Chebli is very clear that he is not just a "Fill Doc", he expects patients to subscribe to his program. He is of the opinion that Bandsters need supervision and guidance. I think he is right. I will probably pay more for my next fill (under fluoroscope). But will come back to Chebli when I have lost some more weight. He says that he is able to hit the port in most of his patients the first time and that I was a very unusual exception. I AM very unusual. I have a moderate level of restriction which is impressive since I am still on fluids. On the whole I am glad I went, I really needed a fill. It didn't hurt nearly as bad as it looks.

Whew! I go away for a day or so and... Well I am really glad I didn't have to blow my whistle ('cause I don't know how to spell it). See, I am the coach, remember? One caustic poster and we squabble like little nasties. I love you guys! I learned some of the finer points of the 3500 rule too, so thanks everyone for debating it through. Oh, btw, my fill is working so far, thanks for asking. I should be able to post a loss this week on the GfGc page.

My BMI was 52, at 312 pounds on Jan 16th. Today, even though I have lost less than most of those with similar band-dates, my BMI is 47 and I am down 25 pounds (on my home scale, the doc's is all a big lie). Thanks for the thread! I just had my second fill today and it did not go nearly as smoothly as I had hoped. But I did get an increase. With luck and a whole lot of work my numbers will start changing. I may even catch up to you bunnies! You know who you are... coughWheetsin&Photonutcough. Illude, you are amazing! I have read your story and seen your pictures on another thread and can only say WOW!

Mee...... toooo.........

Hey Klynn! Me too, kinda. I have lost 25 since mid Jan. NOTHING since the end of Feb. I am going for a fill tomorrow. As happy as I am for the people losing 30 and 50 pounds in a 2 month span, it feels like being the fat kid on the team all over again. Left out. Sorry you are discouraged, but happy that I am not the only newbie in the Turtle club. I hope the numbers start changing soon for both of us!

I'm pretty sure it's not just the journals. I have been having lots of issues getting pages to load or even access the site. Sometimes the main page is the only page. It doesn't "freeze" exactly, just dead-ends. Wish I was a little more techie and could explain it better. Most of the time there are less than 60 people on the site when it goes funky.