K@t

on which thread did you post that? To sign up you need to say so on the official thread, and then you need to PM me with your information. I never got a PM from you, and I just went through the official sign up thread and I don't see a post from you there.

Angela, You would have had to have signed up on the sign up thread, but sign ups closed on the 25th of November. So you will have to wait for the next exchange I'm afraid.

come to the chat room....i'll be there for an hour or so if any one wants to chat!

I don't care how busy a doc is, I would call him and see what's going on. If nothing more then just to ease ur mind. An endoscopy is where they push a tube with a tiny camera attached to the end down your throat into your stomach to get a look at it and make sure there are no problems. Usually they put the patient under or use twighlight sedation to do it. Here in Portugal unfortunatly they did it while I was awake.

The softies at work get all grossed out just when I talk about it. I asked one of them to come in the bathroom and help me change the bandage, and she couldnt do it. Some of my students found it fasinating though! I finally took the bandages off, and I started putting a pillow case over it...and using my boobs to hold it in place (reason #254 for saggy boobs) :heh: And the last 2 days I have just gone with out a bandage because my skin couldn't take it any more... I get the stitches out tomorrow...whoo hoo!

It looks exactly the same except now there is a huge red rash around it from the bandage, apparently I was allergic. I'm going in this Thursday to get the stitches out.

Okay people, you know the drill. For newbies, this is how it works: Send me a pm with your name and address. Also mention a few things about yourself, any thing that might help your SS (Secret Santa) pick a gift for you. And for those of you that have been around for awhile please mention if you would be interested in being a substitute should the need arise. On November 25th, sign up is closed, and I will then send a confirmation pm to you verifying your address, and that you are still interested in the exchange. You have until November 30th to respond and then on December 1st, the names will go out. If you don't respond to me by the 30th I will assume you no longer want to participate. The guidelines are around $25 including shipping, but as we all know it's the thought that counts. Some of the most beautiful gifts have been hand made and some of the most thoughtful gifts have been less then $10. You can send your gifts at any time once you have your name, early gifts are always welcome, but please make sure your gift arrives no later then the 25th of December and as we all know, mail is a lot slower at this time of year so please plan accordingly. Please, Please, Please ONLY sign up if you intend to stick around and see it through. A lot of people sign up and just never come back to LBT, and there is an actual person on the other end of this thing who doesn't get a gift because of that. Please remember we are all real people here, not just faceless computers. Merry Christmas and let the exchange begin!

okay, because EVERYONE confirmed so fast, I have complete confirmation on the exchange and I'm going to be sending names out TODAY!! Look for a pm from me with your SS name. Also if your SS gave me any additional information about themselves I will include it in the PM. If you need any additional information please pm me and I'll get it for you. Happy shopping!!

Well this was my little weekend project I did while I was recouperating from port revision. Its a cross stitch kit from DMC. Quick and fun.

thanks every one! and thanks Vines...I never really considered this stuff "art" since some one else makes the patterns....but maybe if I make my own pattern I will!

We don't usually travel at Christmas, but the shear size of my husbands family takes up most of our budget. I would say we would spend just under $2,000 if we are lucky. Brother/sister in law mother/father in law 2 sets of aunt/uncle 6 cousins 2 sets of grandmother/grandfather And we are expected to get seprate gifts for each person, apparently it looks bad if we just give 1 gift for the couple. Then of course there is my family which is a bit smaller but I ship everything over or do gift cards. And for each other we usually buy 1 big thing we each want and then a lot of smaller things like socks, dvd's and things like that to put around the tree....we also stuff a stocking for our cats :biggrin1:

I posted this on the other thread, but I'll post again here, cross stitch stuff butterflies/cats stuffed animals

ahahahahah...you know when i started reading the first tip i was like...carrot stick...why not carrots? weird....um..duh heather!!:biggrin1: Too cute!

humm...you know im not sure, i read the policy that is for teachers and its not excluded, so i assumed that it ment it was included. But we will have to see...they may consider it a pre existing condition? I dunno, but at least they do take it in case it is covered. How much is a fill with no insurance? Thanks for the site Terrilen, I'll have to check that out.

Okay, sign up is closed. I will be sending confirmation pm's out today. Please make sure to reply. If you don't I will assume that you no longer want to participate. Thanks!

Great! We are seeing more Florida people every day! I haven't moved back to Florida yet, so I'm not sure what support groups are available, but congrats on 50lbs down! Thats wonderful!

yeah, i planned on getting all my records, i should also have them translated! That might help hehe.... Do you know if they take blue cross blue shield? Thats the insurance that I will have.

I never suggested that doctors are the end all to be all.....however they are the only ones qualified to tell you what tests you should take. Jack gave very good advice, that would be my course of action.

Its all a mystery! The case of the appearing restriction......some one call scooby-doo and the mystery machine!:biggrin1: Okay, serious face now.... no one really knows about restriction, it comes and goes and some people get it easy and others have a harder time finding it (me!) Who knows why, our bodies are all different. Just be happy that it happened!

I was banded April 26th. So far I haven't had great success but I'm hoping for that to change soon. I have had 2 fills and I only recently had my 2nd fill. I also had port revision and I'm recouperating from that. It was last Thursday. My doc is a bit stingy with the fills and I haven't hit good restriction yet, I'm hoping that with this 2nd fill I will get some better restriction. And as soon as I'm healed I'm gonna hit the gym again.

Hey there, You were NOT wrong to introduce yourself here. This was fine. Sometimes we're just really slow around here :guess . Right now I'm about the same as you I'm around 5´5 and 230. I was banded 6 months ago, but I've had some complications and I haven't hit that "sweet spot" good restriction yet. There is a lot of good information and helpful people around here if you stick around. Read some of the post and lurk around for awhile, you will find some really helpful information. Good luck with your decision!

The only person who can really help with this is a doctor. If money isn't an issue then you should make an appointment with a doctor to explore the possibilities. There are a million reasons why you could have lost so little. Have you spoken to the doctor that banded you? What does he have to say about such little weight loss?

Okay everyone....last chance...if any one else wants to join, pm me before midnight tonight!!

Ok so the doctors painless quick 10 min surgery.....not so quick...about an hour...not so painless about a 5 (on a 1 to 10 scale) Not in horrific pain, but certianly not painless. I guess some tissue had already grown around the port so he had a hard time getting it out and he actually burned ...yes I said burned, some of my flesh with a laser to get it out...then, when he was stitching me up..it flipped AGAIN! Can you believe it...he had to cut his stitches and flip it back and stitch me back up again.:tired I love my doctor I think he's very competent but geezzzzzz...... needless to say i'm pretty sore. back to the couch for me.

Thanks guys, it only hurts when I move.... It was fun letting the 2 surgeons shove their hands around my abdomen all afternoon.....:tired Well hopefully the worst is over. And I guess the fill must be working...yesterday all I had was 2 cups of soup and 2 liquid yougerts and that was it....and of course today it's all coming out....liquids and mushies for a week should give my weight loss a little kick...I hope. I'm supposed to go back on Thursday to get the stitches out, I hope it doesn't look horrible because right now its a huge mass under the bandage.