barbara465

I'm still holding on to the extra pounds. I can't seem to get rid of them. I'm tight this morning, but I"m also stressing. I had to cancel the trip to Orlando and it really has me angry. Why? Because DH can still seem to play golf in all his pain! Anyway, I need to let this go and get on to happier things. I really needed this vacation, but the weekend of the 9th I'm off with the gals for shopping. I called my doctor's office today. I have an appointment for consultation/fill on the 12th. It was fairly easy to get an appointment which surprised me. Anyway, hopefully they can do something creative to get me over the tough spot so I can get this band a little tighter. I still haven't started exercising. I just need to do it, but my head gives me all the excuses I need. I ordered some shorts today. They have come back with true bermuda length shorts, 12", and I'm pysched. I am always looking for the longer shorts and they have been hard to find. I can visualize me wearing them in Vegas!! Oh wait, they will be too big by then. Yes there is a lot of buzz about The Secret. I haven't watched the tapes yet, but I believe part of it is visualize your goal and go for it. I did that earlier in my life by goal setting. I had certain goals and worked toward them until they were accomplished. I know that positive attitude works to get things done. I know that when we go to Vegas I will be 25 lbs lighter. That is doable. I've marked it out on the calendar at 2 lbs/week starting week of March 12th. I can see it. I think that will put me in a size 16.

I am so unhappy that your act of kindness was met with such negativity. I guess I have missed all those threads that critized your generosity. There are so many mean spirited people in this world. That being said, please reconsider staying. There has got to be more of us who applaud your kindness than not. You and the receiver of your wonderful gift of life are more than entitled to privacy. Organ donors and recipients do not know each other. This is no different.

Let us know how and when the gall bladder surgery goes. Yep it is a definite risk, but still we don't like to hear it. Keep in touch and good luck.

Great to hear from you Cutiern! Looks like you are doing great. Be mindfull of those PBs! I wonder how many lurkers we have on this thread? We haven't heard from quite a few of our early Junesters. How about it fellow Junebies, let us hear from you.

Hey good to hear from some of you we haven't heard from in a while. Don't be strangers! Gall Bladder is one of the side effects that my Doctor warns about with lapband. I figure it will hit quite a few of us before the journey is over. Let us know Dancing Queen what the results are. PinkyLee and I went to our Doctor's support meeting last night. It was an experience and one not to be repeated anytime soon. It was very disorganized and we just asked questions for an hour. There was lots of bad information given. I'm glad we have each other on this forum. Most of us are really informed about the band. I am shocked at how many get this done and don't know what they are doing. Our doctor has decided to do the fills himself after having the PA do them for about a year. Not sure what the problems were, but we shall see how this works. I tried to share my stories of fills to ask if anyone else has these issues. They all looked at me strangely, so I guess they haven't. I'm making an appointment to discuss with the doctor. I am wide open now, but I know if I have a fill I will have issues. I'm thinking an anti-inflamatory pill for 2 weeks after a fill or something. We'll see. The scale showed a loss of 2 lbs this morning so maybe I'm losing the 5 lbs gained. I'm waiting a few days before claiming as I've been so up and down lately. I received good news when I got home last night. I had a letter from a company that had bought part of my former company. Confusing, but anyway I had stock options I didn't know I had. Some of them were retiring in March so I needed to exercise them or lose them. Jumped right on that computer this morning and executed and sold them in same day trade. It was a nice bonus and will help eliminate some bills! I still have the same amount of options and I'm going to wait to exercise those. Believe me, this put a big smile on my face!!!! DH is not getting better with his back so we might have to cancel our trip to Orlando. I was looking forward to it, but it will be no fun if he is in pain. I'll wait until Friday before taking action since we will lose most of the upfront money we paid. If we don't go I'll get a fill. Hope everyone has a great day. The sun is shining in Houston and we are back to high 60's, low 70's.

I wear socks all the time now in the house. I even wear them to bed. This is the first time I've experienced cold and now understand skinny people when they complain. I'm so cold in the fingers and feet sometimes it is actual pain. I just put more clothes on than ever.

OK now for some tough love. It is critical that you not cheat after surgery. The time after surgery is for healing from the procedure. Doctor's don't want solid food going into the stomach because that causes the stomach to move around. They want the sutures and stiches to set before introducing that motion. They also don't want food getting stuck or throwing up. So that being said, you haven't caused erosion. Erosion is when the lapband grows into the stomach or something like that. Slippage is caused when the band slips up or down from the intended place around the stomach. That can be caused by pouch packing (overeating), prolonged vomiting (caused by PBs or other reasons). You probably haven't done that since you only cheated once or twice and didn't have adverse results. Bottom Line: Don't cheat anymore. Give your stomach a chance to heal. Shoulder pain is normal. It is referral pain from the diaphram. Many suffer from this for several weeks, or months after surgery. For some of us it is our signal that we are full. A heating pad works wonders for me. Sorry to be so hard or honest with you. Sometimes we tell people what they want to hear instead of what they need to hear. Good luck on your journey.

I just love this group. I come here for support, to put things in the right perspective, and to get a quick kick if I stray. I think I'm starting to turn a corner. I asked DH to rid the house of the Cookies and candy. He could hide them, heave them, or eat them I didn't care as long as I didn't see them. I also went straight home and put a new hormone patch on. I read that lack of estrogen could cause carb and candy cravings. Not taking any chances. Last night I did something I haven't done in 8 months. I had a 100 calorie bag of popcorn. WOW, it went down easy, and satisfied my snacking urge. I felt better eating that then all of the crap of late. I don't want to eat a bag everyday, but feel now that once in a while in might be alright. I really want to get a fill, but I will wait a few more weeks. I hope the Doctor is at the support meeting tonight so I can ask about fills and my problems with them. I might just have to make an appointment with him and see if he can help me get the proper restriction. I weighed this morning and had dropped the 1 lb I picked up from PinkyLee's loss. :mad: I have 4 more to get back even from where I was a couple of weeks ago. I changed my ticker to reflect the weight gain so I could keep myself honest. And above all else, I am grateful for what I've lost so far. For me it has come slow, but it has come. As others have said, we are in this together.

I haven't worn my estroderm patch in several weeks. I've been fighting candy and carb cravings for the last week. I didn't put the two together. I haven't had this problem since banding so maybe there is a correlation. I'm going home tonight and put a patch on and see if I can get this back in control. I've been wearing my patch as a general rule since banding. It's only been the last few weeks that I've been without it.

WOW Neal congrats! You have done a remarkable job in such a short period of time. I've been watching your progress and its simply amazing.

I'm all for meeting more. Let's discuss at our dinner on March 12th. We can decide as a group how we want to do it. I'm needing lots of support these days.

I saw on TV about a new method. They go under the arm and pull the skin up. No scars down the arm like with the current method. I will have to have this done as I take off now in a heavy wind. You might want to shop around and read up on the new method.

Well I got your pound PinkyLee! I am now up 5 lbs from the unfill. THis upward trend has got to stop. I can eat anything. This tells me without a doubt that we, I, cannot succeed without the band. More than ever I want to make sure I don't do anything to make it come out. I would gain all my weight within a month without it. I can't go for a fill untill March 12th. We will be out of town and I can't take a chance with a fill. I'm making an appointment and I'm going to do things differently this time. I am going on liquids as always, but I'm going to stay on them for 2 weeks. I tend to swell 6 days after a fill so I'm going to try and prevent that. I don't know if it will work, but its worth a try. I'm going to Dr. Spiegel's support meeting tomorrow night. Hopefully I can ask some questions about fills and find out what things I can do to prevent such a reaction. I still haven't had ice cream at home. I think I did better when I had ice cream. Now I'm finding cookies, candy, anything to snack on at night. Oh heck this weekend it wasn't even just at night. I haven't had this craving and eating out of control since banding. I wonder why now?

If you still have restriction then don't get a fill. Losing comes and goes. Wait that part out. If you start eating more, don't feel restriction, and are not losing then get a fill. Sometimes you will go along and then all of sudden drop a few lbs. Also if you are exercising you could be building muscle.

I saw on the news last night about a new device being tested in San Antonio. It is implanted under the skin, but it doesn't attach to the stomach. When implanted it sends signals to the brain that is full. Not sure how exactly it knows when the stomach has had enough, but it has had some preliminary good findings. It is not FDA approved yet in the US. I figure by the time we are through losing our weight and years of living thin, we will be amazed at the new things out for weight control. Wouldn't it be great to have something that didn't alter so drastically how we eat.

John, your Mom and you are in my thoughts. This is very difficult for all of you. Just be there with your Mom to aid in her comfort. Let her know it is OK to let go.

Actually you will probably have an easier time finding the right fill. The Vanguard holds more and has fan like panels. SOmetimes they can't get all the fill out of a Vanguard to find how much you have. I would think having the smaller band will be better.

Cute story. I can just see her with that dog now. Glad she didn't get upset. She must really love her dog and realize clothese are just clothes! I've been thinking that we might want to meet every 2 weeks instead of once a month. It sure seems like a long time between getting some support. We might get the same crowd or a different mix since I know people have obligations on certain Mondays. We also could meet at 6:30 that first monday, but 5:00 or 5:30 the next. Just trying to mix it up a little, yet keep set times. Anyway, just a thought.

So glad you came here to share your story. The baby is absolutely beautiful and definitely an angel from above. We are all so happy that you made it through and that beautiful baby is doing so well. Take some time for yourself and that precious one. The band will be there waiting to help in the weight loss.

Brr its cold in Houston. We're not used to this weather. I'm wearing a turtleneck sweater I haven't worn in years. For us, 28 is cold. Everyone was real quiet yesterday. I hope everyone is doing OK. Melissa let us know how your Dad did with his surgery. I'm holding onto those 4 lbs I gained. I need to be going in the opposite direction. I think I'll do south beach for a few a few weeks to get myself on the losing side of this. Have a great weekend everyone.

My shedding seems to have slowed and almost stopped. I take a Niacin pill each day and that seems to be helping. Most of us have suffered with the hair loss, but no balding.

I would give it a few days since you are not PBing. Why not have a day of liquids and then 2 days of mushies. Give everything a rest. Then start back with solid foods, but slowly. After each fill things change. If you can't eat solids after all of that you might be slightly too filled. Good luck

SallyJo - you and your daughter are in my thoughts and prayers. It is most difficult when as a Mom we cannot cure and fix our children. I am glad that you have accepted that part of the situation. It is never easy. I am confident you will find the strength to see this through.

There are many support groups throughout Houston. I know that The Woodlands area has one and the Humble/Kingwood/Atascocita area. You might have to post about a specific area if you want one close to home. Also, most of the doctors have support groups. They usually meet once a month in the doctor's offices so you might want to check that out as well. Central market has an area upstairs for private meetings and cooking demonstrations. You will not be discussing your issues in front of the whole store. Good luck

Yesterday I was able to eat: 1/2 c Special K, skim milk, 2 cups of coffee for Breakfast spread out over several hours; 1 Activia; 1 cup chilli and baked lays for Lunch; 2 cosmopolitans, 2 stuffed mushrooms with crab meat, 3 bites of salad, 3 hushpuppies, 4 grilled shrimp, and 1/2 c of mashed potatoes for dinner; 4 strawberry licorce. I shouldn't be able to eat that much! Today is a different story. I drank my cup of coffee before leaving for work. I got to work and fixed my Cereal. Took one bite and Bam! I'm gurling, but it is passing quickly so I should be OK. Maybe this band is trying to tell me its still here. I swear some days, like last night, you wouldn't know I have one! This morning PinkyLee I just couldn't look in the mirror. I feel fatter than ever and I think all the fat cells have joined hands above my waist. I look like I'm pregnant from the waist up.