barbara465

It some way that should make you feel so free. The new house will be worth the scarifice I'm sure.

Lisa you look great. What a positive attitude you have. A lesson there for all of us. We share the same anniversary. I didn't realize it was exactly 6 months today until you said it. I see such differences in myself from 6 months ago today. I can't wait for our June reunion as we all should have changed lots. Its slow for me, but I'm getting there. I know I will never see those 43 lbs again, and that's a good thing.

I definitely have to sit up straight to eat. My DH is always after me when he sees me trying to eat in my recliner. I know he's right, but I don't always want to sit up straight. Try having some warm Soup when the frosty urge hits you. You can break that cycle. It is too easy to stay on liquids and not move to solid foods. The band is meant to work with solid foods. You could still be too tight, even with the unfill. You might also have irritated the stoma and need to relax a little. Hang in there. This too shall pass.

Are we still meeting tonight? Is there anyone else out there that wants to meet?

How exciting Melissa. I can't wait to see 16 again. I have some 18's waiting for me, but not quite there yet. Isn't this fun? I looked at some pictures taken on our cruise in May and compared them to my face now. I knew I looked a little different, but I could really see the difference. When we see each other in June how will we know us? We can't look for the fat people. Guess we'll just look for all the smiling faces!! Feeling a little better today. Looks like I'm able to recover from Monday's episode, which is a good thing. It means the fill is working and I still have some left in the band. I stayed on liquids yesterday, not much, and plan on eating soft again today. Hope everyone has a great day.

So remember, you might look at him and go yuck!!!! This is a two way street. The date doesn't hold all the power. You can reject him for whatever the reasons just like he can reject you for whatever reasons. It doesn't necessarily mean because your overweight. I was divorced for 25 years when I turned to online dating. I had great experiences and 2 years of it I met my DH. He was normal size, never dated an overweight woman. He liked me for me and the rest is history. In fact our relationship is probably stronger because I know he loved me fat, he will still love me thinner. I wrote them online for quite a while before talking on the phone. First meetings were usually at a coffee place or for lunch. I didn't like getting stuck for dinner if I wasn't sure. Some guys you click with, some you don't. It can be a fun experience if you keep your self esteem in check. Don't automatically think a guy is rejecting you because of your weight. That may be true, but it may not be. I never gave the guys I didn't want to go out with again a reason. I just would email them back and say I enjoyed meeting them, but don't want to pursue it further. Good luck and just enjoy the experience. Above all, be safe. Meet in a public place and let one friend know where you are and call you at some point to make sure everything is OK.

It's a brand new world today. Last night my lovely silicon lady decided to show me who's boss. I guess she was tired of all my whining about no restriction and leaking fills. She threw a real temper tantrum and I've been humbled. The first bite of dinner was met with a golf ball and that was the highlight of the evening. It went down hill from there. I did have a slightly alarming experience, but I guess not totally unexpected. I was so tired after the party and ordeal last night and all I wanted to do was sleep. I was PBing so it was amost near impossible. I finally propped myself up in bed with a plastic cup next to me. You know the ones I swore I would never use! Anyway, I guess I fell asleep and next thing I knew I woke up with stuff in my mouth. Gross I know, but now I understand what some were saying about it getting into your lungs. Anway, it happened again in the middle of the night. Not much sliming this time actual stuff. I have been put on notice by my silicone friend. She has certainly gotten my attention. I looked at the calendar and guess what? Six days from the omnipack fill! Maybe that stuff is still in there. I just have to remember that I react 6-10 days after a fill. So it might sound strange, but I'm glad to know it is there and working. Now back to being careful and watching what I eat. I did lose 2 lbs so I'm claiming them now. Two mornings in a row on the scale and their mine. I'm glad for my friend. I wouldn't be down 43 lbs without her and I certainly wouldn't believe that I wouldn't gain back the lbs without her presence. Hope everyone has a great day.

As long as there is a minor child joint custody will call for every other holiday every other year. Therefore, he had them at Thanksgiving, you get them at Christmas. If he doesn't go away for the holiday I guess you both get them. Hope your lawyer was able to get him ejected temporarily until the divorce hearing and settlement. He is being pretty childish and keeping you "down" seems to be his latest game. Let us know how you are doing. The magic date of the 15th is fast approaching. Hope he has his bags packed.

For the most part I can eat anything. I try real hard not to overdo, but I can eat more than most of you. I have from the very beginning. The only reason I know I have a band is because of the times I got overfilled. I don't know where or how the band is leaking. It is not common after the first fill, but it does happen. There has been no poking the tube so I don't think it is occuring there. It will be interesting to see if there is any fill left, but it will have to wait until after the new year. It wasn't until after the 7th fill/unfill that it started to disappear. In 3 weeks I lost .6 and in 1 week I lost .6. I think I've lost that much again with the thicker stuff. I've been looking at some of your weight losses. Some have lost 70 and 80 lbs in the 6 months since banding. I haven't lost that much. If I could eat like I do now, experiencing no difficulties, and still lose weight, I would love it. I really don't have any problems with the band. Now I'm beginning to wonder what is really going on. Some of you have more difficulties, but are losing at a more rapid rate. Not sure which is better at this point. Christa it sounds like you have the perfect fill. If you start to get hungry, increasing the amount you are eating, and not losing - that is the sign you need a fill. Sounds like you are doing great and the ability to eat more or less between days seems to be a common theme.

WHEW, our holiday open house is over. It was so much fun, but I'm really tired today. We had so many people right from the beginning and lasted the entire 4 hours. Its amazing to cook for that many people, about 75, and not eat any of it. I wasn't hungry and didn't eat until the end of it. I'll try and get some pictures of our 3 Christmas trees. It was good to see PinkyLee and meet her DH. It was kinda fun sharing our secret. She looks amazing. I weighed today and was down 3 lbs. I'm not claiming it yet because my scale is digital and sometimes lies. I'll wait until tomorrow, but if its there again its mine! Now I need to turn my attentions to getting ready for the cruise. We went shopping early Saturday morning and I was able to get a couple of tops to wear. Barbara 12 let us know how David is doing. I know this is a difficult time for you and your family. You and David are in our prayers. Got to tell you that I don't feel like I have a fill at all. I don't think the thicker saline helped at all. I'll deal with it when I get back, but I think it is gone which means I have a leak somewhere.

Christa thanks for the explanation. I understand better now. I always thought that purging was for the food. Now I see it is for the feeling or getting rid of the feelings. I never ate much at any sitting, but I certainly was a grazer. A little of this, a little of that, and before you knew it I was overweight. I've been feeding my "feelings" since childhood. I would sneak food and find myself to this day doing the same thing. There is something comforting about eating something without anyone knowing it.

Melissa I just noticed you are 7 lbs from onederland! Woohoo, way to go! Mine must love cold weather because I'm hungrier now that it is cold than before. I don't think we can trend based on my experiences.

Thanks for getting this started. I'll be there. Hopefully, we can gather in the others in our area. There are many. This time of year it is difficult with all the other activities going on, so if we don't get a good response we'll keep trying. Looking forward to meeting you.

Barbara 12 let us know how David is doing when you can. He is in our prayers. Not sure I still have a fill. I am getting hungry again and yesterday had my beans/queso and chips for lunch. That filled me up until dinner. We went to IHOP and I ate the senior Breakfast of two eggs, two bacon, and hash browns. I ate it all, slowly. I felt really full when that was over. I don't think I should be able to eat that much. I had an activia for breakfast and 5 bottles of Water throughout the day. Don't you think that's a lot? I can't do anything about it now until after the new year. I'll go a head and make my appointment so I'll be ready. Guess I'd better make it with Spiegel so he can check why I'm not holding the fill. I certainly don't feel different with the thicker solution. Good news is I'm still holding and maybe lost another .5 lbs. I keep a steady watch on the scale just to make sure I'm not backsliding.

As time goes on you will be able to tell the difference between head hunger and real hunger, between hunger pain noises and just noises. You will definitely hear a difference in sounds your body makes. Some of us get gurgling in our throats from time to time as well. Right before your first fill you might start really feeling hungry. That is when you know its time to get that fill. Until then, enjoy this new state, but know as time goes on you might feel hungry again. You just won't be able to eat as much to do damage after you start getting fills.

After this last fill on Tuesday I am having the same problem. I'm back to 2.0 with the thicker solution and hungrier than I've been in a long, long, time. I don't know if its because I had to be on liquids/mushies for 6 days prior to this fill and the thought of another 6 days was too much. I broke down last night and had some queso bean dip and a few chips. That seemed to help. Today I had the same thing for lunch and I'm now full. I wonder about your theory on chewing. As you know, I chew, chew, chew. So maybe we chew to liquid and like liquids they go right through us. I need to chew on that thought a while.

Go to Texas in the list of threads (where this one is located) and hit start thread. Give it a title and post your message. It will then appear when someone selects NEW POSTS and they can quickly see it. If you have problems let me know and I'll start it for you.

Most say that at a minimum 60g of protein. You should be able to get that much each day with little difficulty. Make sure you eat your protein first, then your vegetables. Some use protein powders and shakes to supplement their daily intake.

I'll let you know in 7 years if I'm still here! I don't think he has anything to base that statistic on. He could be talking about overweight people, but those we a lapband? Its not like it is pumping our heart or anything. If it causes problems out it comes. Monitoring of it should catch erosion before it kills us. Guess I'd better start living my life real fast, tick tock.

Would you help educate me. How can you be overweight and bulimic? Do you eat so much and then throw up so that the body still keeps some of the calories? Not trying to be flip, just trying to understand. Forcing oneself to throw up with the band could be very dangerous. Most of us try everything not to so we don't have our band slip.

Start a new thread and call it NE Bandsters - Kingwood/Humble/Attascocita and post the invite. You might get more feedback by starting a new thread in the Texas forum.

The benfits are twofold. One, if they can't find the port it helps locate it. Most don't have any problem finding the port, but if they do this is helpful. You don't want anyone poking around the port and accidently puncturing the tubing. Second, barium is swolled and they can see how fast/slow the liquid goes through to the stomach. This is a gauge for how much restriction you have. That being said, mine flows through like a waterfall. Even when I could barley swallow my own spit, it flowed through. For me, restriction is not meaured by the barium swallow. It just shows I'm not stuck. I react to fills about 6-10 days later. A delay swelling. The symptoms we get from an overfill might not be that stuff can't go through, but the irritation/pain is from the esphogus. The barium/fluro method gives me a little piece of mind that things are working and the band is where its supposed to be. Other than that, it is not a good indicator of restriction for me. I don't think I'm a normal case though.

I'll meet you on Wednesday. I think a Saturday morning would be nice for meetings, but let's see how this goes. What name/group for the reservation?

Barbara I'm so sorry to hear about David. He will be in my thoughts and prayers. Take care of him and yourself. If we can be of any assistance please call me.

Maybe the hot tea opened you up. Maybe try having something hot to drink before you try and eat lunch. I don't have a particular time I can eat or not eat. I seem to be able to eat all the time, just not as hungry in the morning.