TheGh0st

I placed my vote. Keep bumping the thread to remind me though. :mad2:

With a 4 year old at home I would never be the one to walk away from my husband (unless he cheated on me or was physically abusive) but in my hard of hearts there have definitely been times over the last year I've wondered if it would be so terrible if he would just decide to leave me. I use to put up with so much crud when I was more overweight and now that I've lost most of the weight I'm standing up for myself more than I ever have and it sure causes some friction to say the least. I know we love each other but sometimes its hard for us to like each other.

Edited out phrases about jeep and daughter. Replace with WWI memorabilia and 4 year old son and I could have wrote the post myself. Especially the bit about Vegas. I have SOOOOOO been wanting a weekend in Vegas with a few banded girls without the hubby. Do a little window shopping, clothes shopping, dancing, maybe a day at a spa and take in a show. Of course first I have to find some funds to pay for it and right now money is tight. My biggest problem with money arguments with my DH right now is that everytime he wants to buy something frivolous and I try to remind him we can't afford it he pulls out the old "We spent 20+K on you, now its my turn." The fact we could barely afford the 20K and are still paying off the loans to prove it, much less an additional 20K for him just doesn't seem to register in his head. Grrrr!!!!

Hip Hip Hooray!!!! Congratulations on the pregnancy! That doc sounds like the same one I saw a couple years back. Worked out of College Park Family Care. What and @ss#o!e he was. But what are the chances it really was the same doc? If you are still looking around a bit for OB's I loved mine. Her name was Dr. Linda Brown, she works for KU Med West. She also knows a bit about the lapband and was wonderful with my high risk pregnancy, even gave me her home number and called me several evenings just to check on me.

I'd like to see them base it on the percentage of their Excess Weight Lost instead of just weight lost. That would go a long ways in evening the playing field. Ofcourse it also opens up the whole can of worms of how exactly do you determine what their excess weight is.

PIX - You are my HERO!!!

I know this isn't exactly the same as a life goal such as acting but I have been avoiding my HighSchool Reunions due to me weight but am now looking forward to going to the 25th reunion.

Hey all. Just thought I'd pop in and say hi as well. I wish more of us 05's would band together (oops sorry for the pun) Sometimes I miss the support of those that aren't just banded but have been banded as long as me as well. Maybe once we reach more than 2 years out there ought to be a thread dedicated to the whole year rather than each individual month. Hmmm? As to the questions. No Boob Job yet but hopefully before the end of the year as the girls really need to be deflated a bit to match my smaller waist. Yes Tummy Tuck last fall Not at goal but was so close Currently in denial about gaining weight but yes in my hard of hearts I have to admit I am. I'm much Much MUCH happier than I was the summer of '05 But am so FRUSTRATED at my current backsliding since the TT. Rarely froth or slime right now though I do have the occasional reflux at night if I eat to close to bed time. Part of my problem with the weight stall/gain has been a major unfill I had before my TT. I'm slowly working back up the fill ladder hoping to get things back under control. But another issue like Momx mentioned is that I'm leaning to much towards the liquid and soft calories. Not so much fruit juices for me but I've been drinking 2 or 3 slimfast a day in addition to meals such as beer cheese Soup or Long John Silvers Fish. Then there is the ice cream, chocolate, baklava and other goodies I've been eating way too much of. A lot of my poor choices seem to be stemming from a loss of desire to take the time to make the healthy meals that I can only eat a few bites of anyways. I did try joining in a say no to carbs 2 day challenge a couple months back and it did help restart my motivation at least for a few weeks but then I fell right back off the wagon. I'm thinking of doing it again and hopping it kicks me in the proverbial rear this time and I manage to stay on track at least long enough to take off the pounds I've regained.

Great Poll. It is all to easy to focus on the scale to the point of missing out on the true reasons we were wanting the scale to move in the first place.

A friend of mine on a local band group just posted the quote below and it seemed to sum up what I've been thinking about your friend. "Never allow someone to be your Priority while allowing yourself to be their Option" I know I have fallen into that trap treating everyone around me as a priority wether or not they thought of me us as little more than an afterthought. Then as I've lost the weight I've begun to realize I deserve better than that and am no longer satisfied to be treated as a second class friend or wife. This has unfortunately caused some definite turmoil in some of my relationships. But to be completely frank it was turmoil that was long overdue. No matter what I weigh now or in the past I deserve to be treated equally as well as I treat others and so do you.

Just found out this months KCBandsters City wide meeting will be Monday the 24th not the 17th. Sorry for the confusion. I also haven't seen any reminders sent out on the support group that meets at Heartland Spine. I think there have been a few months that meeting hasn't been held due to scheduling conflicts with the leader of the group. I can PM you her e-mail if you want to double check. I attended this group a couple times but at the time it was just to small only 3-5 people and my DH was bugging me to stay home more.

Yes, but as they say "Do as I tell you not as I do". I've always been a numbers person and despite feeling comfortable with how I currently look and ambivalent about the effort it is going to take to make that scale start moving again, it is driving me absolutely batty that I'm theoretically up 10-20 pounds post surgery. Though obviously not batty enough to actually do anything about it or I wouldn't have ate the top off 3 slices of pizza for lunch today or the McD's ice cream cone yesterday.

Needtolose - Today is your big day! I will be keeping you in my thoughts and wishing you a speedy recovery.

Quick clarification. I am NOT trying to suggest anyone here should not attend Dr Hoehn/Hitchcocks support group. I found it to be a great group and attended it religiously for the first year and 1/2. It just wasn't the same for me after Billy left which is when I switched to going to the group run by Malley and attended by a lot of the same people I already knew from the KCBandsters group. I've heard Billy is back though and may just pop in to say Hi to her one of these months.

I must have a morbid sense of humor but after you said mentioned your concern about the garage door openers effecting the new remote control band. I can't stop laughing when I think about it. I keep picturing some poor bandster minding there own business then a plane flys overhead and poof their band swells up and they can't swallow their own spit. I hadn't thought of that before and I think you're right it would make me a little bit nervous if I had one of those bands.

Besides Dr Hoehn/Hitcocks support group which is only open to their patients. There are 3 groups I know of that meet locally and are open to patients of all doctors. There is a yahoo group called KCBandsters that meets at 7:30pm on the 3rd Monday of each month at the Antioch Library of Shawnee Mission Parkway & Antioch. This group was founded by a woman that was banded in Mexico 7+ years ago before it was FDA approved in the US. It is a peer based support group. There are two other groups I know of open to all patients one is held at the New Hope Bariatric Center at 435 & Nall at 10am on the 2nd Saturday of each month. It is run by Dr. Malley's staff but is open to all patients and does draw in quite a few bandsters that were banded in Mexico and at other docs around town. The other is held across the street from the one just mentioned at Heartland Spine & Specialty on the 3rd Saturday at 11am. This one is also supported by a local doc but is run by a local bandster. My husband thinks I'm a bit Bandster crazy but I like to go to two support groups each month. I go to the KC Bandster Group at the Library as well as one at New Hope. There are unique positives to both groups. If I had to chose only one though I would pick the KCBandster group. The Doctor based support groups are great but there is an undefinable sense of freedom at the KC Bandster group. I've always been one to be open and speak up but even so sometimes at the doctors groups it's hard to not get the feeling that people are holding back on there questions and there answers for fear of being corrected or judged by the non-banded staff, no matter how great the staff is.

I vote for Ginger Rayne or possibly Ginger Raynes

Shoot, I got cheated. I tell you cheated. My husband helped wrap me up like a mummy before I showered if I asked and he'd help me get my compression wraps back on afterwards when I shouted I was done. But he never helped me in the shower. I just had to stand there with my head leaning forward against the wall of the shower to help keep me from getting to woozy before I got out again.

Exercise - Again no one to blame but myself. OK I tore my rotator cuff sometime last fall before my TT and didn't have the diagnose confirmed until a few weeks ago. But as anyone who has ever watched Biggest Loser there is always something you can do to exercise. And despite being torn it hasn't been hurting me for the last several weeks. I keep giving myself excuses like, I will join a gym after I know whether I'm going to have to be out of commission with shoulder surgery or after I get the fiscal year finished at work or after I get the money from my tax return to afford a gym, or, or, or. Again the bottom line is it's my bottom sitting on this computer chair or in front of the TV instead of getting out there and doing something to burn a few more calories. I think my biggest problem is really that I've gotten comfortable with the way things are right now. I like the way my body looks for the most part and I don't really feel the strong urge to try to fit into any smaller clothes. I only wish the scale would show I was 10 or at least 5 pounds lighter than pre-TT seeing how the doc claims to have removed over 10 pounds of skin & fat. But it is hard to find the motivation to make that scale move just for the sake of seeing a lower number. I've tried being open and honest about the set back on the scales here on LBT. I've tried joining exercise and carb challenges. And setting small goals for myself but none of it has helped get me refocused. I'm afraid until I decide I want to lose the weight for a better reason than that I'm just not going to get anywhere on that front. I just haven't decided yet if I can be comfortable with that.

Weight and Lapband restriction. My weight still hasn't come down from surgery and I'm continuing to hover around the 10 pounds heavier than my pre-tummy tuck weight. I wanted to believe it was all or mostly from the post surgery swelling but 5 months out it is hard to not face the reality that I have actually gained some weight. If I had to hazard a guess I'd say it was probably 75-80% weight gain vs water weight from the swelling. I don't have any one to blame for this but myself. Yes I had a large unfill pre-surgery and yes 2 fill later I'm still struggling with what feels like no restriction and some extreme hunger issues. But just like pre-band it is still my hand putting the food to my mouth. Not to mention the poor food choices and lack of anything that can really be called exercise.

The scar line. Is looking good. Correction if you saw a photo its very purple but it looks like a nice straight incision and on the right side you can't even feel any scar tissue. On the left side you can feel a slight line of scar tissue inside but its not enough to be a visible bump.

Tummy Tuck Recovery. I guess you would say I'm back to 100%. The only thing I could point to that might negate that comment is some very slight discomfort sometimes if I strech a certain way at night but its not uncomfortable enough to make me stop. It feels a bit like your skin after a bad sunburn begins to heal and is only on my left hip. Also there has been 2 or 3 times my son has head butt me or otherwise bumped into the area just in front of my hips on the incision line and that smarts pretty bad, but just for a moment or two. I still wear the spanx most days. If I don't wear it like today by evening I'm feeling a bit swollen and am more comfortable if I change into a pair of sweats to run around the house at night.

OK here goes. I might post this in segments to make it more readable. Life has been busy for me lately. It seems like its been over a month since I've had an evening to myself with nothing that absolutely had to be done that night. And work hasn't been much better with our fiscal year ending the end of February. I'm still trying to finish it up two weeks into March. But I suppose considering the topic of the thread the big questions are how is my TT and my lapband in general doing?

Life has been VERY hectic lately, but my in-laws took our son for the week so I promise to sit down tonight and post a lengthy update. Hope you like reading Novels. :sneaky:

Yes, I'm in Kansas City though I grew up in Nebraska. I use Dr. Malley for my fills though he wasn't my original surgeon. I agree he is one of (if not the) best docs in K.C. He has done over 1000 lapbands and is a regional proctor for Inamed. I changedmy ticker to reflect a mini-goal but ought to update it again. My starting weight was around 255 and I lost down to 163 last fall. My current weight is up a bit from there due in part to some swelling from plastic surgeries and in part from lack of restriction while being unfilled during the recovery from the PS. I'm hoping to have lost what I gained plus a bit more by June then just focus on maintaining. You are right that with any procedure there will be a percentage that doesn't find success. Though it also depends on how you define success. For some success may just be stopping the scale from continuing to climb while others may refuse to call there journey a success if they are unable to lose every single extra pound they ever gained. My own not so scientific conclusions on why some bandsters have not been as successful as others. Boils down to three main categories. - COMPLICATIONS - Unforseeen and RARE complications with the band such as a leak in the tubing or band slippage. There have also been rare complications that aren't band related such as various thyroid issues that can make weight loss extremely difficult, in those cases I would feel the band's ability to stop the weight gain if not turn it back should be considered a success in itself. - FOLLOW UP - Lack of necessary adjustments to feel proper restriction. This may be due to lack of funds or a reluctance to go back for fills for a variety of reasons. - HEAD ISSUES - And finally, yes there are those that just aren't ready mentally or physically to adjust to life with the band and will sabotage their weight loss efforts by eating around thier band with soft foods and high calorie drinks. This last comment is a bit of a hot button topic even for me. After all if I could have changed my behaviours before the band why would I have needed it at all? Right? But the band really can help. It only bands your stomach, NOT your head. However, it does make it much easier to move in a more 2 steps forward one step back fashion as you continue to struggle with whatever inner demons you may have in regards to diet and or exercise. And I am proof positive it is possible to lose the weight and still be a basket case when it comes to both.:sneaky: