bitteroldhag

I have had my band for 3 weeks now, and I am very hungry. I may have a little restriction, but not much. I will get my first fill on the 27th. Does anyone have any words of wisdom for me?

You'll get less hungry after the first fill. After the 2nd fill, you will lose a whole lot of weight. Actually this will happen after the 1st fill. Relax.

I won't go near alot of those foods! I do not have a problem with shrimp, corn, lettuce but cannot even chew red meat without getting sick! It's really just trial and error till you get to the "sweet spot". Good luck on your journey!!!

I learned the trick to red meat. Cut the meat in chiclet size and chew a whole lot. That's for steak. I also steam meat a whole lot. I put pork chops in a pan with about 1/4 inch of Water and bake it for 1 1/2 hours and then just broil it to get it brown. This works well for me. For round steak, I brown it in fat and then add Water and boil it for about 1 1/2 hours adding water as necessary. This is called smothered steak and it makes its own gravy. We eat this a lot. Put a whole lot of garlic powder, salt and pepper on it. It's good. Hope you like this. It's southern cooking.:biggrin2:

Laurend -- One of our students, who is very bright, got a job on the night shift at the local Holiday Inn. He doesn't have much to do so he could work on his thesis. He just finished an excellent thesis. So you might try finding something like that. He arranged his classes early in the morning when he was still awake and slept in the afternoon. It worked very well for him, and he could pay the bills. Also you might check on food stamps for grad. students. I understand that a lot of grad. students are getting food stamps these days. We are going to suggest this to our grad. students.

As an English professor for 20+ years, I have a lot of students who think they deserve A's and get really bent out of shape if they don't get them. In my classes, students have to earn an A by doing superior work. Without superior work, the student earns a lesser grade. But I always tell my students that they are fools if they are only interested in grades. When you get out of school your employer won't give a poop what your grades were. He/she will be interested in what you can do. Because you can memorize material doesn't make you a good employment prospect. If you can't put a really good essay together, it indicates several things: you don't pay attention to details, you can't understand the overall thesis, you are not very good at critical thinking, you are bad at organizing an argument, you fail to provide adequate examples for your points, etc. Blaming a teacher for your own inadequacies is very immature. I don't think I know of any professor who doesn't give A's. I suspect some students in your class have gotten A's. So the trick is to figure out what you are doing wrong and I'll bet you can get an A. But thank God I am going to retire in about a year and a half. I'm getting sick of students who just don't understand why they don't get an A just because they worked really hard on an assignment. The way to get good grades is to understand the assignment and deliver what is required. Personally, I think you should appreciate a professor who maintains high expectations. They are usually the best.

Laurend -- I haven't been on this site for awhile and you were preparing for surgery the last time I was here. Now you weigh 165 pounds! Congratulations. I wish I weighed 165 pounds.

But if I had, it would be pro-choice. However, I have a plan for those folks who think they can control a woman's body. If you force a pregnant woman to have a baby, then I think she should be treated as a surrogate mother and she should be paid. My price would be One Million Dollars plus pre and post natal care. Then when the baby is born, the right-to-lifers should adopt the baby and raise it. This makes forcing women to have babies a simple business deal and removes all the moral problems. No one seems to take my plan seriously but it would do away with a lot of the crap involved in people who think they have the right to determine what others do with their bodies. Of course, I have long agreed that if men could get pregnant, abortion would be available on every street corner.

My friend got the 16 cc. Her doc was incompetent. But I will see a doc about this problem. Thanks for replying so soon.

I am almost 2 years out and I have had the pb's and other irritations, but lately it hurts when I eat. I cook meat so long that it falls apart, but it still hurts. I chew until the food is mush, but still have trouble getting it to go through the hole. I'm afraid I have an esophageal ulcer or something is wrong with my band. If I have an ulcer, could it be because the band is too tight? I have 4.5 cc in the 11 cc band, but my friend who had the same size says there should never be more than 7.5 cc in this type of band. Her fill doc put 16 cc in an 11 cc band and it nearly killed her. She gave up and got gastric bypass. Is it possible that if food gets stuck in the esophagus, esophageal ulcers can result?

I had a some esophageal ulcers before I got the band despite taking reflux pills for years. They cleared up quickly with treatment. I would like to go to my regular doctor since I had the band done in Mexico and have to drive 100 miles to see the nurse practitioner. What do you all think I should do?

I thought you meant the F-word. I use that a lot. I never use the N-word. How nasty. I think only uneducated people use the n-word. Shame on me for getting it wrong. But I use the F-word a lot.

Lord, I hate you people. I have only lost 40 pounds but have maintained it for 2 years. Okay, two and a half years. I'm glad to know there are more bandsters who are 60. I turned 60 about 6 months ago and I'm not enjoying it. I don't want to exercise. I don't want to pretend I'm twenty. I'm 60 and grouchy because I have a bad back and it's been killing me. I also take care of my mother who is 87 1/2 and doesn't appear to be dying yet. I think a person who is 60 ought not to have to worry about what one's mother thinks. Clearly I'm grouchy, but I got to the eldercare website and they are all such wonderful people that I feel like a heel. I'm glad this site is here so I can gripe. I have to stay up most of the night to get some time alone. Tonight, Mother went to bed at midnight. Lord, will I ever get some sleep? I apologize, but I'm grumpy.

I have many customer service stories, but as a teacher, I have had a couple of students just lay me out verbally. I was so upset the 2nd time that I was on my way home and saw a couple of guys who had a flat. I decided I might just as well die then since I was scum according to my student, so I stopped and offered to help the guys. They were afraid of me! I have never scared men before or since, but I was so distraught that I scared those guys. Hahahaha!

Thanks, folks. My back has suddenly gotten better. I suspect it knew that I as going to have cortisone shot into it and it decided to get better fast. But I have never had such pain. God, it was awful. Green, I'm keeping my Percocet.

I have a bulging disc which is causing extreme pain. I have been sitting on the floor for almost a month and have taken a whole bunch of pain pills. I've had open heart surgery and :confused:it wasn't this bad. I started with hydrocodone but when my doc heard I was taking them every two hours, she gave me Percocet. It knocks me completely out. I have missed a whole lot of work and my next step is to visit a pain doc who will shoot cortisone into my spine. I'm really worried about this. Anyone have any advice or experience?

Hey, I live in eastern Oklahoma and we have all four seasons, Currently the leaves are red and gold and beautiful, and the high temps are in the 60s. It's November and everything is beautiful. Don't believe those travel photos. Oklahoma and Arkansas are just as beautiful as other parts of the country in the fall and, while we have snow, it doesn't last forever. New England does not have a lock on beautiful fall trees. But it's colder there.

I lived in Illinois but went to beauty school in Indiana which was about 30 miles from my home. I used to get home before I left in Indiana. It was quite a trip.

I think I'm behind on this thread, but kneejerk patriotism seems stupid to me. I don't care if someone salutes the flag. I care if someone has good ideas. I note that Republicans seem to cotton on to ridiculous things rather than look for the truth. I'm sick of that. Look what the Republican party has done. It has moved the U.S. toward fascism, not that I'd expect you to understand that term. This is not the America I grew up in. I'm in severe pain due to my back, so I'm cranky. But this sort of thing really irritates me. I wonder why people don't study the Constitution instead of going for stupid pictures like this.

I'm a lover of paleolithic art. I have studied it for over 20 years, trying to make sense of the paintings and signs. I haven't succeeded yet, but who knows?

I am also a massive fan of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. Luckily, he just wrote a new one and I'm thrilled. I have read and reread them a jillion times.

I did the greatest thing in the world for myself. I got a housekeeper. Our current housekeeper comes once a week and it's wonderful. I don't have to clean the house. And the good part is that mother pays for it. Lord, it's wonderful. She may not clean to my exact standards, but I don't care. I don't have to do it. I've had various housekeepers for about 15 years and I've enjoyed it every day. My doctor said it is one of the best things I've ever done for myself. I recommend a housekeeper for anyone who is stressed. It's great.

Ho, ho, ho. We don't have any codes in the county here. I can set up a junk yard and no one except the neighbors will care. I think I'll go for the drain but it will no doubt cost the earth. I'm also getting news windows the house since the current windows have to be propped up if I open them. But thanks for your help.

As an English prof, I have to say that I only correct the grammar of my students, so that they will have a shot at a good job. I never, never correct the grammar of anyone else. As to pronunciation, I read a lot and don't know how to pronounce all the words I read. My friend, who is British, pointed out that we are always mispronouncing words that we read. Frankly, I'd rather have people read and mispronounce the words than not read at all. But I do have to tell my students that says things like "It don't matter no way" or "I done done it" is likely to impact their employment interviews. My aunt once said, "I done done it" and was very interested that "done done" went together like that. I had the class not to tell her that it should have been "have done it." People speak different dialects and we should cut them some slack for that. I speak eastern Okie so I "make" a soft drink and I'm always "fixing" to do something. But correcting other people's speech is a sign of bad manners and a tendency to be pedantic. I just hate pedants.

Boy, I can tell a bunch of you guys are young. I'd have perfect teeth and wouldn't have all those bruises and weird things on my arms from medication. I'd also have dark hair instead of dishwater blonde and I have to dye it that color. It's really white. Gross! I'd also like to be 2 inches taller. I'm 5'6" and I think I'd look thinner if I were taller.

I would also like to quit adopting every dog I see. I have 5 dogs, counting the neighbor dog, and two cats. I am going to try to go cold turkey when my older dogs die and not get anymore dogs.

Regarding pants. I just don't understand the way the kids are wearing their pants. They drag the ground! On What Not to Wear they have the lady get fancy shoes and then cover them up with very long jeans. The kids' jeans are all frayed around the hems and when it rains, their jeans wick up the rain so that their whole legs are wet. I hate long pants. I think most of mine are too short but at my age, I don't care. At least the jeans today are better than the pegged pants in the 60s. We had one guy with really skinny legs who had his pants pegged so close that you could count the hairs on his legs. I liked bell bottoms. They were comfortable, especially if they were very wide bell bottoms. I had a pair like that and I wore them constantly. I was so cool.

Lucy -- Maybe you can advise me on my driveway. I'm going to get it fixed because Water runs onto it and I have to wade to my car. But I don't know what to do. I am considering just digging some holes for drains. If it fills up too much, I can drop a sump pump in there, but it usually evaporates pretty fast. My garage also floods so I'm thinking of putting a drain in there too. What do you think?

I remember that we would go all over the place on Halloween --without our parents. One couple, who lived a mile or two from us, used to cook hotdogs and stuff in their garage and no one ever worried about them poisoning the kids. We would come home with grocery sacks full of candy and stuff. We would even get popcorn balls and cupcakes! Now, no kid goes trick or treating without a watchful parent and a lot of them have to go to Halloween carnivals so the parents can be sure they are safe. I often wonder when people started thinking life is safe. It isn't. None of us are getting out of this alive.

I love, love, love interior design. I am an HGTV addict. I renovated my house a few years ago and added on a room with plenty of dog laying room. People absolutely love my house. Even men comment on it. I'm so pleased. What style do you like? I live very cozy rooms so I use dark colors on the walls. I'm going to redo my bedroom in an old gold color because I got this great deal on Croscill bedding and it's just beautiful. It's sort of a silvery sage green and has little rosebuds embroidered on it. Man, I've never had such a fancy bedspread. Anyway, the old gold goes with the bedspread. My living room which so many people like is painted in Sherwin Williams Copper Mountain. It's burnt orange, but people love it. Weird! Tell us your style and I'll be glad to pitch in. I've been known to buy furniture for people so I can do the design. Now that's really weird.

I am terrified of heights. I went to a conference in Houston and they had those elevators on the outside of the building. My room was on the 26th floor. I went up the elevator several times by studiously looking at the floor but you could see light in the crack between the elevator and the floor. I would also make people stand behind me. So I got on the elevator with one man standing behind me. He got off on the 3rd floor! I had to ride 23 floors by myself. That's when I called the hotel folks and found I could ride in an enclosed elevator that the service people used. It was a lot better, but I will not go to a conference with that organization again.