riley4183

Oh Tamra, you have to go! Nicole, "unusual hair loss" is definately a Mirena side effect! In just under 5% of patients, google it or go to their website and use the "patient support" chat feature, I am a Mirena girl and I have used it - here Safety with Mirena

187.4 this morning, only a pound more than my lowest post-stomach flu (!) weight. I had my 4th fill last Friday, and am really in the green zone! It's GREAT, my band works perfect now if I can just convince me head to follow its lead . . . Happy Friday all!

Tina SO glad they got you in and were good to you! You know after they do a big unfill like that & things readjust, it is supposed to take very little to feel restriction again - so you new sweet spot may be at 4.5 or 5. For SURE it's not at 6!!! OK here is something weird, despite my major munching mania today, my scale right now says the same thing that it did this morning! Looks like I dropped some water today, yay Nicole you must be right!! Yay I get to see Maria & Heather & all my everybody!! Where is my Christine???

Donna I am going to get to actually see you finally!!!

Jes, meeting @/near 37 sounds good, wherever the shopping mall is - or whatever, just get me an address so I can google-map it (no GPS for this girl) and I'm all over it!! Candra where you gonna be? Oh and what time girls?

Pearls, they added the info class because only a little over 10% of folks who went to orientation actually go through with some type of bariatric surgery! They think it's the easy way and then they find out it's SO not, and there are so many rules . . .so they drop out along the way, never lose their 10% or whatever. But we have all made it so far, and if you stick with us you will too! The faster you get to your surgery goal weight, the faster you will have surgery - so the timing is largely up to you! Warning though, do not start losing weight until after orientation! Your orientation weigh-in is your official "start" weight Pam, yucko! No more snackies for you either :-( Tina I had a really good one-on-one with Robin last time, too - so much so that I was going to write her a thank-you :-)

Ha Jes! If I drive I'll have to clean out my stinky car, LOL but sure can do! I need to clean it anyways. As long as someone tells me where to go WAY before I need to turn so I don't trip! Unless Candra wants to drive that is . . . we gonna vanpool, save a tree ya

OK you will love today's log: B- soy milk with 1 scoop soy protein powder, 2 slices reduced fat swiss, 1/2 cup fat-free vegie soup L- 2 cups ceasar salad with 1/2 cup Quorn chik'n S - 4 handfuls of potatoe chips and 2 small slices of chocolate cake!! OOPS D - are you kidding? unsweetened herbal tea! Totally, TOTALLy head hunger. Sometimes I just get SO SICK OF THE RULES! I have to tell you though, I tried to power down 3 bites of that choco cake before I had to go up to the front for a meeting, NO GO I did not PB but had to keep excusing myself to go into the bathroom and spit cause I was afraid if I swallowed my spit it might not go down! Seriously, I sent into the bathroom like 3 times during this 5 minute meeting - different bathrooms, so I could say I was going to check the Code or whatever - and it's real hard to talk when you mouth is full of spit! This is a client I was meeting with so he does NOT know about the surgery. Talk about awkward! Then I went for a walk with my friend who got married last weekend, I spit like 8 more times - it took me like 25 minutes to get over that little episode! My friend is like, well gee Jane, did you really WANT to still be able to gulp down chocolate cake? Uhm . . no, I didn't. Good band! So impressed that I do not PB at ALL anymore with my just-right restriction!!!

OMG Tina how scary!!!! I am so glad you got un-filled a bit. Yes let that swelling go down and you will be right back on your game! Just have to cut out the carbs again g-friend . . . . sucks huh? No choco cake and potatoe chips for you . . You HAVE to come to Reggie's Saturday, you are bringing our veggie loaf! Otherwise I have to wait until the end of Sept. to see you, and that would SUCK I need my Tina fix!!

looks like I'm just a-typin' to myself again, so I'm going for a walk! Had 2 (tiny) slices of killer choco cake today, and 4 handfuls of potatoe chips (I thought of you Reggie!!!) and uhm . . .that was not good! Gotta go do some damage control :-)

Pearls - this presentation is kind of dated - Kaiser Fresno does bariatric surgery now, too - and SSF does the sleeve now - but it's pretty interesting and a lot of it's still applicable. The Lap-Band is discussed after the RNY. Note that all Kaiser facilities use the Lap-Band AP system now, which has much better early weight loss results and greatly decreased slippage problems :-) Kaiser Permanente Annual National Surgical Symposium Bariatric Surgery in minutes

Nicole it can totally be caused by meds, too . . . I don't know if you take anything, but I totally lost my hair when I was on depakote - I mean like 25% of it - which I was on for 2 years due to a misdiagnosis, the moron psych (NOT Kaiser!) I think it was almost worst when it grew back in, I had short pokey hairs all the freak over my head . . . for some reason the new ones were super wiry and pokey . . . I cut it into short layers to hide it, it took years to grow out! I feel your pain girlfriend :-(

Welcome Pearls!!! We are happy you are here :-) The Friday class is the informational class, a new requirement - lucky you! After that you will get orientation at one of the Kaiser hospitals that actually does the surgery - probably South SF for you, but you can actually go to any of the 4 that do it, so just figure out which is most convenient. Good luck, you are ON YOUR WAY!

Hey Candra/Jes, maybe I can meet up with you girls in Vallejo & catch a ride to Sacto Saturday? What time u leavin? I'm thinking I will treat my son & his girlfriend to Marine World, drop them off with some $ & pick them up "later" don't worry they are both in their 20s!

I'm coming Reggie!!! I miss my girls!!! Nicole how tall are you? I think I remember you being taller than me but?? I'm old and my mind's not what it used to be!

Well I have been kind of sucking on my fluid intake, and it could be almost TOM because I have been a raving beotch for the last 2 days! I am not feeling much better this morning either, and I always feel better a few hours before I start. So I did 30 oz. as I did my walk this morning, and have already pee'd 3 times this AM maybe that's it. Also caloriecount.com says I was 240% of my RDA for sodium yesterday . . . .

Good morning ladies! Query me this: A week ago tomorrow I had a fill. It was a good fill. I have just the right amount of restriction. I am eating about 900 calories a day and power-walking off about 700 of those. How in heaven's name have I GAINED 3 lbs. since last Friday morning?!?!?!?!!

Potatoe chips! Oh my goodness that sounds SO good . . . . . Tamra you have sympathy pouch!

Thanks for the link Donna! I am SO in the "green zone" now! YAY I am going to try and go to Reggie's Saturday, is there anyone else from Sonoma or Marin wants to go & ride with me??

Oh thanks Nicole, she's real cute & all but I'm DONE with babies! Go for a brisk walk anyways; it will revive your energy :-)

Good morning ladies :-) Nicole I have seriouser issues than Auds, I wake up at 5:15 a.m.! I don't slam open the door though, LOL Pam hey whatcha doing at work so early!?! Not even 7 yet girl! I'm running late today since I made soup in the crockpot before I left this morning - and walked to Safeway twice for groceries, forgot some stuff the first time! But I'm here now! And have a couple more miles 2 do b4 10 . . .

Oh and my scars are tiny, you can only see 3 of them (1 totally disappeared, and ! is up so high it's between my breasts and under my bra all the time) and they are just little pink things . . . the only one you notice is the port scar, which is about 1" - so what? I am cheap I just used Vitamin E and Tea Tree Oil 50/50 and I only used it for a couple of weeks. Actually the port sticking out so far bothers me a whole lot more than the little tiny scar does, I swear that port needs its own zip code! Of course I complained about it to Dr. Baggs - I told him it was waving to people in the waiting room - and he said that my surgeon likes it that way (!) and then agreed with my son that I complained too much (!!). When I am done losing I can always have it revised to a low-profile port I guess . . . maybe I will get another infection and have to have it replaced! I may also have the skin apron in front cut off, I have always assumed I would need that but actually it is going away much better than I thought it would. If my cars were 10x larger and bright red and would never get better, I would still have the surgery again in a heartbeat!!! It is SO COOL . . . .

OK so for breakfast this morning i SLOWLY ate a cup of sliced strawberies - pureed by my chewing it was more like 1/2 or 2/3 cup I'm sure. There was a lot of gurgling noises from the band at first, but once I had that band lubed up with strawberry juice things went fine! Ate slowly and chewed a lot. Noon rollled around, not hungry yet (breakfast was at 9:30) so I went and walked a mile - I am out front at customer service until 3 or later, can't eat up here have to eat during lunch or not until after 4. So at 12:30 I made my lunch - a little veggie chicken patty and a half-cup of spaghetti squash - heated those up - got through the fake chicken (100 calories) and I was DONE. I still really wanted to eat the spaghetti squash so I tried a bite, I could tell it wasn't gonna fit so I (discreetly) spit it out - FULL POUCH. Packed everything back up into my lunch bag to have for dinner! Sheez I LOVE this!!!! No PB, no slime, no NOTHING but full too fast! It's been 2 hours and I still feel stuffed - I did just drink a decaf SF soy latte though, why I don't know because it was too much! MAN I love this - I am green zoning girls!! Candra I was terrified, I think we all think we are going to chicken out! The Successful Surgery CD really, really helped me. So did Liz and Dr. Baggs, they were very reassuring - thank goodness!

No one has ever died on the table at Richmond Kaiser hon! Going 4 a walk type to you turkeys later!!!

Jes I lost I think 6 or 7 between my CM appt. and my surgery date, part of that was the Milk of Magnesia, LOL!! I had been losing lots faster but I kind of got the "last supper" thing alternating with the "thin flat liver" thing. Liz will tell you at the pre-op class (YES THEY WEIGH YOU FOR IT) tp keep losing, every pound that you lose will make surgery easier. It's hard though! If it was easy none of us would need the damn band! But it's real important to have your liver as small as possible, so at the very least cut out ALL carbs for 3-4 days before surgery. IMHO of course I am just a patient and a mom not a medical pro :-O