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I'd like to wear a burlesque style outfit. Nice and short with fishnet stockings.

I now live in Australia but I used to live just outside Johannesburg.

My husband used to work in Botswana, he would come home to South Africa at weekends. I've been there but only once for a weekend. Yes Africa is amazing - there is nothing quite like seeing animals in the wild.It doesn't matter how many times you see a herd of elephants or a rhino or a cheetah or....... it is always breathtaking.

Where in Africa did you go?

TMF it's quite strange to hear someone say they envy me. I don't think I have a lot of friends and have often wished that I had more. I have moved around a lot including emigrating which hasn't helped. I now live in a small town and find it hard to make friends especially as my children have got older. I have different groups of friends that meet different needs. This group I probably see once a month - we have lunch and a good laugh. Then I have 1 close friend in town that I sometimes see once a fortnight and sometimes a couple of times a week.We are very different to each other but the friendship works - I would classify this 1 as a daytime/shopping cup of tea friendship! I have a few friends in the town that I moved from , people I met through our children. These friends are more like me but I don't get to see them very often. But if I need a girls night out or a weekend away then these are the friends for that. I have a lot of crafty friends. People that I get together with once a month and do craft with. I have lots of facebook friends. Some of these are people that I worked with overseas that have now moved to Aus and I have been fortunate enough to be able to catch up with them over here. The friends that I think I am missing out on are the couple friends. The people that I can invite over for dinner. I think part of the reason this is so hard is that my husband doesn't really have any friends. I am wondering if this is a man thing. That maybe men don't want or need friends in the same way us girls do. Hubby works really hard and really long hours and he just doesn't seem to be sociable - it drives me insane as all the responsibility for our social life falls on my shoulders. But I shall definitely count my blessings as I obviously have more friends than some even if I have less than others. I am also fortunate in that I enjoy my own company.

I wish you lots of luck too. I think that quite often we slip into bad habits and actually have to forcefully take ourselves in hand. In the beginning the weight loss is easy, it is new exciting, our band restricts the way we eat, what we eat etc but over time it all changes. It becomes easier to eat things that previously may have been difficult. We know how to cheat our band and what the easiest foods to eat are. We try going for more fills but instead of helping us lose they cause reflux and other issues so we then reluctantly go for an unfill. I think what all this proves is that wls is not a quick fix. Obesity is a disease and the fight to conquer it is a life long war.We win 1 battle, lose the next, get demotivated so we stop fighting for a while and then we think hey we didn't go through all this for nothing so we go back to the armory, retune the weapons and give it another go. Just remember you have not lost until you give up fighting. Each victory is important even the small ones. Hope it all goes well and keep logging in so that you can get some encouragement. We are all on your side.

I went to lunch yesterday with a group of friends that all know I have a band. Whilst we were in the restaurant they bumped into someone they know that apparently also has a band. They were all commenting on how much weight she has lost etc etc. Well after that the conversation turned to WLS . 1 friend said that the band does not work for everybody. I explained that no the band is not a miracle solution it is only a tool and that a person has to work with their band and change what they eat for it to be successful.That the band doesn't do the work the person does. Then another friend who has just successfully lost 20kg on Weight Watchers said that you may as well save your money and just go to something like WW! I then had to try and explain that that is not true, that the band helps by controlling hunger. She should realise that losing with WW is not as easy as she makes out. Of this group at least 4 of them have been to WW this year. She has lost 20kg, 1 has only lost 7kg( she is disappointed but she is not following it as strictly), another friend lost all but 2kg of her excess weight but has recently put some back on and the last friend I am not sure how much she has lost. Then my other friend starts talking about this new surgery which is more effective. It sounded as though she was talking about bypass. So I then explained that it's not new that yes it is generally successful to begin with because of malabsorption but people do regain and some of them then get a band in addition to their bypass.I briefly mentioned the sleeve as well but I think by that point I had lost most of them ! You would think that if they really wanted to know something about WLS they would ask someone that may know a little bit more than them instead of spouting misinformation and assumptions.I think that a lot of them believe that the loss is magical that you do not have to work for it but they probably also believe that having surgery is way too extreme and that WW is so much better. That having to have surgery to lose weight is somehow inferior.Now this is a group of older people - they range in age from 50 - 81 so yes for some of them it probably is extreme and that probably affects their attitude.The one lady that does not understand it fully but is more sympathetic than some of the others has a son in law who has recently had surgery. I also understand how exciting it is when you do start following a program and start losing weight but doing it with WW is no better than any other way. Interestingly of this group of 10 people only myself and 1 other lady have a "normal" BMI. the rest range from slightly overweight to obese.

A flipped port can happen because it wasn't stitched down properly or because of some movement or exercise that you have done, possibly prematurely, that causes the muscle and therefore the port to move. It is quite a common occurrence but the fix is usually pretty simple. $3000 sounds like a lot of money to pay for them to correct this. Have you queried it?

I think the reason that sometimes they don't like to tell you is that some people focus on the numbers instead of how they are feeling. By not telling you then you can concentrate on whether or not the fill is working for you rather than chasing an arbitrary fill level as you have read somewhere that "x" ml is the prefect fill.

I'm still not sure how a pouch can stretch or where the 1 cup per meal comes from. The current theory with the band is that the food passes through within a minute. If this is true then I do not see how it is possible to stretch a pouch even if 2 or 3 or even 4 cups of food were eaten................

That is a horrible thing to have had happen to you. I am really sorry and hope that they are able to do something soon that will help to relieve your pain.

I am allowed to eat and drink normally before a fill

I hate cruelty of any kind. I hate the fact that humans treat animals so badly. I hate the fact that sex and money seem to take priority over everything. e.g Killing rhino's for their horn because it is worth a fortune because some people with small d@@ks and even smaller brains think that it will boost their virility. I hate politicians - they are all in it for their own gain, it doesn't matter which side they are on. I hate religious extremism and the hatred it causes. For goodness sake people get over it, it doesn't matter who or what you believe in the only thing that matters should be the way you behave and treat other people. I hate exploitation. I hate oppression, especially of women. I hate the fact that I'm getting older and my memory is going so I can't remember what else I hate!

I eat shrimps/prawns with no problem

!!!!!! If you managed to do it without causing any problems or infection then you are extremely lucky. I have had highly experienced Dr's be unable or refuse to do an unfill because they were not experienced in doing so.

You unfilled your own band?

You look great, well done

That is a really unusual port location. Wonder how that will go once you lose lots of weight.

You might think that being too tight will help you lose but in reality you are more likely to gain. If you can't eat proper food you will probably resort to high cal sliders which are not satisfying so you end up taking in even more. And as the others have already pointed out being too tight leads to slips - that could result in best case scenario having to have your band unfilled for a long period of time (weeks or months) or worst case losing your band altogether. Do you still think it is worth it?

I think this changes over time. Post surgery I think it came out of the rear end more , these days I burp more but I still do both more than I used to preband.

This question comes up all the time and there are always conflicting answers. The bottom line is that you need to listen to your body, most people got fat by eating for reasons other than hunger. We eat because it is time to eat, or because if we don't eat now we might get hungry later or because it is a celebration and someone puts food in front of us etc. Who came up with the rules as to when we should and shouldn't eat anyway? So the answer is yes, eat when you are hungry do not force yourself to eat when you aren't

My band is very loose or so I thought. I had some beautifully tender, rare fillet and got stuck so badly that I ended up going to emergency and having most of the fluid withdrawn. That was a couple of months ago and even though I have been refilled almost to the same level I am struggling to find an ideal level of restriction. So bottom line for me is even though I thought I could I couldn't and that it was not worth it. Now if the steak has been in the slow cooker all day then that is fine.

Look at a magazine, read a good book, sew, watch a favourite TV show, go shopping ( that's dangerous)

Try sucking crushed ice, it should help to reduce the swelling.

Yes it's a suture. Clip it off close to the skin , that at least will stop it getting caught on something and pulling as that can be pretty uncomfortable.