Humming Bird

Hello and welcome to LBT ! I wish you good luck with your surgery. There is a great deal of info and support here, so stick around and jump on in and post whenever you want. Just think ....... this time next year you will feel and look so much better! Keep your eye on the prize!

Bandster Hell is when I was on a "diet". I did have a little restriction, so I could not eat like I did before being banded. A few weeks on a strict diet was ok. I had done it so many other times in my life. This too will pass and you will get some restriction soon. Just ride it out and put your mind in "diet" mode. Congrats on getting banded and starting the process to change your life for the better!

I think she should call her Dr.'s office so they can track how she's doing and give her help if there is a problem. I was very slow to eat some things, but yogurt and things like it should not cause problems at 3 weeks. I had fatigue for months.

This could be a problem depending on how tighht you are. In my case, I am very tight and there is no way a crown would pass through my stoma. A molar crown is pretty large. I think you should call your surgeon and tell him/her what happened. Please let us know how things go.

I think it will take a very long time for my mind to catch up. In my mind I am still a "plus size." Like someone else said, I'm the "big girl." I went from being the biggest girl in the office to being the thinnest, but I still feel like the big one. It is very strange. People at work tell me they don't think I should lose any more weight, but I still feel so "Xtra Large." I have learned to actually try on the clothes in my closet rather than just holding them up and trying to judge if they will fit. I shrunk out of a few things that I thought would still be to tight because I thought I was still so large. It would have been nice to wear those things a couple times along the way. Now I try things on even if I think they will be too tight even if it is just to see if they will be the next thing that will fit. I think my mind will catch up one of these days because I have been thin several times in my life. I just could not keep the weight off.

Elfie, It does seem like your personal sweet spot has been passed at some point. Maybe you should have only .5cc taken out at a time so you don't pass it up in the other direction. Don't give up. I still think the band is right for you. You just need to get to the perfect restriction level for you. I have had trouble with meat from day one, but even I can eat a small spinach salad at Applebees.

There are women here that have lost or are in the process of losing as much as you need to. I had surgery in Denver $9,950 www.lapbandrockies.com

That is crazy. It is also one reason I can not afford health ins. My surgery was just under $10.000 (included hosp., anes., even the first consult and much more) Why must they charge so much more to the ins. company?

just checking in ........ I have been reading everything, but have not had the time and/or energy to reply to everything. I'm glad Dottie and Anne are both on the mend. I have an NSV to share. This past Friday I was with my son in a Village Inn. I got up and went to the bathroom and he was watching me when I came back to the table. He said, " You look A LOT thinner, I mean A LOT!" It was just so nice to hear it from him. He will be 28 on Aug. 3rd. Every time he has a B.day I feel so much older. (for those of you doing the math, I had him when I was 4 )

Maybe that is the "magic" in the band for you.

Ass Wipeing 101 ? is it wipeing or wiping?

They can be a nice change from the milky type protein shakes. I add them to water.

Thanks. I know the July 2009 bandsters are lurking around someplace.

Banded July 9, 09. I've lost 100 pounds and am plugging along. I think I may have to exercise to get the last 14 pounds off.

Wear something loose fitting like jammies or sweats and slip-on shoes. That is all you need. That is all I took and it worked out great.

The poll needs another choice. -I've already lost more than that.

I'm sorry to hear your relationship is breaking up. At the same time I feel happy for you. It sounds like you have thought it through and have a good mind set. I wish you the best in your future.

I have been taking in many of my clothes. The rest I will take to a plus size consignment store. We also have the Dress for Success type stores here. Maybe you could call around to the local unemployment office and ask them if there is something like that in your area. I bet there is.

Biotin or B-12 did not really help me. Who knows, maybe if I didn't take it I would have been bald. I started taking it well before I had any hairloss and still lost 30-40 % of my hair. I think the type of hair you have has a lot to do with it. I have baby fine straight hair. Thank goodness it started growing back in.

Welcome newbes and welcome back Bobbie! how the heck are ya? There are several people who have checked out for awhile. I would love to hear how they are doing. (good or bad, I just want to hear from them)

Centrum Adult Chewable

It is pressure on the phrenic nerve. It does go away after you drop some pounds. I found that using OTC pain Patches helped a great deal. I saved this from another bandster's post awhile back: If you woke up with a pain in your shoulder, you'd probably think something was wrong with your shoulder, right? Maybe you slept on it the wrong way, maybe you're a weekend warrior who threw the football a few too many times. In most cases, your hunch is probably right. Pain in the shoulder usually indicates an injury or disease that affects a structure in your shoulder, such as, say, your subacromial bursa or a rotator cuff tendon. Makes sense, doesn't it? But you might be way off. Sometimes the brain gets confused, making you think that one part of the body hurts, when in fact another part of the body, far removed from the pain, is the real source of trouble. This curious (and clinically important) phenomenon is known as referred pain. For example, it's unlikely but possible that your shoulder pain is a sign of something insidious happening in your liver, gall bladder, stomach, spleen, lungs, or pericardial sac (the connective tissue bag containing the heart). Yup - conditions as diverse as liver abscesses, gallstones, gastric ulcers, splenic rupture, pneumonia, and pericarditis can all cause shoulder pain. What's up with that? Neuroscientists still don't know precisely which anatomical connections are responsible for referred pain, but the prevailing explanation seems to work pretty well. In a nutshell, referred pain happens when nerve fibers from regions of high sensory input (such as the skin) and nerve fibers from regions of normally low sensory input (such as the internal organs) happen to converge on the same levels of the spinal cord. The best known example is pain experienced during a heart attack. Nerves from damaged heart tissue convey pain signals to spinal cord levels T1-T4 on the left side, which happen to be the same levels that receive sensation from the left side of the chest and part of the left arm. The brain isn't used to receiving such strong signals from the heart, so it interprets them as pain in the chest and left arm. So what about that shoulder pain? All of organs listed above bump up against the diaphragm, the thin, dome-shaped muscle that moves up and down with every breath. The diaphragm is innervated by two phrenic nerves (left and right), which emerge from spinal cord levels C3, C4, and C5 (medical students remember these spinal cord levels using the mnemonic, "C3, 4, 5 keeps the diaphragm alive"). The phrenic nerves carry both motor and sensory impulses, so they make the diaphragm move and they convey sensation from the diaphragm to the central nervous system. Most of the time there isn't any sensation to convey from the diaphragm, at least at the conscious level. But if a nearby organ gets sick, it may irritate the diaphragm, and the sensory fibers of one of the phrenic nerves are flooded with pain signals that travel to the spinal cord (at C3-C5). It turns out that C3 and C4 don't just keep the diaphragm alive; neurons at these two spinal cord levels also receive sensation from the shoulders (via the supraclavicular nerves). So when pain neurons at C3 and C4 sound the alarm, the brain assumes (quite reasonably) that the shoulder is to blame. Usually that's a good assumption, but sometimes it's wrong.

I think that is the most UnAmerican thing that could be done.

So, let me get this straight........ You are short, fat, and can't be the "Boy Toy" you would like to be? Ahhhh, I'm just razzing ya I think you are thinking too much about it. You'll get the band, attract women and the world will be right.

I love your attitude and it looks like you are taking off some pounds too!!