BJean

This thread is so far from the front of the line, new sleevers probably don't even know it's here.

I feel like a sap assuming Devana (of all people!) would give Cleo's and me a hard time. You know what they say, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean... :-)

I THOUGHT I knew you better than that! I'm ultra sensative after having to deal with all that crapoleum from patty. I always knew you to be one of the most level headed and bright folks on these boards, Devana! Thanks for the remark and I'm very glad I haven't fallen into disfavor with you because I value your opinoin - a lot!

Really? If you believe that then why the ":lol:" ? Isn't it about time to shut this thread down? Or is that just an option for the conservatives who can't take the heat and begin the name calling? Oh wait, we haven't responded in kind so I guess this thread is still alive since the name calling is only going against the progressives. That's always fair game. It's when we get personal in our responses that they can't take it.

You know one of the key points that the president made was that the "overwhelming majority" of Muslims are peace loving and are interested in the same things that all Americans are interested in. If all of us truly believed that, we wouldn't have any reason to demonstrate or speak against having a mosque built near ground zero. But Americans are basically ignorant about that. We have 9/11 imprinted on our minds and we have heard how the Koran preaches that Muslims should ultimately rule the world. These are the things about the religion that we are most familiar with. Most of us don't know any Muslims personally. We have no personal experience that refutes all the hatred we've heard and seen toward Muslims in the press. We're flat out ignorant of the truth about that religion. We haven't studied it in school or even on our own. We're victims of our own ignorance. And that's the primary reason why we feel so threatened by this entire subject. If we knew that terrorists, like the 9/11 Islamic terrorists, were absolutely NOT representative of the Muslim faith, then we would be able to rationally decide the merits of a mosque near ground zero vs. being intolerant of the plans of those people for that facility. We speak from ignorance when we shout hate slogans and burn books.

You had your surgery in March, you've lost 69 lbs and you're concerned that you don't have a smaller pouch? I'm very impressed with your weight loss! And the fact that you might be doing it a tad slower than some others here isn't necessarily a bad thing for your body and your overall health. I want to congratulate you on your fantastic success! Keep up the great work.

sweetlover, I agree with the positive posts 100%! I never dreamed I would be this happy with the sleeve! It is the best thing I've ever done for myself. You, on the other hand seem to have some reservations. Fear of the unknown is normal, of course, but you should really be at the point of not being able to lose and keep off those 50 lbs before you make such a major decision. Especially since your husband is against you doing it. You need to want this very much and have no serious reservations about having a good portion of your stomach removed. If you get to that point, you shouldn't regret having done it afterwards. But if you're not sure I believe you should wait until you are. See if you can get rid of those extra pounds by stepping up your activity level and try eating 5 very small meals a day instead of doing some major deprivation diet. Think about your health and what you need to do to have a healthy body. My only regret is not having the sleeve sooner. That being said, it is probably not for everybody. You need to determine if it is worth the major changes in your life BEFORE you get the surgery.

Oregon, I don't think people were feeling too free to post their problems here. Everybody who posted about someone who had problems seemed to get jumped on and were accused of making stuff up. Driver63, when and where did you have your surgery? I can't imagine having a leak. It sounds so scary. Thank goodness you're fine and what an amazing success story - 126 pounds! Wow. Congratulations.

I would like to think that I'm wrong but I'm seriously beginning to be treated better by people in public. And when I speak, people actually look at me and respond instead of them ignoring me. What a sad commentary on the intolerance and discrimination that obese people have to deal with everyday. My older sister has been obese nearly her whole life. No wonder she's in such a snit all the time when she has to deal with people in public. I never realized what all she's had to put up with from people. I do remember in the movies once there were two guys sitting behind us and they made terrible remarks about her and they didn't even care that we could hear them. She just sat there, turned red and took it. There were lots of comments behind my back while I was fat and I pretended not to notice. It reminds me of when my son was in a rock band and wore his hair wild. People didn't seem to understand that he was just a kid with wild hair, not a freak or a thug or a threat to them in any way.

Lots of people have been incited into a frenzy of "throw the bums out" because of (fill in the blank) and they'll vote an incumbent out for miriad reasons that may or may not be valid. If the Democrats do their job of getting their message out, including exposing the Republicans for what they have NOT done for them, then they will not vote Republican. Many folks won't like either choice and will vote for some outsider, who by the way, often aren't good candidates but they just want change so they'll vote for them. Ralph Nader is a good example of that. And freaking Ross Perot. OMG! So just pray that the good guys do a good job of getting the message out and the bad guys are exposed and then pray that people use their heads and vote in a sane and reasonable fashion.

you click on the ticker banner above your ticker and it will take you to the website. Then you log on and it will direct you.

jilfinny, I had the band to sleeve revision April 28, this year. I am elated!! I have never been so happy. It has been just exactly what I needed and I am confident that I will reach my goal. In fact, with the band, my goal was 140 but with the sleeve my new goal is 130. Why go through 2 surgeries? If you have a competent and experienced doctor, there is no reason why you can't have one surgery - thus one set of risks from surgery instead of two. And it should cost less than having two operations. Do check up on all your options, but I highly recommend the sleeve. Nanook! it's great to see how far you've come since your band removal. I haven't been posting here at LBT as much and I had missed seeing that you actually got the bypass and how well you're doing! Congratulations! I hope your daughter is continuing to do really well too. I'm very proud of you. I remember some pretty depressing times for both of us.

I am really excited about the infrastructure thing. This is long, long overdue!

And I say we THINK we are better. But after watching President Bush's bombing of Bahgdad, that fateful night, I became convinced that we are no better than they are. As for the anger and animosity displayed by Americans when they burn mosques or the Koran, who can really blame them? We have had a government, especially under George W. Bush that used terror threats and the fear mongering over airport travel and the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo and Water boarding and the rest and we are mad as hell and scared even worse. If everything were put into perspective and we had gone after the terrorists and had shut down bin Laden instead of letting him slip through our hands, things might all be different for America right now. We're in a war. We've been at war for years with no real end in sight in Afghanistan and there are several more spots around the world that could potentially be places for us to drop our bombs. War changes people. We view other countries differently and we think of ourselves (at Bush's insistence) as aggressors. And being aggressive and war mongering is perfectly fine with some Americans. So how does that make us any better than other countries who breed terrorism and work at manufacturing nuclear bombs?

Dehydrators used to be all the rage. They're back and that's a good thing. One suggestion: try freezing fresh peaches. They're amazingly good and I think much better than canned.

Oh yes, it's who we are as a nation. But it isn't who we've become. It's who we've been for a long, long time. This is not the first time a church has been burned or some Americans have staged a book burning. We are a very inward-thinking, selfish bunch of people. We are guided by religious zealots in many cases, from the pulpits of churches run by preachers (and priests) who stand to gain from their prosletyzing, political rants. And that's precisely why I thought (when I didn't understand the bigger picture) that the idea of a mosque at ground zero was a bad idea. I knew Americans would rebel and do some crazy stuff. As for how it affects the war in Afghanistan, I have to tell you, I don't see the Afghanistian people building Christian churches or Catholic schools in the center of their towns. Of course there's a chance that I'm just unaware of them, but you sure don't hear about them if there are those kinds of places of Christian worship there. Is there a percentage of Christians who make up the population of Afghanistan, like there is a percentage of Muslims who make up the population of the U.S.? One of the big fallacies of American culture is that we are better people than those from most other places on earth. We may have developed a better way of life, but we aren't better people, and more charitable and honest than the people in other countries. We're all just people. There are good Americans and there are good Muslims. There are bad Americans and there are bad Muslims. They have home-grown terrorists, we have home-grown terrorists. We don't need to think of ourselves as better because we've developed a democratic republic in which to live. We just live differently than others. More tolerant? Some of us are more tolerant, some of us are not. What we need is leadership. We need not just an honest, compassionate and intelligent president but we need honest, compassionate and intelligent congress people, governors, judges and even local politicians. And it starts with us. We have the power if we use it properly and we have just been too busy and too easily influenced to do a good job of it. Cleo's is one person who takes her job of voting seriously. She has become knowledgeable and aware and doesn't get sucked in by the rhetoric. If we all took our job of voter seriously, we could really make a difference.

You brought to our attention what this controversy is all about, Cleo's. It's about big money diverting the attention away from all the negative stuff that Republicans have been doing in Congress and elsewhere so that they will do well in the elections in November. It's another thing for people to get outraged about and assume that it's happening because of those "socialist" Democrats. What a bunch of lame-brains we were to get sucked in by it. (those of us who did get sucked in) But when we knew better, we did better. And that's the important factor in this entire debate... for us to see this thing for what it is. Another Republican propaganda piece, full of lies, misrepresentations and misdirected anger.

Hard to relate, I'm afraid. But isn't pot an appetite stimulant? And what the people said above, about smoking hindering blood flow and lung capacity is something you should be concerned about. If I were you, I would definitely tell my doctor about your habit. It is something that your anesthesiologist should be aware of too. And smoking can cause you to heal slower and I haven't heard a thing about there being a difference between nicotine and weed in that regard. Or you can just pretend you don't have that habit and throw caution to the wind and hope that you don't get into some life threatening situation that your medical staff has no idea what they're up against. Nah. That would just be foolhardy.

It is really good to hear you are doing well enough that you felt like cleaning house and making lunch for your family! Things should continue to improve almost on a daily basis. Hang in there and before you know it, you'll be eating just about anything you want. Just not in large quantities. And that's what this whole thing is all about. Slowly getting healthier and slimmer. Keep up the good work.

Hey I like your weight chart. That's cool. The only thing I use ketchup for is when I make barbeque sauce (not since surgery tho) and on hot dogs and as a dip for fries. For some reason hot dogs seem good to me but I can't eat the bread and I can only eat a couple of bites of the dawg with some ketchup and mustard and relish. It never sounded good to me before surgery and I rarely, very very rarely, had a hot dog. Fries do not appeal to me and I did like them before surgery. I used to love me a cheeseburger and good french fries. I couldn't eat a cheeseburger these days if my life depended on it. And I can tolerate maybe 2 or 3 fries and that's it. Which is a good thing... Ketchup with eggs reminds me of my best friend, my sweet, dearly departed sister. She loved ketchup on her eggs. I would have trouble these days without tomato based sauces for Pasta since I have pasta more often now than I have in my whole life. Isn't it crazy how our tastes change with our new stomaches? Your kitty sounds like a sharp cookie. The cats I've had never got into anything I ate. They weren't the sharpest crayons in the box though. OMG, I have to tell you about a salad I had for dinner tonight. I ate more of it than I have anything since surgery. It was a baby spinach salad with peas, toasted pine nuts and pesto (store bought) for the dressing. Absolutely incredible. It was a Barefoot Contessa recipe. I don't know what else was in it - I was at someone else's house. I will definintely look it up online and make it! Very light and summery and you mentioned liking peas so you might check it out. Highly recommend it. If you try it, please tell me what you think of it. The pineapple salsa sounds interesting. Farmer's markets are great this time of year! And the one near me has the best sugar free chocolate nuts. Almonds, cashews and peanuts. Much better than the regular grocery stores and they are very satisfying and the cashews are a good source of Fiber for me. Works well, if you know what I mean. I've sure enjoyed hearing about your food preferences and the changes you've noticed since surgery! Ciao! (chow, lol)

shellbell64, I know, right? We need to just manufacture more and bigger bombs and go over there and wipe out the entire middle east, right? We're right, they're always wrong, right? Besides, we need that oil they're selling us - in fact they're keeping us hostage by the oil prices - so like Bush and Cheney and their friends seem to think, we're bigger so we get to have what we need and if that means just bombing the heck out of them, then that's what we need to do, right? I mean the very idea of Muslims near ground zero. What ARE they thinking? That our president Obama and Bloomberg think they won't bomb us again if we let them have their mosque? Why do we need to make friends with middle eastern people anyway, right? We're the biggest country, as far as bombs and fire power go, so why do we have to be nice to the "little" people, right? Are you out of your freaking mind, shellbell64? You think by being intelligent and using diplomacy with other country's leaders that we are taking it up the butt? (To use your venacular - "bend over some more") Ugly Americans, indeed. You speak well for them. But count me out of that group. Just because I oppose what I thought was a mosque on the site of the World Trade Center bombings does not mean that I oppose diplomacy and friendship between nations! And I thank God every day that we have someone in office like President Obama to represent us rather than that bumbling idiot Bush and the Cheney people who pulled his strings. What we Americans need to do is to stop being so darned greedy and stop pretending as if our addiction to cars and oil is all right. It isn't all right. It's wrong and what we need to do is suck it up and do whatever it takes to get off foreign oil and we need to learn how to be smarter than our enemies, not play into their hands like we've been doing. Don't make this mosque issue something negative about our President. That's just stupid.

Shana, I've been wondering how you're doing? It's been almost a week and I hope things have improved for you. Does your doctor believe in keeping you on liquids for a long time or are you already into more substantial foods? I kind of think that people who stay on liquids for weeks after surgery really have a hard time because of the boredom and hunger.

And you're almost half-way to goal!!! So you're definitely doing things right. Congratulations for loving your situation as much as I do. This has been one of the best decisions I ever made for myself. We don't have the same eating habits and you may be losing faster than I am, but we're both being very successful and we're both very happy and getting healthier every day and that's what counts! There have been times that I've had half of a baked potato for dinner because it was easy to eat and very satisfying. But I don't eat rice because it gave me so much trouble when I had the band I just got away from it. I don't have diabetes so potatoes and rice weren't a negative for me in that regard. I know people who are diabetic who say that potatoes, bread and rice have a bigger impact on their blood sugar than refined surgar does. I don't care for honey-mustard dressings or I would be glad to have the recipe. Thanks a lot for offering. When I had the band, string cheese and Laughing Cow low-fat wedges really helped me out between meals. I don't seem to need them now. For a snack I can get some Protein with a few almonds and I like the crunch. I'm very impressed that you've figured out a great plan that works for you. Oh and btw, I do enjoy veggies like you and the fresh peas sound heavenly. But I just can't eat much of them raw. I love everything lightly steamed. I also can't have pineapple - I just remembered that. Fresh or canned - both are impossible to eat now that I have the sleeve. Do you eat pineapple?

cleo's"You cannot know what every charity does with it's contributions. Same as you can't know what the companies you invest with do with every dollar. They might be investing in companies in developing countries that have a poor human rights record but you wouldn't know. So I see it as you making an honest contribution and someone else making a dishonest one" Oh I quite agree. But the money is still going to terrorists and that's too bad. As you said, you certainly can't control or always know what every group does with money they collect. Lots of money in America goes to things you wish they wouldn't but your intent to help those who are in need doesn't change just because the money is diverted dishonestly. What I'm trying to say is that your intentions were good. It's like a preacher who takes up donations for the poor and the money winds up buying the preacher a Gulfstream II. It's unfortunate and it makes you unhappy and perhaps even furious. But when people are dishonest and diverting donated funds to dishonest causes, it doesn't reflect on the people who were being charitable when they donated the money. It reflects on the dishonest people diverting donations to things that they have no right to do. But the terrorists are still being funded and the Gulfstream is still flying.

Cleo's: "bob, I couldn't find this article in the trib. But giving to a charity that then contributes to Hamas does not make the charity contributor a contributor to terrorists. I gave to the Haiti relief fund - what if later I found out that some of that money somehow got into the hands of terrorists. Does that make me a contributor to terrorists?" Technically it does make you a contributor to terrorists but not by choice. I feel your pain. And it's tough! How did you know I hadn't participated on the poll? Does it tell you who chose what? I thought these things were blind polls. loserbob, another way you can transfer information is that you highlight the entire passage and then click on "control" & "c" at the same time. Then go to the place you want to post it and click on "control" & "v". Presto, magic-o, eese done.