BJean

All of my comments were absolutely not directed at you, gadget. The African American comment was, of course. That's a point where we will just have to agree to disagree. I believe it is an extremely far-out and inflammatory position and it is pretty much meaningless as it relates to my arguments. I absolutely do not refuse to look at the "parallels" that you would like to think are important and relevant - I have looked at them for what they are. As for the rest, I was speaking to a point that someone else made. Getting personal may be the best way for you to make your point, however, it isn't my style. Besides, we've gone there before and you and I both know that you are not going to win me over to your "arguments" nor am I going to win you over to mine. C'est la vie. Did I say that right, green? You know your French better than I.

What is a freecell? I had no idea you were a painter, green. I am too, of sorts. But I don't follow that dream for some reason. I can get an awesome natural high from painting and yet, my paints sit idle and dry up... weird.

L8BloomR: Please do not think that my above post was directed at you. You have made the noble statement that if women learn that there are many couples who want babies in this country and that there is a shortage of available babies, that it could give them a comfortable alternative to abortion. However that is very different from making it legally mandatory for women to bear unwanted children so that women who can't have them will have a bunch of babies to choose from.

Just because there is a shortage of "available babies" for adoption, that is not a justifiable reason for women to be legally bound to go through an accidental, unwanted pregnancy to full term!!!! That is completely ludicrous. Just because some women are in the unfortunate position of being unable to bear children, doesn't mean that other fertile, capable women who find themselves in the unfortunate position of having an unwanted pregnancy, should be legally bound to bear children for those who can't! If you believe that every fertilized egg is a living, breathing human being and you can't stand the idea of any fertilized egg being destroyed, that's one thing. But to compare abortion to slavery, and to say that because there aren't enough abandoned babies in this country that abortion should be illegal, just says that you are extremely desperate for reasons why you think it's your job to be the pregnancy police. And there is absolutely no arguing that a fertilized egg cannot survive without its' host mother. Furthermore, even once a baby can survive outside the womb but it is found that there is a life in jeopardy, it should still be a decision between the mother, doctor and the sperm doner (and their God), whether an abortion is warranted or not. A MEDICAL DECISION OF THIS MAGNITUDE SHOULD NEVER BE DECIDED BY ANY OTHER BIASED GROUP OF PEOPLE, OR ELECTED GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS OR SUPREME COURT JUSTICES.

Dynamo! That's fantastic. Two weeks of R & R~! Hope you have a great time! I'm with Michelle, Green, we would love to see your befores and afters. NM Sunshine: I'm with you, dude, BURN THE FAT CLOTHES IMMEDIATELY!

ingyrob: Glad you're still here. Sorry you still have more dental work to endure. I have a friend who has lots of hangy down wrinkled skin just above her knees. I would like to keep losing so I can have that problem!! Keep up the good work! Do ya'll watch "Dancing with the Starz"? Anyone notice Wayne Newton's grimace? I worked with a woman who had so many tightenings she had a slit for a mouth. She was obsessed with those little verticle wrinkles above her upper lip. Green's brilliant for getting new lips. Frankly I was relieved when Wayne got voted off. I got uncomfortable watching him talk. When he had the 'stash and ponytail, he was much improved as far as I'm concerned. Kenny Rogers is another one who I believe got a bit too aggressive. Looked like he was almost in pain when it was first done. Guess it all relaxes after a while. But ouch~!

Both my parents in law and all of my DH's siblings are slender. In fact, several are downright skinny. When they first saw me after my 40 lb. loss, no one noticed. I guess since I'm still overweight, they are still overwhelmed by my mass. Creeps. I have a feeling that I still embarrass them. Creeps. :tired I wish I could say they love me just for me, but being able to get your ass in skinny, heavily starched Wranglers is important to native Texans. Being a native Okie means never having to wear those uncomfortable crotch grabbers. Just give us a big Indian Chief blanket and we're ready to smoke pipes around the campfire. Hiya, hiya, hiya, hiya, hiya, hiya.

Green: To think I used to admire a friend who could orgasm from a little nipple stimulation. Your mom puts her to shame! Did she carry a feather or some pepper? :heh:

Wow Green sounds like you're definitely on the mend. I didn't know that sometimes they stitch inside your mouth for glamour girl surgery. This is all temporary and you'll be the envy of us all! Glad you're feeling better 'cause one day they'll take your drugs away and you'll have to rely on your good looks to get you through the day. :cool:

serena: Your posts have touched my heart. I do not share my lap band experiences with friends or family either. I read and post often at LBT. It is informative and it feels like I have friends here. We are definitely not alone and there are many people who post here who have extremely interesting lives. I love that I am learning a lot from so many of them. If it weren't for LBT, I might feel a bit isolated. I hope you will continue to share your thoughts and feelings with us and you will appreciate the other bandsters here as much as I do.

I love this thread too! It goes a long way toward cheering me up. I get so disgusted with all the problems with eyesight, incontinence, forgetfulness, hair loss, spider veins, double chin, hanging bicepts, sagging boobs, did I mention forgetfullness? Well if I read that so many other wonderful people are able to make jokes about these age and weight related conditions, I figure I can laugh too. Har de freakin' har. :faint::faint::faint::faint::faint::faint::faint::faint::faint::faint::faint::faint::faint::faint::faint::faint:

I'm glad I'm not the only one who was told to take antibiotics pre-dentist. I thought it was just one of those run-of-the-mill instructions that we all got. ingyrob: They didn't tell us we would die if we got oral surgery - just that we COULD die if we got strep or other such-y like as that crud. Since you haven't posted in a while, I hope that isn't a bad sign.....:paranoid P.S. And remember, 60 is the new 50 - plenty of time to reap the rewards of plastic surgery! :heh:

I just read a quote elsewhere on the 'net. It said, "I know two things for sure. There is a God and I'm not Him." Green: I believe that the whole idea of transplanting an unwanted fertilized egg into someone else who desperately wants a baby, is asking for a whole lot of problems. And none of them minor problems. I'd hate to open up a discussion of that because it could get very volatile, but if it were offered as a choice and done voluntarily, I would probably be supportive of the idea. If it were mandatory and required by law, I would be completely and totally against it. I would like to add that although some people believe that adoption is the answer to every unwanted baby, I would say that adoptions sometime present some real horror stories of their own. So I feel that desisions like these: adoption, in vitro fertilization, transplanting fertilized eggs, abortion, etc., should all be made on a case by case basis by the people directly physically involved - NOT by the government or other biased individuals.

I'm "weighing" in on the "built like a brick shithouse" comment. From where I'm from, it is a huge compliment! And from the description of your height and weight at the time, I'm sure he must have been admiring your nifty curves. Guys really do like curves. I am sure there are a few who like skinny minnies, but for the most part, guys like to be able to tell their women are WOMEN. I've often said that the reason we have super-skinny models and the reason designers design clothes for the super-skinny form, is because many of the designers are gay and they really love the male body, which is straight up and down, not curvy.

You got that right!:tired<TABLE id=HB_Mail_Container height="100%" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0 UNSELECTABLE="on"><TBODY><TR height="100%" UNSELECTABLE="on" width="100%"><TD id=HB_Focus_Element vAlign=top width="100%" background="" height=250 UNSELECTABLE="off"> </TD></TR><TR UNSELECTABLE="on" hb_tag="1"><TD style="FONT-SIZE: 1pt" height=1 UNSELECTABLE="on"> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

Green: The reason this issue keeps rearing its' ugly head here, even though our laws are clear on this, is because this administration has appointed Supreme Court justices who are anti-choice. Consequently, the current laws can be changed. As you know, there are Americans who believe that they have the right to determine what all American woman do with regard to an unwanted pregnancy. They do not want to allow women the right to choose abortion. So the war, both here and abroad, rages on. You (and they) can thank our sitting president and his sidekicks for all of this.

The thing some people just don't understand is that in certain situations an abortion does not create a worse tradegy for the mother and baby than a pregnancy (and fetus) that is not terminated. I know how some of you feel about this. You want as many babies as possible to be brought into this world. And most of you say that you'll take the responsibility of any unwanted children and the responsibility for any woman whose life is endangered by a pregnancy - which for me includes both physical as well as mental reasons. But the sad fact is, you cannot provide for all of these children and mothers - nor is it your place to. In fact, your beliefs should not be the determining factor with regard to a woman and her fetus (or child, if you prefer). You should just continue to do the good work that you do in support of your beliefs and allow others to practice their own beliefs when it comes to this subject. No matter how much you wish it to be true, you have no right to tell others what to believe and to condemn them if they do not share your beliefs and practices. I honestly do understand how you feel about the abortion issue and unwanted babies. My heart does go out to you. I am sure you are tortured by the idea of babies being killed every day. Otherwise you wouldn't go to such extremes to make your point.

I just can't get around the fact that people pick up Hep C when they get tats. I don't know how you can trust them to sterilize like they're supposed to. I am sure there are some luxurious tattoo parlors (relic term) where you feel safe, but I dunno, it scares me. One thing I was told when I got the band is that the band is a prosthesis and if contract certain communicable diseases, like Strep for instance, it can settle in your prosthesis and you can get so sick it can kill you. I know a very healthy guy who got knee replacement and got Strep and it was the most miserable last 2 months of his life. I won't tell you what all he went through, but it scared the living hell out of me and it was unbelievably sad. That's why they tell us bandsters to take antibiotics when we go to the dentist, even for just a cleaning.

Green I appreciate your comments and suggestions very much. Thursday I finally agreed to an unfill. OMG!!! Thank goodness I finally did! It's been months of unrelenting hunger, PB's, coughing and misery. I guess I was so caught up in the idea of "the more restriction, the better" that I didn't realize how bad it all was. I had finally gained a few lbs and that was the thing that made me take action. The dietician and nurse had both lectured me about too much restriction. Finally Thursday the doctor showed me photos of an enlarged esophogus and he told me about the complications. He took me from 3.2 to 2.6 and I am doing unbelievably better. Now I can actually eat protein and veggies and I am not hungry all the time. In fact, I am not really hungry at all. Man if I have finally broken the code, I will be the happiest chubby chick alive! (Soon to be slender-ella.) It sounds like you are doing better and the drugs are holding out. You were great about keeping us posted... I just am still having computer problems. My machine is huge and has an enormous amount of memory - a better computer than the ones at our office. But I was getting a message telling me that it was short on memory and that Microsoft was beefing up the memory or something...nutz! Finally this morning I can type a word without it stopping and pausing for a couple of minutes. Is the discoloration fading yet? leedorr: The only thing I can suggest is for you to check on the amount of restriction you have. If it is too much, you can have those symptoms just as strongly as if you have too little. I didn't believe it but if you read my above message, you know it was definitely true for me. One thing we all need to remember is that the band is supposed to work FOR us, not AGAINST us. We shouldn't be starving all the time and obsessing about what we can eat and keep down, like I was. We should not be PB'ing if we are eating small bites and chewing well!!! I didn't notice but one night my husband watched me chew a small bite of salad (spring mix) and he counted 50 chews before I swallowed and I still had a problem. Now that's just wrong! We have to be able to eat nutritious food or the hunger will grow and grow over the months and then you'll find yourself eating soft things, like ice cream (the cold felt good) because you can eat it and not PB. Don't let it go on like I did. Make your band help you. I was definitely at the point where I was fighting the band instead of loving it. Take good care of yourself and don't think that PB'ing is the normal order of business when you have the band! <TABLE id=HB_Mail_Container height="100%" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0 UNSELECTABLE="on"><TBODY><TR height="100%" UNSELECTABLE="on" width="100%"><TD id=HB_Focus_Element vAlign=top width="100%" background="" height=250 UNSELECTABLE="off"> </TD></TR><TR UNSELECTABLE="on" hb_tag="1"><TD style="FONT-SIZE: 1pt" height=1 UNSELECTABLE="on"> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

One thing I find interesting is that so many of the people who are ultra-conservative, like Hasselbeck, haven't figured out the damage they're doing. They are so abrasive and insistent on their beliefs being the law of the land, they are causing many mainstream people to want to join the fight for getting "under God" taken out of the Pledge and "In God We Trust" taken off our money. If they'd just shut their yaps up, things would be reasonable around here. No one wants religion crammed down their throats... be it Muslim or Christianity. And they sure don't want it to be the law of the land!!!!

Well Wheet, I agree almost wholeheartedly... but I must take issue with your comments about Geography. After all, we really must take into account that "I believe that osama...some people don't have maps. As such... Iraq and South Africa," etc.... :rolleyes

GREEN!!!!! I've been offline due to a computer malfunction for the past couple of weeks. I've been worrying and wondering how the hell you are! Thank goodness I didn't read about it until you got new drugs. Now I don't have to "feel your pain" as Billy would say. (Clinton) Just think hon, after a couple of weeks or 6, you'll forget all about the pain because you'll have so many hot guys jerking their heads around to get a better look at you when you're walking down the street! :rolleyes I am sorry the whole thing is physically so much worse then the mini, but surely that means that the results will be even more impressive. How long for the swelling and discoloration? I am jealous, I just can't help myslf. I went to the dietician last week and spent the entire hour crying!! (I tell you this story so that you will feel sorrier for me than for your on-the-road-to-recovery self.) I had gained a coupla lbs and she started telling me that over this past year she has observed that I am WAY too hard on myself. She thinks I have too much restriction because of that and she proceeded to ask me how I think I look. I told her I don't have a realistic picture of myself in my mind, because I can't actually believe that I've become an obese person... I still think of myself as a little person of 110 lbs. She proceeded to go make photocopies of my pre-surgery photo and my 6 month post-surgery photo and lay them out on the table in front of me. She pointed at the 6 month photo and said "That's where you are now." (it's been 1 yr. since the band) The rest of the session was me blubbering :cry and making stupid excuses for why I am eating ice cream instead of real food. Anyway, the point of this little tale is to tell you that besides my girth, a couple of the most frightening things I see in those photos (she told me I HAD to put them up on my wall to see everyday) are my eyelids and my chin. My eyelids look like I've been hit repeatedly by Mohammed Ali (not bruised, but so puffy my eyes are slits) and my chin has hangy down stuff creating horrible, junky jowls. So darlin, please don't regret what you've done. You've lost the weight, you've now had your face re-done and I'm still treading water after a year at the the six month mark. YOU GO GIRL!!!!!!!! :whoo: I'm very, very proud of you! I'll say a little prayer that you'll feel much better real soon. :kiss2:

Ahhh. You are my hero. I haven't been able to capture a true love slave. Well, truth be known I wouldn't know the first thing about using my love slave if I had one! Doh!

Sharon - that really is great! Doesn't it feel great?!

cathie: It makes no sense to me. If we were able to control our irregular eating, we wouldn't NEED WLS! I wonder if she sensed that you were in a bad mood or that you weren't particularly impressed with her and she decided that you had a bad attitude. Some people take advantage of others with their power. Of course I'm not accusing her of that since I do not know her. But from what you've said, it seems that maybe you could have been discriminated against. I really should shut the heck up. You're already feeling bad about her assessment. I don't need to make you feel worse. I was just wondering if you discussed the session with the shrink with your bariatic doctor? I also wonder why they shut some people out from WLS. Maybe there's a difference between overweight people who are depressed because they eat too much and those who use food as a replacement for healthy emotions. Does that even make sense? I do know there has to be a reason that many doctors require psychological testing. It protects them and the patient, no doubt. I wonder what is the downside if someone slips by the test that shouldn't have and goes ahead and has the surgery? Can anyone answer that for me?