BJean

Great information!!! You just answered some of the questions I've been wanting to ask the dietician but my next appointment isn't for another 4 weeks. I have been totally shocked to find that I just can't tolerate coffee. I really enjoy a nice cup of coffee so I've tried 3 or 4 times since my surgery - but I have to throw it out after a couple of sips. Now I know why and I will stop trying. Thank you so much for shedding light on this for me. I also usually have a couple of glasses of red wine once a week on Bridge night. I haven't even tried that yet but knowing that it wreaks havoc on Iron absorption will keep me from wondering any further. What about white wine or chanpagne? Bad for other reasons I suspect? I've also tried to drink tea but haven't been able to do that either. If I get desperatge for a warm cup of joe I will try tea with lemon instead and see if that is tolerable. If you were right here I'd try to give you a big hug. This has been so helpful! It's amazing what we don't know and how much easier things are when we have the information we need to do this thing right! Thanks!!!

Well I hope you find out that you are within the normal ranges again! My dietician said that if I become anemic I will need to take an Iron supplement in addition to the Centrum chewable that already has some iron in it. Interesting about the fact that you've been taking Biotin for so long!

pnw213 I'm finding it really hard to constantly remind myself that I do not have to try to eat an actual meal! I even forget at restaurants occasionally. I have no business ordering a bowl of Soup. I can't even finish a cup. I hope I eventually feel comfortable enough to tell my friends that I got the sleeve procedure. I'm still feeling very private about it. It's probably because I'm still not totally convinced I can make it work long enough to get me to goal. I was not able to use the band to get there so that was one big failure I hated to own up to.

Did you lose really quickly? I wonder why you became anemic, do you know or have they suggested what caused it? Do you take Biotin? That's what stopped my hair loss after the band surgery. I thought I was going to go bald on top until someone told me to start taking Biotin. After a very short period of time it stopped falling out. Could have been a coincidence, I guess, but it sure SEEMED to work.

That's great to hear!!!!

Well then Chris I guess I owe you an apology - I didn't read your post where you said you'd seen SICKO. I only read your comments about Michael Moore and then read the essay that European expert [sarcasm, sorry] wrote. To me, it seemed like you were just drinking the kool-aide. I know Michael Moore exaggerates and cuts and pastes to make his points. But we need him, desperately. There are too many true right wing nut bags who stand up and lie blatantly and because of the funding by extremely wealthy people in this country who get their extremist agenda widely heard by publishing it in the media (which they often own.) We need discourse from both sides and we need to be thorough about listening to both sides, not just the one we feel comfortable with. So that's MY agenda for calling you a sheep. I truly don't know you. You could be a brilliant American who has this country's best interests at heart. I'm afraid you just don't sound like that kind of person sometimes when you post here. And I have a very strong feeling that you wouldn't be willing to buy me a drink. Funny thing is that we might actually be able to have a fun, spirited debate with no blood shed. Who knows...

Gosh you guys, I guess I don't get it. I haven't taken anything but a little Mylanta during the first couple of weeks because when I drank water my esophogus and middle chest area burned and sometimes my stomach did too. But the only time my stomach hurts now is when I eat one bite too many. Am I just lucky or did we have different procedures? I had a band to sleeve revision. And interestingly, I still have a very small hiatal hernia that he couldn't remove. No reflux at night. Only burns when I lie down if I've just had water. Thus the Mylanta. Now I just avoid water before bedtime.

That makes sense, right? Because the government has so much to gain from it. Brilliant. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you, eh? And I'm willing to guess that Timothy McVeigh was a plant and was doing the government's bidding. And Waco was a government planned attack that had nothing to do with the arsenal that was stockpiled there. And pigeons are robots.

Those people, the birthers, death panelists, 9/11 deniers, cranks and conspiracy nuts ARE the Tea Party movement. How can they and why would they disassociate themselves from the ideas that drive them? Are the 9/11 deniers people who are denying that it happened under Bush? I'm not sure what they claim. And he should have included the Reagan anti-government, no government is good, nut heads. Wonder why he didn't? Because now that the government doesn't pay him, he can endorse that claim.

Chris you say you're unwilling to watch a Michael Moore flick because it's "just silly" but you're willing to allow some foreigner to assess it for you and embrace it enough to post it here. I guess you do this because you agree with her wholeheartedly. Well, how can you? You haven't seen the movie, you've only heard the right wing propaganda. What a sheep. Baaaaaaah.

You ask a right winger to watch Rachel Maddow? They'll explode and self-destruct before they get through one of her broadcasts.

Yeah, I've been trying to be good with the Vitamins too. I have a sneaking suspicion that the Calcium chewables I'm taking are causing the constipation (hope that's not too much info) so I'm beginning to slack on that. I've increased my food intake a little and am finding that I dislike the feeling afterwards. This morning I had 2 poached eggs and half a piece of toast. Too much! It doesn't hurt but it's just not comfortable. I seem to keep forgetting that I can have something as often as I want it. I don't have to confine my meals to 3 a day with no Snacks. This is sure going to take some time getting myself retrained! How are you doing in that department?

So has everybody started losing hair at about 3 months after surgery? I've been wondering about this. I thought I started losing hair quicker than that with the band. Like at about 6 weeks. I am so dreading it! Does anybody get away without losing hair in super noticable amounts?

I'm not sure what you're getting at. Can you be a little more specific about your thoughts?

Wow this guy is impressive. He's got all the propaganda and buzz words memorized as well as a fundamentalilst can quote the Bible. Sounds great. But it's a little too light on content to take serously.

And you're my hero. You give me strength and you give me hope. As does Leigha who is obviously someone who has a brain. And I love phil and tsl1f (?) and Phil and others! The two that confound me to distraction are patty and aricus whom I love to refer to as airbus. I just get a better visual with airbus.

The thing that makes me the sickest is the fact that they refuse to work with the progressive thinkers in any way, shape or fashion. All they do is block every attempt to move this country forward. They argue with every idea or suggestion, without any substantive suggestions for alternatives. They're obstructionists with a passion for discrimination. They discrminate against anyone with beliefs or opinions that are different from their own. They do this because they are afraid and they are ignorant. And it's a dangerous place, this country. They're causing it to bloom into a very volatile environment and a dangerous place for progressive free thinkers to live.

It's so simple it is ridiculous and the right wing nut jobs still rail against the government - their fear of the government - their fear that the government rules their lives - their fear that all of their income will go to lazy good for nothings who don't work because they just don't want to. It's too simple for angry, fearful, selfish people to understand. And why you ask? Because they've been brainwashed and propagandized their whole lives and are in constant fear of the devil and hell and the condemnation of people like saint ronnie to throw down their shackles and think outside the box that their Bible has put them in. I'm not saying give up your Bible. I'm saying that people will never improve the government, never improve their country and never improve themselves as long as they just hold their Bible in one hand and rail against the world with the other. The right thing to do is to use the Bible as inspiration not as a shackle. Improve your life, don't stay mired in the muck of hate and distrust. Improve your country instead of trying to re-write history or live in the past. We are the government. We are America. It is bigger than us but it is us. We're in control and what we need to do is figure out solutions, not rail against everything everyday. President Obama is not the second coming. He's not the Messiah. He is simply a man who is well-educated, intelligent and who has a lot of experience being a man who is praised and a man who has been discrminated against. So he brings a whole lot to the table. He wants to improve not only the country but he wants to improve us as people. He's accomplished more in this first year than most presidents have in their entire tenure in office. Criticize him if you disagree. That's good, we want that. But don't write him off as a bad and ineffective president because that's the furthest thing from who he is.

Perfectly illlustrated, Cleo's. And remember pg is only one who believes in this fashion. There are millions of others - many of whom think that the tea party agenda is legitimate. They're sheep to slaughter.

Cleos, anyone who tries to tell you that their religion or beliefs or spirituality is superior to yours is not a person who is working to be the kind of person that their beloved Bible says they should endeavor to be. They are myopic, single-minded, selfish, self-important and extremely brainwashed. Anyone who does not seek to understand things beyond the simple teachings of the Bible, Christian educators and writings and accepted clerical wisdom cannot begin to adequately judge another's spirituality. They cannot because they do not have the tools nor the spiritual wisdom to begin to understand the true spiritual powers of our minds and of our universe. The extremist right wing fundamentalists fear anything beyond their own shallow belief system that was structured carefully to keep them obedient. I feel sorry for them like I feel sorry for the children of fanatical Muslim terrorists who are being groomed to kill anyone who disagrees with the extremist Muslim beliefs. They're literally like sheep to slaughter.

I totally agree, as do many Americans.

I think part of the problem with having the most incredibly potent military defense in the world is that we wind up needing to get rid of the obsolete weapons. So in the case of Vietnam, we used them there. Now we're using them in Iraq. And for what? I'll tell you for what - so that the weapons can be replaced with bigger and badder ones. That's how we got so far ahead in the arms race. Anyone who thinks that our military is strictly for "defense" they have their head buried in the sand. We have turned into the aggressors whom we say we hate. And it is mostly about money. We have serious problems throughout the world with irrational leaders in countries that are theocracies and extremist. But we don't have to go drop weapons of mass destruction in order to keep them from rubbing out any of their citizens who disagree with their religious leaders. We can, with the threat of our military behind us, influence countries to treat their citizens better. And it makes sense for us (big brother) to do that. But to annihilate an entire region because we disagree with a country's policies, is ethically and morally wrong. We need a leader who understands this. We need a strong national defense so that we can stay the super power that we are. But to use it indiscriminately is an horrific action that is criminal. And if I were president, we would be prosecuting Bush, Cheney and the whole lot of them. We need to set a precedent. We never thought we had to worry about our own leaders being so corrupt, but it turns out that we do. So we need to make sure that no administration does this again.

peaches, well said! And good luck getting to your goal. It's amazing how cool you'll feel with a TT, especially if you're at goal. Good luck!

Bush sutupidity not funny? LOL I thought it was funny. LOL LOL ROFLMAO LOL Whatza matter with you peeps, don't think Bush antics are funny anymore? A president should be able to be funny about the thousands and thousands of deaths he caused and the billions and billions he spent that we didn't have. Indebtedness to China? Hilarious!!LOLOLOLOL