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hey all i have not been on in a while i am getting a bit discouraged with my weight loss but not totally bc the scale is still going down just slowly so i am going to downsize my portions again and try to stick with half a cup of food per meal.

I had a lanyard that I hung around my neck and fed the drain tube through. It helped tons when I was in the shower because it supported the drain so that I could use both hands to wash my hair and bathe. If you're concerned about water getting into your incision, you might put a bandaid over the opening on your skin.

And which version would that be? If you are Protestant, your version of the Bible dates from the mid-1880's. If you are Jewish, it's called the Torah and it is almost 3500 years old. If you are Catholic, the earliest written copy of your Bible is preserved in the British Museum Library in London. It was written around 300 AD. You can argue religion all day long, but you can't argue with history. The first recorded instance of God’s Word being written down, was when the Lord Himself wrote it down in the form of ten commandments on the stone tablets delivered to Moses at the top of Mount Sinai. Biblical scholars believe this occurred between 1,400 BC and 1,500 BC… almost 3,500 years ago. The language used was almost certainly an ancient form of Hebrew, the language of Old Covenant believers. The earliest scripture is generally considered to be the “Pentateuch”, the first five books of the Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, & Deuteronomy… though there is some scholarly evidence to indicate that the Old Testament Book of Job may actually be the oldest book in the Bible. The Old Testament scriptures were written in ancient Hebrew, a language substantially different than the Hebrew of today. These writings were passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years on scrolls made of animal skin, usually sheep, but sometimes deer or cow. Animals considered “unclean” by the Jews, such as pigs, were of course, never used to make scrolls. When the entire Pentateuch is present on a scroll, it is called a “Torah”. An entire Torah Scroll, if completely unraveled, is over 150 feet long! As most sheep are only about two to three feet long, it took an entire flock of sheep to make just one Torah scroll. The Jewish scribes who painstakingly produced each scroll were perfectionists. If they made even the slightest mistake in copying, such as allowing two letters of a word to touch, they destroyed that entire panel (the last three or four columns of text), and the panel before it, because it had touched the panel with a mistake! While most Christians today would consider this behavior fanatical and even idolatrous (worshiping the scripture, rather than the One who gave it to us), it nevertheless demonstrates the level of faithfulness to accuracy applied to the preservation of God’s Word throughout the first couple of thousand years of Biblical transmission. Hebrew has one thing in common with English: they are both “picture languages”. Their words form a clear picture in your mind. As evidence of this; the first man to ever print the scriptures in English, William Tyndale, once commented that Hebrew was ten times easier to translate into English than any other language. Tyndale would certainly be qualified to make such a statement, as he was so fluent in eight languages, that it was said you would have thought any one of them to be his native tongue. By approximately 500 BC, the 39 Books that make up the Old Testament were completed, and continued to be preserved in Hebrew on scrolls. As we approach the last few centuries before Christ, the Jewish historical books known as the “Apocrypha” were completed, yet they were recorded in Greek rather than Hebrew. By the end of the First Century AD, the New Testament had been completed. It was preserved in Greek on Papyrus, a thin paper-like material made from crushed and flattened stalks of a reed-like plant. The word “Bible” comes from the same Greek root word as “papyrus”. The papyrus sheets were bound, or tied together in a configuration much more similar to modern books than to an elongated scroll. These groupings of papyrus were called a “codex” (plural: “codices”). The oldest copies of the New Testament known to exist today are: The Codex Alexandrius and the Codex Sinaiticus in the British Museum Library in London, and the Codex Vaticanus in the Vatican. They date back to approximately the 300’s AD. In 315 AD, Athenasius, the Bishop of Alexandria, identified the 27 Books which we recognize today as the canon of New Testament scripture. In 382 AD, the early church father Jerome translated the New Testament from its original Greek into Latin. This translation became known as the “Latin Vulgate”, (“Vulgate” meaning “vulgar” or “common”). He put a note next to the Apocrypha Books, stating that he did not know whether or not they were inspired scripture, or just Jewish historical writings which accompanied the Old Testament. The Apocrypha was kept as part of virtually every Bible scribed or printed from these early days until just 120 years ago, in the mid-1880’s, when it was removed from Protestant Bibles. Up until the 1880’s, however, every Christian… Protestant or otherwise… embraced the Apocrypha as part of the Bible, though debate continued as to whether or not the Apocrypha was inspired. There is no truth to the popular myth that there is something “Roman Catholic” about the Apocrypha, which stemmed from the fact that the Roman Catholics kept 12 of the 14 Apocrypha Books in their Bible, as the Protestants removed all of them. No real justification was ever given for the removal of these ancient Jewish writings from before the time of Christ, which had remained untouched and part of every Bible for nearly two thousand years.

Some of us old bandsters are still around. We hide at times bc we have been through a lot of questions and answers in my opinion... ???????? my band. This year will be 9 years. I'm am compliant. And I do have liquid days ( thanks B-52) that help ... But very occasionally Happy and healthy. With a TT thrown in this year which helped me to lose my last 10 lbs I was aiming for... But willing to concede if needed.

My aunt is selling them. So are the clerks at both UPS and Fed Ex, where I go almost daily. And now, apparently, one of the salespeople at a community I work for is selling them for her DD as well. I'm surrounded and not sure where to hide! I actually asked my aunt if I could just donate $5 and not have to have the Cookies at home, so we gave them to her hubby!

Hi, I live in St. Louis and am scheduled to have my surgery on Sept.1. I am using Dr. Darin Minkin at DePeres hospital. If anyone has used this doc I would appreciate hearing from you. He seems to be alright but I would feel a lot better if I heard from someone who has already used him. I am very lucky that my insurance will cover my surgery. I have bluechoice and I am a federal employee. The doctors secretary said that bcbs is only paying for fed. employees at this time. I need to lose at least 100 lbs. and am very anxious to get started but I am also very scared.

That is so important to hear. At another site where I post I was told that it is people like me who never served, who don't understand. I have posted this many times before, so you can look it up. When I was 19, in 1964, I was gung-ho military and tried to enlist in the US Air Force. I failed my physical because of injuries suffered while playing freshman football in college. The last step of the pre-induction physical was a 26 page questionnaire and the last question was "Are you the sole surviving son of a man killed in the service of the US Military". My father was a US Army Sargent killed in Berlin in WW11 on the day after I was born in 1945, so I answered “yes”. I was told that I failed the physical that day and about 3 weeks later a new draft classification card came in the mail with a classification of “4A”. I was ready to serve, though knowing what I know now, I am glad my knee kept me out of that war; Another war in which we dismissed the French. We laughed at the French for leaving Vietnam and we kept laughing at the French until 65,000 of our youth were dead, many times that many more maimed and many times that number who had miserable lives because of much higher rates of alcohol abuse, drug abuse, crime, spousal abuse and suicide than that of the people who did not serve in Vietnam. And for what? We lost. The dominoes never came down. We were fed a line of crap, just like in 2002 leading up to the 2003 Illogical Illegal Iraqi Invasion. When will we learn? Aren't you glad you asked? I contributed my father. Can you top that?

Here are mine I have been riding since the age of 16. My husband builds them so he has about 4 right now, but he likes Suzuki. I chose the fzr 600 bc they are easy to ride, about 2000.00 and easy to find parts. They are not too big or too small. They feel great on the highway. I will say that with my port i feel it sometimes rub inside me but just sit up alittle and can get comfortable again.

Once again, I must call BS. Show me one post where I mocked the scripture. Where I showed a hatred of Jesus. Or admit you are lying about me. I take that seriously. Interesting to me that you equate yourself with scripture...:myscared:

well, if you ever come across a FASHION BUG stop and shop! its my all time FAVORITE place to shop. they carry both regular and plus clothing but have EQUAL amounts of BOTH! and the prices, well, you just cannot beat them! oh, i have an nsv to share w/ya'll...i know its not the right thread...but, today, while shopping @ the fashion bug, i bought new panties! and i got to buy a size 9 instead of a size 10! i have been in size 10 panties for as long as i can remember and well, i was just excited bc all my panties have been baggy on me for the past month but i kept putting off buying any bc i didn't want the 9's to be too tight....but i finally broke down and said, no more saggy undies! it is time! had to share! xoxo, christie

here was my menu for the day: (what i ate) brkfast: 1oz atkins Protein shake mixed w/ 3oz 1% skim milk lunch: 16oz bottled Water dinner: 10oz watered down sweet tea and 1 pintos n cheese (tacobell) yea so i shouldn't have done the taco bell....BUT, bc we have church on wednesday night, i almost never cook on wednesday nights...theres just too much going on to take the time out to cook on wed nights. haven't weighed today since the scale was misreading, but hubby got it straightened out...apprarently it was sitting in the crease of the ceramic tile flow and was reading improperly....much to my dismay, since it was weighing me like 30# lighter!! lol. xoxo, christie

Hello everyon Thank You everyone for both voicing their fears and confidences in their own experinces of getting banded, where ever it was done, and especially driving the point home about aftercare, having that set up before you go thru with the procedure. 1) what does Dr. Ortiz (mexico) require from the patient (me) medical records? for this procedure to happen?. 2) why are so few Dr.'s trained in this feild this far out west?. SK, AB. BC? 3) how do I approach my Dr. about banding? especially when I have a Dr's name for posibble referral? I guess in my situation I want to keep it private, tell no one family or friends, unless it was/is serious. Also, for the cost? to me it doesn't matter, what does matter is my long term health and how soon I want this to happen and how to get it started. Since I live in Alberta, waiting might either be on my side or against me. BC could be handy because of a certain family member who had a bypass 12 yrs ago,(it didn't work that well for her), she and I have talked and she's supportive. Or go all out and go to Ontario... You have all given me much to consider. I will talk on Friday with my diabetic team and then a new young female Dr in my town's office on Monday. I've been watching on TLC "Big Medicine" that father/son Dr. team that does many bands and bypasses "LAP" style. I can see what its all about and feel sure of the procedure. All I need to do is decide. Nuts ...if I'm willing to get tattooed and be coloured for life then getting "banded" is also just as life changing. thank you thea

Just finished a chocolate Optifast. They are ok. I have quite a few left, so I better like them, LOL!!! I really like the packets from Designer Whey. I wish they made more flavor choices bc those are easy to take to work, but they do have more in the canisters. I need all the help I can get, that is why I check in frequently with LBT. At least, here I know I can get support from others in the same boat. Look forward to hearing how everyone else is doing.

No that was not my thread! So when you spank I assume everyone is jovial about it at the time, how is anger never involved in spanking that's BS and you know it! brandyII.

georgia girl, you are going to surpass that goal girl! you're doing so great at it! look at your over all loss of 62lbs! thats amazing!!! i remember thinking if i could just get to the 230's i'd be happy....i started out at 264.4.....and now i'm at 224.0 and i can't wait to see the number 200 on the scales!! and then i'll bust my behind to see the 199 show up...ahhh, dreaming about ONE-derland! still seems so far off. i hope i'm at 200 by this june, before our family reunion! they haven't seen me in 2yrs and none of them are aware that i've had the surgery. i'm thinking that i may tell them - when they ask how i lost the weight - by eating less and exercising more. which in part is truth....but, i know me, ill probably go on to be the natural born lapband sales woman i am! lol. dr. spivak should hire me in to talk to potential clients! i could sooo tell them what its like just at a 40lb weight loss and the achievement and success you feel. and just overall healthier and lighter step. i was at church tonight decorating and we had to climb a ladder to hang stuff from the ceiling and a few of the girls were like, "make christie do it, it has a 250 weight limit on it!". it took me a minute to realize thats another NSV! i'm under the weight limit for a rickity old wooden church ladder! lol. and no, i didn't climb it....i still felt like someone smaller should do it, but mostly bc i hate ladders! but the fact is, I COULD have done it! thats a great feeeling! xoxo, Christie keep posting updates and for everyone else in on the "sweetheart goal" please feel free to step in on our lil chats. just our way of staying sane through the huddles and struggles of weight loss. and its been a great tool to get to know each other better as well! XOXO, christie

This is the 1st time I've posted a picture as I'm only 12 weeks out, but my friends keep saying they can tell I've lost. I guess I can't bc I see myself every day! lol Pic on the left is at my heaviest, the right is from last weekend.

In case this is helpful to anyone I have come back to post this. I lost weight, but hit a point for some reason that I got really weak and sick of my lapband. At one point I felt as though I was starving and yet couldn't eat anything bc I got stuck all the time. I didn't have a slip..or anything other than I really I just did not have a lifestyle where the band fit in. I wanted a balanced meal. I wanted to not have to deal with this thing day in and day out. I was so tired and no matter how much Vitamins or Protein I took in...I lost muscle, and struggle with nutrition deficiency. Eventually I hit a wall. I couldn't take it anymore..just got sick of the lifestyle. I tend to stress easily and any stress caused constriction that made everything get stuck. This is what my physician thought. I tend to agree. I was already on meds for that too!! ffs..it was too much. After a long fought battle to lose what I did I couldn't take it anymore and had my band completely unfilled. I gained all my weight back and realized I had to do it on my own one day at a time. My choices were death..get my crap together or be barfing all the time and miserable or even go in for a different surgery..I just couldn't handle it. I'd been through so much fought so hard to try to save myself from dying in the middle of the night due to obesity related causes..I hit rock bottom. I had spend my whole life fighting this it felt.. So. What I learned: The band showed me (if just for a minute!!!) that I wanted to live. what it kinda tasted like to be normal in my size!!... to have a new life!!! I wanted what I felt the lucky ones had!! even to be 20 pounds overweight would have been fine. I wanted to not have to see another plus sized store or large online catalog for the rest of my friggen life. The world is not setup for the obese. That there is a whole exciting world out there but it only goes up to XL (if you're lucky). So I started to walk forward. On my own. with diet and exercise. 8 yrs later I look back see how much I have gone through - multiple family members deaths, divorce, losing a home, job changes, therapy, various surgeries, and growth. I have now lost over 100Lbs and although my life is far from ideal, is so radically different it scares me at times..I wouldn't trade it for the world. I am working on losing 27 pounds and doing more run/walk events. It is fun to work on this. It is fun to learn and research and met others who are into fitness. To learn about food addiction, depression or other soul killing things in our lives.. I get to do so much more now. People who meet me have no idea who I used to be or how large I was. I am so much different now. I like myself and know my journey will never end and that thought gives me a big hug feeling. I finally get it. So no I don't regret getting the band. It gave me what I needed.. even though it was indirect. My hope is to someday get it out and get a tummy tuck but I don't obsess over that and it isn't really the end of the world if it doesn't happen. I hope this helps someone else bc it is not a black and white journey for everyone. Peace.

Wow, I think I have been to Glastonbury! It has the ruins of the huge cathedral and the a "holy bush" right? I'm in my mid thirties and live in Halifax, Nova Scotia. We moved her last year after living on the West Coast for eight years (San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Vancouver BC...) I don't work for money right now, I have a two-year old. Keeps me busy and I love my "job" (we are watching "Curious George" right now, what a life :thumbup: ) My surgery will be 25th of July and my doctor requires three weeks of Optifast. I started four days earlier with the shakes, since I planned a little camping trip for my husbands 40th birthday before I knew the surgery date and I am not 100% sure I can follow through with Optifast when we are away for three days. I will try. Kat

Hi thanks for the response. First thing is the price. It will be an additional $6000 too add the band to the plication. The second thing is the regurgitation. The people I know with band have to leave the dinner table bc of stuck food and that makes me uncomfortable

"every kiss begins with kay" is BS!!! Most start with a couple of drinks. GO FOR IT! :thumbup:

Yes thanks. I try to fill up on 150-200 calories.cutting the bars in thirds would be 120 calories, and have virtually no mass, so I fed them to the squirrels who ravage our bird feeders.

Why not? It's certainly been done before. The earliest scripture is generally considered to be the “Pentateuch”, the first five books of the Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, & Deuteronomy… though there is some scholarly evidence to indicate that the Old Testament Book of Job may actually be the oldest book in the Bible. These writings were passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years. By approximately500 BC, the 39 Books that make up the Old Testament were completed, and continued to be preserved in Hebrew on scrolls. As we approach the last few centuries before Christ, the Jewish historical books known as the “Apocrypha” were completed, yet they were recorded in Greek rather than Hebrew. By the end of the First Century AD, the New Testament had been completed. The oldest copies of the New Testament known to exist today are: The Codex Alexandrius and the Codex Sinaiticus in the British Museum Library in London, and the Codex Vaticanus in the Vatican. They date back to approximately the 300’s AD. In 315 AD, Athenasius, the Bishop of Alexandria, identified the 27 Books which we recognize today as the canon of New Testament scripture. In 382 AD, the early church father Jerome translated the New Testament from its original Greek into Latin. This translation became known as the “Latin Vulgate”, (“Vulgate” meaning “vulgar” or “common”). He put a note next to the Apocrypha Books, stating that he did not know whether or not they were inspired scripture, or just Jewish historical writings which accompanied the Old Testament. The Apocrypha was kept as part of virtually every Bible scribed or printed from these early days until just 120 years ago, in the mid-1880’s, when it was removed from Protestant Bibles. Up until the 1880’s, however, every Christian… Protestant or otherwise… embraced the Apocrypha as part of the Bible, though debate continued as to whether or not the Apocrypha was inspired. There is no truth to the popular myth that there is something “Roman Catholic” about the Apocrypha, which stemmed from the fact that the Roman Catholics kept 12 of the 14 Apocrypha Books in their Bible, as the Protestants removed all of them. No real justification was ever given for the removal of these ancient Jewish writings from before the time of Christ, which had remained untouched and part of every Bible for nearly two thousand years. The first hand-written English language Bible was produced in the 1380’s by John Wycliffe, an Oxford professor, scholar, and theologian. The invention of the printing press in the 1450’s made the Bible widely available to lay people. In 1496, John Colet, another Oxford professor and the son of the Mayor of London, started reading the New Testament in Greek and translating it into English for his students at Oxford, and later for the public at Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London. In 1516 the scholar Erasmus published a Greek translation of the New Testament. This milestone was the first non-Latin Vulgate text of the scripture to be produced in a millennium… and the first ever to come off a printing press. Martin Luther translated the New Testament into German from Erasmus Greek-Latin text and eventually went on to publish an entire Bible in German in the 1530’s. William Tyndale wanted to use the same 1516 Erasmus text as a source to translate and print the New Testament in English for the first time in history. Tyndale showed up on Luther's doorstep in Germany in 1525, and by year's end had translated the New Testament into English. The first complete English Bible was printed on October 4, 1535, and is known as the Coverdale Bible. John Rogers went on to print the second complete English Bible in 1537. It is a composite made up of Tyndale's Pentateuch and New Testament (1534-1535 edition) and Coverdale's Bible and some of Roger's own translation of the text. It remains known most commonly as the Matthew-Tyndale Bible. In 1539 the Archbishop of Canterbury hired Myles Coverdale to publish King Henry VIII’s “Great Bible”. It became the first English Bible authorized for public use. In the 1550's, the Church at Geneva, Switzerland, was very sympathetic to the Protestant reformers. Many of them met in Geneva, and under the protection of John Calvin, the Church of Geneva determined to produce their own Bible. Their New Testament was completed in 1557 and the complete Bible was first published in 1560. It became known as the Geneva Bible. The Geneva Bible became the Bible of choice for over 100 years of English speaking Christians. Between 1560and1644 at least 144 editions of this Bible were published. In 1568, a revision of the Great Bible known as the Bishop's Bible was introduced. Despite 19 editions being printed between 1568 and 1606, this Bible, referred to as the “rough draft of the King James Version”, never gained much of a foothold of popularity among the people. With the death of Queen Elizabeth I, Prince James VI of Scotland became King James I of England. The Protestant clergy approached the new King in 1604 and announced their desire for a new translation to replace the Bishop's Bible. This "translation to end all translations" (for a while at least) was the result of the combined effort of about fifty scholars. In 1611 the first version of the King James Bible was published. The Anglican Church’s King James Bible took decades to overcome the more popular Protestant Church’s Geneva Bible. One of the greatest ironies of history, is that many Protestant Christian churches today embrace the King James Bible exclusively as the “only” legitimate English language translation… yet it is not even a Protestant translation! It was printed to compete with the Protestant Geneva Bible, by authorities who throughout most of history were hostile to Protestants… and killed them. Throughout the 1600’s, as the Puritans and the Pilgrims fled the religious persecution of England to cross the Atlantic and start a new free nation in America, they took with them their precious Geneva Bible, and rejected the King’s Bible. America was founded upon the Geneva Bible, not the King James Bible.

No bail for man facing federal porn charges A Superior man is in federal custody after pleading not guilty Wednesday during an arraignment in Madison to federal charges of child pornography Wednesday. Thursday, October, 26, 2006 - The Daily Telegram - News Purchase a print of this Newspaper Page Local man faces 100 child porn accusations A Superior man facing 100 felony counts of possession of child pornography remains in Douglas County Jail following an initial court appearance Tuesday. Wednesday, October, 04, 2006 - The Daily Telegram - News Add complete article to Shopping Cart Purchase a print of this Newspaper Page View with Press Pass Child porn case moves forward A Superior man was bound over for arraignment on 100 counts of possession of child pornography today in Douglas County Court. Wednesday, October, 11, 2006 - The Daily Telegram - News Add complete article to Shopping Cart Purchase a print of this Newspaper Page View with Press Pass Feds file child porn charges against Superior man Federal charges have been filed against a Superior man accused of 100 counts of possessing child pornography in Douglas County. The paper also states two federal charges of using a minor to produce visual depictions of sexually explicit conduct and possessing a computer hard drive and DVDS containing visual depictions of minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct. FBI . an analyst in Milwaukee verified 600 images of child pornography among the materals, according to the crimal complaint the videotape allegedly showed olson having inappropriate sexual contact with a girl who appropriate sexual contact with a girl who appeared to be age 3 or 4. this is from the daily telgram thursday oct 26 2006. and also picthers of nude children printed on on regular paper! This is the first one Ive have sceen. I talked with mother the other day and she told me he did it! and started crying. Child pornography is wrong no matter how you look at it it is just wrong! even if he was, mollested there is no reason that he shoud of did this! ( Please don,t Judge me but as a father. finding out that there was kidds involved I can,t help him let the (court system handle this) and God Judge him ) maybe Im wrong not to help him out but i just can,t do it. and I will not bring this matter up again. Eric,s mom was a fallen down drunk one night out drinking eric older brother and sister , were playing around with match,s and lit his crib on fire eric was burned with 3rd degree burns about 35% or his body and his mother would some times would screw two men a night in front of him when we were kids we would have to get up and leave and she was always screaming at him and slaping him and pulling his hair in fits of rage. then ten minutes later giving the poor kid a kiss crying. I no that shit messed up!!! I no growing up his life was hell!!!!!! ( BUTT what about the hell he put those kids in) if that sounds like Im Judging him Im not.but in good faith I just can,t do it.

that is very common - in fact there's a thread floating around whether those 200lbs or less are "deserving" of surgery. BS - i so am worth it!!! i don't do support groups at my surgeons practice for the same reason - everytime i go in .... you get the up-down. i don't care, my dr says i'm good advertising for his practice:) i found all my support here and w/my DH who was banded w/me. good luck all those w/upcoming surgeries!

OK, I have to call BS. I have seen no sign whatsoever of TOM "crying like a baby" at your questions.