My first pre-op appointment isn't until next Tuesday and for the first time I am feeling a real lag in this process. I'm also feeling apprehension for the first time.

I went out and bought the chewable vitamins, calcium and whey protein.

I'm still finding that I am making terrible food choices sinse I've decided to take this journey. It's like I'm having my last meal every meal for the last month! I will readjust my start weight once I get weighed at the doctors office. I'm sure my new journal name will be more like Tina- 290. I will also update all my start measurements at that time. If I keep going at this rate I might need a larger tape measure.

I went to a support group meeting at the end of September. It is a pre-op requirement. One of the things dicussed that I found really interesting is different peoples experience with telling people about being banded. A lot of the people there who'd been banded had been really open and told everyone about getting banded. Everyone of them wished they hadn't been so open. I guess alot of them experienced people who would watch and comment on everything they ate. Sometimes people would bring up their weight loss and banding to total strangers and then the banded person would feel cornered into talking about weight loss surgery. Some people were told they took the easy way out or that they had it easy because of the surgery- and everyone has made it pretty clear that it isn't easy- it's still work even with the band. So I'm a little concerned because there is a group of us ladies at work who are all fat and we've all dieted together and gained together and discussed weight loss surgery together. Only one of the gals knows that I am actually going through with this process. I've asked her not to offer any information to our co-workers but I know at a certain point it will come out (most likely from the office manager when I put in for my FMLA) and everyone will know. Because we all know how news spreads at work and I just worry about what I'm going to have to deal with. I guess I'll just deal with things as they come along.

Until next time............