enterprise01

I don't have any answers but thought I'd bump this to get others to see it. Hopefully, someone will have a good response.

Ha! I must be a really slow learner. Or maybe I'm just stubborn. The only PB I've had was 2 days after my last fill and it was on the chicken in my Chicken Pasta Parmesan that I eat every day for lunch. I still eat it every day, but I'm more careful of the chicken, especially when I get a really dry piece. A PB isn't going to keep me from the food I like!

Good for you for staying positive. I would have had a serious confrontation with the doctor/nurse who sent me away. In fact, I would not have let them send me away without a fight. Personally, I think that if you are getting hungry in less than 4 hours between meals, then you need a fill. As everyone says, the band is a tool and if you don't have good restriction, then it's not going to work optimally for you. Have you ever tried using a wrench without tightening it to fit around the bolt you're trying to unscrew? Of course not. The band is designed to be tightened to restrict your hunger. I say use it the way it is intended.

I've heard some bandsters say this and I'm wondering if it's the norm. I'll have to search and see if there is poll on this. My tastes certainly have not changed at all. I still want to eat Cookies and chocolate. The difference with the band is that I want to eat 1-2 cookies instead of 1-2 dozen cookies. My cravings have definitely subsided, along with the desire to eat myself into oblivion, but my actual tastes have not changed a bit. OK, I'm off to search for that poll.

It's because they are high-carb (and often low nutritional value) foods. There is also a concern by some that these types of grain products can swell in the pouch, which I don't buy into. I eat chicken parmesan with pasta almost every day for lunch, and I'm losing weight just fine and nothing has "swelled" in my pouch. Moderation is the key.

I could have written that! I'd rather take a beating than exercise. And I hate it when people say, "don't you just feel so much better after exercising?" Hell, no. I feel about a thousand times worse than before I exercised. I only feel better in comparison to how completely miserable I felt while I was exercising. Anyway, I had some of the same doubts and concerns that you have. My friends were all very worried that it would be mental torture for me to have something that restricted my food intake but not my cravings. I'm happy to tell you that by some miracle the band does actually have an effect on your brain chemistry. When you have a decent amount of restriction, you don't have the constant cravings and mental hunger. I can make it through the day without obsessing about food. I only think about food when my stomach starts to growl. Before the band, when I woke up in the mornings, my first thought would be "what can I eat today." If I wasn't eating, I was thinking about eating. I still have occasional cravings, but they are not overwhelming and constant like they used to be. And now, if I crave chocolate and have a couple of bites, the craving is satisfied. In the past, I could eat the entire town of Hershey, PA and still want more chocolate. I don't know exactly how or why the band affects brain chemistry, but it does, at least for me. My guess is that it either has something to due with the band pressing on nerves or it somehow alters the amount of hunger-inducing hormones that the stomach produces and/or releases. Another benefit of the band is that since I'm not spending so much time cooking, eating, going out to restaurants, etc., I'm getting a lot more done around my house. In the past 5 months, I've completed every project that has been ignored for the past 5 years. The band also saves me money. I used to spend $300-$400 a month eating out, and now it's around $50 a month. In 4 years, the band will have paid for itself (I'm a self-pay). The band is not an easy or a quick fix, but it has given me hope that I can overcome my weight problem. And sometimes, even just a little bit of hope will take you a long way.

Yeah, I don't want to seem ungrateful for all of Alex's hard work ('cause I'm truly not), but what's up with those smiley faces? If you go to Advanced, the smiley faces disappear, but then you get <p> in place of paragraph returns and have to edit all of those out.

I don't know about anything specific to puff pastry, but I do know that glass conducts heat differently than metal. With glass bakeware, you often have to cook longer and at a lower temperature. If you use a metal pie plate, make sure to check it while you're baking. It may be done sooner than expected.

Never mind. I just found it down at the bottom of the subscriptions.

I don't believe I've seen any of your posts before, and I'm sorry you're feeling left out. Congrats on getting a surgery date. I'm bumping this thread, so maybe you'll get more responses.

Alex, did the option to change notification disappear? I could have sworn it was under Thread Tools, but I'm not seeing it anymore. I'm being inundated with emails today and wanted to reset most of my subscribed threads to no notification. Can you tell me where to find that now? Thanks.

Yes, very, very slow today. It's been bad since all the new changes. I would think that the ads would affect the speed since there significantly more graphics to load now, and that eats up bandwidth.

It depends on the type of hypothyroidism you have. There is one type that does seem to cure itself, but I can't remember the name of it. If you have Hashimoto's (the most common one), it will not ever go away.

I've had hypothyroidism since my early 20s. For many years I was on Synthroid and it did nothing for me. I went to several endocrinologists in an attempt to convince them that the Synthroid wasn't working, but all they would look at were my test results, not my symptoms. Seven years ago, it got so bad that I couldn't stay awake for more than 4-5 hours at a time, all my hair was falling out, I was so cold that my arms and legs would turn purple, I had to sleep with 5 heating pads on me to stay comfortable, my cholesterol was through the roof, I lost all the color in my lips, my fingernails developed ridges, my skin was a disaster, and I was lucky if I had 2 BMs a month. If that isn't uncontrolled hypothyroidism, then I don't know what is. Fortunately, I went to a new internist and although my blood work said I was fine, he realized I was having serious problems. The wait to see a new endocrinologist was 6-8 weeks, but the internist was alarmed enough by my condition that he personally called several endocrinologists and got one to see me that same week. The new doc put me on Cytomel (T3 instead of T4) and it's made a HUGE difference. (The downside to the Cytomel is that I'm burning up all the time now.) I have no doubt that the hypothyroidism is a significant part of my weight problem. Although my condition is now under better control than ever before, I still don't have the energy or stamina of a normal person. And it's hard to exercise when you have the fatigue associated with hypothyroidism. However, the band has been working for me despite my slow metabolism. I'm not losing as fast as I'd like, but I am losing 1-3 pounds a week, so I probably shouldn't complain.

The difference is that the omnipaque stays in place. It doesn't dissipate like the saline does. Physically, no, I don't fee any difference, but it does give me some peace of mind to know that it won't disappear. I've heard some people say that the omnipaque actually feels tighter than the saline does, but I haven't experienced that.

I have a T1 connection and it's still excruciatingly slow. Damn typos.

The site has become excruciating slow since the arrival of the ads. It takes 20 seconds to go from one page to another and sometimes a couple of minutes to do a search or to post a message. The presence of the ads doesn't bother me but the decreased speed (and thus decreased functionality) does.

Please forgive me if this has been addressed (because I haven't had time to read all posts), but how on earth is that done? I've tried marking the entire forum as "read," but it only disappears from New Posts the first time I go to New Posts. If I hit New Posts again 5 minutes later, the RnR posts are back and I have go back to Home and mark the forum as "read" again. If this is the only way to do it, it clearly isn't a useful function.

It's usually diagnosed by a barium swallow with fluoroscopy, but I don't know if there are other methods as well. Sunshine is correct -- the band is finicky and seems to have a mind of its own. Some days it's tight, some days not.

I once had this cat that was a terror. She destroyed my carpet and furniture, bit me at the slightest provocation, and generally treated me with contempt. I took care of this cat like she was a beloved pet. She ate the best food, drank from a fountain, had the best medical care, and lived a life of luxury. At the age of 7 she was diagnosed with lymphoma and I spent the next 9 years giving her chemotherapy. She did mellow a bit in her old age but not much. My point with this story is that your MIL is like my cat. She is the center of her own universe and despite all the kind things you have done for her, she is not going to be grateful because in her mind it will never be enough. People are what they are. They don't change unless they want to, and at the age of 70, your MIL is not going to change. Kindness is its own reward. Continue to be kind to her because you know it is the right way to behave. My boyfriend used to ask me why I did so much for Fuzz and treated her so well when she gave me nothing back except disdain. My response was always "because it's the right thing to do." Take solace in knowing that you are the better person. Of course it wouldn't hurt to try to minimize your contact with her (for your own sanity). If you could get her involved in some charity work or a seniors' center where she could interact with other people and make new friends, that might take some of the onus off the family. Good luck.

If you had allergies, would you be ashamed to go to the doctor and get allergy shots, decongestants, and possibly sinus surgery to alleviate your suffering? If you had an underactive thyroid, would be ashamed to take synthroid to get your hormones levels back up? If you broke your arm, would you be ashamed to go to the hospital and have it set? You've come to realize that depression is nothing to be ashamed of, and having a weight problem is no different. It's a medical issue despite what our society and the media say about it. There was a good special on PBS about obesity and all the different factors that contribute to it. One doctor in particular really had a good understanding of the condition. He stressed how millions of years of evolution are now working against us in the modern environment of plentiful food. He made the comment that if you run up 5 flights of stairs, you're going to be winded and breathing hard and your heart will be racing. He said there is no way you can will your heart to slow down or will your breathing back to normal -- those are autonomic responses that we depend on to keep us alive. Imagine trying to convince yourself that you don't need more oxygen when you are gasping for breath. Imagine trying to convince yourself that you aren't thirsty when you haven't had any Water for 2 days. He said that's similar to the kind of struggle obese people face on a daily basis. Everything in our genetic make-up is telling us to eat because it is part of our survival instinct. For obese people, that instinct is strong; for thin people, it's not. We are genetically programmed to eat and to think that that can be permanently overriden by willpower is absurd. We are finally to the point where there are tools (like the lap-band) to help us with our weight. There is no shame in taking advantage of the help that's available to you.

Maybe Dr. Spivak was able to get the surgery center to decrease their rates to match Park Plaza.

I think the location depends on whether you're self-pay or your insurance covers it. I was self-pay and had it done at Park Plaza.

I would not split the pill. I'd take it all in the morning. Check with your doc and see if that's OK. You'll definitely feel something when you take 37.5 mg at one time. You'll be moving at warp speed.

Yes, I have a 4 cc band, too. After my one PB episode, I'm back to the way it was before the last fill. I think I can still eat too much at 3.5 ccs. It seems there are a number of us getting close to 4 ccs without proper restriction. I'm really worried about this. I never thought to ask the doctor about this before surgery. Anyone know what they do for people who don't have proper restriction after being completely filled?