enterprise01

I might be mistaken, but I think the state of California created a new legal classification for companion animals a couple of years ago. Pets are in their own category somewhere between human beings and property. Can any Californians confirm this? I remember reading about it in the news but don't remember the specifics. I think that's a great idea to create a new classification for companion animals. People should be able to sue for intentional harm inflicted on their pets or for wrongful death through gross negligence. Of course, the downside is that veterinarians would need malpractice insurance and the cost of vet care would become outrageous, and in the end, more animals would suffer because people wouldn't be able to afford medical care. And let's not even get into health insurance for pets. I've already checked it out, and it's not affordable if you have more than 1 pet. And they don't cover senior pets (over age 7), which are the ones that need the most medical care. Perhaps vets should be made exempt from any civil suits for wrongful death if such a classification ever became widespread.

Another celebrity that annoys me is Ru Paul. Of course, I realize it's all jealousy on my part. He's more of a woman than I'll ever be. If only I could be half as glamorous/beautiful/vibrant/vivacious/stylish as he is...

I don't have any scientific proof, but I'll give you what I believe is the logical answer. Probably very little churning goes on in the upper stomach since it does not contain any acid to digest the food. My best guess is that the lower stomach still does all the digestion and therefore does most of the moving and churning, too. The upper stomach probably has a slight bit of movement from the esophageal spasms and contractions that occur during the process of eating. I would suspect that that movement is fairly minor compared to what the lower stomach is doing. Personally, I believe my stomach is most active when it's hungry. Sometimes it feels like it's going to lurch out of my belly just like the creatures in Alien. Contrary to bandster rules, I take average sized bites and swallow several times while eating a single bite of food. Just having the food in my mouth washing over my taste buds gives me enough pleasure to compensate for the lack of quantity. I'd much rather take 10 average sized bites than 20 small bites. I probably get 4 swallows out of 1 bite of food. And I do chew well. I've never had anything get stuck, and I've never PB'd or slimed. Of course, I'm still a newbie, so that may change at some point.

Pretty funny stuff. I may sign up as a Cheatneutral project, but I really want to know how I can sign up for carbon offsetting since I've been burping so much more since being banded. And I'm going to start exercising again soon, so I know I'll be exhaling a lot more carbon dioxide with all that heavy breathing. I want to make sure I'm paying for my pollution.

They seem to be only in the really humid parts of Texas, like Houston and Galveston. I've lived in Dallas and have stayed in both San Antonio and Austin for extended periods of time and never saw the really huge flying roaches there. I had my worst experience with one of those roaches in Surfside. A group of friends and I were staying at a rented beach house, and I awoke early in the morning to the sensation of one of those monsters under the covers with me, crawling on my back. I screamed loud enough to wake everyone in the house.

How about the flying tree roaches in Texas? They are about the size of hummingbirds and fly right at you. You can whack them with a heavy, steel-toed work boot, and they get right back up, completely unphased. When they get in the house, I just leave them to my cats. They'll kill anything that moves. At least the cats earn their keep every once in a while.

That doesn't sound like much food at all to me. I had chicken pasta parmesan (230 calories) for breakfast, protein enhanced biscotti (200 calories) for lunch, vanilla wafers (100 calories) for a snack, shrimp cakes (190 calories) and a whole zucchini and a whole bell pepper roasted with olive oil (est. 150 calories) for dinner. I'm eating a ton of veggies in an attempt to keep the hunger at bay. If you can make it all day between a liquid breakfast and a turkey burger dinner, then you're doing better than me and I've had 3 fills.

In the tunnel system in downtown Houston, it's 90% Americans who are the offenders, which makes it far more annoying to me.

Yes, that one gets to me, too. It really bugs me in the narrow parts of the tunnel system downtown. I've been known to yell, "In America, we walk on the right side" to offenders in my way. I also hate it when people stand on the escalator on the step right behind me. If you're a stranger, you don't need to be invading my personal space -- leave a step between us. And just generally when people stand too close to me when I'm waiting in line for something. Sometimes I'll put my hand on my hip so my elbow sticks out and then I'll shift my weight, so I hit the person with my elbow. Then I'll say, "I'm sorry, did I hit you? Well, then maybe you shouldn't stand so close."

Hey, Audree -- I was wondering when you'd be back. Glad to hear you're having some restriction from that 1st fill. I'm on fill #3 and still not feeling much difference. I bet everyone at the wedding noticed your weight loss. Did you get some comments?

This really hits close to home for me, but I'm the one who lies about how much money I make. Although we're not married, my boyfriend and I have been together for 11 years and share most expenses. Depending on how much overtime I make, I can bring home anywhere from 30 to 150% more than what he does. I don't want him to think I make more than he does, so I lie about it. I also lie about my Christmas bonus. I probably have a fear that if he knew I made more, he wouldn't be as generous toward me. In the past I've had boyfriends who really took advantage of me financially, so it's a very sore spot for me. Maybe your husband has similar issues and wants a little security. He might put his extra money in savings and doesn't want you to know about it because it gives him a sense of control as well as security. I hope you can talk to him about it without getting angry or being judgmental because some underlying fear may be at the root of all this.

I agree with everything you just said. Of course I know you were just paraphrasing, but I got the impression that this doctor thinks obesity is a psychological problem, not a physical problem. And I think it's just the opposite.

I think this doctor is full of crap. I know plenty of thin people who eat a lot more than I did and don't chew their food as well as I did (pre-band I mean). And he talks about fills as if it's all psychological when in fact it is physical. There are numerous reasons for obesity, and this doctor talks as if it is just a mental problem. Here's an interesting article from Yahoo news today: http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20070317/hl_hsn/resistancetohormoneleptincalledkeytoobesity;_ylt=Aqb5uFLkgrWhjpZMlAlzv5XVJRIF And here's an interesting quote from that article: One interesting facet of the findings, Cowley said, is the recognition that obesity, like diabetes, is truly a physical disease. "Obesity is not just a failure of will," he said. "This is a fundamental biological difference between obese and lean groups." This guy obviously has a lot more common sense than the doctor you heard on the radio. It amazes me how something that is so obvious to me is completely lost on most of the medical community. Obesity is not just caused by a lack of will power. Thin people are physically different from obese people -- brain chemistry, hormones, metabolism, and genetics. Until science comes up with a way to "flip a switch" to make us thin, the band will help us compensate by drastically limiting the amount we can eat and by making us feel satisfied with a lesser quantity of food.

That is so funny. I'm really glad he didn't say that to me because I very much enjoyed eating everything in sight during the week before surgery. Somehow I managed not to gain any weight, though.

I probably would not have followed the rules at all if Dr. Spivak's pre and post-op diet had not been so lenient. A lot of people seem to believe that the sutures in the lower stomach will not heal properly if you eat soft food, but I think a constantly growling stomach is a much bigger threat to the healing process. If my stomach is growling so loudly that people across the room can hear it, you know some serious movement is going on in there. And if I had stayed on liquids for more than 48 hours, my stomach would have been growling up a storm. The hunger pains from a diet of mushies is bad enough. All liquid for weeks on end would have been impossible for me.

It took a good 4 weeks for all the pain to go away. My port site is still tender and I find myself protecting it with my hand when my cats jump on me or when my boyfriend is being affectionate. After a fill, the port area is especially sensitive for about 24 hours.

Sorry, I didn't intend to highjack this thread, so I'm getting it back on topic. I'd also like to learn to dance once I'm thinner. At my firm's Christmas party last year, my boyfriend asked me to dance, and I said no because I was too embarrassed of my large butt to get out on the dance floor in front of everyone and because I'm a lousy dancer.

What antibiotic are you on? I'm on 150 mg of doxycycline monohydrate daily, plus Differin gel during the day and Tazorac at night. I also use a 10% benzoyl peroxide lotion on top of the Differin and Tazorac. I can't do the Benzaclin because topical antibiotics actually make my acne worse. But if you're taking a good oral antibiotic, then I'd like to suggest it to my dermatologist. Doesn't adult acne totally suck? My skin was beautiful when I was a teenager. The acne didn't hit me until I was out of college.

Julie, I can really relate to the salon issues. Last time I got a pedicure (2 yrs ago), I had to stare at myself in a huge mirror for 30 minutes. Of course, I haven't been back since. My hairdresser lets me come to his house for haircuts, which he does in his kitchen where there are no mirrors. I'm looking forward to being able to go to a salon and not cringe at all the mirrors. I intend to get Lumineers on my teeth when I reach my goal. And I suffer from adult acne, so I'm hoping to do a course of Accutane, too. I did Accutane treatment once in my early twenties when I weighed 125 lbs and it nearly killed me, so I know I couldn't handle it at my current weight and age. The pain was horrendous and my cholesterol went up to 380. I'd probably have a stroke if I tried Accutane now.

Yes, Brenda did the 3rd fill. I lost 2.4 pounds since the 2nd fill, which was exactly 1 week before the 3rd fill. I agree -- you should wait until after vacation for another fill. You don't want to risk being too tight and ruining your vacation. I'm reading through all the different reviews on scales on amazon.com, so it's taking a while. I just can't believe how completely inaccurate that first WW scale was.

I eat often granola cereal or shredded wheat with low-fat milk in the mornings. It seems to satisfy me as much as a more solid food does. Of course granola and shredded wheat are excessively dry foods to start with. Adding milk to them just makes them like a regular solid food. Soups, however, do not satisfy me at all unless they are high-fat, like lobster bisque or corn chowder, which I avoid because of the caloric content.

Hey, Kimmie -- How are your sutures doing? Did Dr. Spivak think everything looked OK? My first fill was done by Joy at the SurgiCenter with Dr. Spivak supervising. He located the port for her. She was very gentle. My 2nd and 3rd fills were done in his office by Brenda. She was gentle, too. Were you at the SurgiCenter or Dr. Spivak's office? Congrats on your weight loss. You're really close to ONEderland.

OK, I ate my lunch of Nutrisystem Whipped Sweet Potatoes (200 calories, 10 g. of protein) an hour and a half ago and still feel absolutely stuffed. In fact, I'm close to being nauseous. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will stay with me -- the fullness, not the nausea. I have to admit that I was afraid to get on the scale this morning at the doctor's office. I was sure that I was the same or had possibly even gained some. I have a very hard time wrapping my head around the idea that I can lose weight without being miserable. In the past, if my stomach didn't growl constantly, if I didn't have hunger headaches, if I wasn't watching the clock in anticipation of my next meal, if I wasn't cranky and irritable from lack of food, then I wasn't losing weight. Am I the only one who secretly believes this is too good to be true? I want to believe that my life has changed forever, but I'm such a pessimist that I just can't let myself believe it yet. By the way, I bought a new scale, the Weight Watchers WW43 Memory Glass Electronic Scale. It is a worthless piece of crap, and I'm sending it back. I tried it several places in my house and even got out a level to check the floor. I weighed myself numerous times and not once was it anywhere close to my actual weight. According to this scale, I weigh 24 lbs one minute and 318 lbs the next minute. Can anyone recommend a good digital scale?

My doctor will do a fill at 4 weeks post-op. I'm 8 weeks post-op and had my 3rd fill today. Ten pounds in one month is right on track. You're doing great.

Hey, everyone. I had my 3rd fill this morning. I'm at 2.3 ccs now in a 4 cc band. Let's hope I feel something this time. I'm also down 2 more pounds, so that's good. My mom is coming to visit in exactly 4 weeks, and I want to be at least 10 pounds lighter by then. Last time she saw me (about 18 months ago), I was at the weight I am now, so I'd like for her to be able to see some change. Even though I've lost 27 lbs, I'm still in the same size clothes -- they're just a bit baggy now. Guess I'll have to start exercising to get it to come off a little faster. Yuck. How's everyone else doing with their fills? Anyone reached the "sweet spot" yet?