TerriDoodle

Haydee - try one of my jewelry supply sources, Fire Mountain Gems 20 Inch 14KT Gold Necklace Chains - Fire Mountain Gems and Beads or, i found this jeweler who seems to have good stuff: 14K Gold 2.5mm Spiga chain 20" in

Hi -- I moved your thread thinking it was more appropriate for this area...and you'll probably get more responses from those that have been banded for some time, rather than in the Introduction section. Best of luck to you!

Pam, Kat and Judy - Thank you so much. I love you guys.

Hi everyone - Well, Mom took a turn last night and was transferred back to the hospital. It appears she's had a mild heart attack. They did an angiogram and found she has one vessel that is 100% blocked, but she cannot withstand (nor does she want) any surgery. Her lungs are filling with fluid and her kidneys are not functioning up to par. So she's in ICU but she's comfortable...and tired. I came home for a couple of hours and getting ready to head back over there. I know you've all been praying for us and I appreciate it so much! I just want her to be at peace and comfortable. thanks everyone! Oh, and GINA - have you talked to your doc?? Something doesn't sound right. I, myself, am still on mushies...at least for another day. Seem to be doing ok with that.

One of the funniest things I ever heard was my friend saying that hers could fit into a Pringles can!! LOL

Kat, dear.... don't worry your pretty head about drowning. There are thousands and thousands and thousands of people that float on that river every year and it is extremely rare to hear of any serious mishaps. Now, granted, I have not floated this particular part of the river but it should be a fairly quiet ride. You can always walk around the whitewater if you choose to...and probably 50% of the ride is in knee-deep water! LOL You will NOT drown. I promise. You can always skip whole water thing if you want and just relax by the pool or go shopping! We'll probably only be gone about 3 hours.

Tracy - you have NO reason to feel the slightest bit guilty for enjoying a few indulgences on your birthday!!! Gee whiz! Life is meant to be enjoyed....ENJOY IT....especially on your birthday! You didn't eat the WHOLE cake, did you??? (Might want to send that sucker with your DH to work tomorrow, though!) My DH is heading up to Kansas tomorrow....to Fort Scott (?). And he is freaking out about the cold temps he will have to endure! LOL He's going to look at an oilfield...in case you're wondering. I had (sugar free) ice cream for dinner. Nothing else will stay down :cursing:

Who doesn't love toobing?? LOL What's not to like? The Alamo is cool. The story is very moving.

LOVE LOVE LOVE the avatar, Laura!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRACY!!! mmmmmmmmmuuuah!! :kiss: :party::thumbup::cake: :cursing::lol::cool2: :hat: :sad: Yes, after you pay me that, you shouldn't owe another penny for lodging. That's total for both places, including tax etc. LOL Tracy!! PAM - Hmmm. Preggers perhaps?? Oh. nevermind! :mad: That's GREAT news, Kat!!! I know it means so much to you! Sheesh...you're likely to lose 10# in one whack! (no pun intended ... yeee-ouch!) Laura, isn't that a bell pepper dish? I imagine it was the skin from the pepper that did you in. The rice could have done it too, I suppose. I am going thru the same thing i did the last time I got filled (then unfilled) back in September. Restriction is great for a couple of days...then gets so tight I can't eat a damn thing :frown:. OMG, I got into sooooo much trouble last night eating an angel hair Pasta dish which normally goes down fine. Gina scared the hell out of me too with that slipping thread! :eek: Now i'm all paranoid and eating nothing but mushies and foods I KNOW are safe. I just don't understand how I can go from being "wide open" to "overly tight" on only 0.2 cc. i'm a little worried but will try to ride it out. No, the scale hasn't moved. 181-182 for days now. Kat - congrats to you on your loss! Getting sick seems to be the way to go. LOL Haydee - I'm sorry! I hope you're much better today.

Pam - I'm not "disagreeing with you", just wondering if this also is a possibility?... I've read many times that the "WHY" of it doesn't matter at all, but the "WHAT" does! In other words, asking 'why' only keeps you stuck in that behavior as you think and obsess over it. Asking "what can I do to move foreward" unsticks you and keeps you looking forward. keeping your eye on the prize and getting excited about your future retrains your brain to focus there rather than in the past. Your primitive brain wants to keep you rooted in those "bad" behaviors because it ensures your "survival"....which in primitive-brain-terms equates to FAT. This is the way you have "survived" for your whole life and wowser what a great job you've done!! Your brain is not so anxious to participate in a new way of life that "risks your very survival"!! You have to engage your higher brain....your emotions....and get excited about the future and making healthy choices...in order to get that part of your brain to take over and drag the primitive part along with it. Make sense?

Suzie - Thanks for the Valentine!! So cute! I just got it in the mail on Saturday! Gotta love that USPS!

Tracy!! That video was sooooooo fun!! I enjoyed seeing the REAL you and Robbie is just precious!! OMG...gotta go watch it again!!!

Gosh! Everybody is falling apart!! Kat - you poor dear!!! Got any leftover Vicodin around there?? Good stuff! Makes you go night-night! Jane - How's your arm today? That sure sounds painful! You'll probably be sore all over today...I usually am after a fall like that. Tracy - Glad you're finally better! You've had a bad run for sure! Are you talking about the earrings I made??? LOL You should have gotten her email address and I could have overcharged the heck out of her and made some money to buy MORE stuff!!! LOL Dang! Judy - you look incredible now!! I can't believe the difference in your shoulders and neck. Who knew we could carry so much weight there? Denise - Congratulations on your new house .... are you going to be picking everything out.... all the way from brick to sink fixtures? Ay yay yay!! My marriage would never last! LOL I had a good day yesterday. My sister stayed with Mom so I got to spend the whole day at home with my family...did some more metal work. I finished up the links for a bracelet (now have to work on the charms) and a quick little pair of earrings. Today I'll go to be with Mom in the morning, come back home for a few hours, then go back to be with her in the evening. This place she is in is supposedly "first class", and it's fancy, but the care doesn't seem to be much better than any other place. My head is about to explode with the stress of it all. You can see why banging on metal is so therapeutic to me! LOL I'll check in with you guys later. Haydee? Where are you???

LOL, Jacqui...that surprises the hell out of me about you! If I would only choose what I'm going to wear the night before, that would really help me to be on time...but in all the years I've been working I still can't manage that.

uh....porn movies?? :biggrin: Works for me! (shhhhhhhhhh...it's a secret)

LOL....just like you've seen snow in July, I've seen 82 degree Christmases!...many times!

Well, since you have a history of being overweight it might not be that difficult...and you obviously have a family history as well. I would think the main thing you have to tackle then is to convince the doctor that you are ready and willing, have the maturity to manage your band AND demonstrate knowledge of the principles of good nutrition. Those things would go a long way in your favor! Good luck to you! I was a low BMI-er but have been 40# overweight for 30 years!! With menopause kickiing in I was looking at nothing but gaining from here on out....so I had to 'convince' my doctor, too. I think it helped to have my compelling argument ready...it showed that i had done a lot of thinking and analyzing of what I was capable of. Make sense?

Are you PBing a lot?? Do you stay on liquids and mushies after a PB? maybe a few days of liquids will help calm it down....and then anytime you have a PB or get stuck you really need to baby it. Are you under a lot of stress? My stress level is directly related to my level of restriction. I also think I suffer from 'first bite syndrome'...where it jusst tightens up with the first few bites and then finally relaxes about 10-15 minutes later. I have to really think about how I'm eating these days or else I'm almost constantly irritating my stoma and then it becomes a vicious cycle. Maybe if you keep a log or diary you'll start to see a pattern emerge?

Cool, what you are going through now is what we ALL went through!! Believe me! Having a surgery like this is a serious matter and is life changing for sure! So your nerves are justified iin being jangled! The beauty of the band is that you won't have to rely on pure willpower alone anymore! I'd say that it's half and half now. The band does half the work and your head does the other half. Mourning food is very, very natural! But seriously, you get over it! The freedom and new control that you feel are simply amazing. Yes, there will be some days when you get out of control but you'll eat 3 Cookies instead of 40....or you'll choose enchiladas instead of a green salad. But you'll only be able to eat one enchilada instead of 3!! ....and you'll be okay with that. The other thing I felt very helpful is to read a motivational book.... One that helped me a lot was [ame=http://www.amazon.com/This-Year-Will-Finally-Resolution/dp/0767920082]"This Year I Will..." by MJ Ryan[/ame]. She's awesome and so is the book. Lots and lots of food for thought and will help you understand how your brain works when going thru a major change in behavior. I highly suggest it. The other thing to keep in mind is that when polled, 92% of the users here said they had no regrets and would get banded again. So you have a 92% chance that you will feel the same way!! Those are pretty darn good odds. Good luck! Hang around LBT...a lot....and it will help immensely.

I hate to be a kill-joy, but I think you might have a hard time convincing anyone that you need to be banded at your age and BMI. Unless you have a history of being overweight since you were a young child and/or showing some kind of issues with your health like diabetes, it's not likely you'll get banded. Your parents approve of it?? I'm surprised.

The coldest weather I can ever remember being in was one year when it got down to 11 degrees and <30 for a few days in a row. But I distiinctly remember going out one night when it was 11 because it was so unique to my experience!....the cold was actually painful and mind-numbing...and the car just could not get warm even with the heater going full blast. Granted that it was colder to us because we are not prepared with the proper clothes down here...I don't own any kind of hat or scarf or gloves! Anyway, my point is that I admire anyone who can withstand that kind of cold environment, much less get in a swimsuit out in it!!!! :biggrin: When will it start getting warm up there, Judy? Like april-May? And how long does your summer last? Our winter will be over by the end of Feb. Then we have mild temps thru April. May-June are pretty darn hot, then July-September is just pure hell!

Laura! I loved the pictures! Congrats on ALL your NSV's! There's plenty more to come, too!! But crossing your legs is a HUGE one! You look sooooo cute in all of your pictures and the snow is so pretty. Kat - What's the difference between a pannectomy and a TT? I thought they were the same thing! Sorry you're sick....yuck. Take care, ok? Tracy - I'm curious, why did your doc give you prednisone? For your ear infection? That's kind of odd, I think. Hmmm. (I used to be a nursing student, can you tell? LOL) TracyK - hope you and DH are havin' a great time! :thumbup: Judy - Where are you going for your cruise? Somewhere WARM I hope! Suzie - thanks for the words of encouragement...and you're so right. When this is all over I will feel better knowing I did all I could for her, even if right now it just doesn't seem like enough. My sister stayed with her today and I went by for lunch...but tonight I'm at home with my kiddos and all is right with the world...well, at least on our block. I have been living on cottage cheese and oatmeal all week. The stress along with a new fill have made all else just about impossible to eat. I did manage to get a cheese enchilada down my pie hole tonight. It was delish. The (slim) lady at the table next to me polished off three of them, along with rice, beans and chips! Did we used to eat that much??? :biggrin: I am totally exhausted tonight. I can't wait to go to bed!! zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Hi girls! Sorry I haven't posted much the last couple of days. I have been reading...this is where I come when I want solace...and that's several times a day. Work is really hectic while we prepare for a board meeting next week but the real kicker is getting Mom set up in this new rehab place. OMG. She has deteriorated soooooooo much in the last two weeks and last night was horrible. I don't want to get into the details (too tired for that) but I am almost at my wits end. I have never been thru so much personal agony over a loved one like this before....I have never felt so helpless. I try and try to make things better for her in every way that I can...but it's just nowhere near enough. As a result I am just a bundle of stress 90% of the time. Please keep us in your prayers. Was goiing to sit here and write a bunch of personals....but see it's time for me to get in the shower and get ready for work. I'll check in later. Thanks you guys....love you!

That's very interesting!! I will try that next time! I've always used a teaspoon of sugar and that works 100% of the time for me....but not for everyone.