lizrbit

::raises hand::: i belong here too. i have a thing about specific sugar foods. Birthday cake, and sugar cookie dough specifically but there are a handful of foods that i really struggle with. when im 'on the program' and by that i mean, exercising regularly, eating three planned meals with two low carb snacks in between, its not so bad and i can usually satisfy the sweet tooth with the occasional wieght watchers dessert (love those, 150 cals and just the right portion) . I find when im sick or depressed, its easier to reach for the cookie dough or bake a cake. I was on atkins for two years prior to being banded. i can get off sugar for short periods of time. but long term? i dont know. it is a struggle for me. That part, and getting in adequate exercise, are the hardest parts for me for all of it.

phyll, i am doing the snowbird thing in 11 days! i LOVE this part. regarding yesterday: i found myself checking alot and i realized something. ALL the time that ive spent online, i could have been outside, and i wasnt even then. I had a dinner date and i loved getting out. it really was fantastic to get with other people and talk face to face! These were friends ive had since before i was even at my heaviest, and i revealed to them at dinner about my band. It felt good. they were very supportive. i was thinking in the car on the way home though, about the board, about a recent ridiculous online quibble with one of the members and their sidekick, and how im doing these days offline, about our thread, and i was wondering...and its a personal question really... how much time to you guys spend online during a regular day? I find im spending more time here and while i feel i NEED YOU GUYS and your support, i wonder if i would be any more active if i would just sign off and only allow myself on twice a day? Am i the only person that wonders that? Yesterday, while the board was down, i realized how often ive been reading it. but i wasnt any more active than usual. what do you think? Do you guys think about this at all, wanna share any insights?

i get filled in my surgeons office each month, no flouro, he sticks once and its good.

coolness metal! my most recent nsv was NOT having to ask a stewardess for a seatbelt extender the last time i flew down to houston from maine. that rocked, as well as being SIGNIFICANTLY more comfortable in the little tunacans they label as coach seating. another nsv had last night. went over to friends house for dinner and drinks. i sat down in a chair i never would have dreamed sitting in six months ago. i would have broken it. not this time. not even a squeek.

initially i got isopure, but then just got the whey protien my grocery store was alot cheaper, but ewww. finally i resolved, and still use premixed low carb slimfast (20 prot, 2carb, 180 calories) or atkins shakes, or musclemilk and use them as meal replacesments when im too tight. i usually wind up working two of these in a day for breakfast and snack in between lunch and dinner so i can get in the protein. When i get around sixty grams of protein in a day i FEEL significantly better and hardly any hunger.

hi mis! no prob. I went in for a third fill (I fly down to houston tx from maine) and after an aggressive fill, i had no restriction. He has me drink Water after each fill. Dr noticed that i was downing the water pretty fast, asked me about restriction and i still felt none. He said he was going to try something, so he filled me with a little more, again with the water test, alittle more fill, again with the water test....still no restriction. after about six of those he asked if i felt any difference and i didnt, but i did have to pee. :car: When he tried to pull out the fill he couldnt pull out any except for what was still in the tube. next was flouro. then he got me in right away and replaced my band with a new small AP band. i would definitely talk to your dr's staff about how this was going to be financed, especially if you dont have insurance anymore. I wonder if they would help you get medicare financing? If it were me, id call them asap for an intense sit down about that. let us know what happens.

hey! you all sure have been quiet as churchmice over here....how is everyone doing? i am restricted!!! im doin okay. its slow going for me. I dontwinter up here very well. Im a few weeks from heading back to galvestonfor the winter. how is everyone doing? wasnt fall fantastic??????

MM, (mary!) i just saw that you hit your first goal! congratulations!!!!! fifty lbs is a LOT. i forget sometimes how much it actually is. i go to the grocery store and look at a lb of butter...then imagine FIFTY of those....woO! you go!

OH and beef and chicken broth!!!! lots n lots of that. jello!!! need jello! if you preplan as much as you can, your going to be great. DOnt wait to talk to your dr, call his office asap and ask them about "what if your on your own".

that is a much better idea than what i did. i was alone for my surgeries, and i was staying two hours away too! (galveston to houston). I wound up having to take a cab. To have the cabbie wait for me (HUGE mistake) AND the ride was 450 dollars!!!!!!! TALK to your dr immediately. You might can do shuttle up to hospital, arrange overnight stay and then take shuttle or bus back. I was alonefor my recoveries, both of them and you will be great! just fill your meds before you go and get you some special k waters, protein shakes like atkins or low carb slim fast, make sure you got toilet paper in the bathroom and get three days worth of movies, books, puzzles, laptop etc around a table to access easilly. after three days you will be tip top.

lol weazer... if i had a donut, id put it in a blender and sit in the floor with the mess. im swelling up because its getting close to TOM, and for some very strange reason, my stomach swells until im almost too tight again. it passes. And bsides...snot like you sat there and ate sixof them...right? ....right??? ::::: i have to stop. (thanks sue)

wantsobad! i do it too. ive been rebanded since late May and even TODAY i sat at dinner and gurgled as food went down. Fortunately im a unique and dainty snowflake and i can just laugh. I can see how it would bother people though in a formal setting.

love the stuff. i still use spenda when im not at home in place of sugar, but i live stevia especially in teas.

Mis42, i had my band replaced May 24 due to a leak in the top of the band. My insurance WAS billed a second time.

rag!!! my middle son suffered a stroke when he was 15. he's still in 'recovery' at 18 and is doing great. We may have plateau'd there, but so far no one is saying it. I know what you mean about having those feelings of guilt for not understanding her disability when it first presented. please please please dont beat yourself up! i think most of us who have kids with special needs go through this. My own mother was about as nurturing as an irritated rattlesnake in a box... on a good day. comparitively, we are fabulous parents :eek:. The only thing you can do now is address her needs and pick up just like you are doing. I totaly understand about wanting, desperately, to switch places so they dont have to go through it...but they will, and you can only make it something they just go through, like getting braces, and life continues around it. Around the changes, around the tears in the closet. I dont cry in front of him. Prom was the hardest for me to watch. He has since graduated high school and is in college now. Im grateful hes around and i try to just remember that when i start thinking of the 'they will nevers', because we dont know what they will 'never' do. they might suprise us. They will get through this, and life might be different but its going to be okay. I wish i could telepathicly send more support.

Hi Ghost! thank you for your thoughtful post. i wish it wasnt this way either. I have blocked them and contacted the board with my problem, three times now, i dont think the admins of the board will do anything, but just blocking them has given me a bit of relief. i did unsubscribe from this and a few other threads id been in on so as not to be a target, and hopefully the thing would just go away. Wasabubblebutt keeps following me from thread to thread which can be very annoying, but at least now im not burdened by the posts, i just see THAT shes posted, and not what shes posted. it is a relief. im sorry that everyone else sees whats happening, its embarrassing, but i suspect she knows that and is why she keeps posting on threads where its come up. She knows i have her blocked, so her posts are for you all's benifet. Please forgive the misspells. I hope this whole thing goes away soon. this is kinda what i was talking about in my original post. WHY do people do this to each other online? If she followed me around like this in person, at the most she would be arrested, the least i could at least file a restraining order and shed have to leave me alone...but online its okay? its a mess. Again, im sorry for my part in it. I have them blocked and im hoping it will pass.

mmcbelle, are you too tight? The fill before last for me was the one that went too tight. SInce i live in Maine and flew down to houston for the fill and had to fly back before i could give it a test run, i was too tight for a month! i was in constant contact with my dr though through email the whole time. he said the goal until i got back was "DONT THROW UP" no matter what. stay on protein drinks (atkins, lowcarb slimfast, musclemilk) four times a day, plus vitamins and calcium, and any soft foods i can tollerate well. By the time you do four of those protein shakes a day you arent that hungry. When i flew back id lost eighteen lbs that month, and he said do NOT let that happen again, because of malnutrition concerns. We did a slight unfill (just a few points of a cc) and it made ALL the difference in the world. i learned from that experience that if you have even one vomiting episode, it can irritate the esophogus and your stomach such that it swells and wont allow solids through for a while till the swelling goes down. Im under instruction now to where ANYTIME i throw up, even a little, go back to liquids for a day. I havent minded this yet at all. the soft foods, the mushies and even cereal slip right through the band once your not irritated anymore. sounds like your stomach or esophogus is just irritated or you might be too tight. IF it were me, id go on liquids for three days and see if you can get a few oz of solid protein down after your stomach has a chance to calm a bit? if you still cant do protien after that, id go get a little unfill. sounds like your at the fine tuning phase of getting to the famous "sweet spot" !!! When you try solid protein again after a calming period, they say thirty minutes for two oz is a good rate? anybody relate to that? how long does it take you to eat solid protein? mm, let us know what you do and what happens!?

elchewtoy!!! i went through journeylite of houston, but my surgeon is Dr St Laurent. i love him, his staff are amazing too. Looks like we will be in the same support groups, (if i can find them place again) every time i go down i get lost. i live in maine but went to houston to be banded specificly by dr st. laurent. His stats were very favorable. I wound up setting up a winter place down in galveston to come back to for the winter. anyway, NICE TO MEET YOU!!! and maybe we will see each other at the support group meetings.

and its still great.

again, i can see that theyve been posting..up a storm..but i cant read their posts..they know this so these post must be for someone else's benefit.

Bjean, hon, all i did was block them, and they are VERY upset, i imagine, that they cant continue to chase me from thread to thread. Im sure they are saying just fabulous things, and i dont care, theyve harrassed me, theyve harrassed others, even to the extend of private messages, and they just wont leave me alone. Blocking them isnt the worse thing that can happen in the world, and the first time they can find someone else (and it wont be long) to harass, they will lose interest in me. Im just not responding to thier crap. I cant even see it. Im sorry you have to.

lol..i dunno what they are sayin, but to get this response, must be good. I cant see either of thier posts. its great. i should have done this a LONG time ago...

hahahha..blink...see you posted again, but again, still cant and dont want to know what you are saying. this is heaven... to anyone whose ever been bothered by these guys, the block feature iis fantastic. remember this if you ever need it. I think this will change my entire experience here at LBT.

again, i can see you posted, but im not burdened by having to read your post! its fantastic! ah...peace...at LAST! im lovin this. You just cant bait me anymore! FANTASTIC!!!

hey thats cool. I can see that you have posted, but i cant see what you posted. thats PERFECT....because to be frank, ive had enough of YOU wasabubblebutt, and your little friend laurend. I cant write about ANYTHING or ANYONE else without you and her reading it and deciding that its an attack on YOU. Its creepy. Ive TRIED reporting you both and found NO help there, I even stopped visiting the board alltogether and was asked back and I thought, "well time has passed and maybe it was a misunderstanding" but no...it wasnt. Blocking you was suggested and you know what? its kinda cool. NOW you cant go around to each post i make and try to bait me, and maybe now i can just have some peace. Just leave me alone, please?