skylily

Hello favoredone Thanks... I'm actually Australian so we don't get that holiday... but we did get a long weekend not long back for the Queens Birthday so I guess it balances out LOL. Not that it was her real birthday 'they' just give us a particular day. Yeah, the Mirena... I did try to ride it out and gave it a month but it escalated and I thought NO WAY JOSE, GET THIS THING OUT!!! It's a pity it didn't suit me but oh well. I had actually been using implanon for several years with no side effects so may go back to that. Strange though, I think it uses the same 'substance'. You poor thing suffering the respiratory problems... do you know what may be causing it? Thanks for your positive words! I am a great believer in thinking positive... every now and then I have a lapse but I always bounce back, life's too short to mope. SkyLily xx

PS Happy July 4th to all my fellow American lapbanders.

Hi Grandy, I have read this and found your other message. Sorry to hear about your complications... what to say... it's just CRAP! Hopefully in a few weeks you will be saying how glad you were to get it done after all... I sincerely hope so! As to my DIET. I'm so over it all lol, but am plodding along. Not losing. Had to get out of the extreme mindset. It's not healthy to live like that. Yes you lose weight but at an expense to your health - mind and body. I'm glad I did the five day thingy though because it did help decrease my appetite and I do eat less. So I think I will actually do the first two days, just the liquids, every few weeks anyway. I went to the appt to other surgeon but that was just a waste of time and money. He wouldn't give me any fill because I wasn't 'his patient'... I wanted to try a tiny one. He wanted me to go to his real clinic and do another swallow etc and see his dietician but it's way too far away. Anyhow, I have appt with my usual surgeon (haven't seen him for a year!) on Friday (stll an hour away) and will get him to give me a tiny fill so I can test the reaction etc. I've actually had an awful past four weeks and have had to deal with some other stuff. I had a contraceptive called Mirena inserted a month ago and I had some terrible side effects. Depression and then extreme anxiety. Really scary stuff. So I had it removed yesterday. I think I'm getting to a point... like you... thinking bloody hell, can something just work for me like it's supposed to! Anyhow dear woman, chin up... you will get through this current set back and will emerge looking gorgeous. Your friend. SkyLily xox

Hi Grandy I hope you're feeling and looking quite wonderful at present. Have thought about you the past few days and have sent positive wishes across the ocean. Thanks for being such a lovely and encouraging person. SkyLily xox

I have thought about this a fair bit and I have come to the conclusion that 'carbonated drinks stretch your pouch' is a myth. It just seems a bit trusting to take that statement at face value. For a start, there are actually two holes for the gas to escape, either up or down... if food is blocking the down bit, then up it comes... I know that from experience LOL. The pouch is made from an elastic material and the brief time a little liquid is effervescing in it is not enough to permanently stretch it. I know if I drink carbonated drinks too fast that I pay for it either by burping or it coming back up... but I don't believe it can stretch our pouches. I am not advocating drinking sugary or alcoholic carbonated drinks... all I'm saying is that I don't think a bit of sparkling Water, soda water or sugar free diet sodas is going to be bad for us. We have to deprive ourselves of so many things, why deprive ourselves unnecessarily?

Hi Denise, congratulations on your baby girl. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you that your next fill makes a difference. Good luck SkyLily

That's fair enough Cindy and I am aware of your success but these are discussion posts where people are allowed to have different opinions. We may not agree with each other but that doesn't mean one person's view should be shot down.I may not agree with your thoughts but I wouldn't insist on you agreeing with mine.<br style="text-indent: 0px !important; ">On a side note, plenty of other people have also followed their doctors advice but through no fault of their own the band hasn't worked for them for one reason or another. I want everyone, including me to succeed, but I have sympathy, empathy and respect for those who haven't and I don't cast blame.<br style="text-indent: 0px !important; ">SkyLily

Yes... can you? Little sips and not too often but yes I do.

lol, mum's hey!!!

Hi sassy... I don't have too many, and I do need to sip slowly. And yes, I will burp regardless... but what's a little burping between friends.

Yeah it's interesting how if we stay away from something long enough when we try it again it can taste totally different.

Thanks Grandy Maybe I should put a bottle of diet coke in my boot with the spare tyre in case of highway emergencies

Some good ponderings there elcee You're right, it does make it hard to figure out what's what... that's why at the end of the day it all gets back to common sense, being educated about our choices and figuring out what works best for us as individuals.

Hello YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wish my lapband was a secret. If it did all the work for me and was a magical cure than I wouldn't care who knew but because the weight loss journey is an everyday battle of will power, figuring out the right formula of carbs and cals and what my body responds to... and because the band is not a wonder tool for me.... than yes, I wish nobody knew. I started out with only my family knowing but because I ended up with a horror start of a stomach perforation and nearly dying then my mother told EVERYONE in her existence. I know she did so out of worry and because of how serious it all was so I try not to make her feel bad about it BUT what that means is that every single relative and friend of the family knows and I am well aware that people judge WLS as being an easy way to lose weight etc The weight I lose I claim all to my doing. The strength, the wins, the losses, the ups and downs, the continuing struggle all belong to me. I am a very private person and it mortified me when I knew that everyone knew LOL. ahhh well, what's done is done.

Hi Pete, I'm really really sorry to hear this. Exact same thing happened to me but they didn't pick it up in the swallow and it ended up getting infected. If you want to read what happened read the post Banded two years now... I need some help please, which is also in Introductions. I understand your fear it is a terrifying ordeal to endure. Give it some time and thought and whatever you decide to do I wish you all the best! SkyLily xox

Hi Cindy, this is obviously something you feel strongly about as you've posted three comments so far and I respect all viewpoints from everyone who has commented. Far be it from me to force my opinion on others. I don't get why some people feel the need to do that. Personally, I believe noone is omnipotent, not even our surgeons, and an intelligent individual can work out some of the smaller details themselves over time.

hmmmm interesting... followed the links. Let me know when they actually invent something that will let me eat what I want, when I want and still lose weight! That won't rely on my extreme willpower and gruelling exercising regime and won't seem to work for a while but then the weight starts creeping back on. OR something that really does take away hunger. Now that I'd be excited about.

That's great!! Well done! Geez I didn't even start losing till about 2 months after banding and that was only when I started ultra low carbing and heaps of exercise.

Good girls can be bad sometimes... and 'bad' girls aren't usually bad people. Good, bad, we're all people.

Fantastic!! Well done to both of you!

Gawd... how many times I have done that in my life!! haha

Hello... wow what a hectic work schedule... you be careful with that! Yesterday I concocted a Soup which turned out rather well. It went down very easy and is high in nutrients. My mum and husband loved it too. Salmon and Silverbeet Soup 8 serves Don't have to be too accurate with amounts. Salmon fillets, skinless - 600g ( about 1.35 lbs) Silverbeet (or spinach), chopped - 2 cups Powdered vegetable or chicken stock - 4 tsp Garlic paste - 1 tbsn Ginger paste - 1 tbsn Powdered cumin - 1 tsp Powdered coriander - 1 tsp Pinch chilli or cayanne 8 cups Water *Add or omit spices/stock to suit. Directions Make broth with the water, stock and spices. Bring broth to boil and add the skinless fillets. Simmer on low heat for at least 30 mins. When cooked pull apart with fork. Add chopped silverbeet and simmer for another 15 mins.

I had posted this in Introductions as I have just recently joined but I see that it betters suits here. I was banded in March 2009. I came home, somewhat in discomfort and over the following days I progressed into agony. I ended up back in hospital having emergency surgery at 2am five days after the placement. I had been nicked in the first surgery and had an infection. The band was removed and I spent four days in ICU and then another four or five in the ward. It was the most PAINFUL experience in my life and it wasn't too good emotionally either.

Hi AuntieGG, great to hear you're back on track. Thanks for your concern but I only get the reflux and choking when it is has a certain amount of fill in it... so I had it unfilled to a point where it doesn't do that. I too am back on track... back on the old low carb, low cal and exercise trail. arghhhhhhhhhhh I think what annoys me the most is that prebanding you are led to believe that you'll never have to diet again. I KNEW that didn't mean I could eat rubbish and lounge around and I'd lose weight... but what I thought it meant was that the band would help diminish my hunger to the level that I wouldn't EVER want to overeat etc... that I would naturally eat smaller portions and the whole lifetime of struggling, dieting, having to think about food etc would be blissfully over. But then you find out that that's not really the way it is at all. So here I am back on track yes SIGH... there's not really any choice is there lol. Thanks for your reply and good luck with medifast etc. xox PS This post is also in Introductions called Banded two years now... I need some help please. There are quite a few interesting replies on that if you wanted to have a look.