kyethra

I agree. Ever since my spare tire(s) above the waist became noticeable with clothes on, I wear the fabric sort of girdle when I want a sleeker silhouhet. I get most of mine at lane bryant. Though there is one bodysuite type one I got at lipo in a box. I have a variety of those undergarments -- one that is like shorts, good for the thighs and up to the waist. Also helps when I wear a skirt for thigh chafe. I've got high waist panties that go up to bra line nearly, etc.

I have a problem with whole wheat (the wheat germ part, actually, I'm pretty sure). Its not gluten, and its not bran, so that leaves wheat germ as my main suspect. Its pretty much an intollerance for whole wheat (bad indigestion and upset stomach whenever I try to eat it-- always been that way). No idea why. So that means no whole wheat for me. What are some whole grains that don't have whole wheat in them? I know whole grains are supposed to be better, but so many of them seem to contain whole wheat. Anyone know?

Oh I have no idea when I am getting a fill. I go back for another post op apointment in about 3-4 weeks. I guess we will see how I am doing then. Right now I don't need a fill.

I like march into May! But that is still a month away and right now we are in beautiful April. I've been on Mushies for nearly a week now-- well since wendesday. I like it, being able to eat. Though I just haven't been very hungry the past couple of days. The day before yesterday I had a big Protein shake-- one cup of 1% milk, two scoops of unjury plus a bit more so closer to 2.5, a bannana and some strawberries. It filled me up until the evening and then I had a packet of instant oatmeal with half a cup of milk. The oatmeal was so awesome! I am still having trouble with not drinking after meals. I usually drink a sip or two and then wait as long as I can. The oatmeal I felt was not in the least bit affected by my drinking at all. Nice sticky stuff. So with that stuff and my cristal lite I was completely satisfied. Yesterday I just wasn't hungry. I had one slimfast because I thought I should have something, but that was it other than no calorie fluids and my Vitamins and pills. I haven't eaten yet today. Last night I did a teeth bleaching treatment ( I have stained teeth from antibiotics I took when I was little so I have some teeth impressions and syringes of bleaching gel). I think I ended up swallowing a wee bit of it or it was just the taste of the stuff that leaked out that I wiped away, but my tummy is sour today. So I am giving it time to be happy again. I guess that I am just very happy that I'm not hungry again after I had one day where I was and ate and craved junk food twice. Normally pre band that would have started me on the slipperly slope toward worse eating habbits. But now I am thinking I want to get some protein and then veggies in today :girl_hug: And feeling like that makes me feel more triumphant.

There is a legal prescription verson of meth. Its called desoxyn. It does have one good thing about it: It can make a person stay awake. GHB also happens to be a wonderful sleep aid. It too has a prescription version (interestingly it is the most tightly controlled prescription substance since it is only available from one central pharmacy). There are already a ton of prescription amphetamines and narcotics out there and enough of those make it onto the streets. But they have great medical benefits-- they are good drugs if used correctly. So is pot. Since people are going to use it anyway, I think we should legalize them, all of them. They would be a lot safer if there were standards at least. That way at least people would know for sure what they were taking.

Do what the docs tell you to do. Get a second opinion if it will make you feel any better. I know you feel horrible now, but it could be a lot lot worse. And I imagine your chances for a full recovery are excellent. So take it easy and try not to think about it too much-- i know that is easier said that done. But trust me, it doesn't matter why or what if. You have to move on. Asking those questions too many times in your head will just make a person more depressed because they are circle questions. It doesn't matter if the band was the right choice because you have it now. What only matters is what the next right choice is. Get some movies, read some books, etc. Think of when it is all past you.

I'm loving the mushies, though yesterday my eating habits could have been better. I was out most of the evening. First I went to a coffee house and I had a small thing of frozen yoghurt/gelatto that they have there. It was about half a cup. I had only had lunch that day eatng wise (slim fast for breakfast) so it wasn't like I was eating a ton. Then for dinner I went with friends to a bar in town. The town went smoke free at the new year and its wonderful! We can now go places like bars and I don't have to hold my breath. Its made me definitely more excited/willing to go out. Anyway, we went to a bar. I had some propel with me so I didn't get anything to drink though I suppose I could have gotten water. My friends, of course, are terrible. They told the waitress that I can't drink alchohol now or carbonated stuff cause I had stomach surgery so even if I did try to order something like that not to let me. LOL. I guess a no thanks wasn't good enough for them. For dinner I had dip. Well dip is a mushie and it had veggies in it. Tons of basic and garlic. I'm not how healthy it was or wasn't though. And with it came tomatoe slices which I didn't eat and some cheese which I did and also some bread. I ate the bread with it because I took the crusts off and that made it rather soft. And then once I put the dip on the bread it was even softer. And I chewed really really well and ate slowly. Now I know I wasn't supposed to eat bread and I feel bad about that, but it wasn't a lot and I figured that I was eating soft stuff to begin with and taking it slow, etc. About as close to mush as I could get out on the town (no soups there). The bread went down beautifully! Then later that night I was hungry again so I had some spinach souflee. And then I had a reeses peanut butter cup! That is an awful lot of food! I think I went wild with it all. So today I am doing better. I am going to eat some mush soon. So far I have had some unjury- a double scoop of it actually, and I blended in a bananna and a some strawberry too and ground all that up really well with my hand mixer. And that has kept me nice and full until now. One thing I did notice last night was that I didn't finish all the dip and stuff because I got full first. So that is nice-- I do at least get full on food (well not ice cream which is why I have to be careful and ration that). I'm still having a lot of trouble with the length of not drinking after eating. Its getting better, but that is a hard one and I think that is going to take me some time. I think with all the junk food yesterday and stuff I just sort of went crazy, being allowed to eat again. I really need to watch that, especially making sure where my calories come from-- that I am getting protien in first and then veggies, etc. I'm also going to check out some programs to keep track of food and calories on my PDA. That will help me out, since paper and handwriting are not things that I am the best at. I think this band is really turning out to be the tool I hoped it would be. Even if I'm not the best stuff it does make me full sooner, and I have to eat slower so I'm going to eat less of that stuff. And because I do have to think about what I eat (even if it isn't until the next day) I can't just get stuck in junk food binge mode. Sure, I have to do work like make good choices. But it helps me to not make the bad ones. Or if I do make bad ones, to not repeatedly make that same mistake, in large volume.

Yes, keep calling people. The one gynecologist I actually liked and trusted I saw at Mayo (I have issues with gynecologists after a huge cyst ruined my health years ago). You might have to travel... but don't give up there are good doctors out there. And if meds can't be taken orally, are they availbe via injections or vaginal rings? Good luck.

You're sharing a hotel room with him? How expensive would it be to not share a room? Or if you start right now you can work on visualizing him crawling with bugs and mold and other gross stuff maybe. Or try eating something that gives you super nasty breath when you are alone with him in the room so he won't get too close to you. Once DH didn't brush his teeth for about three days or something. Gross! I wouldn't kiss him or let him breathe on me because his mouth smelled like it was rotting. I made him go brush his teeth so he could breathe in my direction.

Well right now I am wearning a size 20 pair of jeans. They are snug on me, but as loose as the 22s were getting, I decided it was better to go with snug for the moment. They aren't as tight as they were even a few days ago! I can sit in the comfortabley and so forth, so really not bad. Just snug. I think a few more pounds will help them get to that not snug spot. So I figure this is a good NSV! I can fit in smaller jeans!

I miss my NSAID (Suldinac aka Clinoril) that I normally take on a regular basis. Its a prescription one and my docs had told me i could take it up to twice a day every day. Generally though I tend to take it 4-7 times a week. No NSAIDs since one week before my surgery. Well its two weeks after. I need something for pain. I guess I could ask for a mild opiate but I don't like to use those unless I need to due to tolerance fears. ANy ideas.

At the moment I am losing about a pound a day on average. I just started mushies though and the last couple of days I have been trying to eat more calories. Why? I don't want to lose 1 pound a day. I want to lose 1-2 pounds a week. Slow and steady. Now the weightloss I have gotten is great. I do really like it, my trousers are falling off, etc. But I worry about the health and skin and sustainability with the weight loss at my current rate. I know a whole lot of it depends on me. How well I follow the rules, etc. For example, this not drinking after I eat thing is really super hard for me! So far I haven't made it past 15 or 20 mins. Someday I'll make it to that hour. But I mean I have food in my mouth. And I get thirsty! I've always drunk a ton with meals (like three full glasses or more) so I knew this would be hard for me. I might try rinsing my mouth out afterward to see if that helps some. And I know I have to actually physically measure stuff with a cup or a scale and not be lazy and not cheat and round up by a lot, etc. Its a huge change behaviorally. I fully expect there will be times when I don't lose weight because of me and my changes.

I take a ton of pills (and right now I miss my NSAID that I am going to need if I ever go to the gym). At first I broke the smaller ones in half, even topamax. Now I swallow those. Then I just took one a time. Waiting a while between each pill and each sip. It took a while. Now I can drink a bit more so I take a couple of pills at a time and the wait is a little less. I have one really big pill I haven't tried yet so I am still substituting it with other things. But I can now swallow my cymbalta capsules without breaking them open so that is good, because I had forgotten to take them for a few days and got really depressed. I meant to take them but because I had to break them open and take them special I would save it for last and forget. I should be able to lower my dose of my BP pill And I might be starting on a new med next month but it only comes in liquid form so thats not a problem.

I like delta or american. Or Virgin Atlantic even better if you plan on visiting the old country. I miss Wales so... (I spent a year there). I have never needed an extended but once the seatbelt was tight. When I travel I like to carry my handy campanion with me, [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Worst-Case-Scenario-Survival-Handbook/dp/B000977UKC/ref=pd_sim_b_1/002-6222209-8012036?ie=UTF8&qid=1175061362&sr=8-1]Amazon.com: Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel: Joshua Piven, David Borgenicht: Books[/ame] I also suggest having other disaster survival handbooks with you. This lets fellow travelors know that you are serious (and have the instructions for how to land a plane in the case of an emergency). (Cackling under your breath also helps with space) Of course, now that I fly with DH I feel a little more comfortable. He has a private pilots liscense. I think that between my handbooks and his experience we just might land that plane if we needed to

I take a ton of pills. Probably 15 a day. Most of them are small, so I can just take them. After the surgery I had to open up my cymbalta caps. That was annoying because I would forget to take them (it took longer so I would save them for last) and before today it was about 4 days before I took them. So now I'm depressed and so forth. Duh. Not a good idea, not taking meds. But they now go down. I do have these huge decongestant pills that right now won't though. So I take sudafed every four hours and cough syrup. Yuck. I'm hoping that I can swallow those in bits soon. I break some pills, like my provigil, in half. I give myself a lot of time to take them now. Before the band it was just a couple handfuls and a few gulps of Water. Now its one or two pills and few sips. Wait a little while. Then repeat. I can't wait until I can take my NSAIDs again. I need mine if I am going to be physically active. I either have a choice between opoids or NSAIDs. For daily pain the opoids are stronger than I want to use. I have a prescription NSAID that usually take about 4-7 times a week (suldinac aka clinoril) and its difficult without it or even aleve (I have Fibromyalgia). Plus I also would have trouble swallowing my darvocets-- those have to be chopped into little pieces (not available in liquid). Get a good pill cutter from walgreens and even a razor or two if needed. If it is a pill I have troulbe swallowing (the tiny uncoated ones for me actually) then I might just swallow it with apple sauce instead of water. Makes it easier sometimes. I also have a couple meds that are applied through other methods (vaginal ring) and an adhesive patch. No swallowing required.

I wish celebs that do have it wouldn't keep it a secret though esp when it seems obvious (like with the big head or whatever). I feel that when they keep it secret it does give it this stigma that it isn't as good as a diet or whatever and I think that does hurt morbidly obese people who look up to those people and might not hear about it other places. I agree there is privacy but then there is a public life... and its pretty hard to pretend you didn't lose 100 pounds. So people wonder how. Desperate people wonder how. And if its a big secret it becomes one of those 'bad' celeb things like rehab, I think.

I think you got to tell it like it is. Its not always going to be sunshine and lollipops. We do abuse our bodies. And I'll probably abuse my band at some point or another, maybe even unintentionally. I don't think that talking about it it when it happens is negative though. I think that talking about it and how to fix it and my problems is a positive thing. Like today I had hot cocoa. Cause I needed something for a good dopamine fix (I had forgotten to take my cymbalta the past several days). I'm not allowed to eat yet. I can't drink liquor yet. So hot cocoa it was. It might have been more than the 200 calories it was probably supposed to be-- I suspect it was a couple hundred calories over. Does that make me an abuser of my band? A rule breaker? I don't know. But I would hate to be afraid to discuss it because it seemed negative.

After I PBed I took it extra easy on the tummy especially since it was twice in my first week post op (like I stayed on Clear Liquids longer for example). Before I got the band I was really nervous about PBing and also about how/if I would be able to tell it from reflux (I have bad reflux, things come back up), etc. Right before surgery I asked about that. My surgeon said not to worry about it too much that it was just part of adjusting to the band and we would work it out. (part of this I think was also my mom calling me before surgery and asking if I had made sure they knew how bad my GERD was and the history of it and how I spent the first year of my life sleeping sitting up because of it and so forth. Of course they did, and of course it isn't that bad now, etc). I think the warning signs to look out for are throwing up for PBing multiple times a week, doing it for no reason whatso ever, not keeping liquids down, etc. So take it easy. Liquids for a couple of days. THen mush. Then food. Call your doc if you feel you should. After my first week though including two PB incidents (well one was really just throwing up) and one was definitely PB with lots of foam and they weren't really cocerned about it at my check up at all. We talked about it, of course, but it wasn't a big scarey thing like I had worried about.

the best natural stuff that I have found (and use) is chamomile and ginger, in my opinion. Especially ginger. I even have ginger altoids (mint is NOT good for reflux). I swear I love ginger and eat it like its going out of style. Can't have the fundoplasty with lap band. Just be careful if you aren't going to use the meds and make sure you get scoped regularily to check for Barretts and so forth. I hear that esophagial cancer is nasty stuff. I've never been reflux symptom free, ever in my whole life and I'm not holding my breath on it. I'm used to it. I just make sure I can breath (acid stays out of the lungs) and that I'm not throwing up or overly nauseated. Being symptom free would be nice, but its not an expectation of mine. There are worse problems to have-- my father had a hole in his esophagaus (he drank battery acid as a baby).

I have this agave sweetner that is low glycemic index. I forget if it has a certain name. Its made from agave cactus. Since my favorite beverage is also made from the agave cactus I figured it would be worth a try. Its not bad.

I just miss eating... Like the other day I was in the produce asile... I wanted a salad so bad! Its been a month since I've had a real meal. Mushies I start tomorrow. I got some good stuff for it. Spinach souflee (love that stuff). Creamed corn (I will blenderize). Some potatoe dishes that are nice and soft and mushy and yummy. I also have a can of tuna. And Salmon. And crab. I am so excited to be able to have more variety. I also got some ricotta because I thought that would go well with tomatoe sauce like someone suggested. I think the wierdest part is going to be not eating anything with stuff like tuna salad. I just really want to be able to put it on some bread or lettuce or a cracker or something to eat it with! That just seems strange. But I'd rather have it all by itself than not at all.

I'm not a clicky person either. Actually, I can't even really make friends. And I don't get a lot of neurotypical women. I have enough trouble trying to remember to brush my hair before I leave the house and not wear clothing that is stained-- I just don't understand people who worry about matching stuff and lipliner. Someday maybe I will, but right now all that is a different world for me. There are other "women" things that I don't seem to get too. My mom is always complaining that I think like a man and so forth. But I get what you mean. I find online forums really helpful for various conditions I have or things, including the band. I too am on an antidepressant. I am on topamax for migraines as well. When I first went on it my cravings went down big time and I lost fifteen pounds no problem. Unfortunately all the good side effects of it went away for me (it was also helping me out with some sleep problems) after a few months. It still works for migraines, but it doesn't do anything else for me anymore and the 15 pounds did come back. I know that isn't the case for everyone though, a lot of people like it for its weightloss effects.

ASAP! Well for me it was a little over one week. But it seemed longer.

Actually I do know surgeons with ports in them... They have even stricter diets.

After watching my father die of skin cancer (a rather awful death), I've always been afraid of UV rays. When other members of the family (siblings of his) had various growths removed, thats reinforced that fear. (my hair and coloring my play a part in this as well) I'd like to point out that fake tans have come a long way. You can get the spray on stuff at a lot of places if you like, or you can get the loiton. There are tons of loitons out there actually. And look at the effects of sun on skin and what in can do in terms of aging and so forth as well. Pale is the new tan :bolt: