Bright

wow - well done Audrey - what a fantastic achievement - I'm so happy for you xx

you look fantastic Jennye - love your outfit - you look so young and cute - I'm so jealous of you all in your summer clothes, and on the beach! still crappy raining here (for a change!!!) Well done Jen, you so do not look wide, you look babelicious AND you are officially passing me out! :banana :banana :banana

What a beach babe! Can't believe the difference Vera - you look great - what a change - I love the hat too! So great to see photos of you at last - I love your hair - I have ALWAYS wanted curly hair take care xx:D

Oh Jennye, I'm so sorry to hear your mom is so ill - I am thinking about you both, and hope you get good news soon. One of my best friend's dad had a series of very serious strokes a few months ago - it was touch and go for a while, he couldn't speak, eat, walk etc - he is under 65 so we were devastated for him - he had just recovered from triple bypass a few years before so we didn't think he would be strong enough to make it. His family went through hell over a week as he had a few more strokes - but the good news is, I met him last week, as he was out for a walk, he is doing very well with the physiotherapy, and has regained most of his faculties, just waiting for his arm to respond, which apparently will take a little more time. It was truly amazing to see the recovery, and I'm sure your mom will have an equally good outlook. I know how hard it is to stand around a hospital bed, and my thoughts are with you - please keep in touch and let us know how she'd doing... love and hugs xxxxx

thanks for the compliments - I'm blushin here! Shelley, can't believe how amazing you are doing - i am hereby demanding full list of your hints and tips! You must feel fantastic! So wish I was where you and Donali are - big congrats hugs from me xx And Jennye - HELLO!!!! Check out my (v badly fake tanned!) feet in the photo where I'm wearing hubby's Ireland shirt, and you will see my fave pink flower flip flops! And in answer to Marsha's jokey query, I have actually gone down two shoe sizes - you can see the flip flops are big on me - my feet are all the way " in", but they are still huge - I have had such fun buying shoes since I've lost some weight - I used to take an european 42 and now take a 38 (think that's an american 10 to an 8!) And Vera, I have my super critical mother-in-law eating bags of prunes a day - the poor woman can't be more than ten feet from a bathroom - me bad!

speaking of movies, have you all seen Troy? Oh yum. Yum Yum Yum. So many pretty boys - you americans sure do breed 'em well over there.....

Donali, Tangerine, oh my god, I am rolling on the floor laughing here - and not in a good way - in a "I'm nearly crying cos that's so me too" kinda way! I have had huge rows with my husband over the years as he always wanted to do the chinese set meal thing, where everyone shares - and he did the same at movies - getting one popcorn to share, because he wasn't that hungry - I would be freaking out, almost stamping my feet, saying like a three year old - I WANT MY OWN! He used to just wide eyed, slowly hand me the popcorn like I was completely insane (which i kinda was...) It got to the point where I would order food I know my friends didn't like just so no one would want any of mine! And it is still hard to ignore the screams for food - i still order way too much - (and eating out is really expensive here in Dublin) and my hubby goes mad when I eat 20% of what I ordered and sheepishly say "em... I'm full.... " I was genuinely terrified of BEING hungry - I ate in advance in case I'd GET hungry - how messed up is that! .............but I'm all cured now....right???

hi Kathy, It's over seven months since my surgery, and I haven't touched a drop since - I was drinking up to 5 cans a day, absolutely loved it! But amazingly haven't missed it a bit - I was never a coffee drinker but now long for my daily cappucin...I have a large one most days and it seems to give me a mini caffeine fix. You'll cope way better than you think without it - best of luck with your surgery and happy band journey xx

I know what you mean Alex, I always blamed our high grocery shopping bill on food for the kids - since I've been banded we have saved 50 euro a week (about $55) since I've stopped throwing impulse purchases into the cart.... can you believe it? That's over $1200 since I've been banded! And that's not even taking into account how much we've saved on not eating out as much! Considering my surgery was self paid, ($6000) this operation will actually PAY for itself! Well, it would, if I didn't have this nasty new shoe addiction.....

God, reading Nancy's thread, I felt SO guilty - I read all the new posts on this board every night but contribute less and less lately - I know it's really selfish but most of the "posters" seem new recently, the same ol' questions are coming up.... and I am just too damn lazy to answer them all as diligently as Alexandra does (I dunno how u keep it up Alexandra :kiss ). I sometimes think we should have a mandatory "read all the old posts" line written somewhere in big red letters, but in fairness, many of the other forums do request this, and I always found them so daunting and unwelcoming when tentatively starting to ask questions. I guess Sue, I'm another type of person NOT on your list - I am the absolute WORST type of person at a meeting - there to glean all the info I can, and hope to god someone else offers to do the photocopying/coffee making/fund raising !!!! Are you getting just how VILE I am? I tell myself my lack of contribution is due to the fact that I am Different - ie Living in Ireland, with a 10cc band filled to 4cc during surgery, 6 months banded, never had a fill, still one episode to go in Sex and The City - you see, COMPLETELY alien over here!!!) I do agree with you tho, the more people, however different, make the "meeting" work hence contradicting my crappy excuse, and hereby promise to contribute more here. It definitely is the best forum, I can't really do the Yahoo ones, as I can never find the start of the threads :squareeye. I read the Spotlight posts a lot but have to say, 'cept for our Jennye over there, I have never felt very welcome - and Ms Know-It-All revels in her throne a bit too much for my liking....! anyway, great thread Nancy - I'll make sure I'm "here" more.... (editted to read intelligently!)

Congratulations on getting banded! I was banded in Paris, France and got precious little information from my surgeon as my french isn't too great, especially on medical terms and his english was pretty bad! Luckily for me I had three sources of information - #1 I printed out the Inamed Lap Band book (the one I think you are refering to... if not you can find it at www.inamed.com). I read this over and over before surgery and also read the whole inamed website information too. #2 I communicated regularly with someone who had the band inserted by the same surgeon - if you can find a buddy who has had pretty much the same sugery experience as you, and try to keep in touch, it will be a great help. My friend Sarah introduced me to the surgeon in the first place and as she had the operation a few weeks before me, she could advise on all the first little landmarks with great authority! #4 is, of course, the internet! Especially this forum - I find it the friendliest by far, and therefore the most helpful. If I were you (or any newbie) I would spend as much time as possilbe reading through ALL the old posts. I used to spend an hour or so every night reading thru all the old topics - it really helps to see the problems people have overcome, and got on with this journey. I also used the web to find as many bandsters sites as possible and read their journals as much as I can. For example if I'm at 12 weeks since surgery, I read a few journals at their six week mark and see how they coped! Try these sites: http://mysite.verizon.net/vze6pwwz/ ("Our" Leo's site!) http://www.geocities.com/robinh26/lapband.html (the legendary Coffeewench's site!) http://www.geocities.com/laylaburd/AGB/laylaslapband.html (another really good site!) Hope this helps - good luck! :eek:

I'm thrilled for you - been away for a week and was so happy to come back to see you're doing so well! Keep it up hon xx :banana :banana :banana :banana :banana

Chantal, that is so great! Here in Ireland, smokes cost about the same as in Canada, they are super taxed to try to discourage people from smoking! Also, I am very proud to let u know that from the 29th March Ireland is a smoke free zone in all places of work - ie pubs, bars, restaurants, taxis, even company cars - it is causing a lot of contraversy here but as someone who grew up in a very smokey house (mom, dad and 2 sisters smoked! - dad smokes a pipe!!), it put me off for life - but apparently 50% of children whose parents are smokers become smokers themselves - which is exactly what happened in our family - two of us kids ended up smoking and two didn't.... anyway just wanted to heartily congratulate you on your descision - i hope you get on really well - with all your eventual savings you can come and visit me in Ireland - no temptation here when socialising!!!! Well done xx

Congratulations guys - wish you both lots of luck on your band journey

what a great moment, love when that happens Alexandra! I had one too the other day - I took out this extra tight lycra sports top to wear in the gym under my teeshirt (mostly to help prevent black eyes;) !!!) - it was super tight, and I always wore it under things to pull me in if I was going out etc - well, shock, horror - it was too loose! It just hung on me like a tee shirt - I couldn't believe it - it meant more to me than seeing the scale move to under -50lbs (my first mini goal) - it seemed REAL , if you know what I mean! lovin those N.S.V.'s - would love to hear more from anyone else out there.............

wowzer, you look fantastic, Michelle, what an amazing difference! You also look about ten years younger.... I'm so happy for you - congratulations xx :banana :banana :banana :banana :banana :banana

wow, Donali. fantastic goal-news! I'm so happy for u, feels like I've lost the 90lbs too! Which I haven't so can really stand back and appreciate you getting so far - this band is a great tool but boy, does it require a lot of effort to keep it working. Well done, and am totally supporting you all the way through the last ten pounds to the Bandsters Holy Grail of -100lbs mark! :banana :banana :banana :banana :banana :banana :banana :banana :banana :banana :banana :banana :banana :banana

wow, Babs, I'm so thrilled for you - what an accomplishment, I am so proud and happy for you xxx :banana :banana :banana :banana :banana :banana :banana :banana

congratulations for making such great progress - I am so happy for you! You have been such a great inspiration for me - and I love your mini goals, I must make a few!!! take care xx

Well done Audrey! Brilliant progress - keep in touch! :P

I was self pay too - I I had been looking at paying around $12,000 to have the op in the UK which was a lot of money for me to find - then Babs (bbrecruiter) on this site went to a lot of trouble to find me the name/website of a banded women who now runs a consultancy service to help have the surgery in Lyons in France - this would only cost around $6000 which I was thrilled about! THEN I decided to have the surgery in Paris, in France after meeting another really nice person on this forum, who suggested I use her surgeon. After recieving a quotation from him and his hospital for "only" $4000, I was delighted and went ahead and had the surgery there - I found it quite difficult as my french isn't great, and NOBODY in the hospital spoke english - ANYWAY (sorry for rambling!) now it turns out that the hospital want to charge me another 2000 euro (about $2000)! I thought it might be a little extra but I was really annoyed at it being 50% more expensive! I know I ended up paying a lot less than I originally thought but in the end, it's not easy to find an additional $2000 lying around when we hadn't budgeted for it - we spent a lot of money on car hire, flights, hotels etc too, so my advice would be: find out all you can BEFORE you have the surgery or commit to anything - talk to two or three other patients of your surgeon to find out their experience!

I presume you guys have seen this on CNN already but guess what? I JOINED A GYM - and actually went today! Well, i met my personal trainer and did a two minute practice on all "my machines" - 5 min warm up on a bike thingy, 10 mins on a cross trainer, 10 mins on a strider and 8 mins on the treadmill, then weights and cool down stretches (what ever they are!) I amost died of shock at how much he expected me to do and would have punched his lights out only he had a really cute Northern Irish Accent, and v cute butt . He even wanted me to do some stuff with a giant beach ball but I quietly declined! Had long soak in the jacuzzi to calm down!!! Joking aside, I'm really looking forward to getting fit and healthy. By the way, my port is in the lower left hand side of my stomach, and I'm wondering if I can do sit ups or whatever with it there? Does anyone know?

....Ok now I know all about crunches! Ask me anything!!! Still sounds like too much hard work! Babs: Would u believe there are two Curves gyms in Ireland but they are down the country, not in Dublin so no use to me - and funnily enough, I really don't mind the male personal trainer - I have always found men way more accepting of my weight than women - it's the women who (statistically!) would prefer to have cancer than to be morbidly obese! I'm sure I'll "need" cosmetic surgery if I ever do get to my goal weight - and am hoping to have my boobs done - the batwings and tummy tuck seem way too painful for me! I am going to wait and see how I feel - the floppy tum may not bother me too much but my boobs are already pretty horrible!!! By the way I would LOVE to meet you too - or ANY of you for that matter! We are heading to France and Spain for vacations this year but are definitely planning to go to the States next year - we were just sitting around trying to pick where to go- we've been on vacations to Florida, New York, San Francisco, Boston and have friends in California who we visited too - my husband has been to Dell in Texas a lot too!!! When we go next year, it will probably be for a week in NYC (as the kids love it) and a week somewhere else so maybe we'll try to get to Texas or Vegas - wow that'd be cool!!!

....great to see you here again! What a brilliant weight loss - you must be thrilled! Hope I catch up with you soon!

I am also losing my hair! It's really upsetting for me as I have fair thin hair to begin with! It is quite noticable (well, to me!) and I have really upped my protein intake since I noticed this - I have a handful of nuts most mornings and take vitamins too - has anyone else found something that may help or can anyone tell me how long this will last before my body adjusts again? My nails were also very weak and slow-growing but this has improved recently - maybe it's just a matter of waiting.....! Thanks for your tips Babs - it is a simple way of eating I guess, but it's really helpful to be reminded of what works for others!