Woofay

Howdy again! Wow, didn't realize it, but musta still been "under the influence". I slept all afternoon. A very nice relaxed sleep! Ahhhhh! It's gotten quite sore since all the numbness has worn off, but nothing unmanagable. Absolutely nothing like when they do the full thing and your entire abdomin is sore. So now I've experienced two big ole complications: being way over filled and a leaky port. And neither one was really that bad. Soo, despite that, I would still completely recommend the proceedure. So far, those things do not outweigh the 45 lbs lost so far, and the rest to come! I love my band! Can't wait for tomorrow night! :whoo::hungry::car::clap2: Rosie~ do you plan to meet up with us? Cant wait to meet you Marilyn!!!!!

Hi, Gals! I'm home and in great shape. It went easily. Or at least I think it did....heehee. I don't remember anything. I wasn't put under, but I was nicely sedated! My port area is a bit sore, but nothing unmanagable. Dr. K said he found the leak and now I have new plumbing! (no duct tape!) The nurses at Health South were very nice also. Can't wait until tomorrow night. At this point, there is no reason for me not to be there! Talk to you all soon!

Lap Dancer! What a beautiful daughter and son-in-law you have! Thank you for sharing your pictures. What a lovely cake too. Wow, the board is full of romance today! :love: Even though things didn't exactly go the way you would have liked it to, you still must be very proud. Only 4 weeks until your fill, you can do it! And those extra "mother" pounds will come right off. You'll see! My In Laws will be here the 21st. Thank goodness I'll be fixed by then! Ha! Have a great day! :biggrin1:

Marcy! What a wonderful evening. Your post made a little tear come to my eyes! Its like that moment in your favorite show where the two you want to get together finally do. I'm a true romantic :love: and I think its great that you had such a wonderful moment! Any night out without kids is to be cherished, but WOW! Glad your Anniversary was so lovely. What a guy you've got! Taynuh~ I went through that too. I looked down at my belly and thought, "What the hell have I done to myself? I have bought some crazy diet pills, exercise equipment, diet books, diet foods, but this just tops the list!" And it is rough when you are feeling better, feeling hungry and your still not allowed to eat solids yet. I was fixing dinner for the family one night, knowing that I would not be eating it, and I was just bawling. My poor hubby. Also, I think anesthesia can mess with your emotions too. Plus, you've been excited for so long now about this, and now its over. (Really, its just beginning!) Don't worry. It will pass. Try to pamper yourself a little bit and know that lots of us have gone through what you are and its okay. Also, if your not feeling icky or anything, you can switch to full liquids any time you want. Take it slow with the first few sips and make sure you don't feel like your gonna barf. (any chance to get the barf smiley in there!) The entire goal is to not vomit for a month. If full liquids are staying down without any feeling of nausea, its okay to go to soft foods. Some of us went through the liquid stages very quickly. The only thing that made me feel sick was a protein supplement I bought. Everyone is different with this. Good luck. I'm thinking about ya! Want2bmeagain~ goodness girl! Thank goodness you only have today and tomorrow to make it through this pre-op diet. Hahaha! I never counted the carbs in my meats, cheeses and eggs. They are mostly insignificant. What you do need to pay attention to is your sauces, like ketchup (a no-no) the carbs in your veggies...corn and peas are bad! Very starchy. Your salad dressing is usually loaded with sugar...stuff like that. Its the "everything else that goes in your mouth" thing. What you really need to do is get a hold of The South Beach Diet book. It's somewhat of an Atkins redone type of diet. It really makes a lot of sense and considers the glycemic index a little further than atkins does. So fruits and whole grains are added back in as they don't effect this as strongly as once believed. (see how easy it is to say it? Now if my butt could just follow it! Ha!) I'm sure your doing fine~stop worrying! I found two protein supplements that I really like. One of them you might not because it contains sucralose. But I hate proteiny tasting stuff and this one goes down fine. It's called ON 100% Whey Gold Standard. It's in a black plastic container and they have it at GNC and other nutrition stores. (I paid $16) The beauty of this stuff is that it only has 2 gms of carbs per serving. Pretty much no sugar. It has 110 kcals per serving with 24 gms of protein. Sooooo, if you mix it with 1 cup of the Calorie Countdown product I told you about earlier... you wind up with 200 kcals, 5 gm carbs and 32 gm protein. (can you tell I used to be a dietician?) It comes in chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. There is also New-whey liquid protein vials by IDS. In about 3 ounces you get 42 gms of protein. It comes in orange, fruit punch and grape. If you mix it with crushed ice and water or with diet fruit juice it goes down pretty good too. But it has to be ice cold or it starts smelling quite proteiny when it warms up. Icky!:omg: And, IMO, never try to drink those things without mixing them in something! OMG The vials are a little pricy like 2.70 a piece or something, but they are not as much as Iso-Pure. Wow! Is this post long enough or what? Sorry! I'm so excited for everyone, plus a little nervous about tomorrow...so I ramble! Have a great day, All!

Good morning! :biggrin1::Banane20::biggrin1: Rosey! Welcome to the board! Are you local? Will you be getting your consult over the phone or in his office? Write down all your questions so you don't forget. But let him finish his consult before you start with the questions. Most of them will be answered by the time he is done. You'll love Dr. K. Most surgeons are not known for their "personality", but Dr. K. is quite fun. You are so very welcome to meet up with the group on Tuesday, that way you can plug us full of questions! Talking is way faster then typing!:Banane20: Want2bmeagain~ You crack me up. :Banane20: Leave milk alone on pre-op. But there is a product called "Calorie Countdown" by Hood. It's in the milk section of the store. Not a bad product IMO. Mixes well with coffee, shakes, stuff like that. And quite low in carbs and calories compared to regular 2%. Also, I think Stevia sucks. Tried it a couple of years ago on my Atkins trip. Ha! Splenda works for me. I also love "Big Medicine". Have you noticed how they recommend Gastric Bypass almost all of the time, but when it came to family, the sister/daughter, they wanted her to have the band???!!! Makes you wonder! Also, I know you have told us, but to avoid hundreds of posts, where are you located? Are you local? Lordy, you gotta meet up with us! You know what is funny? There is a barfing smiley. Also, IMO, sugar free fudgesicles are a lot more satisfying than sugar free popsicles. They are so chocolatey and are chewier, not so icey hard. Sugar gives the chewy in stuff. Take that out and you have an ice cube. Icky! Mal~ Yeah! I'm glad you will be there! :Banane20::bounce: Dynamo~ I'm more than sure I will be there. Don't cancel!!!! Drews~can't wait to meet up again!

Want2bmeagain~ Sweet n low is yucky! Try splenda. Artificial is artificial and splenda doesn't have quite the aftertaste. You are doing great. I got bored with eggs too. I like potatoes with them. My surgery is going to be at Health South, which is right across the street from his office. I had my band placed at Crown Point though. I really liked that facility. The nurses are so kind there. Health South in Phoenix is rude. (actually, everything in Phx is rude) We'll see what it brings here. Are you getting excited???!!! Freaky excited???!!! :omg::bounce:

Good Morning! Well, the pre-op is done. And just like with the first surgery, Dr. K. was so reassuring that I'm not so nervous anymore. I know it's really not that big of a deal, but I just get so uptight about it. We're going to use a local with very little sedation. I don't know why, I just don't think I will need it. He said I would be able to feel some things, but not necessarily pain. He told me that weird feeling when the needle comes out after a fill? He said it may feel like that because of messing with the muscle that the port attaches to. He said if I get too freaked out by that, then they could add more sedative (valium). And if I was still freaked out after that, then they could knock me out. I feel all better now. And luckily, I remembered at the last second that I am allergic to that adhesive they use for the tape. THANK GOODNESS! He wrote it on everything so he won't use it. He's also going to give me a little fill so that I will have some restriction after surgery. Yeah! So, I guess I'm all ready. And their scale said I had lost more weight. Very kewl. Hopefully this will let me get to where I'm going! Dynamo~ Count me in for the 11th. I should be okay to go. How hard is it to drive on Vicodin??? Hee! I'm just kidden! My three boys have their "boys night" on the night I go out with you all. They look forward to it so much. It's like "don't let the door hit you where you sit!" They can hardly wait for me to leave. Feel the love! Crazy kids! Mal~ you're going, right? Drews~you're going too, right??? Who else is going to meet up with us????!!! Want2bmeagain~ You don't choose local or general when you are having the entire band put in. They have two manipulators, a camera, a liver retractor all stuck in you and the main incision for the band and port. 5 holes and then they puff you full of CO so they can see what they are doing. You definately could not do a local for that. The port replacement seems to be a lot less of a proceedure. I'm self pay too, and Dr. K. is taking care of this surgery. (thank god, otherwise it would definately wait for a while!) Oh ya~ don't cheat on your pre-op diet! It's only 2 weeks and you can do it! We all know you can! Get yourself some good artificial sweetener for your coffee and write here when you think you are slipping. We'll help you through it! And if it gets really bad, be cheap like me and think of that big check you just wrote. hee hee! You're always welcome to PM me if you need more support! :whoo: Taynuh~ don't look at the scale! (this is truly funny coming from me!) Surgery makes your body swell, and the abdomin can really swell. It's all fluid. Take good care of yourself right now. :mad: Littleroo~glad your doing well. Don't get too sick of the popsicles and broth. Did you ever think that you would look so forward to a health shake? ha! Congrats again! Have a great day all!

Wow! I take a few days off from this thread and there's about an hour of reading to catch up! How is everyone doing? Dynamo~ well, haven't you really been given quite the pile to deal with? Hope that everything works out, the house, the irs, all of it. Oh, and congrats on the weight loss. That's just great! Mal~ have you been on vacation too? Saw the one post and glad that your fill is doing you well. Hope that you and your family are doing well. Lap Dancer! You sound like your really working on getting control of your life. That is really exciting. Drews~ where have you been? Taynah and Littleroo1~ Woo hoo! Today is your day! Here's to a quick and easy recovery! All our thoughts and prayers are with you. Give us a hayho when your up to it. Want2bmeagain~ Your day is coming quickly! Mare~congrats on your band. Shelbie~11 more days! LSzeliga~Welcome to the board and your date is coming quickly too! Jennifer~ I'm so sorry to hear about your Grandpa. Heart-felt sympathy from me to you. (we lost ours in June) Okay, I'm not meaning to leave anyone out. If I did, I'm sorry. It was more difficult catching up than I thought. Well, my pre-op appointment is tomorrow to get my port replaced. Not sure how it's going to differ from the first one, or why it needs to be done at all. I guess for paperwork. Monday is my day. I think that I am getting a little nervous again. I have no idea why. I have been given the option of being knocked out completely or doing local. (Shesha went local, Drews out completely) Goodness I wish I knew what to choose! I think I'll go local. It couldn't be any worse than taking a baby out of a little incision, could it? Hee hee! And I lived through that twice! :nervous I had a great time with my company. My friend Patti also had a great time and I took her to as many things here in the Springs as I could. 4 days to play isn't very long. And the Josh Groban concert was more than I could have hoped for. {{****sigh****}} I had amazing seats compared to Vegas and I could see much better. I got lost in Denver for about 45 minutes though. Wow, what a wild and scary experience. I kept thinking "a little further and we'll be out of this". Wholly crap! I'm pretty sure there aren't areas quite that rough in Phoenix! But I called my hubby and he mapquested me outta there. We also went to the Air Force Academy to see the chapel and you know what I did? I lost my digital camera.:omg::think I'm just so sad! I had so many pictures still on it. I was going to get them all printed when Patti left and now they are all gone. The pictures of Michelle in Breckenridge, Keystone, the Groban concert :omg:. Rats. Went through some posts and sent emails and tried to recover some of the better ones. Oh well, life goes on. The brighter side is...time for an upgraded camera! Ha! My weight didn't take a hit while she was here, thank goodness! And we ate out everywhere. Eating out is just fun. Heck, eating is just fun! And I can tell I'm wide open. Wish my weight was down, but what ya gonna do? Hopefully after monday things will get back on track. Have a great day all!!!!!!!

Good morning! Dynamo~ woooooo hoooo on the inches! That is soooo great! You're doing so well and redirecting energies else where like your ladies, paintings, working out. You might still be frustrated about not being able to comfort with food, but you are making such great progress. I suppose a multi-year habit doesn't just go away in a few months. But you are certainly taking huge leaps in the right direction! Congratulations! Lap Dancer~Can't wait to see you! I really liked todays thoughts. Hope you are feeling better. Mal~ Hows it going for you? Your baby is in college. I sure can wait for that. I like my little guys the way they are...time to bind them and keep them little. (that doesn't work, does it?) I had a bad day yesterday. I ate way more than I should have, probably related to stress. When am I going to figure out what to do with stress other than eat? My friend from Arizona is coming up on Tuesday and I'm just so excited. I haven't seen her in almost 4 years. She's going to the Josh Groban concert with me on Wed. I turned her into a fan. My hubby is so glad he doesn't have to go to another one with me! heehee! She's leaving Sunday so we're going to cram as much in as possible. She'll even be celebrating her 50th with us on Thursday. We have been friends over 23 years. Lordy we're getting old! :omg: Well, my girls, and those not specifically mentioned...have a great day. Hope you all can stay on track, either with band rules or with liquid diets, or with pre-op diets. It's going to make us healthier better people, even if that is hard to see in the moment! :biggrin1:

Hi, all! Mal~Okay...let me know whenever. I understand about getting your son going. I have a brother just like that. Sept. 11. Well, okay. I hope to be there. (medicated or otherwise!) Let's see how big of a table we will need...6 top or better, come on gals! Dynamo~ My weight is stuck too. Floating between the same two pounds. Rats! I hope it goes down just a little bit tomorrow. My fill is loosening...more is going down than should. I'll have to exibit a little self restraint. (easier said than done for me) How's that rash? Hopefully getting better. Thank goodness for these cooler days! Goodness it was hot in this house! And my pictures look great. I have quite the coffee station now. I truly love coffee. Drewslou~ Are you going to make it??????? Woo hoo! You'll be able to help me get back on track after getting fixed! (Not like that!) :D Want2bmeagain~ Are you hanging in there? :whoo:

Want2bmeagain~ I'm local here in the Springs, so I'll be coming home. Lap Dancer~ the only symptoms I've had is the fill going away. Like after surgery when we started getting hungrier and hungrier. Two days ago my fill was perfect. Wonder how much was in there? hee hee. I really hope nothing major is wrong. What did Dr. K want to do? Run some tests or see the placement of your band? I'll be praying for you!

Lap Dancer~ I'm sorry to hear about your problem. That would be a really annoying problem while trying to work. I hope it gets better for you. On the other hand, it will be really great to see {less of} you! Let us know when everything is final and I'll get it on the calendar! Want2bmeagain~ Never fear! I've had a few of the complications associated with the band, and truly, for me, they weren't that bad. Not so bad that I wouldn't want the band. And remember, people tend to seek assistance when they are having problems and would explain that a lot of the people on the forums are having issues they are seeking answers for. I think the side effects of being on a regular diet are worse than this. (I hate diets! I've done so many of them) So be reassured that the lifestyle change you are choosing to make will benefit you for the rest of your life. And (in my opinion) you are picking one of the best surgeons to get you there. You are in a win/win situation! The being scared thing is so natural. Have you had a chance to see some of my old posts right before I had it done? Oh my, what a basket case I was. This thread got me through it. You'll get through it too. Just let us know when and if you need the extra support. We're pretty good at it! You won't fail with this. None of us will. We have the rest of our lives to get it down and learn it well. You were also talking about how you were eating everything you could before your surgery. That's common too. But you really don't need to. You can eat most things after your surgery, just less of it. I went on my "last meal crusade" right before my first fill. I made sure I gained 5lbs before my first fill! Silly me! So hang in there and stay away from the negative forums and threads. It will be great!:clap2: Mal~ Good morning! Did ya make it to the gym? Did ya exercise enough for me too? :biggrin1: Lordy I gotta get to a gym! Dynamo~ Hurray for your good day! There will be more and more of them. Sorry about the rash. You know, it's the hot time of the year (both times) and sometimes extra soap can come out of your clothes from moisture when its sweaty and humid out. Like prickly heat with the added chemicals. Maybe try an extra rinse cycle on your washer? My family comes from the land of sensative skin, and my kids are worse than I am. Hope it clears up soon for you. I can't remember who mentioned it, but my re-do surgery is on the 10th. Isn't someones band placement that day? Or am I off a day? My pre-op is the 6th. Anyone going to be in the office that day? Just love meeting people from here. I realized I met someone after the fact last time. ("oh, that was you" things) Have a great day, All! Hopefully cooler today so the mean bitchy woman doesn't come out today. (me in the heat!) HA! :biggrin1::biggrin1:

Good morning, All! Mal~ congrats on the poundage lost! That's great! Are you starting to feel better all over, or what? Shesha~Another congrats to you for the loss! You're fill must be doing you well! yeah! My scale hasn't moved very much. I'm stuck between 42 and 44 lbs. Never moves except back and forth. Even with the SB diet stuff. But I'll stick to it, because I really am starting to feel better. My knees never hurt anymore. That in itself is amazing. I've really not needed my advil or aleve for it. My hubby and I headed to the mountains for the wine/art/jazz festival in Breckenridge. DynamoMini's booth looked great! I managed to snag the art work from her that I wanted! (I saw it in her portfolio at Red Robbin night) It looks great in my kitchen! Good Job Dynamo! We took the long way home and went up through Keystone, A-Basin. I have never been through there and I was more than impressed. We stopped at the Continental Divide and took pics and then we hiked up some creek in Keystone (only hundreds through there). Drank from some well that comes out of the mountain that is supposed to have "healing powers" (along with lots of other people). Then we got stuck in a traffic backup from H**l due to an accident. Can't think of a nicer place to go 20mph for 35 miles! It gave us a chance to see the rock formations and creek better, plus gave us the extra time before we picked up the kids! hee hee:) All in all, a fabulous day! the first pic is Michelle and Me, I got a pic with the Artist! The second pic is my hubby Chris and I at the continental divide The third is an overlook in Keystone the last two are the creek in Keystone that we hiked into. Colorado continues to just amaze me. Have a great day, All!

Lap Dancer!~ That is just amazing! Thanks for posting them. If that isn't inspiration, I don't know what is. Your hard work is paying off. You should be so proud! And your head work is going to make it permanent. Congratulations! :clap2::whoo:

Dynamo~ I'll be there on Saturday. My mom is watching the kids and I am looking forward to acting like an adult for a day. You'll get better at thwarting a binge. It all takes steps and time and you know it occured. You counted it all out, and really it wasn't bad. Its practice and awareness. You're doing great. I don't binge as much as I like to eat all day. (although I have before) As for this fill~ lordy it feels tight! I pb'd everything yesterday. So I had ice cream last night (I know!) and it went down. Then I had some tomato Soup. It went down. Tried to see if today was any better, but it's not. So I had some oatmeal and it did go down, without hurting. Yeah! I do know that it will get easier as it leaks. At least fluids go down this time! Hee hee! I think I'll have him put less in it during surgery. More like 1.3cc. This is just a bit too restricted for me.:omg: It's more like having your jaws wired shut so you can't eat than just being restricted. Mal~ are you feeling better? Lap Dancer~congrats on your progress! You're doing great! Mare5569~how are ya doing? Recovering well, I hope! Littleroo1~I don't know if the crown center is a hotspot or not. The Hampton Inn, which is like a block up the road, next to the place you are staying, is. I used my computer there the whole time. You could probably call them and find out. Are you freaky excited?

:clap2:Mare5569~ Today is your day! We'll be thinking of you. Congratulations! Let us know how it goes and post when you feel well enough. :clap2:

Hello, My People! :girl_hug: I saw the good doc. And as predicted, there's a leak. (like being empty last fill wasn't enough:biggrin1:) It's pretty slow though. Last tuesday he had 1.6 cc in there. Today there was only 1 cc in there. So he filled me back up to 1.6 and scheduled the surgery to fix it. So that's less than .2 cc leak per day. Guess that's why it's still working fairly well for me. Only empty for the week before I've been going in for a fill. So, Sept 10th at 9 am I'll be fixed. (not like that, silly!:dog: ruff! ) Shesha and Drewslou~ Thank you so much for all your info. I appreciate it more than you'll know. (I'm such a baby sometimes! :nervous) Mal~ hope that head cold is clearing! Dynamo~ paint, paint, paint! Littleroo1~congrats on your date! You'll be on your way soon! Sunnysea~Great to hear from ya! Lap Dancer~ where are ya? Hope that all is well for you! Have a great night!:notagree

Hi, All! I went to my nephew's birthday party today and, alas, I lost total control. The fatty chocolate sweet lovin' person was waiting for me. She pigged out on homemade chocolate cake and chocolate marble ice cream.:faint: So much for South Beach today. I'm in North Forest piggen out! I lost control after only 9 days of dieting. :think I was going to try to be good the rest of the day. But my mind just doesn't work correctly. At this point, I've "blown the diet" and I should continue to stick whatever I want into my mouth. Which I did a little. I ate a piece of bread with butter. And then quickly returned it. Yuck. Very rude awakening and now I'm going to be good. There is some sort of restriction still in there! Ha!

Lap Dancer~ yes I posted 7 pics. Go back a page. It was great. We missed you. We were talking about you...where your ears burning? (hee hee, my mom loves that saying!) Congrats on staying on task and your new smells! hee hee Biggestloser~ I'm guessing that I will find out more on Tuesday. I would hope that I won't be charged anything as I have yet to really use it! I'm pretty sure this happened with the first fill. Seriously, I don't know much. If there is a big charge, I'm not sure what I'll do. I took a second on the house to afford it in April. Don't think that I've built any more equity since then! I guess that would be far more upsetting than the leaky band because it just wouldn't be done right now. (You're poor, Kenny! Sorry, Cartman came out...) I can't say I've "waisted" 4 months of good weight loss time. But I wonder how much better I would have done.

Taynuh~ sorry to hear about your delay. You must be so frustrated! Plus, to get all worked up (scared, anxious, whatever) and then have it cancelled. I kinda think that things happen for a reason, even if that isn't obvious at first. Also, Congrats on having another child. Children can certainly fill your life with love and a sense of purpose! Thank God there are people like you who can give a child everything they should have and deserve to have~ love, a home, hope, everything. You are a special person. Drewslou~ hey, I think that we are having September's get-together on a tuesday. We were thinking of you and would really like you to be a part of our ritual. What do you think? Also, I have some things going on that I am ready to share. (I wasn't the other day) I found out that my band does indeed have a leak. I guess I'm the Doc's only second one, Drewslou being the other. It was suspected for a couple of months with the seriously unmatching amounts in it. And my last fill sort of confirmed this. It was empty when I went for my last fill. In a way, it's sort of a relief. This weight loss thing was a little harder than I expected. Now I know why! The very positive side of it is that I have been losing weight, and fairly well. There is some restriction even being empty and I have been working on my eating quite hard. At this time, my fills last about a week or so. It's a very slow leak. Sooooooo, if I'm doing this well with a leaky band, man am I going to start losing with it working properly! At least thats my theory! Ha! Am I upset over it? Well, not really. I (we) went into this knowing that this is a real posibility. It can happen. And with 150 bands done, I think the occurance of 2 makes it like a 1.3% chance with him. (been a long time since I've done math! I may be wrong) Thats a pretty darn good track record! I just gotta get it fixed. Right now I'm tentatively scheduled for Sept 10th. I guess that's subject to change. I have an appointment on Tues to make sure, sure. I guess things will be further discussed and decided then. To me, it's the same as getting a fill to make it work properly. I've just got to get it working properly. Have a great day, All!

But we're not done! There are two more! Marcy, we were thinking of you too. I hadn't seen the post about all the delicious crab legs, but Maalani shared it with us. That just sounds sooo good! The first pic is Michelle and Maalani The second pic is all of us! We are just shrinking daily!! Woo hoo! Anita, Michelle and Maalani

Wow, what a great night! Thanks for everything, Mal and Dynamo! I just love our night out! Okay, I'm going to try and post some pictures. Lets see how I do. ha! Lap Dancer, you were thought of and missed tonight! The first pic is Kevin, Mal's son. Yes, he did eat that wonderful looking piece of chocolately goodness in front of us! The second pic is Maalani taking a picture of me while I took a pic of her. (cuz we're silly!) The third is Michelle and Anita (me!) The fourth is Maalani The fifth is Anita (me!) and Maalani

Oh, ya, small reminder... Dynamo~ don't forget to bring a "Lady" and the band book. Maybe some pictures? Mal~ Bring your drawing and maybe some pictures? Woofay~ Pictures and the band book. (hee hee)

Mal! Good morning! And yes, listening to a motivational cds counts towards doing something for yourself! And you know what else counts? DRAWING! It is so kewl that you are doing this again. Bring it tonight, okay? I want to see too! Drawing is very therapeutic. Especially since you were drawing "dark" things. You are expressing all that is in you, putting it on paper. Looking at it. Perfecting it. Altering it. Contemplating it. You are dealing with it just as you would with a therapist! All I can say is congratulations! I was never very artistic in the sense of drawing or painting. My mom is very good at oil painting. She tried to get me into it, but I just didn't seem to get anything out of it. Some of it looked okay, but I didn't get the emotional sense of well being out of it that my mom did. My outlet is music. I play piano and started when I was quite young. I was picked on pretty badly in grade school (the fat kid) and only had a few friends. I seem to express all of that hurt or whatever you want to call it, through my playing. I also like to write. I can write up a storm in my journals. I guess that's why I seem to post more than my fair share of posts on here! Lol! Its my therapy! Just like you, Mal and Lap Dancer, I've kinda felt like I need to express myself as of late. This band thing and weightloss has pulled that out, I guess. I've spent years trying to ignore just how big I've gotten. So I actually broke out some of my sheet music again. And I've figured out that my piano needs about 500 bucks of work on it. The move and the extremely dry weather up here has taken its toll on it. Rats. Think I will do it anyways. I could use the therapy! I used to have a piano in every room. I had to let go of some of them when I moved up here. Sounds weird, but it was kinda emotional. I'm down to two. But only one fits in my house. Eeek! :omg: Well, I do believe this post has more than rambled on. Can't wait to see you tonight, Mal and Dynamo! Lap Dancer, wish you were coming so badly. Everyone one else is welcome too!

I'm so proud of both of you. It takes a whole lot to realize that something like that is going on. (addiction) It takes even more to do something about it. You gals are so going in the right direction and are completely altering your futures. Isn't that the neatest thing? I can't eat anything tonight. My body sure reacts to a fill. I'm the one that needs to do liquids and mushies for 24 hours after! I've already urped too. Whatever! What a great opportunity to learn more about ourselves and our bodies! (not the urp part sillies! )