Daisalana

Oh the whole reason I came back here (I was really distracted by that pic..).. I have found a new quick recipe.. Kind of a variation. I told ya'll about the grape/cream cheese/walnut salad a while back my mom makes for cook outs, she now uses splenda, and I approve.. Well I bought stuff to make it at home, forgot the walnuts though. So.. Since brown sugar is low calorie too.. I tried a couple variations, and came up with this for a 1 person snack. I wash about 6 red grapes (30ish calories), dry them and set aside. Take about 1tbsp of whipped cream cheese.. doesn't look like a lot, but seems to go a long way (30 calories!) and I put like less than 1/4tsp of splenda (just BARELY any in there).. and then about 1/4tsp of brown sugar.. mix very well with a spoon, turns into a wonderful thick cream cheese icing!! Then I mix the grapes in there. Less than 100 calories, and it's wonderful. It refrigerates well, makes the icing harden up more and that is really good too. I made some last night for lunch today. You're suppose to mix walnuts in there too, but like I said I don't have any. If I did, I'd probably mix about 1tbsp of crushed up walnuts in it.

I'm going to try a laxative if it doesn't clear up, when I have time at home.. We've been busy when we get off work lately. Tonight's horseshow, tomorrow is first hockey game of the season YAY! I love hockey games. Our company sponsors the city's team so we have ice box seats. It's a lot of fun. This is us at a game last year LOL, they were taking promo pics, and we ended up in one of the trading cards- Mom is in purple fleece, I'm next to her with the beer, and DH on the other side. Wow, this picture is painful to look at now, look how FAT I was!! This was around my highest ever (Last Oct. sometime). Look at that neck.. yeesh.

Good morning Violets! Kat you're in my thoughts!!!! From what I understand, we would fly into Washington DC for this Violets trip. I know DH won't mind if I go, I do business trips all the time, and though he would be gracious also, he would not want to be there when we do our violet talk!! April's a good time for me too (that's why my surgery was then.. and because it was the soonest I could do it). Our busy season is August-January.. it's hard to get away during that time, but April.. no problem! As long as I have a cell phone and a lap top, I'm good to go. We are finally getting rain, yay! GOOD rain.. STORMS even. Of course, not while we're awake. But last night around 6am I woke up to a storm.. It's dark out right now.. suppose to get bad storms tonight, just in time for the horseshow. Oh well, I'll take it! I took forever to get dressed this morning. I wanted to wear something that wasn't too big and frumpy, his family hasn't seen me since the wedding, and that was like 30lbs+ ago! Yesterday was my bro's b'day too! Stomach hurts, day (feels like 2139823498234) since no poo..

Well, the first time I did it-- didn't work (injections). 2nd time, they did a 'drip'? I honestly am not 100% positive what they were doing there. I had bulging disks, and scoliosis. So all the muscles are mad around there. I did muscle relaxers for a while to try to loosen the muscles so the disks would correct themselves, but it didn't work. So anyway, overall I hated this clinic, they jerked me around, lied to me, etc.. and when you're in excruciating pain, that's the last thing you want. But they never marked in my charts that injections don't work, it has to be this 'drip'.. he explained that they put the tube in and let it go or.. something, I don't really remember now. Everytime I went to fix the pain when they wore off, they did injections.. then I had to go back to get the 'drip'. There's no other pain clinics around here that did this procedure so I stuck with them. They actually called a couple weeks ago saying I missed my appointment. I finally gave them my 2 cents about the lies they told (long story). They took me off their books.. then a nurse called a week later to calm me down with them, and I told her I wouldn't ever use them again. IF I ever needed something like that again, they opened a new pain clinic in the city I actually live in (other one is 1 city over that I work in) so I'd go there. But.. I had crippling back pain until about June of this year (2 months post op). Apparently about 30lbs is all I needed to lose to get rid of the pain!

Hey Angie! A cabin north of Washington DC maybe, if we can pull it together. Sometime in April 08. Join us!

Well, I had the option of getting them when I live in New Mexico, but I freaked out at the thought (they did not do it under anesthesia). When I moved back to Alabama my brother (who also has back problems) was getting back injections at a pain clinic that does it all under anesthesia. I don't know why, exactly.. but that was the only way I was willing to do it. When I woke up, I had injection sites all in my butt CRACK, and along my spine and I would have freaked out if I was awake for all that. Not to mention the first 24 hours after the injections I was in excruciating pain. So.. dunno why, they just did I had my last set of injections March this year, Banded April of this year.. and my back pains are gone enough I do not intend to get anymore!

I do resent that.. how if you cancel an appointment they have a fee, but I've had doctors (same ones who charge fees) call SAME DAY to cancel.

Ya know, when my husband says stuff like this, I remind him of what a man's job is in this little perfect world. And yet, I have to work too??? When you men pull your weight, then maybe you can start telling us what our 'jobs' are :cool: :bored Clothes NEXT to the hamper amaze me too, almost forgot about that.

I like flintstones chewable (NOT flinstones COMPLETE-- these taste BAD). And for calcium I take tums. Tums has a lot of good flavors, I never realized they were calcium (derrr) I always took them for heart burn. The berry flavor mix is my favorite, and my dad has some tropical mix that is good too. The only flavor of tums I never liked was lemon.

These are what I wore (swimdresses) until they came out with more teenager-looking bathing suits that didn't look horrible on plus size (re: one piece suites that had no flattering cuts for bulges).. Find Plus Size Women's Swimwear - Swimsuits For All

This is definitely a celebratory moment for me! My BMI started at 47. 208lbs would make me just overweight. That seems like forever away.

Congrats!!!

Way to go TooBig, you should be very proud

Not to be confused, I hear it said but I don't think people realize.. YOU DO HAVE TO PARTICIPATE. You really do. I am overfilled at the moment, waiting for my unfill. I don't know what proper restriction is suppose to feel like (hopefully MONDAY!!).. but.. at an overfilled stand point, I can't get the 'good foods' to go down. chicken, forget about it. Anything remotely healthy hurts. But chips, Snacks, ice cream? Not a problem. My solution for this, is I don't keep things in the house that would tempt me, because I can't resist temptation at home. Outside of my home, I'm pretty darn good.. but in my walls I get grazey feeling, especially right now when I can't eat right. So if I had them around, I could be eating all kinds of junk food with no problems. So you do have to do something about your eating habits. My solution for now is not to tempt myself. Before I was over-filled, I wasn't craving junk food.. I think I only crave it now since it's all I can get down. But if you have a serious tooth for junk, and you can't tell yourself no, I don't think the band will work well. Have to confront the demons first. That being said, I can't eat fast food anymore (over filled or not). I don't drink cokes (for fear of messing it up.. but again, something you could get around if you wanted to, and thus sabotaging your success). These are big changes for me, we ate fastfood at LEAST once a day pre-banding. And cokes, all day long. No WLS is a sure thing. It takes work. Takes changing your eating lifestyle. I do get hungry a lot, head hunger or what, I still am trying to decide. But when I eat, I can't eat a whole lot.

Exactly. I was carrying 150lbs of extra weight. If I can even get near my goal, scars are so the least of my worries

Patience!!!! I had to wait 2 months for my first fill, and 1 month between each fill. Ends up my port flipped around, so every fill I got did NOT DO ANYTHING (It was not going in). So I was extremely frustrated month to month, knowing I had to wait a whole 30 days to get yet another fill. I didn't get my restriction till Sept. and I was banded in April. I know you're frustrated, but hang in there!!!

Yeah, definitely call and ask. I was much the opposite from you guys.. My insurance won't pay for obesity treatments (so surgery was out of pocket), but they DO pay for shrinks. So they did cover mine. If I didn't get it covered, it was going to be $100 for the psych eval. Can you 'shop around' for a different psych, or do they require you use theirs at $250?

PhotoShop is an expensive graphic program, so unless you remember buying it at the store (or someone else does graphic things on your computer), you likely don't have it. But it's not hard to do it for someone. If you want you can send to wheet or me to fix it up

Very true wheet, but like you said, that applies to all aspects of life, not just the band

I'm not sure how bad you're talking, but I have 1 scar that must have opened, so it pops outward in scar tissue (kind of like a bubble). I still put mederma on all of mine, but truth me told I don't mind all the scars. The only one that bothers me for now is right between my boobs. I am vain about that, I don't want a big port scar between my cleavage! But as for the rest, I don't think much of them. Battle scars! I'm 23, and though I'd love to wear a 2-piece someday, I think the tankini's are very sexy. And they would hide scars. I can live with that.

Hopefully we'll all be in relatively good shape 1 year post-op, so outdoor activities won't be such a pain (for me anyway). But I still like the idea of relaxing!! Extended weekend would work best for me, due to work. Fri-Mon kind of thing?

I just bought some Curves shoes (I didn't know they existed). I was flipping through an Avon catalogue while on smoke break and saw these. I love sandals (HATE SHOES).. wear flip flops year round.. so anyway, saw these and thought I'd give them a try. Maybe would help when I go on my walks.. all tennis shoes I've ever had (even the wide wide wide widths, and special recommended ones, etc.) give me blisters. And this 'supposedly' tones your calves or whatever. AVON- Products I'll let you guys know how it works out

My port ended up flipping backwards so they couldn't get into it.. So they moved it from my belly to my chest (between the boobs) and stitched it with 'extra stitches' hehe.

Congratulations, welcome to the other side! WHEW all the panic and anxiety gone now?

I don't know, I watch my husband do it all the time, and then I wait till he starts walking away and start going off on a rant. We cleaned the house top to bottom this past weekend. On Monday night he remembered he has cinnamon bread, so I'm sitting against the sink (after doing dishes). He pulls out a dish, toasts the bread, puts butter on it (leaves top off).. spilled a thing of butter on the counter. I watch in amazement as he grabs his toast and walks away. Butter top off, and on the counter. Spilled butter on the counter. How is their brain functioning?? A bright sprarkly clean kitchen and he taints it without a thought. He does this with trash a lot too. After I clean the living room, he'll make a mess with trash and then when he's done, he walks away. Takes 2 seconds to pick it up and throw it away!! FEEHHH.