Daisalana

Luckily anesthesia doesn't make me sick. For the main surgery, I woke up in a lot of pain and kept buzzing the nurses for demarol (some people get morphine drips, I wasn't so lucky). The whole day I was in and out of sleep. For this 2nd surgery, I woke up to my husband and mom, and I remember wanting to go home, but for the life of me I could not stay awake. They woke me up several times in 3 hours, till I finally told myself GET UP. So I did, but waiting for the nurse, I kept closing my eyes and dozing off. Just lots of sleepiness. And sore throat from the tube I guess.

I'd definitely do it again. Long term, this should save me money. I was having to get cortisone back injections for back problems due to weight.. But it's not about the money to me, it's about my weight and my health. It was worth every penny, I just wish the hospital wasn't full of idiots. I wish my doctor would come to my local hospital where people are competent. You should save money on meds if you're on them for anything weight related. More importantly, you can get rid of medical problems that are weight related

I was told anesthesia was included, somehow the hospital jerked me around and took more money.. I tried to fight it, but they said it took longer than they expected (but according to the doctor it didn't). They thought my port was leaking, so I had port revision surgery last Friday.. ends up it wasn't leaking, it had just completely flipped backward. So they moved it and stitched it somewhere else.. they said they'll reimburse me the $596, but of course wouldn't do it while we were there.. so now I'm waiting to see if they reimburse me, and what they're going to charge for anesthesia (they couldn't pre-determine the cost this time). And yea, I spend more money on my 'special' foods now. I buy more fruits & veggies, which go bad quickly, so have to rebuy more. 'Back in the day' (hehe) I went el cheapo.. lots of frozen stuff, fast food dollar menus, etc.

I discovered something I really liked to eat yesterday! I've never had canned chicken.. sounded pretty gross. But we went to Wal-greens and I wanted something I could fix quickly for lunch.. I use to like canned tuna, but some reason it nauseates me now. So, canned chicken it is! Said its 2.5 servings in a can, 50c per serving, and 10g of protein per serving! 110c for the whole thing, and 25g of protein. Wowee! Then I realized Miracle Whip has a lot less calories than Mayonaise (we keep both), so I put a small squirt of MW and a squirt of relish.. mixed it up. I was nervous.. it looked like tuna.. felt like tuna.. even smelled like tuna.. I thought oh boy, this is gonna be nasty. But then first bite-- YUM! It was sooo good, and it went down fine. It's my new favorite food, I'm going grocery shopping tonight and stocking up on a cabinet of these. Perfect for lunch. It's about 200 calories total (a bit less)for the salad I make. Even though it's breast meat, its very moist and chewy like tuna/dark meat chicken.

Yesterday I had.. B- Frappuccino & Curves Chocolate Peanut Granola Bar L- Canned chicken mixed with mayo & relish for chicken salad D- Thinly sliced turkey deli meat (sliming episode.) Lots of Water, 42g protein test tube, and a 90 calorie granola bites for a snack.

I haven't saved any money yet. Self-Pay pre-op consultation: $100 Self-Pay Surgery (everything included): $15,000 Anesthesia billing me more even though it wasn't agreed on: $300 --- Self-Pay Port Revision: $1,500 Pre-pay port replacement: $596 (I'm told I'll get this back) Anesthesia bill: $TBD I still have to buy same amount of groceries, so my DH can eat what he wants.. and then I get my own special things.. SF puddings, grits, oatmeal, etc. A good thing about that, is my food lasts a bit longer if it's something he won't eat (like any SF items). I still cook normal sized meals, we just have left-overs. And we're wishy washy with left overs, he won't eat them and I will only eat them 1/3 times. I'm spending money on buying new clothes once a month. I keep buying nutritional/protein/supplement etc. stuff, trying to find one I like.. then throwing them away. I don't think I'm technically saving money anywhere.. yet. Maybe one day when I get to where I'm going :rose:

Get mashed potatos & gravy, get a little bit of solid.. Eat some potatos (or stuffing, or any other mushy food), then stir your plate up after you've picked at it.. then put the napkin on top. If someone cares to make a comment, say you're getting over the flu.. or you just ate at another x-mas party.

Flintstones.. 1 in the morning, 1 at night!

Oh and right before surgery I got some Whey Protein powders from GNC.. One was suppose to be tasteless.. but it clumped and made my soups nasty.. the other was vanilla egg protein or something.. and I mixed small amounts with expresso and ice in a blender. It was 'tolerable', but I definitely didn't want to drink it all the time.

I tried Elite Butter Toffee.. It was very foamy from shaking (maybe that was my problem).. it was horrible. It was like drinking baby formula. I've had Matrix Cookie & Cream... tried to force myself to finish the cup, but I couldn't. Slim Fast chocolate aren't too bad to me, if I can drink it before it unchills. A girl at work does Carnation Instant breakfast, so I've tried those, not a fan. I don't like the overly creamy sweet taste in all of these things. It doesn't seem natural and it sets off my gagging reflexes. I wanted to try some nectars, they're on my list of things to do.

Exactly. And the 2 times I blindly bought off of recommendations (the bulk 5lb jugs or whatever), they were horrible and in the trash they went. When I hear people mention something good, I go to google and look for samples. 90% of the time I can't find any, and I'm not willing to pay for the big jugs again. But that website, like I said.. had samples of Nectar and Elite (I think thats the name), so I got a few of both to try. I thought from the picture (silly me) it was going to be 1 serving size in a little sample size jug. We should get that organized!

DH pain went away after he took magnesium citrate.. so he said he's not going back unless it hurts again, and if so, he's going to a real doctor. I forgot the update on my sister though. It's like an episode of House. She had a cat scan today.. They discovered she had a urinary infection last week, a 'symptom' of whatever 'it' is. They put her on antibiotics number 4. Today they revealed she has pnemonia in BOTH lungs. Another 'symptom'.. so they took her off some antibiotics, put her on some other ones.. told her to take those 10 days, then go back to the other ones.. And friday she is having an ultrasound. They are finding problems in all parts of her body everytime they do tests, but they don't know what is causing everything. The worst part (besides not knowing).. is my sister is bi-polar.. she was crazy suicidal, and a severe 'cutter' for years.. about 1.5 years ago, she finally was able to go off her crazy meds, she leveled out, and was doing alright. Due to all this going on, she's back into a depression, she's started cutting again.. and she's talking suicidal-ly. My mom is making her go back to her psychiatrist, but ironically its the same place I've been trying to get an appt. with.. so they won't let her come in until next month at the earliest. My mom is trying to get her to move back home until she's better.. she's started having ceisures at night. It's just so bizarre, and if you watch House this is right up his alley!! Unfortunately, real life doctors aren't so quick to figure out the problem.

Haha.. I was around when a friend threw up on a guy's penis.. she was very drunk and it was nasty throw up.. She got a nickname for the rest of the school year for that, though I don't even remember what it was!! The first time I had sex with my husband was on a hotel bathroom's floor, in the middle of a party. That was pretty fun.. We had been dating for a while, and went to this party.. we got drunk, and with a line to this bathroom.. we go in together, fell on the floor, blah blah.. and then fell asleep. I remember when we woke up, everyone was mad they couldn't get to the bathroom.. but it makes for a fun story after the fact. People are normally surprised to know, I met my husband in Las Vegas.. we were both out there seperately, but met, hit it off, then found out we lived 1 hour away from each other 'back home'. Small people don't scare me, but their hands gross me out. I'm a hand fetish person, that's one of the first things I look at on people. And small people have yucky hands :rose: Hm.. what else can I confess to.. I was arrested for 'running away from home' the night I lost my virginity. We thought that would be a funny story to tell the grandkids one day.. but of course, we broke up. I wet the bed till I was 12 years old.. they treated me like a lab rat.. I remember them pinching my scary places as a kid because I was tired of tests, I refused to pee.. so they 'made' me pee. I would cry at night thinking 'one day I won't be able to sleep with my husband because I'll pee all over him!'. Those night time diapers didn't fit me, cause I'm so big.. so I wore depends at the ripe age of 6.. I guess I'll stop confessions for now.. it's bed time!

www.enjoyhealth.com And after re-evaluating, I think they must be an out-of-home business. So someone buying the actual products, then pouring them in zip-loc bags and re-selling. $18 lesson there.. I'm normally good at picking out places, I guess I was too excited to find I could pick just a few different things in SMALL sizes to try them...I find this unbelievably hard to do.

I've not liked the taste of Water.. ever.. since banding, I've made an effort to drink it a lot, and it HAS grown on me.. but certain times of day, I do not want water.. I grew up with Crystal Light pink lemonade, I never realized it was 'diet'.. so I like that one.. the fruit punch is too sweet IMO.. and the tea one.. bleh.. I LOVE the grape & fruit punch sugar-free kool aid. Because I'm not crafty, I never tried mixing my own artificial sweeteners. Well, let me break it down this way--- How many Dr. Peppers did you drink in a day? I drank about 6-12 Mt. Dew cans in a day. On the CHEAP side, I'll say they're 50 cents a can. That's $3-6 a day. 5 packets of kool-aid is $2.75.. 1 packet=2 quarts 2 quarts= (about 6 glasses for me) So cost of 1 kool aid drink= $.09 Still saving money :rose: And I've also tried the sugar-free hawaiian punch drink mix.. I didn't particularly like it, but my G'ma who is diabetic says she likes it.

I agree with that.. I was going to keep that to myself, since more people seem to like fish around here than I do.. But chewing the rolls doesn't taste quite as good as it use to when you have to keep it in the mouth so long..

Ohhhh I'm having the WORST slime ever. At first I thought it was like I'm gettin sick and had flem all backed up, but soon realized it was sliming! Wasn't too hungry and didn't feel like cooking, so was looking in the fridge for something high protein low cal.. DH keeps lunch meats for sammiches, so I took a couple ounces of thin sliced turkey meat.. Ate it slow, chewed chewed.. by the 5th bite, it felt weird.. kinda hurt.. so I stopped eating. Then I started feeling like my throat was full of flem.. tried to get it out, wasn't working.. watched some tv, then felt the urge to "spit up"..so went to trash can, and up it came. Along with slime.. and the slime isn't stopping! I've been spitting into a cup for a while, never had it last thing long. UGH! But it's weird, then I remember months ago reading a thread about deli meat getting stuck if its that processed stuff. I don't understand why.. and this stuff didn't look like the processed stuff. In any case, this is such a weird feeling.. all this gunk in my throat :rose:

Maybe I'm just paranoid.. BUT.. you ladies who posted your cell, may want to go back and edit.. Kat sent the list :rose: Anyone and their momma (and crazy uncle stalker) can see your number here. Just tryin to look out for my sistahs!

Do a search on the forums for 'bandster hell'. After the swelling from surgery goes down.. you don't have anything restricting you. Then it takes 1(if you're lucky)-1237234 fills to get you to proper restriction. I heard a good 'average' number for your sweet spot is 3 fills. Patience grasshoppers

Hehe, that's true. My husband was just the opposite, he doesn't like fat girls, but somehow we ended up together. I think he's oblivious, cause he'll still point out fat people and make comments to me, like I'm not standing there beside him with 100lb+ excess weight. When our doctor talked about the statistics of couples he's done surgery on, and their divorce rate, he asked if we had any issues.. I said no, and my husband said no. Later on, I was joking with him and said "So, you're not afraid I'll leave you for someone else when I'm all skinny?" and he said something about if that was my plan, I may as well do it now. That was that. I guess I'm lucky in the sense that he doesn't get jealous of me, no matter how flirty I am. He knows where I butter my bread!

I'm more scared of going to my gyno than getting fills. The needle poking is easy as pie, it hurts when they pushed on my port (which might be since it was flipped). And I've been jabbed multiple times, each time. As for fills, it seems to be common that the first fill doesn't do very much in the way of what you can eat. Since my first 4 fills didn't 'really' fill me up, when they revised my port and he filled me while I was under, he put 1cc (which is 'aggressive'-for him), and I have to say I feel like I'm at a great restriction. liquids go down with NO problem. I'm intolerant of breads at the moment.. and I can only eat 1/4c of food at once (finally!). I'm really happy to finally get to this point. I don't miss being able to eat a lot, I've been struggling to find this restriction for months.

Yeah but what if they find out in 40 years, the presence of somethign on your stomach like that, rubbing against your stomach for 30 years kills the nerves in your stomach and makes it where you can no longer feel full. Just another random example. We can't know what they may find out in the 'long term'. That's just a risk I was willing to take!

I was going to try out for that uhm.. Biggest Loser. I wasn't going to tell them I had lap-band and just WOW everyone. Haha.. I wouldn't really want to be on TV, but it was a thought. Since technically there are people who don't lose weight with the band.. because YOU have to utilize it.. and the people in charge don't care.. then it doesn't matter.

Every fill from my doc, I was begging him to just FILL IT UP! We butted heads on it. He was doing .5cc at a time, and I felt nothing. This 4th time, he said he was putting a whole cc in there, since I kept complaining. They couldn't get it in. So long story short, they do contrast, realized my port was flipped backwards, and all this time he couldn't believe I didn't feel restriction, I didn't believe he was putting that much in there.. it was never going in there to begin with!! So they revised it Friday and he said he filled it while I was under.. and I feel it! FINALLY.. I was in bandster hell from April-last week.

Terri, I texted you like an hour ago! Says you haven't looked at it yet. That's not going to be good motivation