Daisalana

I was just going to suggest Care Credit. That's how I paid for a lot of expensive dental work I needed a few years ago. As for family, my parents said NO to RNY years ago, and though I didn't *have* to have their approval, I wanted it. So I dismissed RNY.. and I kept gaining weight, and this year I said ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. I am DOING it. So I researched.. and found the band. And the band made me more happy with my decision, because RNY scared me as much as it scared them.. but something had to be done. When I went to present the information to them, they had recently seen a Dateline or 20/20 program on the lap-band, and were gung ho about it. That was just lucky on my part. My insurance policy won't cover it, but I was able to get help from my parents after I changed from RNY to Lap-Band. Maybe try to find a program, or a PBS special (I know there was one), on tape for them to watch, so they can be educated. I was preparing a big speech with facts and statistics, and where I WAS going (I was pre-diabetic, had ruptured disks, back problems that crippled me in early 20's etc.. all due to being overweight).. I ended up not needing it due to them watching that tv show.. but I was going to be prepared to sway them my direction! Good luck to you

Women's polos tend to have shorter sleeves too. I know how you feel, our company does an employee appreciation thing once a year, and being in sales, we're the ones appreciating everyone else, so we have to wear the custom shirt for the year as we serve them bbq.. and someone I barely even know that works in the back comes around to ask me my shirt size, and I always go around and around with him, telling him not to worry about it, I'll find my own shirt, etc.. which looks even worse, like they won't find a shirt to fit me!!! I always get 3 or 4x (mens) just so its big and baggy on me.. and that way if I got a 2x, it wouldn't look tight and then he'd think 'Wow, a 2x doesn't even fit!' So no one ever knows my real size. I'm a head case, right ?

I use the IDS New Whey Protein 'shots'. They are Whey Protein, which is the good protein...They are the 42g. They do taste nasty, I would never drink them on ice or mixed in something else. But, I can drink 1/2 of it in one gulp, and I chase it with water. I do this twice a day. These are my protein miracles! I can't stand shakes. I get grape & orange.. fruit punch was particularly aweful to me, it left horrible after tastes.

Well the options are this.. Don't follow the diet, and risk being cut from breastbone to pubes. If you don't shrink down your liver, you may not be able to do it laproscopically, because those little rods can't hold up super huge livers.. and if you're overweight (and drinking alcohol doesn't help), your liver is a biggun. Or.. go these 2 weeks, and be strong.. shrink that liver, and just have a few small scars. Not to mention, being opened up all the way also makes healing time a LOT longer, and the surgery quite a bit more invasive, with risks of infection, etc. That's how I gave up all the yummy good foods I wanted. I didn't have to do liquid until the last 3 days, but I had to do No sugar, No Fried, No Salt for a month.

Hope that doesn't scare you! I was shocked by the pain I was in, most people say it wasn't a big deal.. My surgeon might have just been extra rough on me

I didn't get a morphine pump, so I woke up in excruciating pain. But, I did buzz the nurses every couple minutes to make sure they came and shot me up with some demerol. One night nurse gave me a tip.. if he shot it in my leg, instead of my IV it would last longer. Otherwise it seemed to wear off every 30 minutes. I don't know about actually numbing it, I don't think they do that in surgery?? But, they severed some sort of nerves, there's a 4"x6" patch of skin below my port scar, that I still can't feel (surgery was in April).

Terri- On myplate, it was saying 'generic' colby jack cubes 1"x1" were 90 70-120 calories for ONE. The ones I have, they're about .5"x.5", but it says 7 is 1 ounce.. When I did Atkins, I ate a pound of bacon at once, cheese covered EVERYTHING.. I ate fat worse than any other time in my life... and still rapidly lost weight, sounds easy right? My best friend who did Atkins with me, found that doing no-carb didn't work for her, she had to do no-carb AND low-fat.. (Without a band mind you).. I hated eating at her house for dinner, or cooking for her when she came over.. Grilled chicken with ff sour cream. Booooo. And like I said, I count calories.. not carbs.. and I do try to go for low-fat in cooking stuff. But lf and ff cheese cheese (like cheddar, colby, swiss) tastes weird to me.. I'd rather get my 110 calories of cheese that I enjoy! I use skim milk for everything now, lf or ff sour cream, etc.. I don't notice any taste difference in those.

Unless my doctor didn't put the lap-band in, and I'm some sort of test study on tricking the brain into thinking it had surgery by leaving all these nasty scars... I don't think the band is a con

1 ounce = 28.3495231 grams Found this using google, so 7 cubes is roughly 1 ounce

I'm not sure how many ounces they are, 7 cubes is 30g.

Calories in Sargento - Sargento Colby-Jack Cubes Snacks

mdrai- (It's michelle isn't it??) WOW ON THE ELLEPTICAL!!!! I do walk-away the pounds 1 mile (I need to start doing 2 mile regularly, I hate being so lazy!!).. and I try the elliptical once in a blue moon, I swear that thing HATES me. I still can't even go 3 minutes. 25 minutes, that's like.. a miracle to me!!! LOL

Good morning Violets! I don't wear my WWJD bracelet (it's just a hair too small.. I have big bones!!! no.. REALLY!!) So it's hanging in my office next to my computer desk :car: Since I spend most of my waking life at work, it reminds me not to go to the snack machine I've complained before the band even that our snack machine has horrible choices. Even the 'food' one, only has hamburgers, hot dogs, etc. All fat fat fat. I'm eating oatmeal for b'fast.. and my coffee. I brought some Sargento's colby jack cheese cubes (which I normally put in my salad) for lunch, 4 ritz, and 5 strawberries (currently frozen). I was adding them to my MyPlate.. and the colby jack cheese, it was saying 110C per CUBE. NO WAY!!!.. I packed about 6 for lunch, and on my salad I normally have 4-5. So I started fretting..and I looked it up by brand. WHEW. For Sargento's brand, 7 cubes are 110 calories. So someone either put in a whole lot of other brands wrong, or there's some colby jack cheese squares out there waiting to make people fat. Anyone else see Luciano Paverotti(spspspspsp) died today? :car: I have a lot of his CD's and live performances on DVD.. His voice is beautiful.. I'll miss his new releases! Oh, I did the appendix test on DH last night after reading your post Kat..He groaned and moaned being in the position with feet on the floor, then I told him to pull his feet up to the bed, he did it with lots of moaning and groaning-- but he could do it??? Then I pushed on his belly all over, asking if it hurt 'here' or 'here'.. it was middle to right side that hurt, but not his left.. so then I started thinking uh oh it could be appendicitis. So today I'm making him go to the clinic, he wanted to come into work and do some morning stuff first.. Wonder how much it's going to cost for surgery if he has to have it??? Do you remember Kat? We have insurance, but there's still co-pays and what not. I might have to cancel my poker tournament this weekend if we find out he needs something done. Hope everyone has a WONDERFUL day. I've been up since the crack of 7 so I'm wide awake and ready for the day!

I have been anxious (overly I'm sure) to get the restriction going and being on my merry little way to skinny. First fill, I told him to fill the sucker up! I promised if he over filled, I would drive back down, don't worry about it, etc.. he gave me the 1.5cc. I expected a miracle.. No change, read about how it can take a week or so to 'kick in', so I gave it the fair chance.. never came. I called and the doctor doesn't like to fill more than once in a 4 week period.. feh. So I go back in July, I had lost some saline, and it was right before my wedding. I asked him to please just fill it up!! He said he didn't want me to be sick for my wedding.. I told him, really... just FILL IT! Well, he didn't.. I started to feel the little bit of restriction in the mornings and late at night. It's a start.. but I knew it wasn't enough because during the day I could eat more than I needed to. And I don't always have the will power to make myself stop when it feels like I have no band. I go back in August.. told him, my restriction is not enough, again PLEASE just fill it. Well he poked in there, and some CC's drained out (I don't remember the amount, he had poked around 7-10 times and different amounts each time). So I had to get fleuro fill done, and he let some other doctor I've never met do it (who worked at the hospital). He filled me, and I said, so how much is it now? He said 2cc.. well 2cc is what I had last time I was filled. And it's been a couple weeks and now I feel RIGHT BACK TO THE BEGINNING. I don't have any restriction, and I'm getting extremely frustrated and helpless. I keep saying please fill me up, and he doesn't, and I feel like it's wasting my time right now in the bandster hell for this many months. I really just needed to rant, but does anyone have suggestions on how I can get the message across so I can get a more aggressive fill? Or a way to deal with this time period? I'm thinking of getting the legal speed pills (Ephedra stuff) just to deal with the hunger until I get a good fill. :think

I use to live there, I now live in Huntsville, AL (About 1.5 hours south of) The Andrew Jackson Home.. The Hermitage is real touristy The Hermitage - Home of President Andrew Jackson - Home Cumberland Science Museum is neat too.. I haven't been since I was a kid, so maybe I just remember it from a different perspective. Nashville zoo.. The Parthenon Oprymills (mall).. use to be a theme park, then they turned it into a HUGE outlet mall.. I liked going there a lot, and they have the Rainforest Cafe which has fun ambiance!

Hah! So crazies, why is it when its that OOMTOM do I feel the need to binge eat?!?!?!?!?!? All day I've had to hide my money jar so I didn't run to the snack machine. And since it's OOMTOM... it's 3/4 weeks a month. ARGH!

Ok I did some googling, found a psychiatrist center near my house (I think my sister use to go there).. After a lengthy phone call, I'm now in their system, but they can't take any new patients until Oct. 29!!!! That's WAY far away, gah. Can't believe a psychiatric place makes patients wait that long, obviously we call cause we need some help. Oh well..

Ok, my psychological exam back pre-op, told me I would do good to follow up with someone locally to figure out my eating patterns (I eat emotionally, etc.) I have anxiety in general anyway, so I am afraid to go to people like this.. but I decided, my insurance pays for it, and I pay a lot for insurance, it would be worth checking out!! Now, I don't know the difference.. who can prescribe meds if I need them? Psychologist or Psychiatrist or ???? I went to someone when I lived in New Mexico, for one session. It was like a homeopathic thing, and I'm cynical. I talked to her, she said I sound depressed and wanted me to come 3x a week for cleansing or some silly thing. So after someone lets me know, which one is an actual DOCTOR.. then how do you find one that can specialize in eating disorders (of the OVEReating persuasion of course). Do you just call and ask? I'm getting anxious and nervous just thinking about this! I don't want someone judging me for why I eat

So Jennifur, does this mean he has no job that they can deduct it from? Maybe I missed you explaining that part..

AND.. not exactly like Livin, but if I do drink right after eating (its rare), it is not a comfortable feeling. I can tell my stoma has some food sitting in it, and the liquid doesn't go through.. then it feels like it's pushing things.. So, drinking while eating isn't as 'fun' as it use to be either!

*technically* I think cereal is a no-no, if you're following protein-first rule. On the other hand, I do have cereal occasionally.. and I use 1/4th the milk I use to.. I just just enough milk to get everything glossy, and maybe 1/2 tbsp is left over in the bottom, and I don't drink it. My doctor said don't drink 30m before eating, or 1 hour after eating..

Noted to add, think it's some kind of vengence for not agreeing with him that RNY is better, which is why he's being so stubborn on filling me up!

My doctor had the RNY himself, and was really a huge fan of it. In my group meeting, I was the only one there interested in lap-band.. and he kept going on and on about how he thinks RNY is better. But I chose lap-band, and he supported me on it.. He said he would rather give his daughter RNY than lap-band. I asked him point blank, why? And his theory was that lap-band is adding a foreign object to your body, which is risky, yadda yadda. But my brain says.. yeah but at least my insides aren't mutilated and deformed.. Said lap-band can be removed, you can't undo all that butchering If you WANT the lap-band, find a doctor who will support that decision.

Your thread title was alarming LOL! Congrats

Chris- I know there's a few couples banded together, there's a lady in our monthly support group (Shrinking Violets) whose husband was banded about a month after her. They sound like they are doing great! She's our mascot and she is always gone now.. they're on vacation all the time!