Marimaru

I am one of the people who "claims" to get tighter when I fly. Whenever I fly, I'm usually tighter than normal for the rest of the day. If it's a night time flight, the same thing still happens. I would not get an unfill for the holiday, unless you were generally too tight. If you have trouble eating, just tell your son your stomach is a little unsettled.

I don't think coffee is going to make a difference for you for the rest of the day. There are other people around here that don't have issues with any particular foods, and just eat until they are satisfied, and it's an appropriate amount, and that's what their band does for them. I believe that Jachut is one of them. Warm liquids don't make that much of a difference for me. Some days I can eat breakfast, other days even if I have coffee, I have to wait.

I haven't had throat surgery or any issues from it, but even though your band doctor says it's not your band, maybe you should ask him to take the Fluid out until whatever this is gets resolved. Also, if having the fluid out of your band helped when you had the endoscopy, then I would say signs do point to it being the band. I know the last time I was at the doctor's, it was for an unfill and when he had me do the barium swallow, he said he thought it looked pretty open to him, but I had some taken out anyway, because I was having issues with solid foods as well.

If the doctor 'sloppily' stapled you up, I would say you need to find a doctor to make sure that you aren't going to have issues from that, before you worry about getting banded. It's also a red flag to me that this doctor hasn't shown you the respect of coming to see you after she's done this to you. I think she definitely needs to be prepared to make arrangements for any issues you may have as a result of her mistake. I'm a little surprised that she'd want to put you under and open you up a week after this incident. It sounds like your diaphragm is going to need some time to heal. Nothing says you can't get banded by another doctor if you are uncomfortable with this one. If you have a gut feeling, I'd go with that.

Other people don't do this, but what works for ME to not eat things I shouldn't, is to count calories. I also watch protein, but mostly calories. If I have to add it to fitday and see the calories add up, it'll help me avoid it.

When you get closer to losing 1 lb per week you could start asking your doc about a fill. I wouldn't necessarily wait until you are a full plateau, but definitely I would hold off for now. Congratulations!

They say bad things happen in 3's and you're at an even 9... hopefully that holds you off for a while. Though I have to wonder whether the visit from the in-laws really counts as only 1. I can't even imagine how you must be feeling right now with all of that going on. *hugs*

From what I've read, the area done for the regular bikini is actually the worst part of the whole thing, typically the very top. I dunno. I have a few weeks to grow out enough to be waxed anyway, heh.

I count calories. That helps me not eat junk that I don't need, and helps me evaluate whether I'm really hungry. If I am, I have a yogurt or something. Also, if I'm not hungry, I make myself find something to do. I like to sketch, so even if I'm not feeling "inspired" I'll pick up one of my reference books and at least sketch something from that. Or go take a bath and read a book with a glass of iced tea. That's another thing. If I KNOW it's head hunger, I'll grab a glass of iced tea and drink that before I even consider getting food. Usually by the time I've finished it and get another one, I'm not really thinking about Snacks anymore. Most of this is at home stuff. For at work, I just don't bring crap to the office so it's not there.

If what you ate was half a burger and some fries, I'd say that now ALL of your restriction is gone, you know? I mean how much could you REALLY eat without restriction?? But talk to your doctor about it when you go back. Chances are it's not a big deal and a little fill will help, but be sure to bring it up.

I've considered this a few times but always chickened out before it came time to even make an appointment. Thinking about it again now tho...

30 lbs in 6 months isn't bad at all, and it'll be 60 lbs in a year if you keep going at your current rate.

You should probably count your calories and your protein for what you are eating and see where it lies. 4oz of food 3 times a day doesn't sound like a whole lot, and I imagine you're lacking in a good number of nutrients.

I think the big thing is what you told you aunt, being able to keep the weight off at the end. That was a big one for me too. Yes, I'd do it again.

Regarding HR, if they are ignoring your requests, start going up the management line and get people to stir things up and find out why you are being ignored. Even if you don't end up with a raise, you definitely deserve the respect of an answer.

I want to get to 140 and decide what to do from there. That's a 23 bmi, and gives me a little room to go up and down as I want. When my mom and my sisters and my DH start giving me the "you're getting too skinny" line, I'll really look at myself, because they're all very honest about my weight and my sisters have had their own weight struggles recently that they are attuned to. I figure if I bounce between 145 and 155 forever (except when preggers, heh) I'll be pretty satisfied.

You said "and felt like I could have eaten more." The question then is "But were you hungry after the sammy?" (And how are those, by the way?). There's a big difference between being full and not being hungry anymore. It's a real head struggle for me at least.

When people type online (in a chat window, or on a forum) as if they were texting with their phone, it drives me up the wall. I work in the software industry, so we actually do conferences over online chat clients, and it seems incredibly unprofessional to me for someone to type "u" instead of "you" etc. But I hate it just as much when my friends do it, heh.

I don't set time limits on my mini goals for the most part. I hit long plateaus with or without giving myself time limits, so it's hard for me to control that, and I feel like a failure if I miss a goal like that. I have lots of mini goals, but they don't have time limits. I did gain a little over the holidays so I'm actually about 10 lbs from my 195 I have listed in my sig. So I need to get back to that, and then my next mini goal is 180, which is 100lbs total lost. While I'd like to be at my 180 goal by my Birthday at the end of March, I'm not setting a "Deadline".

I haven't had slim people say it to me in person. My little sister wanted to have the balloon one done, but she wasn't all that heavy to begin with, and my mom made a deal with her that if she quit smoking, she'd pay for it. Well, my sister didn't quit smoking until she got pregnant, so it never happened, and she's already lost all her pregnancy weight by herself. She was serious about losing the weight (by "weight" we're talking 20 lbs here), but she never needed any surgical help. I have to admit when I first got banded, I really scoffed the lower BMI bandsters, 30~ BMI's and such. I never once said anything to them, and I'm very glad I never did. I'm closing in on that 30 BMI, and I can see where they are coming from. It's 50 lbs from where I am to be at the top end of "normal" as far as BMI goes, but if someone could have told me what I was going to go through when I weighed 200 on the way up, I would have wanted to have something like this done. As far as my little sister goes, we've had long conversations about how we each feel about our bodies. She has felt as bad about her 150lb body as I ever did about my 280lb body, and that has given me a little more understanding into why someone who's <30 lbs more over weight might be talking about surgery. They don't see them self the way everyone else does.

I was also on depo for about 7 years, but weight gain is a big side effect with it, so I decided to switch after being banded. I'm on Yasmin now and haven't had any side effects.

LOL! My husband has the.. uh.. sense to leave the room first when I'm hanging out with him. I don't think it's ever been so bad that opening a window for a couple minutes wouldn't fix it.

Along with agreeing that you should find another doctor, I also think that you should compare what you *can* eat with whether or you are hungry. For a lot of people the band helps with hunger, even without restriction portions "forcefully". Hope that makes sense.

You should probably go on liquids for a few days. If you've been throwing up that much your stomach is probably pretty angry with you. Once you give it a few days to calm down, start with soft foods, and small bites and work your way from there.

My understanding of anatomy says it's basically a little below the base of your breastbone. Like if you push in a little right at the bottom of the bone, you'd be poking the right area. Anyone, feel free to correct me.