Marimaru

I wouldn't say my bites are eraser sized (unless I know I'm really tight), but they are a heck of a lot smaller than they used to be. My fiance can eat in 3 bites what is normally my entire portion of steak (or chicken or something). It's crazy! coffee upset my stomach a little right after surgery, I think because it wasn't used to have the coffee on an empty stomach. I have no issues with it now (I just added extra milk before).

I was out of town when this was posted, and so just reading it now. My thoughts go to Patty during this tough time.

What on earth makes them decide you are high risk? And what does it mean for you if they decide that? I've been waiting for 2 years for them to open a center near me that has been "around the corner" or "coming soon" each time I asked them in all this time. *sigh*

I've tried to explain it to my sister a number of times, but she just doesn't get it. She asked something about the surgery that implied the bypass (or maybe she was talking about having told one of her friends I had it, I forget) and I said "I didn't have the bypass, I had the band" and she says "It's basically the same thing, right?" *sigh*

The band is designed to work with fills. It's very likely you will not feel restriction and you will feel like you can eat what you always ate until you start getting fills, and it may take you a few to get where you are going.

melted cheese in something like refried beans is good. If you have any restriction at all I wouldn't recommend eating anything where the cheese could just sit in a glob in your stomach. That is miserable and cheese takes forever to go down when it gets stuck!

I don't really drink them. The only time I drink them is if I'm really tight and need *something*, or like right now, where I'm on kind of a forced liquid diet via dental work, lol.

I still feel my port, but it doesn't hurt unless my cat steps on it, or I bump myself directly on it. It's really the place that takes the longest to quit hurting. It'll get better.

Congratulations!!

I didn't find that it tightened my band all that much, but it did completely diminish my appetite for the first couple of weeks. It'd get to be about 3:30 in the afternoon and I'd realize I hadn't eaten anything. On the upside, I'd been in a stall, and dropped 10 lbs that month. If her band is super tight, she might want an unfill, but I would guess that it would kind of loosen up when her body gets used to the drug being there every day. I kind of miss the appetite suppressant thing, lol.

I'm glad you went to the doc and got a quick answer!!

The list isn't quite so bad in the US, but still.. I'm flying on Sunday to Portland (from Cali). Tuesday we come home from Portland, and Wednesday we fly to Mexico. Should be interesting at the very least..

Unjury is the best one I've had. Today I picked one up from Kashi Go-lean that isn't too bad. The only reason I'm on liquid protien though is because of DENTAL work!! lol

Flower, they can fix anything you want fixed Brachioplasty (sp) is the arm one, they have a mini one, where there's a little scar on your underarm, but if you need more work the scar goes almost all the way down to your elbow. The thigh lift (thighplasty??) the scar is on the inside of the thighs, and I think the length varies based on the amount of skin.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14245677/from/RS.3/ The article above is interesting to me, and will probably ring true for most of the people on this site who read it. What I don't understand is that someone paid money to someone else to research it to figure it out. I also don't understand why men are not mentioned in this article. I mentioned it to my mom (who truthfully tries to understand my struggles, but really doesn't) and she says "they don't take things as seriously". *sigh*

Well, I agree with what people have said about talking to your boss. Do you have any kind of decent insurance, or does your mom? For me, if my mom were living with me because she needed care, I'm not sure I could work myself up enough to take her to someplace else, but I would probably try to get her a nurse to be at my house during the day or something. I hope that you are able to find some room for yourself. Like's been said, you need to take care of yourself to be able to take care of anyone else. *hugs*

What's funniest to me, is that my mom said lots of things about my weight growing up and she's the one that sent me that article. I think she sent it thinking about the stuff she knows my dad said, but hers is just as memorable.

From my understanding, it's basically the first half of the DS surgery. Other than that, I haven't heard a whole lot.

I think that he may not think it's quite serious enough that he needed to call you and tell you he was having a medical problem, and he may not have thought the kidney stone issue was going to last as long as it did. Maybe just say "hey, you know I was a little worried about you, gimme a heads up next time". Good luck!

Teresa, did you fill out the form on their website? It didn't take me any time to get a reply back when I filled it out. I paid $11000 2 years ago. Plus airfare and hotel.

Someone mentioned insurance covering a removal if you are admitted through the ER. I know Dr. Billy is in Ventura, and I just found out the other day that in California, insurance companies are supposed to pay 100% of all costs incurred by going to the ER. Evidently our governator is suing a bunch of the insurance companies for charges incurred to their clients when they shouldn't have been. I know you probably don't want to have your band removed, but it's an option if you don't have any others.

The progression of the diet is designed so that the stomach has to do a minimal amount of work while it's healing. Even if you feel fine, and your swelling is gone, the stitches holding your stomach around a portion of the band (to avoid slippage) need to heal into place as well. I've heard stories about people who did not follow their doctors orders and were fine, and I've heard stories about people who did not follow their doctors orders and had to have additional surgery early out because it caused a slip. You could always call your doctor and tell him how you are feeling. I've also heard of doctors who progress their patients on the diet faster, depending on the patient and how they are healing.

Stress gets me too. I went through a time of stress regarding my family and my band just sinched up so tight I actually went and got a small unfill, because it just wasn't letting up. Hopefully, you are able to get your band to relax a little, lol. I have heard of new managers revamping places and bringing their own staff and basically trying to drive out the old staff, but it never occurred to me that the same might happen in a school system. Can you talk to the school board or anything?

It's hard with family. If my father were not my father, he'd never hear from me again, but being my father, I feel I have ties to him and that he deserves a certain amount of contact with me. Since your mom says they care about you and ask about you all the time, is there a chance you could get her to drop a hint the next time they ask about you? "Oh, she's doing fine, but you know, she mentioned something to me the other day that I'd like to talk to you about..."

I've tried talking to my neighbors, and I've called the police on many occassions. I'm in an apartment that was owned by a 'slum lord' who didn't inform us he was filling the place with tenants to sell it. He never did anything about the neighbors that he agreed to do, and then we got a letter that the building had been sold. The new owners where not aware that there were any problems at all. As soon as I have the money for a deposit, I'm outta there. I hope the police do something with your letter. Don't hesitate to call though. There are non-emergency disbatch numbers for stuff like noise complaints, etc.