Marimaru

Someone said something similar to me once. I told them about my surgery and they said "Isn't that kind of like cheating?" I said "Who cares?". easy. hard. right. wrong. The key words in the whole thing is "WAY" "OUT". Feel better.

I wonder how doing this makes history? I guess to be the first person who paid for someone's surgery through ebay? I would never have the courage to do anything like that, but if I did, it would be along the lines of an ebay post for a $20 donation or something. I have seen that before, but I've never seen someone flat out ask for that much money. Despiration comes in all forms and flavors, but I think some people go a little far, you know?

I have a decent amount of trouble with bread, much less trouble with cake, though I have to eat it slower for sure.

There must be something in the air, because I'm a big cry baby too!! I was just perscribed welbutrin today for the depression. Post op depression is common for most surgeries, something about the anesthesia or something. Are you on a clear diet now? Could you have chocolate milk or pudding? *hugs*

You look great! THANK YOU so much for the information on the pain! It's very helpful to think about in the future. Keep us posted!

My instructions were 30 minutes to 1 hour after a meal. I try to chugalug right before a meal so that I'm a little waterlogged and not thirsty during. But like Jachut, if want to, I'll have coffee or something shortly after a meal.

I've seen them at the grocery stores near me. They are near the cup o' noodles stuff. I like to add a can of chicken to them, but you have to drain it really well or else it tastes funny. Of course, adding the chicken might not be so great during mushies. I would add extra Water, because those potatoes can get a little dry.

The only thing I recommend is that you make sure you aren't too tightely filled. Maybe get your 2nd fill after you get back or something? Depends on how tight your first fill is n' stuff. Rum cream sounds SO good!!

I think just about everyone here is guilty of doing that. Every now and then I get a chicken sandwich or something, and normally I take the bread off, but sometimes darnit, I want the whole sandwich experience, so I take a big ol' bite, bread and all, and usually end up throwing the rest of it away because I certainly can't eat anything after that!!

My fiancee and I also have our own computers. And like the other ladies here, he only messes with mine when he needs to fix something (although I can fix alot of things myself these days). As for the machine restarting, go to download.com and look up adaware, and make sure you run your antivirus. I run adaware whenever I think of it, and it almost always finds something that should be on my computer. I also recommend AVG antivirus, because it found a number of things on my PC that Norton Antivirus had not found! As for the weight loss, my fiancee couldn't really tell a difference either, but he would never say something like "it didn't work anyway"!!! I hope you gave him a swift kick to the a$$!!

I've hit it a few times. I've remedied that mostly, but I can't keep my cat from stepping on it! She likes to sleep on top of me at night, so she just climbs right on up there. Usually I can sleep through it, but if she steps right on that one spot, my eyes pop open!

I don't really like the board as a 'support' forum, because they aren't very nice to people who aren't doing well with the band, but if you go to obesityhelp.com's Lapband forum, there are a number of people who are at goal and stay on that site.

Michelle, It's hard to go through a whole set of lifestyle changes. I would start with one thing at a time. My first recommendation would be to stop drinking while you eat! That'll push the food through nearly every time (unless you are tight, then it'll back you up, at least, it does that to me). If you aren't washing the food through, it'll sit in your pouch longer and you'll feel full. I'm not gonna give you the whole list of bandster rules here, because I really think you should just start with one, and not drinking while you eat is a biggie. Keep us updated, ok?

How do you get diagnosed with PCOS? And how do they check for the cysts? Thanks!

Hey there! Do you mind if I ask your starting stats? I'm 23, and was banded in July of 04. It's worked alright for me so far. I'm part of the "Slow Losers Club" on this site, but still having lost some, and the fact that I'm not gaining anything (despite a high stress time in my life and severe depression at the moment that I'm going to the doctor for tomorrow) is a good thing to me. I was 280 when I was banded and would easily be over 300 by now and going up. Do you best to get your head ready for the liquid diet. That seems to be a part that lots of people struggle with. Be sure to follow your doctor's rules after surgery, and remember that the time between surgery and your first fill is for HEALING, and TRY not to get upset if you don't lose in that time. Also keep in mind that it can take more than one fill to get the weight loss kick started. Good luck!

It's a bit irritating to me that so many people are having to tell the doctors what to look for, what tests they want run, etc. I'm all for being your advocate, but whatever happened to "doctor knows best"?? All I got from my doctor is "walking isn't good enough exersize to lose weight, you need to do something harder than that", which I've since started doing, but it was like a straight kick to the gut when she told me that. I'm looking for a new doctor now, which is a pain, but geez.

Wow... all those pictures n' stuff..

Hestia also, lol.

Megan, I'm glad that Lulu found such a caring person to spend her last days with. I'm sorry about her loss and the loss of your grandmother.

How much "can" I eat and how much "should" I eat are two different questions with fastly different answers. We *should* be staying around 1200 to 1500. I think I'm around 1500 many days, higher than that other days, but I don't lose weight unless I eat less than 1300 ALL DAYS. boo hoo.

aww, no fair...

Everyone has given you good advice, but the other side of the coin is that 40 lbs since August is a really good loss. The 'average' loss is 1 to 2 lbs per week, or 50 to 100 lbs per year, and it looks like you are well on your way to being in that average. I was one that got banded and decided I didn't want to diet anymore. It's not working out so well for me, but I just can't seem to get into the dieting mindframe. But I'm sure once I get there, I'll start droppin' lbs again...

Must be something in the air. Depression runs rampid in my family. I've been on paxil before, but I don't really want to go on it again. I'd go to my doctor, and she'd probably give me welbutrin, but I'm trying to find a new doctor, because I don't feel my current doctor has interest in anything but running a factory type facility (which is a new thing, she's been my doc for years). I got into an arguement with my mom a couple of weeks ago, and I still cry nearly every time I talk to her, even if it's a happy conversation, the tears just start rolling. I need counceling also, but I hate hate HATE going through the process of finding a good councelor. It's odd though. The first time I went onto Paxil I was just angry, all the time, and the smallest thing set me off. This time, I'm just sad all the time. Let us know what your doc says.

I haven't voted on the poll, because I don't think we should ban the ads, but I think something should be done. One set of commercials for food that I think could make a good model is the Subway ones. They don't give you the nutritional content for their whole menu, but they advertise the ones that are 6g of fat or less, or whatever, and compare them to other foods. I think if it was somehow required to put some form of nutritional information in a commercial, that might be good (did you know the Taco Bell Crunchwrap has 700 some-odd calories?!?!). I think 2 things could happen then; 1: we would know what we were dealing with before we were implanted with the "I want that!" and 2: these restaurants might not advertise the stuff that's REALLY bad for you, because they wouldn't want to say that stuff outloud!! Unfortunately, they'd probably ban the commercials before using my idea, lol.

Crystal, I hope you get to feeling better soon. In the meantime, lots of hugs and white lights from this direction!