vinesqueen

I don't know that most of us are self pay. My DH and I were both covered by his insurance. But if we had had to be self pay for his band, we would have done that. Not so sure about me because I wasn't convinced that I was really that fat. (yeah, I know.)

Hi Texas GirlT! Welcome to the great state of Washington!

Zoe, my DH has lost nearly 200 pounds and he doesn't "see" much in the way of a differnece. Oh sure, he is swimming in the clothes he couldn't wear before his Band, but he hasn't internalized the difference. He has 4 pounds before he is in "Tripoli"...

I wanted to ask my son to burb me like I used to burb him!

See, you didn't do what I did and invest in the "Genetic Alchoholic" package. No hangovers, ever. Of course, the downside means that 3 of my 4 sibs have problems drinking... Of course, I'm waiting for bottles of wine to be labled with "A Naturally Fat Free Food! 100% Fat Free!"

I don't weigh myself at all. I just can't stand the disapointment. Just after I was banded I starte to weigh myself every week, after the initial weight dropped, I started to freak out that I wasn't losing any weight. I mean, crying-because-I-had-only-lost-a-pound sort of freaking out. Talk about obsessed. I haven't been on a scale for two weeks. I'm going to guess that I haven't lost a single pound in a month or so. But you know what? I'm okay with that. I have my first fill apointment in two days. (sort of freaked out by that, but that's a different story...) One of the hardest things I had to learn was that the scale lies. They all lie, whether we are talking the BMI scale or the bathroom scale. Delarla suggested throwing the scale off the balcony, and I second that motion.

My younger sister seriously believes she remembers things from before she was born. She will try to correct family stories, with "that is the way it happened, this is how it happened..." I don't know if she realized that she couldn't possibly remember things that happened the way she remembers them. We're talking two years before she was born... But I can remember things from before I was 2 years old. Freaked my sister out when I described our old airplane and some of the things that happened before I turned 18 months old... Because my mother hold "snappies" a.k.a. snapshots in high contemt, there are no pictures of that airplane....

I don't think you do need to believe in the death penalty Lisa. At least in my case, that isn't quite true. I just don't believe in letting things or people suffer. I suppose that has something to do with my belief in reincarnation and that everything has a soul. The case we had with our poor little dog was extreme. Tipper wouldn't let anyone come near me without threatening them, and our very old dog was terrified of him. The lesser of two evils for me was putting him down because he was viscious. (hope I spelled that right. I can't tell the difference between viscious meaning mean as opposed to viscous meaning a thick and oily substance. stupid dysxlea) The greater of the evils would be if I let this poor little dog bite maul a child or another dog. The puppy prozac was not effective for us.

Non-scale victories collected like blue ribbons Part of the journey

oooh, very nice Starbright!

from my DH. "I didn't realize we were playing a game. I thought this was for life."

Thanks for posting this Corliss. I, of course, would miss anyone from our group that decided to leave LBT for any other board...

Yeah, I did briefly go to the site, but I didn't stay very long. I sort of felt they were telling me how to interpret the movie. Heh, almost said "dream." Isn't that interesting. .. .hmmm... Anyway I felt like the website was sort of like that English teacher that tells you that your interpetation of poem is wrong. Hello! It's MY interpretation... Sorry... It's like that seen from "Back to School" with Rodney Dangerfield. He hired Kurt Vonegate to write an essay on the meaning of one of his books. Rodney got an "F" on the paper because the teacher disagreed with what was writen... I think I'll need to watch it again.

This is the quotation I used in my Sig when I was at your stage. It helped me quite a bit. Our doubts are traitors,<o =""></o> And make us lose the good we oft might win By fearing to attempt -- William Shakespeare One thing to keep in mind is that the vast majority of folk who have the surgery have NO PROBLEMS. Support boards can give a skewed view on things because many poeple who don't have any probems never post. I don't konw of any support groups for people who don't need help. And there are lots of folks here who've had simply great experineces with their band. Lots of us. But is isn't very dramatic.

My mother is 70, and she's just too stuborn to die. She's been MO for the vast majority of her adult life. And when she wasn't MO she thought she was MO. Two of her Aunts died a few years back and they were both in their 80's, and both MO. I think you see a lot of MO elders. Does "Plump little old ladies" ring any bells? I see lots of them, but then, I expect to see lots of them. That is my model for old ladies. Granny, the dear sweet owner of Tweety and Sylverster, is no skinny-minny... Of course, I don't see lots of super obese or super super obese elders.... (Those two classes being the ones that follow MO)

About 3 years ago I was one step short of giving my husband an untimatium. One baby step. Get WLS or I leave. I know that probably makes me sound cruel, heartless or at best, very shallow. I'm sure we've all experienced dating someone who gave that ultimatium, or used our weight as a stick to beat us with. The one difference between me and "those" people is, I suppose, a matter of degree. My husband had reached 600 pounds. And being about 400 pounds over weight is quite a differnent matter than being 40 pounds over weight. Not only was his weight causing him all sorts of really bad health issues, it was starting to negatively impact my health, namely depression. It is very hard to function when you are greiving for someone's eminate death. Especially if that process goes on for years. Hamu, You didn't say how big your husband it, other than big. But you know what, that doesn't really matter. This will probably sound hard, but it probably doesn't even matter what you say or want. WLS is intensly personal. It may be that your husband will never have WLS, and that might be hard too once you start losing serious weight and find your energy level outpaces his. I've always been skeptical about using the "I'm doing this for other people" motivation to change things about ourselves. I'm not saying you didn't get the band or the right reasons, that isn't for me (or anyone else) to say differently. But I don't think that if we do something for someone else in an ultuistic manner that we can seriously expect other poeple to act in kind. It would be nice, but I think it ain't gonna happen. So, I suppose that is a long winded way of saying that I don't think your husband will get the band unless and until he decides that he needs the band. He might be motivated in a couple of years to do something after you've been sucessful, but then, he might not. He may simply not think that he's got weight issues that are severe enough. It is hard to watch the people who are in a death spiral. It is doubly hard if we love and cherish those people. After all, who wouldn't push someone out of the way of a speeding truck to save their life? Unfortuantely, we can do nothing for those who like to play in traffic.

Very interesting question Joe. I don't know how much longer I'll live. I haven't really thought about whether it will extend my lifespan. Folks in my family are generally quite long lived, like well into their 90's long. I know that my DH will live longer, before he was banded I didn't expect him to live more than a few years longer. Now I have real hope that he will be along for a good long while.

I've been banded 11 weeks. I love my band. Everyday I am stronger and stronger. Everyday I have more energy than I did the day before. My husband loves his band. He's lost almost 200 pounds and regained his life back.

bumping because it's fun...

Bumping along my journey

well... I suppose that if diets actually worked then .... the band could be cheating. But diets don't work. If they worked we would all be thin and no one would ever need WLS. They think if we had the proper will power we could do it. They think we are weak, but the same sort of mentality keeps people from getting any sort of help that they need. "If you have to ask for help, you don't really need help." Which, of course, is utter nonsence.

Also, if you don't get enough Protein, you body will consume your muscles looking for that protein. Soy is a very good source, as are nuts including peanuts and hazlenuts.

Jody, I would say do the atkins thing only because you know it worked for your before. I don't know the answer to your question Shirly, but lots of people report the same sort of craving. Some think that it is because the artificial sweeteners are sooo sweet that it sets you up for wanting more sweet.

Well, for starters, cook everything you can in cast Iron. The iron from the pans will help you with your iron intake. The cast iron pan is considered by many to have saved many, many women from anemia. Why do you think steak is a bandster no-no? There are no forbidden foods. This is not a diet. We can have enything and everything we can tolarate. Now it may be that your band doesn't tolerate steak... Some people can handle steak, some people can handle ground beef, some cannot. So far I can eat everthing, but my DH cannot do ground beef in any form. Live is very good, but it may be that you need to figure out a different way to prepare it. Pate is made from liver of various types. Perhaps your deli has a good selection? But Pate is very easy to make. you just need to cook the liver with the spices and extras you like, like mushrooms, garlic and/or onion. Run this through a food processor or use something like a highpower mixer like a Kitchen Aid. Hope these suggestions help.

Hey Juju, I haven't lost a bust size yet, but I've lost some size round my bra band. There have been a couple of converstations round this subject. I'll bump a thread, but please do a search on this topic. It will be interesting to see what you come up with