Telecia

Well good for you and your mom both!! I had something similar happen when I started telling my family I wanted to have a band my Sister in law is now considering it. And her daughter who had a bypass a few years ago says she had been considering more weight loss surgery cause she can't get any more off. And want's to try a band. Well she has to wait now since she's due in july (her 3rd kid) Good luck on the process and I hope you don't have the pitfalls I had that have kept me from getting mine yet. :thumbup:

I bet they want a representative so that they can possibly prevent this from happening in the future. More then likely they will take the defective band back to figure out why it happened. I would think any company would want to do this since a defective product would open them up to future lawsuits. I hope your repair surgery goes well!

I think it would depend most on why his cholesterol is high. If its because of diet yes it will reduce. If its because of genetics it might not. Excersise is the only thing besides medication that will help with genetic high cholesterol according to my doctor. We had a long talk about cholesterol one day because she had to increase my lipitor from 20mg to 40 despite the fact that have been conciously on a low cholesterol diet of sorts for the last 10+ years. I started to get really upset. Cause we do eat very little fatty foods. She said mine must be more due to genetics then diet and that was why she had to increase my dose. But heck losing weight and getting more excersie will help with all of his health matters in some form, so even if it doesn't handle/reduce the cholesterol he still has other good reasons to do somekind of WLS. I can't blame him for not wanting a bypass the fact they cut up and rearrage internal organs turned me off of it too. lol plus everyone I know personally whos had the bypass have nasty side effects or are gaining their weight back!!

Me when I get diarrhea eating a bannana helps. Since your on liquids ask your doctor about possibly pureeing one a blender with some yogurt and milk to make a thin drink. Everytime I take antibiotics I make a banna shake or eat em whole cause I cant stand plain yogurt. Or try one of the yogurt drinks they have for kids now. I debated getting a pack for my kids to try the other day since my daughter is on depo provera now and has to watch her Calcium intake and those drinks were one of the things her dr recomended. I try to avoid OTC meds for diarrhea sinse they seem to make me super gassy.

Not just teenagers that can be mean the younger ones can be also. my daughters 15 now and gets comments about her weight sometimes from others and they can be devistating/ She always has a snappy comeback but then I get to see how she really feels. Makes me mad. She has more comments though on the fact shes small chested. And says those comments bug her worse then weight related one. But at the same time our own kids can be our biggest cheering section too. And good at reminding us to stay foccused. lol. I find that my 13 year old son is awesome for keeping me on track sometimes.

hehe love/hate. I used to resent mine at times but not anymore. The only time now after 13 years of having it that I have any negative feelings toward it is when the power goes out and I can't sleep! LOL Despite living on the edge of the city our apartment complex seems to get allot of power outs and those momentary flickers that are just enough to mess up clocks, turn off computers etc. Since we do go camping or anything to justify the cost of a battery backup for CPAP. Having one for the maybe 2 hours tops we have no power every couple months isn't worth the $$. Oh yea on the strap marks on the face. I found that if you take a reasonbly thick handtowel. Wet it and heat it up in the microwave and do an old fashoined hotsteam face wrap the marks go away MUCH quicker. I recently changed masks too and that helped imensely as now I don't have to wear the new mask near as tightly as the old. FlexiFit HC407 Nasal CPAP Mask I wish I woulda had this mask 13 years ago!! It is so comfy.

Actually its not caused by obesity but obesity does aggrivate it. Most everone has occasional apneas its just for for most people they don't happen often enough to be of major concern. And many times have no clue that they might have it. Not everyone with apnea snores. It is also possible your not getting enough sleep, our bodies change so what might have worked for you in the past might not work now. I know I sure can't go for long on only 5 hours sleep. As I get older I seem to need more. It could be. But you could also have cronic fatique, thyroid disorder, be missing something in your diet, or any number of other things. Tell your doctor so he/she can do the needed tests. I agree with WestCoastFatGuy: Sleep apnea is a very dangerous disorder. Letting it go untreated not only increases the risks of accidents it also seriously increases your risk of strokes and heart attacks. Sleep deprivation can also cause vicious mood swings, irrationalty, causes memory loss and more. Ok 2 months plus at least 6 weeks till your first fill after surgery and since most people DON'T feel restriction till 4,5,6th fill that could be 32-44 weeks!! Almost a year! BEFORE seeing any major weight loss! If it is sleep apnea and you leave it untreated that long. OMG!! Your better off going to your doctor and find out what it is. My sleep apnea didn't show up till my youngests childs pregnancy. And silly me & my ob/gyn just thought it was being pregnant. (I don't do pregnancy well) This was in 1995 when Sleep Apnea was pretty much unheard of. I suffered through the entire pregnancy not being able to stay awake for more then 15 minutes at a time. And when I had to be transfered 100 miles away for my sons birth(Major complications). And couldn't even stay awake long enough for the doctors to talk over what they had to do to save my sons life. They tested me the same evening my son was born. My sleep test only took 20 minutes before they were waking me up to put a CPAP on. I will forever have major short term memory issues. From 6-9 months of severe oxygen loss to my brain. Cause that is what apnea does. Your blood pressure goes way up, your heart beats harder & faster trying to get more oxygen to your brain. I'm sorry if my post sounds harsh. It scares me that many people seem to take sleep apnea so casually. :thumbup: When it can be just as dangerous and deadly as having a heart attack or stroke. Please get with your doctor and have it checked out.

Yep gotta have the CPAP for sure lol. Nah he has some really off the wall dreams most of the time it seems they aren't good though. He doesn't snore or talk in his sleep I do suspect he might be developing apnea though something I hope he gets tested for soon he isn't having serious symptoms yet. He has a VERY active imagination. We do some table top roleplaying and he is a fantastic GM. I keep trying to get him to put some of his storylines down in print cause I think he could actually sell books but I can't get him to do it. I can't help but wonder if it might be just him remembering dreams more then then people like myself. It's really RARE that I recall dreaming at all. Some nights for him he can remember 2-3 dreams. I know for the most part everyone dreams (As long as they dont have a sleep disorder untreated) that 95% or more of them we don't remember. (So my sleep dr said once). Thats it's a way or our minds taking a break from things. My sleep dr also told me if I really wanted to remember more of them to try relaxation & meditation, and journaling to try and improve what I remembered. But I got enough to worry about at this point my life to do it. Maybe when the kids are all grown. :party:

Well if there not suposed to be any electronics in the bedroom I now know why my BF has really weird dreams! As his computer desk is right beside my bedside table. LOL. Not to mention my CPAP machine, both of our alarm clocks. My BF is like you Kat he has to have it totally Dark, He keeps a t-shirt over the computer case to block the on/off light. Keeps the alarm clock on the dimist setting ALWAYS makes sure all his keyboard lights (caps lock, scroll etc) are off. And till I come to bed tosses one of my pillows on top of my nightstand cause the CPAP has light up buttons. He leaves the computer on at night cause he HAS to have his thunderstom/rain sounds going or he can't sleep!! We tried one of those white noise alarm clocks but the rain/thunderstorm sounded fake. So we just left it in the room for the time. lol. And since we have conflicting routines we typically use all 3 of the alarms. We both tend to stay up all night since he gets home around 11 pm each day. I have to get the kids up at 5am. And I go to bed at 8 am after both are off to school. So one alarm for that on days I *Nap* one alarm for 2-3pm when he gets up for work. then another alarm for the afternoon when I get up when the kids come home. Myself I either dream very rarely or just don't remember them but my poor BF is often having disturbing dreams/nightmares often. I'm seriously considering looking into more pagan/natural/holistic methods of giving him some relief. Which reminds me I'm gonna put a mirror at the head of the bed tonight and see if it helps him any. Poossibly convince him on his next day off to rerange the bedroom. Turning the bed 90 degrees might help too.

I can't remember exactly where I read it but over the years I have read many books on wiccan, feng shui, and other holistic books for having a tranquil living space and some of the things I recall about the bedroom are interesting. One was the bed should placed along the same lines as the home's energy flow. In some homes this is easy to determine especially if you have beams or any other lines visable in the room's ceiling/floor since energy is suposed to flow along the lines of the home/building. And your suposed to place your bed so it does not block or cross the flow. Other tips had to do with north/south and east/west facing. Placing a round mirror over the head of the bed if your having disturbing dreams. Certain herbs etc. for relaxation or to encourage dreaming. How different colors can affect the feel of a room. And not jsut the colors of the walls/furnishings but the colors of the lights are also suposed to have effects too. I do know personally I have in the past had changing the way the bed was facing help with sleep troubles. Exactly why it helped I am not sure. For all I know it could have just been me beliving that the change could help. I wish I hadn't had my my libary of books stolen years ago. So I could read them all again. lol

Ok heres a question for all the quirky sleepers. I find that no matter where in the room the bed is placed I will adjust to sleep facing the door? Like right now I sleep mostly on my right side which faces the bedroom door. But before we moved in to this apartment I slept on my left side which was facing the door. lol. Side of the bed doesn't seem to matter though just which side faces the bedroom door.

I wouldn't risk it. Pools are one of the most notorious places for getting rashes, infections and all sorts of nasty things. And with your incisions healing and the fact that youve recenttly has surgery your more likely to have problems.

Oh lets see. 40 year old mom of 3 kids, 2 boys 13 & 20 and 15 year old girl. Didn't really start having weight problems till I started having kids in 86. Gained 75lbs with my first and it just never came off and stayed off. I left my husband of 13 years in 2000 and have not regretted it in the least. At my higest point I hit 650 lbs suffering from massive depression thanks to my disfunctional marriage and emotional abuse. Once I left him I managed to lose 250 lbs and keep it off for 5 years. Thanks to the help of my loving BF. But then more medical problems crept up and I started have serious issues with mobility and it started crawling upward again. I have sleep apnea, diabetes, high blood pressure and am sick and tired of all the shots, pricking, handsfull of medicines and nothing getting any better health wise. The recent addition of having to see a cardioligist(sp?) and the fact that my PCP refuses to help me deal with my backpain so I can exercise more often, thinks the band is silly etc. So I'm shopping for a new PCP. Anyhow I'm looking at 250-265 lbs to get rid of to get where I want to be. Which might change later on as I get close to it. Will have to see. 250-265 lbs would put me around 165-175 lbs. Hard to imagine after 20+ years of being overweight and 12+yrs of being supersized, What 175 lbs will be like. But I'm ready to get there and see. lol My weight has turned me into somewhat of a hermit. Which is another thing I want to change. I hate it. 2 years ago we chose our apartment complex because it has a weight room, pool and internet center in the complex but the sad part is I am to big for the weight room. =/ I can't make the walk over to the pool and my BF works 6 days a week so I never can get over to the pool. I'm the process of trying to get an electric scooter so I can at least get over to the pool this summer. Again my PCP has refused. I'm also a part time gamer/admin, I run a private game server for my family and close friends, I ADORE doing tons of different crafts, sewing, reading, Right now I'm looking into starting up machine knitting, If I can save up the $$. for the initial starting cost.

call your doctor!! When my appendix went I never had any nausea at all. Just dull constant pain that occasionally got worse for a while then subsided again to the dull pain. After 3 days I went to the Dr who put me in the hospital. A day later I was in surgery to get it removed. The surgeon said If I had of waited one more day it would have ruptured and would have MUCH worse. Better safe then sorry.

a older thread that explains it pretty well http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f17/how-often-do-you-pb-17176/

After thinking about it I guess I do have a couple more *sleeping quirks* This last year I've had to learn to live with diabetic neurapthy(sp?) So while I like to have my sheet I sleep under tucked in it HAS to be lose since my toes already feel so weird as it is I can't handle heavy or tight covers on them. Also I can't wear pajamas, pants, undies of anytype to bed they get twisted and uncomfortable so I mostly wear long lightweight gowns. I also cannot sleep in the nude lol. I had a rule when my kids were younger of never having a locked/closed bedroom door. My daughter sleepwalked and my youngest (jay now 13) had major issues sleeping alone, so since me and my ex still lived together but slept seperatly for the last few years of our relationship Jay slept with me till we moved out in 2000. It was closed and locked while anything was going on but I always got back up and made sure it was unlocked/cracked open afterwards. And the night gown on and BF decent. Now we just keep doing it because of our cat who will rattle the door all night long if we close it. Or howl. lol

Actually most addicts if they do it on their own totally, fail. Yes they have to want it thenselves to begin with but just like all of us who come to this board for support. He has shown you by his seeking your input that he either feels he can't or won't do it on his own. He needs your support. Well he has a good point here though. While most guilds will work with their players on raid scheduals if you get a guild where most of the members are all in the same timezones he maybe the odd one out. And finding a GOOD guild can be hard. Really hard. And you honestly HAVE to be in a guild endgame since after level 60 playing becomes mostly raid focused. And when raiding setting a set time to stop is impossible. But one thing Iv'e noticed is that most of the other players will NOT get angry if real life throws something up last minute that takes a person away. The fact he does try to finish up when you point it out is a good thing. This along with telling him its ok to play when its really not is sending him mixed signals. Which maybe why your not getting the compromise you need? Sounds like he also needs to get over hinting and speak out what he wants. But you also have to realize how many hundreds of thousands of people play games/chat rooms etc. that this DOESN'T happen to. Just like in the real world there are signs that can tell people this could happen. Personally I'd be more worried if he was trolling chatrooms or porn sites. Which mine doesn't thankfully. Besides he(my BF) hasgot MORE exposure to other women seeking men at work then in WoW (or anyother game). And we met in a game to start with, 10 years ago. I would only start worring if he started hiding the screen, chat, vent etc. when you came around. Because most people in the game are there for the game not to hunt for a new BF/GF. There are way better places for that. lol I totally agree!! LOL so true!! I can tell you from experience gamers are USED to the wife or parents being the so called *Bad guy* its part of life in the gaming world. You know Kat that has to be one of the most awesome and true quotes I've heard. Mind if I steal that one. lol I hope you have a nice family weekend away.

Oh gosh I had horribly weak ankles growing up BEFORE I became majorly overweight. So the sprained/strained ankle dance I can do in my sleep. If I had a dollar for everytime a injury/serious pain put me n a walker or on the cane for a while I'd be able to pay for the band for sure. lol. I have this bad habit of curling one leg up on the couch/bed when I sit, and the motion of being on one leg and turning just a bit to sit has torn my knee out of place many times. Enough I don't sit like that anymore untill my butt is down first. A bought of planar factitis(sp?) once that took a year to cure. For a few years I had massive hip joint pain. Medication got rid of that. But here lately its been my feet. More specificly the heel of my right foot. Getting out of the van one day I steped on some snow that was up against the curb and something in my heel went SNAP! Excruciating pain, bad enough it called for a trip to the ER. 5 x-rays later they sent me home with pain pills and crutches. No break, no bone spurs etc to cause the pain. They couldnt say why I couldn't walk. I find I can't wear any of my shoes or it starts hurting again. I'm stuck for now wearing my BF's summer sandels of all things till I get into the podiatrist. Bleh And at the end of the day feels like the soles of my feet are bulging outwards? What's with that. They don't feel that way when I wake. Yet another dilema the podiatrist will have to figure out. I'm looking forward to NOT having as many issues as I get my band and start losing weight.

Being a gamer myself and a sometimes widow also I know where your coming from. I stoped playing retail WoW a while back because of the intense push everyone gets from guilds to do constant raiding. Being a mom of 3 and responsible for all the care and maintence of the household I couldn't afford to spend 6 + hours a evening for a raid where I MIGHT have had a chance to get a new piece of gear. Half that time spent waiting around to get teams filled, for other guild members to finish this or that. then 3-4 hours of just the raid. Heck with that. One: I don't have the attention span to sit and wait 2-3 hours before a raid starts. Two: the constant pressure of the guild members to do the same old raids 5-7 nights a week get OLD fast. Three: my kids getting fed, homework help etc. are more important. I guess in a way I'm lucky as my BF had never gotten a character on retail wow above 50 lol. He kept deleting characters and making new ones. We moved to private free servers and he has lost 85% of his obsession now with WoW. Cause on many free servers is insanely easy to level up fast and get bored with the raid grind. Sorry I'm rambling lol. Thing is I agree with many of the other posters he is sending you signals that he NEEDS you to set your foot down. Part of him realizes theres a problem or else he wouldn't offer to get off the game. It sounds like time to make some harder rules. Set Nights for the long raids. They can be insanely long I know. But he needs limited to 2-3 nights a week or so. Guilds usually have preset raid days. Try using this to your advantage. Get a timer!! and set rules for non-raid nights. If he absolutely has to play each evening then use the timer. He can do his daily's in a hour or so. Or work on a lower character. Make a day offlimits!! For me my biggest rule is family functions come first!!! I don't care what raid is planned there is ALWAYS someone that will take his place if needed. As long as your not pulling out last minute. He knows that on holidays, a family members birthday, important school function etc. comes first. I even got one of those huge desk top calenders that hangs right beside his head we keep appointments etc on. I've been involved in online gaming for 8-9 years now and its not uncommon to have fellow guildies with set rules Ive seen them in WoW ultima online, anarchy online etc. It's gotta be a comprimise though, work at it till its something you can both live with. Counceling is a great idea. If you can get him to go. But If he's anything like my BF you can take away WoW and he will just do the same with another game, online or not. Putting a clock above his monitor so he can't use the excuse he didn't know the time :thumbup: and setting the alarm on the clock to signal his end of gaming time has helped alot. It's not perfect and I still get annoyed with him sometimes and I make sure to tell him so. But its nowhere near as bad as it was.

I frequently sleep without any covers at all, but since diabetes my feet get cold easily so sometimes I will cover just my feet, only to kick it off shortly after. But I'm like green I ALWAYS Have a fan running even in dead of winter. No open window though since we are in a ground floor apartment. But my BF loves to snuggle also and most of the time I can't take it cause its to darn hot! lol. I don't do the cool pillow thing but he does!! He also has a pair of leather like blinders that are fuzzy on the inside. He wears them inside out cause he likes the COOL feeling of the leather against his skin. And does the cool pillow thing. also or did till recently when we had to replace his poor dead 39+ year old pillow. He complains the new one doesn't get cool feeling like his old one but it had degraded so bad after 30+ years of use it was like sac of potatoes. he also has the one foot out of the covers like 90% of the time too.

Wow congrats on the college!! Thats something I'd like to do, after getting a good protion of weight off and improve my mobility. I also am 40 and due to letting severe sleep apnea going untreated 13 years ago my short-term memory is shot. I dunno if I should try for more education or not.

Ask yourself this? Would you rather have to have a fill every 4-6 weeks (till your sweet spot), after that occasional fill/unfills sometimes with MONTHS/years in between. ..Or have 2-4 shots daily for insulin? ..Prick your finger 2-4 times a day for blood testing. ..Fight down a fist full of medicines every day. ..<insert any # diseases cause by or agrivated due to weight> Like most anything else fills hurting will depends on you, your doctor. I've read on here people who's doctors numb you beforehand, some don't. It just varies, sometimes greatly. Theres a section on the forum for fills you can get a good idea about them from.

yes they can stretch the stomach back out. But also after a few years the body (apparently, according to my aunts dr.) starts to make up for the shortened intestines allowing bypass patients to absorb more of their food. And since part of how the bypass works (bypassing most of the intestinal track) is the food not remaining in your intestines long enough to absorb it. The body works out ways to try and fix it. I know for both my aunts (bypasses in the early 90's) & step mom (had bypass in 85) they were NEVER told they had to change their diets really just avoid sugar, all 3 of them gained their weight back.. my uncle had his stomach banded (NOT like todays band, wasn't a fillable band and put in a different area.) somehow busted his and had to have that fixed so then they fixed it actually removed 3/4ths of his stomach(stapling). Which I gather ended up being stretched out after a couple of years. Missinformation and not being told to change their diet was the case I think for my aunts, mom, uncle really. WLS surgery was new and no one in the US had long term success/failures when they all had it done. My cousin had a bypass 4-5 years and she did ok but never totally got all her weight off but was trying to fight regaining. She and I were talking over the different WLS options a few months ago and she said she was thinking of a band now but turned up pregnant and has now put that on hold. Another advantage and reason It seems that banders keep it off longer is the whole PB/slime issue. As long as you stay on your fills and keep your band in the right area for you, you pretty much HAVE to adjust how you eat (slowing down, smaller bites etc. ) Or you will be miserable.

oh man if I didn't let my BF be there he would shoot me lol. Not really but heck Anytime I've even been in the ER he HAS to be there. And honestly I wouldn't want it any other way. He tends to be a HUGE help noticing things I don't and asking more questions then me,(he can always think of tons more question then I can) and should I need help going to the bathroom or something I would much rather have him then a stranger. lol Besides I have learned that when I do send him home he can't sleep, barely eats. And is overall unhappy.

Pretty much what I'm going through now. only one doc in the office agrees on the surgery and she left!! but my insurance company says if my cardioligst(sp?) will agree then we can do it. I go see him on monday. Its been annoying and its been 6 months on this already fighting with the docs to get this approved. my insurance once its approved the surgery HAS to happen in 30 days after that so once the process gets past this stall it should go fast. It all depends on your insurance company how fast the process is. Some go fast some don't.. Good luck with it !! :thumbup: Constipation, bah since I've changed my eating habits in preperation for being banded for the first time in my life constipation has been an issue. But I refuse to take more meds (15 is enough!) Have you tried apple or prune juices? or dried prunes? 3-4 dried prunes does the trick for me. As for scars I had my apendix out in 2002 with laproscopic surgery and the only scar I can see is the 2-3 inch one at the top of my stomach and my BF can't find it even. LOL it looks just like a strech mark now. But of course I know its there. So I imagine it just depends on how well scars normally heal for you.