claramae

I have been banded just 1 week today. I too have a wicked taste in my mouth especially in the morning. It helps when I brush my teeth to also brush my tongue. I gag and gag, but it seems to help.

Candle---Congrats on the gift certificate for house cleaning. It will make you feel so good to know you have clean sheets and you did not have to put them on yourself. I am much better today. How are you.

Texas Becky--I am much better from the melt down. I guess we are all due one. Who would blame us. Anyway, today I am going to town and buy myself something; not clothes!!! Oh, I have lost 14.6 pounds. Thanks for your words of encouragement.

Thanks Shelli---Let me know what the dr. says. I am going to go to town(I live 13 miles from shopping areas) and buy myself something. Not clothes however. However, this is my problem about getting dressed. My port in middle of chest area. What about my bra right now? I guess I could find an oversize shirt and go braless. What a sight that will be!!! We will talk later.

I know God is testing me. But my family should let him do it on his own. They are really trying to take over His job. I finally got DH under control. Bless his heart. Now darling daughter has stepped up to the plate. My youngest daughter, Jennifer 35, is an alcholic. She has never admitted to her drinking problem. I will not go into all the very hurtful things she has said to me, that she does not even remember. Anyway, the school where she teaches at gave her a choice; resign or be fired. If they fired her, she would loose her teachers certificate. She resigned. She informed us of this latest saga in her messed up life on Sunday. I have not heard from her yet and this is Tuesday morning. She has been so "out of the loop", she says she never was told I was having lap band. When my other daughter, Paula called her and told her I had my surgery and I was fine, she said "What surgery???" My other daughter is a mental health worker----THANK YOU GOD. I am sure she wants to change her phone number. No just kidding. She is very, very supportative. The good news I have is that I have lost 14.6 pounds.

I know God is testing me. But my family should let him do it on his own. They are really trying to take over His job. I finally got DH under control. Bless his heart. Now darling daughter has stepped up to the plate. My youngest daughter, Jennifer 35, is an alcholic. She has never admitted to her drinking problem. I will not go into all the very hurtful things she has said to me, that she does not even remember. Anyway, the school where she teaches at gave her a choice; resign or be fired. If they fired her, she would loose her teachers certificate. She resigned. She informed us of this latest saga in her messed up life on Sunday. I have not heard from her yet and this is Tuesday morning. She has been so "out of the loop", she says she never was told I was having lap band. When my other daughter, Paula called her and told her I had my surgery and I was fine, she said "What surgery???" My other daughter is a mental health worker----THANK YOU GOD. I am sure she wants to change her phone number. No just kidding. She is very, very supportative. The good news I have is that I have lost 14.6 pounds.

Candle, sorry I have been missing for a few days. Of course my Monday day surgery, wasn't so day surgery after all. I came home on Friday. For those of you that do not know me, my name is Clara. Can you believe my band slipped right off the bat. Could not pass the barium swallow at all. By Wednesday, I was in surgery for 2.5 hours. But everything is great now. I stepped on scales and I have lost 14.6 pounds. My daughter is giving me a real test of my will power now. I do not want this to kill this wonderful thread, but she is an alcholic. She is a teacher, pre school kids. She was asked to resign. She is now refusing to answer her phone and talk to me. I will be at her house Wednesday if I do not talk to her before then. Anyway, back to the true test. Usually when I stress like that, the first thing I reach for is a Diet Coke. Well, I sure wanted one!!!!! But of course i resisted. Everyone sounds like they survived our 27th date together. Candle and Shelli, I promise to be more present and concentrate on this instead of my daughter who wants no help.

I cannot take a bite of food without hubbie standing over me; "you're eating too fast";" I hope that is the right consistency"';"that is not what the information says you should be doing". WTF AM SUPPOSED TO DO. If he could, I would be eating from an eye dropper. This is what I have had today. 1/2 c of coffee over 30 minutes time; it was way too cold by the time I got to the "good to the last drop". Had such a small amount of chicken broth, it was bearely visiable in the bowl. I wish I had some of those little pill cups they use in the hospital to put my rations in. If my sister in laws call one more time and ask; Is she hungry??? What did she eat today??? You mean she had a drop of chicken broth and a spoon of jello and she is not hungry??? I had my band on the 27th. The day surgery turned out to be 4 days and 4 nights in the hospital. They had to repair a hytial hernia. It was as big as the grand canyon, but then of course big girls do not have henias the size of a leak in a bike tire. We go for the grand canyon. My doctor said if he had hollered into it, there would have been an echo. Well, excuse me. Because of the trama of the grand canyon getting repaired, the swelling caused my band to slip. And this was DAY 1. Nothing would go past the band. DAY 2 they tried to get past the band twice and nothing. We are stuck. Well by this point, I am pucking up the most funky stuff that has ever been inside a human being. DAY THREE ; 2.5 hours of surgery to find out WTF is going on. When I woke, I felt like I had been hit by an 18 wheeler. DAY FOUR; I go down for a barium swallow test and God Almight, I hit a grand slam home run. Everything is moving right along. HOWEVER, because of the trama, I must spend the night in the hospital once more. DAY FIVE; Nurse comes in and tells me that my potassium is too low and they cannot let me go home once more. I looked Nurse Ratchet in the eye and I said "Like Hell. Whatever you are going to give me, I will take it at home." Two hours later, Nurse Ratchet informs me that they were successful in bringing up my levels. If I had the strength, I would dance. So, then i was sitting there waiting for hubby to arrive and my dand gum IV starts beeping. I call Nurse Ratchet. She informs me she will be right in. After 15 minutes of waiting and listening to the beep, beep, beep, I get up, unplug the IV from the wall and start down the hall, all the time pushing this beeping IV pole and trying my best to hold the open in the back gown across my big #$%. Oh, did I add that I was bawling. The nurses are sitting at my destination writting in charts, IGNORING ME!!!! Finally one of them come up to me and says "May I Help you???". She fixes the problem and I return to my ward. Fifteen minutes, the IV starts beeping again. I buzz for the nurse and they assured me they would be right in. Fifteen minutes passes. I get up, unplugg the IV again and disconect it from my arm. I take the beeping IV and set it in the hallway and close the door. So, I guess I told them who was the boss. When hubby got there, he went to see the director of nursing and she came up to see me. After she left my room, hubby went to the nursing station for a cup of coffee and he told me the director had the nurses in an office, and she was waving her arms so much, she looked like a line judge at the Super Bowl. So, is it any wonder I had a nuclear fusion. I hope when I get to be 130 pounds, this will be funny.:help:

I cannot take a bite of food without hubbie standing over me; "you're eating too fast";" I hope that is the right consistency"';"that is not what the information says you should be doing". WTF AM SUPPOSED TO DO. If he could, I would be eating from an eye dropper. This is what I have had today. 1/2 c of coffee over 30 minutes time; it was way too cold by the time I got to the "good to the last drop". Had such a small amount of chicken broth, it was bearely visiable in the bowl. I wish I had some of those little pill cups they use in the hospital to put my rations in. If my sister in laws call one more time and ask; Is she hungry??? What did she eat today??? You mean she had a drop of chicken broth and a spoon of Jello and she is not hungry??? I had my band on the 27th. The day surgery turned out to be 4 days and 4 nights in the hospital. They had to repair a hytial hernia. It was as big as the grand canyon, but then of course big girls do not have henias the size of a leak in a bike tire. We go for the grand canyon. My doctor said if he had hollered into it, there would have been an echo. Well, excuse me. Because of the trama of the grand canyon getting repaired, the swelling caused my band to slip. And this was DAY 1. Nothing would go past the band. DAY 2 they tried to get past the band twice and nothing. We are stuck. Well by this point, I am pucking up the most funky stuff that has ever been inside a human being. DAY THREE ; 2.5 hours of surgery to find out WTF is going on. When I woke, I felt like I had been hit by an 18 wheeler. DAY FOUR; I go down for a barium swallow test and God Almight, I hit a grand slam home run. Everything is moving right along. HOWEVER, because of the trama, I must spend the night in the hospital once more. DAY FIVE; Nurse comes in and tells me that my potassium is too low and they cannot let me go home once more. I looked Nurse Ratchet in the eye and I said "Like Hell. Whatever you are going to give me, I will take it at home." Two hours later, Nurse Ratchet informs me that they were successful in bringing up my levels. If I had the strength, I would dance. So, then i was sitting there waiting for hubby to arrive and my dand gum IV starts beeping. I call Nurse Ratchet. She informs me she will be right in. After 15 minutes of waiting and listening to the beep, beep, beep, I get up, unplug the IV from the wall and start down the hall, all the time pushing this beeping IV pole and trying my best to hold the open in the back gown across my big #$%. Oh, did I add that I was bawling. The nurses are sitting at my destination writting in charts, IGNORING ME!!!! Finally one of them come up to me and says "May I Help you???". She fixes the problem and I return to my ward. Fifteen minutes, the IV starts beeping again. I buzz for the nurse and they assured me they would be right in. Fifteen minutes passes. I get up, unplugg the IV again and disconect it from my arm. I take the beeping IV and set it in the hallway and close the door. So, I guess I told them who was the boss. When hubby got there, he went to see the director of nursing and she came up to see me. After she left my room, hubby went to the nursing station for a cup of coffee and he told me the director had the nurses in an office, and she was waving her arms so much, she looked like a line judge at the Super Bowl. So, is it any wonder I had a nuclear fusion. I hope when I get to be 130 pounds, this will be funny. LinkBacks Enabled by vBSEO 3.0.0 _uacct = "UA-1855937-1";urchinTracker();

We have to find humor where we can. Who ever thought I would be laughing about this. When he told me I was taking too big bites, I WAS USING A BABY SPOON. Since my meltdown, he has backed off alot. I told him that i would be the first to know if I was eating too fast, taking too big of a bite. And oh, how, just how can I take a big bite of watered down cream of wheat. Anyway, we seem to have chilled for now. Now, our daughter has thrown a crisis at us. So cream of wheat is no longer the issue!!!! Thanks for the encouragement.

Do not give up on the insurance. I was denied and appealed the decision. I was ready to be a self pay(not happy about it). I went to the hospital the Thursday before my Monday surgery for lab work, etc. I told girl in business office that I was self pay. She told me to go finish my lab work and stop by. She would call the insurance company. Can you believe I was apporved the day before!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No one in any of my doctors offices said they can believe it. To get approved after disapproval. So, hang in there and keep pushing, pushing, pushing them. Good luck.

Now that made me laugh. I will send him on the hunt of those tiny,tiny eating utentials tomorrow. Then while he is gone(for hours and hours) I can have a meal in piece)

I am so proud of you. Your daughter is cute was a speckled puppy

I had my surgery on the 27th. They had to do a very large h. hernia repair. The doctor said the hernia was a large, they could holler in there and it would echo!!! I had the berium swallow test about 2 hours after surgery and OMG, nothing would go down past the band. They thought it was from the swelling from the trama of the hernia repair. So, I spent a very miserable night in the hospital. Next day, they repeated the berium swallow; still nothing would go past the band. They repeated the test about 5 hours later and still nothing. You cannot imagine the agony both physical and mental I was going through. At that point I was vomiting some very FUNKY stuff. So, another night in the hospital. At 10:30 that evening the nurse finally called the dr. and told him that something was very, very wrong. So, they scheduled me for another surgery. My mental angony could not even be explained. I was in surgery 2.5 hours on Wednesday. But the good news in all of this, is the next morning when I had the berium swallow test, I hit a grand slam home run. Everything was moving great. Then the bad news. Because I had been through so much in such a short amount of time, they wanted me in the hospital one more night. The next morning, they came in and informed me that I would probably would not get to go home because my potassium count was too low. I looked the nurse in the eye and said "The hell I will". Anyway, they were able to get it up to an acceptable level and I went home at 1 p.m. Friday. So, from Monday to Friday and this was supposed t be day surgery. I apologize for this rambling message. Everyone let me know how they are doing. I am going to go rest now. I will feel better tomorow and we can chat more than. Talk later,

Ragdoll--That is horrible about your boss. We both live in the DFW area. Sounds like you work for the same horrible boss I did. I worked(now retired) for the electric company. Is that where u work---lol. I wish you had just slimed on her. That would really teach a lesson.

I really do not know what I would do without all you wonderful people. We are all total strangers, spread all over this great earth. All the way from my little town in Texas to Austrial, England, Long Island. I never knew I had so many friends. My true friends throw a victory party when I fart!!!!! That is love:kiss2: I am always happy to hear from anyone and get new information. However, there is one person that was banded on the same day as myself. At one of my lowest points yesterday, I signed on and saw a message from her. I actually cried!!!! I need help!!!!!!:heh: So, thanks so much for all the letters of encouragement and all your own cases of personal struggle. I do not feel alone. Love you all

OMG!!! Thanks for the heads up. That is one of my greatest fears!!!!

I made the mistake of telling everyone within hearing distance. Big mistake. My sisters in law want to know: how much do you want to loose? I am so thrilled you are doing this; I was glad to hear her say this, but over and over and over again and again and again. I thought, "Good grief. I must be a blimp the whole family is talking about". Then they say "you mean she had 3 drops of broth and 4 spoons of jello and she is full". Leave me the f#$% alone!!! This is your life and only you and you alone can decide that is best for you. Hang in there and you will know what to do.

Nicnaknut--I have learned that if we do not laugh at ourselves, we would cry our eyes out. Yes, I guess reading back, it kind of funny. However, that is totally out of character for me to act like that. I am usually a push over and never ever push the envelope. But when you push a big hungry gal in the corner, this is what you get. I appreciate your words of encouragement. Tomorrow is a new day. God only knows what he will throw our way, but with His help, we will get through it. Talk later,

Jack--If I was not so sore I would dance like that. But I am afraid if I move too much, the band would slide down into the Grand Canyon.

LadyBug--where would we be with sister in laws. When did you have your surgery? Physically, I feel fine. Not even as sore as I was yesterday. I hope you feel better soon.

I made the mistake of telling everyone in my family. I am retired, so do not have to worry about co-workers; just family. My sisters-in law are so "into my business", I should have know better. I finally fired off an email to them . They kept asking: "What is she eating", "How much", "you mean she had a spoon of Jello and a drop of broth and she is full". And the kicker, "how much does she want to loose". I told them, they would know when they see it with their very own eyes. So my advise; the less that know, the better. Good luck on your surgery.

Candle---thanks for the advise and the encouragement. That is a good idea about the little deli cups for dressing. We will get them. I just went and got some Water. I have to be reminded about that. I know hubby is doing the best he can. He tends to "mother hen" me to death. I know my meltdown was just an accumlation of the past week. I tend to let things build up and then POW---it all comes out. How are you doing. I was thinking about you during the week. I think it is amazing that total strangers can form a bond that is so strong and we understand everything the other is going through. Thanks for being there. Tomorrow is another day. I think I will try to get out of house. I was a recluse today. Talk later, hugs, hugs, hugs

Read in my Journal(it is under ClaraMae's journal). I have had a meltdown and I do not have the strength to retype it. Any advise will be appreciated.

I had the foot pumps. They were very annoying. Everytime I had to go to bathroom. I felt like I was strapped to the bed. They told me it was to avoid blood clots. Well, whatever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!