RedTulips3

Why would one of the dietitians be pessimistic? What is there to be pessimistic about? It seems like you are a reasonable candidate for surgery. Is that dietitian specifically for bariatric patients or just a regular dietitian? I know how you feel about waiting and just wanted to do it already. It's a long process sometimes, but I definitely think it's going to be worth it in the end. I have had my Jan 9 surgery date since August. 5 months is a long time! But guess what? Time flew and now I'm less than 3 weeks away and I am so happy I had these few months to read up on the lapband and do more research. I feel much more prepared than if I were to have done it a month after my consultation. Think of the time you will have to wait as a period to get yourself more educated about this life altering surgery. Since August, I come almost daily to Lapbandtalk(LBT) and just read as much as I can. I realized how much I didn't know about the band. I suppose "Patience is a virtue". Though I've also heard people say, "Patience is a virtue.......that I don't have"! I try to stick with the original saying! Everything will come in its time!

I was thinking the exact same thing 4jin. That's why I want that name to win because it's very "versatile". I like "Drop the W8 in 08" but that's more a slogan someone can put in their sig line as opposed to a group name. That could apply to any month of 08.

UPDATE Name.......Chall. Start Wt....Current......Chall. Goal...........To Go RedTulips3.............260...................252 ................250.......................2

I guess I'll be the first to post in the January 08 group! Welcome all January Bandsters! I am scheduled to have surgery January 9. What a great way to start off the new year! A new year, a new beginning! Now that New Year's resolution to get healthy, lose weight and keep it off will actually be possible!

The only people who know about my surgery are my siblings and parents. I am not planning on telling my friends just yet. I don't know if I ever will or not. I would hope that my friendships will remain, regardless of my weight. I have been losing weight the past couple months in preparation for surgery and I have gotten nothing but support and well wishes from my friends and I hope that will continue. The majority of my friends are not overweight, and if they are, they aren't as big as I am and it's not as serious. I do have a few who are though. It will be interesting to see how those relationships play out when I lose a lot more weight. Will I tell them about it, will I not? Will they become jealous? I just found out that one of those extremely overweight friends of mine who had gastric bypass a few months ago. I am very happy for her and wish her all the best. I haven't told her that I'm getting the band and I wonder if I will ever tell her.

The class that you have phowell sounds great. I would love to have that. I was required to meet with the nutritionist once to go over post-op diet for the first month or so and I'm supposed to go back to her 4 weeks post-op. I also had to go to the monthly support group meeting once. I liked it so much I went back a second time. I am going to try to go post-op. The reason I say "try" is that I am a full time college student and while I don't live terribly far from where the meetings take place, it's a bit of an inconvenience to have to do it. We'll see what happens. Besides being far, another drawback is that the meeting is not exclusively for lapband patients, it's all of the doc's patients. It seems that either my doc does more gastric bypasses or that they are the ones that come to the meetings more. While we share some things with bypass patients, there are some very clear differences in the experience so I would have liked to see more lapband people at the meetings I went to. Sorry, not understanding your abbreviation "h&p"? I'm going for pre-admission testing tomorrow(today) morning. I have my PCP medical clearance appointment later in the day also. Next week is my final consultation with my doc before surgery. Psych eval clearance is on it's way to the doc's office and that will be it! All I'll have to do then is show up the morning of surgery at the hospital. Good luck with the next 2 weeks. Hopefully they won't be too long!

I'm not gonna lie... I want January Jewels to win. I'm guessing it probably won't get the male votes because it is a bit feminine. I just like the whole alliteration thing and the "JJs" abbreviation and such. We'll have to see what the results are at 8:46pm on Dec. 26 though.

Congrats Kawanabear! Since my doc doesn't have a pre-op class, what actually goes on at the class? I'm guessing it's a review of how things are going to be starting from day 1 post-op on and the changes that are going to take place with eating and such. Is this at all what it is?

Welcome Ang! Congrats on your tentative date. Hopefully that will be the set date for surgery! Add yourself to the http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f112/january-surgery-dates-45858/ list. Glad to have you join us!!

Kudos to you WOWOX, gingerbug and Chrisann for making it through the the first couple days of your pre-op diet! You can do it! Keep it up!

I'm no help either. I didn't realize that when you make a poll that you put an ending date on it. I guess we'll just leave it or we could make another poll, but that might be too confusing. Ask a Moderator if there's a way to "edit" your poll.

It seems that it has become a tradition for each month to give their group a name. There are those who are for it and those that could care less about it There has also been some contention because of a recent month's choice of name. Personally, I think by naming our month that it gives us more unity. Although we can feel united under "Jan. 08 Bandsters", it's nice to have unique name for our month. With that being said, does anyone have any suggestions for naming our month? Hopefully we will be able to agree on a name that won't be problematic for anyone. Once we have a bunch of suggestions, I suppose we can post a poll and vote on it that way unless we can agree without it.

Here's an updated list as of now. It's inevitable that different lists get copied and pasted. I put the real names in parentheses for those who also wrote them along with their username. Dec 31- Chrisann (honorary member of the Jan 08 bandsters) Jan 1- HAPPY NEW YEARS! Starting the year off right! Jan 2- phowell, Megmarie21, Gingerbug(Victoria) Jan 3-WOWOX7, Woodsy Jan 4- KUgirl, steviegene Jan 5 Jan 6 Jan 7- CallmeJim, comepickmeup, NukeChik, mamato3, kintime, Shell Jan 8 - Fat&thrifty(and husband) Jan 9 – Redtulips3, FLMan Jan 10- luvsrocks, Hilary, Jen25bl, jtag10_4 Jan 11- brez1015 Jan 12 Jan 13 Jan 14- CoreynVA, acalpn, srbanker(Suzanne) Jan 15 Jan 16 Kathy-CA Jan 17- SJK, Alfie, L.A., lwood Jan 18- RuthE? Jan 19 Jan 20 Jan 21- Jan 22 Jan 23- min Jan 24 Jan 25 Jan 26 Jan 27 Jan 28- Jan 29 Jan 30 - PortuguesePrincess(Stephanie),Amberwaves(Amber) Jan 31

Welcome Gingerbug to the Jan 08 bandsters!

I think we should give the poll a few more days after the 26th because people are pretty busy with holiday preparations and celebrations. Maybe make it through the 30th? What do you think?

I love Raspberry Ice and Cherry Pomegranate. Just be careful though, they stain like mad if you get it on your clothing or your fingers. Makes you wonder what it's doing to your insides... I also like the Wild Strawberry Energy. Warning though, it contains caffeine, hence the "energy". I tried the Blueberry White Tea and I thought it was absolutely horrible, but that's just my opinion.

Congrats on making it through your first day of the pre-op liquid diet Chrisann! All I can say is, Thank goodness I don't have any type of pre-op diet

Bob Harper is great! I'm a major Biggest Loser fan. But please...no spoilers about the finale show. I didn't have time to watch it yet and it's waiting on my Tivo for me. I'm so excited to see who wins and and see all the contestants' "transformations" as they like to call it. I don't know if I will join this challenge because it's only 3 weeks til my surgery and I have a lot going on from now until then. I have been exercising though, which is a good thing.

Here are the dates that people have posted thus far. Copy and paste the MOST RECENT post, and add your name to the surgery date list! If a mistake was made or your date changed, please correct it! Dec 31- Chrisann (honorary member of the Jan 08 bandsters) Jan 1- HAPPY NEW YEARS! Starting the year off right! Jan 2- phowell, Megmarie21 Jan 3-WOWOX7, Woodsy Jan 4- KUgirl Jan 5 Jan 6 Jan 7- CallmeJim, comepickmeup, NukeChik, mamato3, kintime, Shell Jan 8 Jan 9 – Redtulips3, FLMan Jan 10- luvsrocks, Hilary, Jen25bl, jtag10_4 Jan 11- brez1015 Jan 12 Jan 13 Jan 14- CoreynVA, acalpn Jan 15 Jan 16 Kathy-CA Jan 17- SJK, Alfie, L.A., lwood Jan 18- RuthE? Jan 19 Jan 20 Jan 21- Jan 22 Jan 23- min Jan 24 Jan 25 Jan 26 Jan 27 Jan 28- Jan 29 Jan 30 - Stephanie/PortuguesePrincess, Amberwaves/Amber Jan 31 Seems like Jan 7 is a busy busy day!

I'm staying local too. Doc's office is 15 min away and hospital is 25 min. away. It's very convenient.

I'm obsessed! I love seeing my ticker on the screen and changing the number every week! My routine every Friday morning: wake up, weigh myself, go to the comp and update my weight on the ticker, my profile and on the weight chart on fitday.com It's an amazing motivator!

ignore the fact that the link says "trying to conceive" There are a bunch of different types of tickers on the main website and you can choose weight loss.

Claire, One of the sites for making a ticker is Trying To Conceive Ticker You could also click on a member's ticker and it will take you to their ticker and there you can click a thing that says "Create your own ticker" and make one that way. Good luck!

You're at the boards pretty early! I'm being banded in Jan 08 and I came to Lapbandtalk in August and there wasn't even a forum created yet for Jan 08. Finally it was created and by November, people started showing up. A lot of people find their way here a month or two before surgery so more people will be joining you in January and February. Until then, read, read, and read. The more educated we are before banding, the better off we'll be. Good Luck!

SMR, Either date, welcome to LBT(Lapbandtalk) and the Jan 08 Bandsters!