JustWatchMe

You can do it. I left my 23 year marriage last summer. I was alone long before that emotionally. We are reborn with WLS and I look forward to many good years ahead, alone or not.

Woo hoo! Way to go!!

I needed the confidence to leave my emotionally and financially abusive marriage. Ironically, I can thank the NSETBEx (not soon enough to be ex) for WLS as the solution. He is obese, and knew three men who had recently had three different surgeries. His boss (RNY), his cousin (sleeve) and a coworker (LapBand). He would come home and ridicule them to me, and make fun of their trials and tribulations. Oh, it was so funny that J with RNY crapped his pants at work. Oh, sure, M lost a hundred pounds with his band, but now he's not losing anymore and eats a full Subway sandwich every day and sometimes fries. D doesn't walk with a cane anymore after his sleeve surgery, but he still looks like an old man with all his hanging skin. Those fools. Ha ha ha. Little did he know that this was all causing me to look into surgery, since his excellent union insurance covered these surgeries, and I was oh so ready to make a permanent change. I was over 300 pounds and miserable and having trouble breathing at night. I didn't ask anybody's permission. I checked into the surgery in September, had the LapBand in March, and left him in July. A year later the divorce is still creeping forward. Creeping. Ha. My divorce is creeping forward and my LapBand fills are creeping toward the green. All thanks to the creep. Anyway, I never looked back. Best series of decisions I ever made in my life.

I just had my eighth fill this past week. I am at 7.90 in my 14 band. We have added 0.1 at the last several fills because it is that close. I don't want to overshoot and regret it.

We are odd creatures, we humans.

Catherine's has them and they are easy to wear and use the restroom in. I feel naked without mine now which makes outdoor activities in August a little unsettling.

This is wonderful news. I'm so happy for you! May you have continued joy. Yippee!!!!!

For me it is circular and ever-changing. I HAD to put the fork down before I could make needed emotional and mental changes in my life. Once I did, my health began to improve. This improved my mood. This helped me begin exercise. This improved my mood. Etc., etc.

Good luck Friday. It will change your life.

This is how morning tightness was explained to me and makes sense, at least to me. We sleep prone, and during that time our blood is no longer pooling in our lower extremities. I used to have severe foot edema. At night my feet and lower legs were like sausages. In the morning I could see the bones in my feet again, since the evening swelling had dissipated. My stomach is made of living tissue, and the fixed band is encircling an area that swells and unswells based on many factors. Gravity is one big factor. So it's really just like swollen feet, but affected by gravity in the opposite direction. During the day, gravity pulls blood down and away from my band area. The stomach tissue isn't squeezed by the band as much. Overnight, more blood gets back up into that area because I'm not standing up. The tissue plumps up, and the band is a bit tighter around it. I wake up the "tightest" I will be all day. The more I walk around vertical, the more that eases throughout the day. I'm no doctor, but this makes perfect sense to me and matches how I feel in the early morning and then as the day goes on. I have the least "restriction" late in the evening.

She wants to go to St. Louis (where he lived) Friday with an unrelated friend driving her, and stay there at a hotel for the wake and funeral, coming back to Chicago Sunday. She doesn't want me or her sister to go with her. She's angry and nothing I say or do is right. "Mom, I need to process this without you. Corinne didn't know him and she's not emotional, so she offered to drive. Just let me grieve my own way. And help me book the hotel." I'm worried, but leaning toward agreeing to this. Not that there's much I could do to stop her. She navigated Europe without me for five months. I believe her girlfriend will get her to and from St. Louis safely (a 5 hour drive) okay. She didn't know the boy so she's just offering to take her there as a friend. It's so hard not to jump in and control her life. I can't. And I mustn't. As for counseling, I will suggest it, but I imagine that it will be met with the same anger I get when I suggest counseling due to my divorce and the horrible relationship they have with their father. "Leave us alone and stop trying to make us out to be sick." She had to go back to work today. I'm still on vacation. The change of focus will do her good I think.

I am beyond helpless tonight. My 19 year old daughter found out via social media that her close male friend from college with whom she studied in Spain last semester committed suicide today. She is inconsolable. They spent nearly every day together for five months and were really close friends. I have never seen my child in so much agony. She has finally fallen asleep after hours of crying. We are on the last night of our mini vacation. As I head back home tomorrow to face a week of divorce $#it waiting for me, I am reminded that my problems are temporary and manageable. My heart is sick. This 20 year old boy recently broke up with his longtime girlfriend Kaylie. Or rather, she broke up with him. He didn't want the breakup but seemed (to my daughter) to be handling it pretty well. He hoped for a reconciliation but sounded level headed to my daughter two days ago when he told her he was going to "see how it went" as friends. My daughter keeps saying, "Poor Kaylie. How is she supposed to live with this?" There are no words.

No kidding, Debbie. I'll never take breathing for granted. I love not huffing and puffing and wheezing. My knee hurts but I'm not keeling over. It's amazing.

I know that getting my band at age 52 had motivations I didn't have in my twenties. The comorbidities were ruining my life and I felt like an old, slowly dying woman. The first thing to happen was I got my health back. I got better mobility and a pep in my step. Then I got my self confidence back and got out of a toxic relationship. Now it's about looks. I want to look good. Not to get a man. Just to feel pretty. I've spent decades feeling like a dowdy dumpy drudge. I want to look pretty.

Liz, you win the internet today. This is awesome!

Oops I went back and corrected my post. My recent fills are 0.10 not 0.01. Sorry.

This is my fill history. Fills 03/31/2015 0.10 seventh fill 07.80 02/17/2015 0.10 sixth fill 07.70 12/02/2014 0.10 fifth fill 07.60 09/02/2014 0.25 fourth fill 07.50 0.25 third fill 07.25 2.50 second fill 07.00 4.50 first fill 04.50

You may be on the edge of green. I'm getting tiny tiny fills now. 0.10 each. Small meals and 3-4 hours satiety is the goal. (Edited for fill correction)

This is always my fear with LapBand. I think I am in the green but have stopped losing with fifty left to go. I may get another tiny 0.10 fill this week at my appointment. Yet I fear not being able to swallow pills. I got strep throat this week and have to take big penicillin pills for ten days. They go down, but will they if I have another fill? I'm feeling like my band could be working just a little more for me, but I'm so scared of overfill. It's such a tightrope.

Here's the Fitbit stats from a day of hiking at Starved Rock state park. As you can see, much of it was vertical. I'm pooped and my knee hurts, but all I could think was, no WAY could I have done this a hundred pounds ago. In 90 degree weather.

Paige I hope you feel better soon.

I like to color mandalas while watching tv.

Let the haters go. God is in charge and knows the deal. Praying for you both.

Bander here. Lost 100 pounds in 7 months and have been at this weight for about 8 months now. I want to lose fifty more. That fifty will take much more work. The band (or any WLS) only does so much, and the rest is dependent upon good habits and discipline. I'll get there. Good luck!