WLSResources/ClothingExch

What Ann said. I'll bring the heroin and get everyone arrested.

Cruel and unusual punishment. Haven't the passengers revolted and demanded a rolling stairway? The last time people were held captive for an inordinate period out of stupidity changes were supposed to occur. Screw the flight attendants and liberate the store of stupid little liquor bottles. (I'll get you arrested.) I can be there in half an hour and at least make funny faces from the ground for your entertainment.

@@Dub Whoa. "Dub likes this?" Is that it? Very well, then, I shall assign you a destination for your "leisure trip," one for which you would happily turn brutish. You will go to Plattsburgh, New York. That'll teach you.

Are you really going to leave it there? Do you always pitch and then turn away before seeing whether the pitch has been caught? Where are you going?!!! I'm no dentist, but....

Doing things close to home satisfies a lot of people. I've tried it, but, as vacation from work, it was a bust. Without a change of scenery and experiences, I went back to work feeling as though I'd had no vacation at all. I need the change, even if it is for only part of the time I take off, to feel refreshed. I miss the days when people dressed in a civilized fashion to get on a plan. Come to think of it, most people looked civilized at least most of the time.

Whether this will be your first flight or first solo flight, it doesn't have to be boring at all. The journey is as much the experience as is the destination itself. Talk to people when you see that you won't be intrusive. Explore the airport, watch flights taking off and landing, talk to more people as you encounter them. One of the best times I had was on a train from Frankfurt to Vienna. The conversations I had with a couple of the passengers in my compartment made for an exhilarating start to a two-week stay.

It hadn't occurred to me that you might live in a rural area, therefore, I'm more provincial than I knew. I was at the mercy of the airport police (a regular of that city's police dept.) for an hour or two, no jail involved, unless you count having one of the police stand outside the loo while I used it. This occurred 12 years before my surgery. I'd be more careful now, as I doubt that a jail provides WLS-suitable vittles/victuals. More to the point, I'd be more careful now, post-2001. Have you reached your destination yet? I hope your vacation turns out to be excellent after its wretched start.

You've had no adjustments, as your band is in its infancy. It's loose. First adjustment is usually at about six weeks, but that can vary from one surgeon to another. For now, drink and eat, when it's time, in the amounts and on the schedule prescribed by yours. You're fine.

@@Kindle, if I'm reading you correctly, your vacation is/was to begin with three flights? A vacation is no more than two flights to destination. More than that and we're talking flying for work, namely, an archeological dig in some unknown region of the planet. Some day I'll tell you about the time I was arrested along with two other passengers as we were trying to get our flight. It was all the fault of the idiot airline and the idiot feds.

Looks like a fine place for your note. You give no clue as to your current weight, so I'll proceed as though the number is considerable. Do you want to lose weight or do you not want to lose weight? That is the question. Really, sit down with pen and paper, draw a vertical line down the center of the page and, in one column, begin a list of the "Aye" reasons and, in the other, the "Nay" reasons. Once you have a good start, I'll guess that you have one reason under "Nay" and that it has something to do with gorging on food. When a person no longer has the capacity to eat like a maniac, eating like a maniac becomes an alien notion. In the rare instance that it is still significant, the individual would do well to enter therapy. Really. The time that is gained when maniacal eating is left behind is time to give to healthier -- mentally and medically -- pursuits that are actually fulfilling. Eating one's self into a stupor is away to avoid fulfillment. Will your social life be weird? I don't know, but maybe it will be if you're surrounded by maniacal eaters for the purpose of not being the only maniac. As to being "only 26," isn't that an appropriate age for making grown-up decisions? Sweet 16 is about the cut-off. The words "maniac" and "maniacal" are for illustration purposes only. If you don't like them, substitute as makes sense to you. You just may need some more time to think about what you really want and what really makes sense to and for you.

Try holding a bed pillow firmly against the area of the incision when you laugh or cough and, if you can maneuver it, when you move.

@@letsgo2thebeach, are you in California or Canada? BP seems to have just one abbrev to cover both, as far as I can tell, anyway. What you're describing sounds a little too back-alley for comfort. I agree with @@AvaFern regarding the ethics.

As a non-physician,I'd say it isn't your gall bladder. As Grandma of One said, the g.b. is far from the back of the left shoulder. The only left-shoulder pain I've ever heard of or experienced is gas, but that settles at the front of the shoulder. It seems to me that your pain is not surgery-related and that you should see a physiatrist (sports medicine doctor). There are a few possible problems of different degrees. Don't get excited, just get yourself checked out.

I got the impression from your message #6 that you have no insurance. Since you do, you're not eligible for free therapy, but your insurance may be accepted in some organizations' MH programs. Kindle's suggestion certainly sounds worth looking into. Cognitive behavior therapy is something else that seems would suit your interests.

Love the image.

@@Imsojaz, you'll find someone who meets the criteria. Don't get discouraged.

@@Elode, whose DNA will we find on the fork?

@@bellabloom, try your county's health or mental health dept.. You may qualify for low-cost or free therapy. Unless you're located in the middle of nowhere, you probably have non-profit organizations where you might get the same. If you google "California Jewish organizations," "California Catholic....", etc., etc., you'll get lists of possibilities. It'll take a little reading through, but you should find something either free or affordable for you. Don't be deterred by the religious designations: The services are generally available to everyone who needs them.

@@Imsojaz, if you happen to see a psychologist, you can have your own person do it instead of running around. @@animallover1247, are you saying that your own medical plan required the battery of written forms or that all plans require it? For my "psych eval" six and one-half years ago, my own therapist wrote a letter, all of seven sentences. No muss, no hocus-pocus, no nonsense, no rip-off.

No, Viffkins, you're the only one who ever does.

What I'm about to write almost didn't come to pass. Then I read your follow-up next note that followed and said, "Shoot, go for it." By the time I got half-way through "If that doesn't work....," I fully expected advice to roll a joint. Then you let me down. P.S. Your mom was a martinet?

I have no answers for you, but await whatever replies you get. My band is iffy. If you do get approval, I'd like to know what it was based on. Not that we have the same med plans (mine is a Medicare H.M.O.), but it will be nice that approval isn't impossible. Best wishes.

@@shedexjoe, you may or may not find your appetite affected before your first adjustment. The band can be unpredictable with each person reporting different results. The best I can say is "Wait and see." I knew one man who had surgery quite a few years ago. His empty band worked from the start and remained consistent; he never had an adjustment. That's just one example of why, when people who have the same size band compare saline levels, they're whistling into the wind. (I think that expression means that they're doing something pointless.) The amount of saline means far less than the result. One level can work well for a long time and one day lose effectiveness or even the opposite. To sum it up, the band was often referred to as "the fickle bitche." @@B-52, did you have surgery at NYU? Your mentioning the aggressive approach make me think of Fielding, whom I've been told tends to that direction.

Thanks, CJ. I'll try lining up all the quotes first and then inserting, as you do. I'm on laptop only, Windows 7, browser Firefox (if that's relevant here).

When I want to quote & reply to more than one post in a topic while keeping my post in a single message box, my attempts fail if the posts to be quoted are on different pages. Example, I clicked "Multiquote" for a post on page 5 and entered my comment below it. Then I browsed ahead to page 6, where I found another post I wanted to comment on. Again, I clicked "Multi," but ended up in a new entry box, not the first where I'd already quoted/commented. In search of the first and not wanting to risk losing the second, I clicked "Post new topic," then learned that my original quote/comment had disappeared. How to keep all in one box? Can it be done if I'm quoting from different pages of a lengthy topic? There are times when I get a Multi combo to appear all together, but perhaps those are the times when each quoted post was on the same page as the others?