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Harley, I think you might be thinking of the Uric Acid kind. If you have stones caused by uric acid you can actually take a pill that will dissolve them. For calcium, the best thing to do is drink tons of Water. Also, if you don't get much calcium in your diet your body can try to extract the calcium from your bones which is harder on the body and apparently can cause a buildup in the kidney. As for me, I'm positive it's hereditary. My dad gets them constantly and I get them about every six months, though usually not this bad. The stone finally passed for me THANK GOODNESS! I'd like to give it up to my peeps Percoset and Morphine.

Let me elaborate on what a kidney stone is: A kidney stone is when your body has a buildup of either Calcium deposits or uric acid in the kidney. After a certain length of time the kidney releases the "stone" of calcium or uric acid. The stone looks like a porcupine, hence the excruciating pain as it passes through the ureter. The ureter is a tube that goes from your kidney to your bladder. The pain doesn't really occur when the stone is still in your kidney, it occurs when it passes through the ureter.

Here's how you can simulate a kidney stone (requires a helper) 1. Have your assistant take a sharp kitchen knife and place it just below your kidney 2. Tell your assistant to repeatedly stab you in the same area. They can't let up or the pain will not be as intense as it needs to be 3. Keep this up for several hours (I'd say at least 8 hours).

I haven't had a fill yet, so I can't relate yet, but I do know that my doc said to only eat 3/4 C of food at a time, regardless of how hungry I am or how much I CAN eat. If I get hungry an hour later, only have another 3/4 of a cup of food. It seems like even though some of us CAN eat more doesn't mean we SHOULD. Eating healthy food in these small increments will help us keep our metabolisms going.

Well Alexandra, you were right. Today my friggin' kidney stone reared it's ugly head and is trying to pass. I'm so very angry at the doctor's office right now for being so nonchalant about blood in my urine. The E.R. doc told me basically that everything the other doctor told me pretty much didn't make any sense. He said just what you folks said: Blood in urine should not occur from a surgery unless it was a surgery of the kidneys or some function after the kidneys. I know all docs can make mistakes, but why would my first doctor just brush it off with an, "oh well, it must be related to your surgery"? I know they probably couldn't do anything even if they DID know it was a stone, but at least I'd know it was coming and could've been better prepared for it by having some Percoset on hand or something. I just had to vent. Thanks for being there, everyone! You really show so much support and care for people that it literally brings tears to my eyes right now (could also be the kidney stone pain).

I have to comment on the whole starvation mode bit. I don't know at what point our bodies enter this mode and I'm certain that it's different for everyone, but I do know that entering into starvation mode will damage our metabolisms, unless we work to build it back up again. Simply put, starvation mode means our body stores fat and burns muscle. Losing muscle makes our metabolisms slow down. Starvation mode doesn't happen overnight, it takes some time. My thoughts are that if we can't take in enough calories to feed the muscle we try to build through weight training we'll probably plateau longer. It's trying to find that delicate balance that seems to be the issue. For me, I'm trying to not go below 1,200 calories per day and eat at least 70 grams of protien per day, so I can build the muscle I work so hard to get. It may take me longer to lose the weight but I think in the end I'll be able to eat more and have more energy.

Congrats, girlfriend! The hiccups will go away before you know it. I had the hiccups for about 3 weeks. It's only been a little over a week since the hiccups stopped. The burps are amazing. I keep scaring my crew. When the burp comes, you just can't stop it. Like a great sneeze, you just gotta turn down the blinds, sit back in your chair and wait for it to come.

Today I'm 4 weeks and 1 day post-op. I made an "executive" decision to start eating soft foods today. I can't stand the thought of one more liquid meal! I ate at Arby's today, just the deli meat, and didn't feel one bit guilty about it. In fact, it was the first time I have felt even remotely satisfied by food in the last 4 weeks. I'm supposed to be on hard solids starting next Monday. There seems to be no transition period. My plan is to continue to eat soft foods this entire week!

I used to shop at LB, but their clothes became a bit too conservative and non-flattering for me, so I started shopping online at torrid.com. We finally got a Torrid in my state and I'm there every other weekend! LOVE their stuff! I used to shop at alight.com but everything I got from them was cheaply made AND the sizes ran very small. But Lane Bryant's out for me, and apparently for many others as well. They've been closing down around here, and SO not due to a lack of chubby ladies.

Thanks Kare for offering a great optimistic viewpoint on this whole thing. I refuse to believe that most employers discriminate against overweight people. I had been 300 pounds for quite some time and never had a problem finding a job. I'm not saying, KrzyGirl, that it's not because of the weight that you haven't found a job yet, but I AM saying maybe there are more factors involved that you're not aware of. It could be that the excess weight is having an effect on your confidence level, which is showing up during the interview. I do somewhat disagree with Barb on #3, however. I think an interview is just as much about what the company can offer you as what you can offer them. An interview goes two ways. HOWEVER, I don't think an interview is an appropriate time to bring up compensation and benefit packages. But whenever I go for an interview I like to find out as much about the job and the people working there as possible during the interview (and definitely before the interview). When I interview others I'm ecspecially impressed if they seem truly interested in finding out more about the job, not just spurting off their accomplishments. Get a feel for it during the interview.

This is a friggin' huge thread. I noticed in this thread (awhile back) the posting about being really tight in the morning. I really appreciated the advice about how food that sits in your stomach at night will cause your stomach to swell. I'd like to add to that: At night we secrete a hormone that keeps us from peeing the bed. It causes us to retain Water. It's the same reason your eyes can be puffy in the morning. My nurse told me that if you drink more water during the day your body also retains less water (because it sees less of a reason to do so).

20/20 did a special once where they had two females, both with equal qualifications, who applied for the same job. One was very overweight and the other was slim and attractive. Who got the job EVERY TIME? Just guess... The skinny girl. That said, I think there's not much we can do about it right now. If you did sue them it'd be damn hard to try to prove that they didn't hire you because of your weight. I think the best defense is a good offense. Go get some interview training. Practice responses to questions, practice getting rid of qualifiers such as "kind of" and "like" in your phrasing. Practice being dynamic, opinionated (yes, opinionated, but not overbearing) and intelligent. If you don't know the answer to something, admit it, but come up with an alternative. Wear attractive attire but don't wear perfume. And one thing we women tend to do is not talk ourselves up enough. Talk yourself up and practice trying not to sound conceded doing it. Get comfortable with it. Is your resume completely error-free and list measurable accomplishments? You may already know all of this, but it never hurts to give it a brush-up.

Google freaks: Go to Google.com and type in something like "grams in a cup" or "ounces in a pint" or whatever you want and it will give you the mathematical conversion!

It's a friggin mystery to me why I'm fat. I go go go all the time, forget to eat, and usually make good food choices. However, I'm really inconsistent about WHEN I eat. My very skinny friend is constantly eating good foods. She always has a healthy snack in her purse. She says it keeps her from getting low blood sugar and craving the bad stuff. Good idea!

Cillian Murphy. I met him once after they filmed 28 Days Later. He was the most beautiful man I'd ever set eyes on.

I'm confessing, too. Last night I went to the movies and had junior mints. "WHAT!", you say? I know I'm only 2 weeks post-op. I know it was bad anyway. But I just let the suckers sit in my mouth until they were liquid. I've been on the liquid/mushie (sort of combined with my doc) phase for a week. I need variety and the liquid-everything is killing me. But I know I have to do it. So the junior mints will be my ONLY slip-up. I actually don't feel guilty about it. I'm just sharing because I think we're all human and need to commiserate/celebrate with one another and help each other along the way. Thanks for sharing your slip-up. Now you know you're human, too.

Sounds like you all really love Curves. I didn't so much... I felt like I wasn't really building muscle. The resistance was too light. I tried going faster but it ended up being simply an aerobic workout for me, not really a muscle-building experience. Plus, it was kind of boring, to be honest with you. 3 times around, every day...same workout. I'm all about change, anyway, so it's probably just me, but I like it MUCH better at the gym. My local gym has an awesome circuit training routine where you can vary the resistance with the push of a button! Plus I can get creative about what I want to do.

Do Kidney stones cause you to bleed if they are still in the kidney? Mine MUST still be in the kidney, if they are indeed there, because I don't have pain. I DO have a history of passing very small stones, though. So small, in fact, that often I have to have them surgically removed from the ureter because they keep cycling around at the bottom and not passing. It's an anomaly even to my doc.

Thanks a bunch for your concern, everyone! I'm doing better day by day, though I'm steel bleeding. For those in the medical profession who have asked about it being kidney stones or a bladder infection, it's neither. They did an x-ray for the stones and found none and they checked for a bladder infection and nothing came up. They checked my red blood-cell count(?) and said I was OK. So this is one reason they really don't know where the bleeding is coming from. I can't really afford whatever tests they need to do on me to figure out what it is (in case it's surgically related, in which case my insurance won't pay for the test), and it gets better day by day, so I'm going to just continue on this path. I think I may have done something while exercising on Monday evening, because it started Tuesday morning. But my doc doesn't seem too worried about it because my blood count was OK and it gets better. My biggest worry earlier was that I'd done something to the band. This looks less and less likely to me as I feel no pain, nausea, etc. And based on some of your feedback, it sounds like if I had bleeding internally from the band it would appear in my stools, which it doesn't. So I think I'm ok. Thanks for all your prayers and concern!!!!!

It's coming out in my urine, causing terrible spasms in my bladder. It could also be coming out during bowel movements, I'm not sure. My doctor did lab tests and my blood levels are apparently OK, I guess. She didn't say much about it. She didn't mention Upper GI or Lower GI, so I'm not sure about that either. I had an X-Ray done and then a CT scan on my kidney and both showed no stone. I have to go to my band doc tomorrow so he can do tests to see if it relates to the band. Not sure what he's going to do. I'm almost certain it has to do with the band, though.

I'm having some issues here... I can't seem to get an answer out of my doc or nutritionist about this and it's DRIVING ME CRAZY! I'm 7 days post-op and onto blended foods. How fast can I be eating? I'm taking so long to eat that I can only get in like 500 calories a day. I'd REALLY like to be eating more than that. I take about 45 minutes to eat 1/4 cup cottage cheese. Does that sound right to anyone? Also, how quickly can you drink Water. I take about 1/2 hour to drink 1/2 cup. I realize everyone's different, but, realistically, how fast did YOU eat after you were banded (but before a fill).

I'm a part-time film maker and full-time web designer and an ever so slight part-time musician. It's so hard to get a break in the film industry these days. Look for me at Sundance this year, though! We have a film called "The Light."

Candy, I don't know if you're religious or not, but if you are, maybe you could pray about it. I agree with Karen here about the dream, but I found confirmation about getting the band through prayer.

So Jack, How did you know you couldn't sip Water that fast? Were you just being safe or did you have symptoms from drinking too quickly? Did you feel full from water? I still can't figure out "full". The "symptoms" for fullness, according to my doc, are exactly the same as my symptoms for gas! And I'm still gassy ALL THE TIME, though I know it'll probably go away in a week or so. Enlighten me, oh Enlightened one. Oh yeah, and I just thought I'd mention that I have a major crush on my chiropractor. He SINGS to me! How might one snag the heart of a chiropractor?

Magic, I'm only taking that long because I'm scared to do it quicker. I'm sure I could, I just don't want to risk over-filling my pouch and throwing it up at such an early stage. Just how much Water do you drink during the day? My doc still recommends getting 64 oz. liquids in per day, so it's the same as what he recommended getting BEFORE the surgery. It's just at a slower, more even pace. As far as I know, other weight loss surgeries are the same about water: You can't gulp it any more. Have you thought about why you drink tons of water? Not to scare you, but that can be a symptom of Diabetes Insipidus. Get yourself checked, just to be safe.