Wheetsin

Thanks for the replies! Band surgery wasn't bad for me at all. I went home about 4 hours after the actual procedure, and 15 mins into recovery room I was asking to be discharged. No gas problems at all. My biggest discomfort was, aside from the actual port incision, that I was allergic to the adhesive they placed over my staples. I hear so many mixed reports on post-GB removal. I spoke with a woman last night who swore that even just yogurt send her running to the toilet within 10 minutes. BTW, came across this looking at more information:

...and an ultrasound this a.m. confirmed stones. I have a consultation with my band surgeon next week (he also does general laparoscopic procedures). Band was my first surgery, so this will only be #2. And of course I will ask him these questions, but because a week is a long time away... So what can I expect, with both the surgery, and life after? I'm sort of assuming it will be similar to my band surgery - in terms of risk, recovery... hopefully not as sore as I was after the port placement. What about general life? Will being minus that megadose of bile effect the way my body deals with fats, long term? I get visions of oil slick diarrhea at the blink of an eye... like the people on that medication that limits your breakdown of fats. Any words of advice from those of you who have been there?

Ugh, I hate WalMart. I've found that sometimes it's a necessary evil in that it's the only "24 hour service!" place within 20 minutes that sells things you sometimes need without warning (outside of what the gas station would carry). I enjoy Target. Their Archer Farms home brand (grocery side) has some great choices, especially in Ethnic selections. Just don't wear any combination of khaki and red when you shop there.

Goal is entirely possible. The long term averages incorporate a variety of issues. A lot of people have the surgery thinking the band itself will lose the weight for them, and never do their part. These people will probably never see goal, because there's only so much that portion control is going to do on its own. There are also people who learn to eat around the band, and several other very real scenarios that will likely prevent people from hitting goal.

Try FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal. You can track foods, see dietary breakouts, track your weight, etc. Very comprehensive and easy to use.

Ah... I really missed conversing with some of you guys. Don't think for a second that my summer classes were a fraction as intellectually stimulating as some of the conversations here. Anyway, the title amused me. Here are places where I've noticed (oddly placed) tip jars lately: The deli counter at a grocery store A pastry store (all they do is box it up, they don't even have chairs there) Ice cream stores - Baskin Robbins, Cold Stone, etc. Umm... not that I've been eating ice cream... The gas station near our house The Hobby Lobby custom framing counter Many fast food places including Quizno's, Chipotle, Subway and Taco Bell Cash register lanes I don't tip any of the above situations, but I have noticed that they all use the "put a dollar in here so people think that others tip us" strategy!

Just wondering what misconceptions, misunderstandings, etc. people who know you are banded have? Here are some of the questions/comments I've received (I tell everyone it comes up with that I'm banded). Yeah but since the band is inside you, you have to have another operation each time it needs to be tightened, right? I've always heard those make you sterile... Doesn't it get absorbed by your stomach and just force your whole stomach into a smaller shape? You can only eat a couple pounds of food a day right? What ones have you received?

Long story short, I need to figure out what this name is. First name? Last name? Combination? No idea! Please post your guesses.

Ooh, you're quick - and right! I have one print and was hoping to identify the artist so I could see if there were any others of the same subject I kept seeing "Svasso Ceilia" or "S. Vassodelia" :rolleyes

Now that's one I hadn't heard before. My spare time all but disappeared - I signed up for a semester and a half worth of classes in master's program, condensed into a single 8 week summer session. My life has been - work > get home > start studying > try to remeber to eat something > study more> it's midnight, wtf did the evening go? On top of that, we painted/redecorated the home office, complete overhaul, and since that office houses the webserver, it had to come down. And I ended up breaking something DH needed to bring it back up about 8 minutes before I had to take DH to the airport for a two week absence... so I was without internet, and without hubby who could fix it, for half a month. How the heck did we get by before the internet? I had to actually open a printed dictionary. Fortunately summer school week 5 of 8 ends tomorrow, so I see some sign of sanity out there on the horizon, like a dim light, beckoning me to go into it...

Looking for quick/easy beauty tips that make a HUGE difference. Bang for your buck kind of stuff. Here are my tips: Love your eyebrows once a week. Keeping your brows clean & shaped makes a HUGE difference in the whole look of your face. It really is one of those minute makeover things you can do. SO much difference, and SO many women don't even think about it. Do keep nails clean. I mean - eww. And if your nails have a tendency to discolor of go transparent, invest two bucks in a nail whitening pencil. I can't stand acrylic nails, only do my natural ones, and this is one of the best alternative ways to get anything resembling a frenchie. If you have oily skin (me me!), apply a small amount of an acne product all over your face, very lightly, almost like a day foundation. If it overdries you can cut it with a non-oily facial lotion. It has tnothing to do with having acne or not -- they're designed to soak up oil, and will let you have a matte complexion for several hours without any powder.

Robyn, truly interested - if they repaired it once before, and it recurred, is this something you may always have to deal with, or is there a plan B - something they didn't do the first time, that can be also be done to fix it? I've dropped away too. In a big way. Most recently because of school, but more long term because I'm not losing weight anymore. I've just hit this impossible plateau that isn't going anywhere, and it's been like... more than half a year. I'm still way too damn fat to not be losing, and I'm not eating enough, or enough bad foods, to account for it. I miss being able to call Billy and ask her input. Go figure that the one time you're part of a tiny fraction of the population, it ISN'T the tiny fraction that wins the lottery. Life stinks sometimes, eh? My offer for a margarita still stands. I'm busy, but promise I would make the time if you want to vent in person. Just let me know.

I'm just venting because I hate it when stores misrepresent. I go yesterday because they have a sale, "Buy one get one free, all bottoms." To me all bottoms means all bottoms, but they specify something like, "Jeans, pants, capris, skirts", etc. Here is what I pick up (blue items are bottoms): Business pant style capri - $39.95 Business pant style capri - $39.95 Skirt - $39.95 Skirt - $39.95 Linen crop pant - $39.95 Linen crop pant - $39.95 Shoes - $26.50 Clearance top - $24.99 Perfect price top - $12.99 Perfect price top - $12.99 My subtotal was $235.47. It seemed high at the time, higher than I was thinking it would be, but I didn't give it that much thought. At first. But then I started thinking about it. I essentially bought 3 bottoms which should have been about $120, got three free. Plus about $50 for the shoes and clearance top, plus about $25 for the PP items, so $195 (going to be a little on the low side)... why was I charged $235?? I look at my receipt and the linen crop pants were normal price. I call the store and tell them I think I was mischarged and they say no, those pants weren't in the sale. I said, "But the sign said ALL BOTTOMS, aren't these bottoms? I'm certainly not wearing them on top." Their claim - the sign said all bottoms, but it then specified jeans, crops, skirts, pants. What I bought, even though it's a short pant, is categorized as a "pedal", and pedals were not in the sale. I'm pissed, but also running late for a dinner, so I say I will follow up tomorrow (today). I went to their website early this morning to see what the fine print sai about the sale, but the sale is over so I can't get it. But I do notice they now have a 30% off your purchase deal going. I figure - go for the 50%, but if I can't get it, insist on the 30%. I call the store back and talk to the manager. Manager gives me the same "pedals" aren't in the sale. So I tell her (in nicer words) they're full of shit, and that I will come in and want the 30% price adjustment. She tells me, "That's not applicable to previous purchases." I remind her I just bought these lastnight. She says it doesn't matter. I tell her that I could refund the pants and just rebuy them today, and she says, "Yes." I say - soooo... oookkk... save us both the extra time and just do a price adjustment. She says no. (I will be making a visit to the store by my work today, and I will help them realize how this is going to be handled. I don't do this crap.) WTF? Why doesn't "all bottoms" mean all bottoms? I have had a LOT of experience with Lane Bryant doing this crap. Earlier this year they had a sale, "All sweaters, buy one get one half off." I pick up 4 sweaters and am charged full price for each one. I question it and they tell me, "Those ones aren't in the sale." (This time there were no specifics listed on the sign, it just said "all sweaters"). I ask why not, they're sweaters.. and she tells me it only applies to these specific sweaters. I tell her she's going to sell them to me bogo half, because that's what the sign says. She calls the manager. The manager insists that it only applies to certain sweaters, tells me she cannot override the pricing, and gives me a customer service number to call. I call, they apologize, and send me a tin of 6 Cookies. Argh! I'm buying my clothes at the fat girls shop! How freaking insulting that you think 6 cookies makes up for your incompetence! Last year I'm in and there's a sign up by the jeans saying "Two for <whatever amount it was>." So I pick up two pair. I'm rung up and it's full price on both. I tell her the sign said two for whatever, and she says "That ended yesterday." I say, "But the sign is up today." And she tells me - IGNORE IT. (I ended up getting my way on this one)

You'll find that many (I could probably argue "most" in this case) Americans are largely ignorant to anything they don't see immediately impacting their daily lives. And even then, they probably remain more ignorant than they should. I've often wondered... why. My inlaws are European, have been to America maybe 3 times between them, and they know more about how our country functions that most Americans. It makes no sense. We seem happy to not know what we don't know.

I'm picky and my taste is very plain when it comes to jewelry. My wedding band is a cathedral mount princess solitaire and I wear channel set princess bands on either side. Anniversary ring is a traditional three stone ring that I'm now wearing a plain gold band on top of, to keep it from falling off my finger. I have a pair or princess studs that I wear in my 2nd holes. I don't care for any diamond cuts other than princess and trillion. I hate baguettes. I don't care for colored stones. People always want to buy them for me, especially amethyst, my birthstone, which is my least favorite.

Still can't stomach olives, regardless of color or context. There are a few flavors that my mouth simply rejects. Olives are one. Horseradish is another.

Green - when I was a kid (quite a skinny one to boot) instead of sneaking candy or sweets, I would sneak rock salt out of the bag my parents kept in the pantry for making ice cream. We lived near the community baseball center, so I would sneak a handful into my pocket and then go sit on the bleachers, watch baseball, and eat salt. Wtf? Dill pickles are a weakness too. REAL, true, dill pickles. Not Kosher Dill. Not chips. Sour dills will do! But a good, homemade dill pickle - few things in life are better. WHen I was a kid, for something to do my parents and I would go to this big swapmeet on Saturdays, and just walk around. There was always this guy there selling his homemade pickles out of big cauldrons. When I think of them, I almost get a tear in my eye. I love picke & mayo sammiches.

I have one and it has a juicer attachment that works just as well as my regular juicer (some kind of Jack LaLane (sp) something), only MUCH smaller and easier to clean up. A regular plain magic bullet isn't going to juie to well, just puree, but there is a dedicated juicer attachment that is awesome! Nothing can be taken as a rule. I've run mine for well over a minute straight WHILE making butter, actually just last weekend - DH is a purist when it comes to the butter on his homemade bread. And it's still working fine today. Sometimes people think theirs has quit working, but it stops working if too much gunks gets down either under the silver plate at the bottom, or around the holes that the cups lock into. If any of you have them just kind of spontaneously (or even in the middle of running) stop working, just clean it out good, let it dry, and try again. Granted - that may not be the problem, but it fixes it for me.

Seriously - what's a foodie? Here it's slang for food stamps. Are you looking for ways to go bandster on a budget?

Kyethra is right, all telemarkting centers are required to maintain their own DNC list, and all it takes is a firm request to be put on it. It really does work. We're on the state and national DNC registries, but any company that you contact on your own, or that you're in currently in business with, can still call you. There are also some other exceptions because we've gotten a LOT of calls from agencies wanting donations or to sell raffle tickets, etc.. surveys, what have you.

If you want it, do it. There is no etiquette when it comes to decisions you regret, but have the oppportunity to change.

I'm not judging how you discipline your children or questioning your technique, but I do have a question about timing. Most public spankings happen because that's where the offense is committted, and the best correlation to consequence is immediate enforcement. In other words, you discipline a child for doing something bad when they do it, and they're more likely to understand the connection between a specific action and the discipline. Not that I equate children to dogs, but it's the same principle when you're - say - housebreaking a puppy. (Our cognition is much more complex but the basics of behavioral modificiation are rather beyond cognition and the same whether you're talking about people or fruit flies or anything in between.) So if you do not discipline in public, but public is where you children misbehave, what do you do? Wait? Discipline them in some other fashion?

I can't stand olives. Never could. The mere sight of a dirty martini is enough to gross me out. Ok, on the topic of credit cards. I don't use 'em unless I get some kind of special discount or I'm taking advantage of Discover's cashback aware (you can make some nice money with that card) so I can only relate to my debit card. When we opened this acct, we told them "no spending limit on the debit card." We'd learned from our past acct that most banks impose a per transaction AND per day spending cap on debit cards, and didn't want to deal with that again. Sp after spending seriously about 6 hours in a store that's an hour way, picking out two bedroom suites of furntiure, beds, headboard/footboard, a couch/loveseat combo, lamps, etc. -- my card was declined. It didn't dawn on me that it could be due to the limit, so that never entered my mind. We weren't supposed to have a limit. I called the bank, they verified sufficient funds. So what's the problem? We don't know, we'll call you back. (Meanwhile I'm telling the store "they're looking into it" and I know they're thinking Uh huh, just swallow your pride and charge it). Finally they get back with me, about an hour later, and say that we were trying to exceed the daily cap on the card. So I tell her we weren't supposed to have one, and she says "All cards have one, they just raised yours higher." :faint: I now carry checks with me, to use in just such a situation. I've also had my debit card decline (once in the middle of holiday shopping, talk about catching people at their worst) for "over limit." Over limit?? It's a DEBIT card! I tell the cashier to try again as credit, she does, it declines, she once again announces, "IT'S BECAUSE YOU DON'T HAVE ENOUGH MONEY. DID YOU PAY YOUR BILL?" I tried to just get $ out of the ATM, transaction declined for "insufficient funds," which I KNOW was BS. Called the bank. "Oh, sorry, our lines are down and no one can connect. That causes cards to decline for "insufficient funds." "Well it's xmas eve and I'm buying all my last minute presents, when can I expect the lines to be back up?" "Two or three days." The cashier was quite put out and in much disbelief when I asked her to put my things to the side and I'd be right back with a check. :faint:

A rider is a way to make a change to a contract once the contract has been put in force. Think of it like an ammendment. Laurend is right - check with your provider on their definition of medically necessary. Providers can be arbitrary about this so no one can tell you "for sure" whether or not you would be covered other than them.

Songs? Damn Laurend, bands are easy. Songs are hard. Let's see... Today - Smashing Pumpkins/Siamese Dream All Mixed up - 311/311 Jesus Built my Hotrod - Ministry/Psalm 69 Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd/The Wall Heroin - The Velvet Underground/The Velvet Underground and Nico Hurt- NIN/The Downward Spiral OR The Only Time/Pretty Hate Machine (or just about any other song, especially pre 1992) Where is my Mind? - Pixies/Surfer Rosa I Will Find You (theme from Last of the Mohicans) - Clannad/Banba Recipe for Making Love - Harry Connick Jr./We are in Love And sooooo many others...