Wheetsin

My surgeon does not use fluoro. Just palpatates until he finds the port and drops the needle right in.

Hi Terry & welcome. I am between 5'10 and 5'11. 382 when I had surgery, 268 as of today. My goal is 180, though I'll certainly be thrilled with anything that starts with a "1". I still have to check the disbelief when I think to myself, "less than 100 lbs to goal"... for SOOO long it was "200 lbs to lose..."

Hi Eric, I believe I tighter when I fly, but it seems random. Sometimes I'm fine, sometimes it takes 10 minutes for a sip of the inflight drink to clear. *shrug*

Oh, heck no. I can PB soup near TOM. Bad TOM for me! About 4 days before, to one day in, is my tightest. I'm lucky to get a thick liquid down without having to lean on the island and wait for the pain to pass.

So how are my super-sizers doing? Teresita, ready for me to mail you some 26s yet you skinny thing? My scale finally budged, just enough to decide it wants to stick at 270.01. Crap!!! If I'm going to plateau 5 weeks out of every 6, you'd think I could at least plateau in a new "decade"! So that's 112 lbs in 8 months. I've reeaaally slowed down the last 2 months, as in lost about 7 or 8 lbs the entire time. But I went down a size during that stall too. And I've become not quite as good of a girl as I used to be. Stupid me. I "try" things to see if I can do them. I need to just stay afraid of them so they don't tempt me. I could also stand another fill, but it's nice to eat without pain. And I've started getting some achies around my band/port area, so I don't want to do anything until I can better feel out what's going on there. Started in a 32/34, now in a loose 24 pant/20 shirt. I've lost a lot in my upper body and stomach, but my thighs and hips are being little bastages.

I get them occasionally, a handful of times in my lifetime. Starts off with impaired vision - similar to what it's like right after a flash goes off in your eyes. Progresses to tunnel vision, only the "tunnel" isn't just gray/dark, there are bright colored "worms" entertwining & moving. Then I get spots. It gets to the point where when I look at a keyboard, I can't see what the keys say. Lasts 20 - 30 mins, then takes about 5 minutes to clear up. The first time I had one I was on medications for a respiratory infection, bronchitis, pneumonia, etc. and thought I had overdosed. They're nothing to worry about. They're basically migraines without the headache part. A lot of people with migraines will get the visual impairments as a sign that the headache is coming. With ocular migraines, you get the impairments, but no headache. BTW, 3 different eye doctors have never told me to go to the ER. At least not with the symptoms I describe. Perhaps the symptoms you described are ones shared with a more serious condition.

Ok, I'm a pear. I missed the specific type of leg crossing. I cross my legs like a man!

I don't think I get the question. I was as high as size 32/34 and could always cross my legs... you guys couldn't cross your legs?? Why not? (truly stumped)

I can remember in school when we were required to do the math, not just use the calculator.

For me the vanity issues are a nice side-effect, and influenced my decision but did not make my decision. I had to list my top 3 reasons for my pshychologist. 1. Preventative health measures. 2. Wanting to have a baby, and wanting to carry without added risk of complications 3. Quality of life #3 being very broad.

It technically isn't vomitting. Vomitting requires that the stomach's contents be purged. When you PB, your stomach contents stay put. It is called a "productive" burp because, well, it's productive. And "burp" because, well, best guess is that's the closest whomever could come to describing the sensation when they needed to give it a name. These aren't medical terms, keep in mind. At some point someone had to convey the sensation to someone else, and that's what they called it. I call it "bringing up stuck food". For me, that's what really describes it. Here, and with others I know here, I call it "PB" because I don't care whether or not it's technically correct... the people who can answer my questions about it understand what I mean. Once you have one, WHO CARES what it's called, just make it stop!

First class (IMO) is only worth it for international flights or domestic flights on a few airlines. AA is not one of them. Flew their 1st class 2 weeks ago for the first time and was extremely unimpressed. That's why I fly midwest whenever they're going to the same place as me!

No posts in a long time... I for one ate like crap today. First time in a LONG time. Baked cheez-its, Ben & Jerry's, tried a small amt of rice for the first time since March and did OK with it... tomato sauce, and a few Hershey's with graham crackers in them. And of course my protein drink. This is what happens when I don't pay attention to my hunger. I get to the point that I'm *hungry* and it hurts, which happened to be at work where we just had crap laying around. *sigh*

Hello SMMC ladies! I made a long post the other day but timed out trying to submit it *sigh*Quick question for you guys -- Jennifer, I know this won't apply to you and Holli - not sure... but... so there's a big incision in the middle. Is the band itself right behind that incision, above it, or below it? (Yes, I am perhaps mistakingly assuming some consistency here!)

Try going in maybe .25 cc increments, and see where that takes you, maybe? I'm glad your reflux problems were taken care of. I've had it just a few times in my life, but it's no fun at all!

I read about that, about a year ago I think. If I remember correctly they were doing preliminary tests in Denmark, but I could be remembering completely incorrectly. I'm not sure I'm a fan of the idea, and I don't mind fills, but it will be interesting to see how it pans out.

Never was much of a candy eater (bypassed crap like candy for crap like cheese and desserts). But I do have a weakness for Peanut Butter cups, pieces, anything really. When a craving really strikes, I go get a child's size Concrete (what the local custard shop calls their version of the "Blizzard") with peanut butter cup mixed into 99% fat free frozen custard. Or I have one or two small, Halloween-sized cups. My theory - if you have a craving, indulge it, in moderation. If people are craving something and they tell themselves, "No, you can't have it" -- maybe you feel proud for a little while, but eventualy your craving comes back. Usually with a vengeance. Then you end up over-doing it and eating way more than you would have eaten had you just had the few bites it took to kill your original craving. Lately I've been craving Cookies, which is weird because I never cared much for cookies pre-op. And I also use my Protein drinks to help satisfy cravings. E.g. I will mix chocolate Protein powder with a spoonful of peanut butter, whiz together, and kill two birds with one stone. Or mix vanilla powder with about 1/3 packet Butterfinger mix. Or make some homemade peanut butter (MUCH healthier than what you can buy).

I'm bad about this. I drink while eating all the time. Part of that is my indication that I need another fill. But another part is - for me, it makes no difference in the amount I eat. So I figure - why not.

You know, I'm glad this came up. Pre-op I wasn't much of a go-er. Once or twice a week (been that way my whole life), but not constipation. Lately I've been having some problems. I have to go, start to go, and part way through I just can't go any more... leaving things kind of "stuck"... halfway in, halfway out. Wow, I'm really foregoing dignity at the expense of this thread! It has also been a bit painful. I couldn't find any stool softeners that were chewable and non-laxitive, so I tried removing the liquid from a stool softener capsule. That was a really bad idea, so my burning mouth and throat was telling me as much as 3 hours after the effort. I tried the flax seed (was my best friend during my Atkins days) but my band doesn't like things with flaxseed meal in it. So this weekend I bought some chewable fiber tablets... don't know the brand but I'm hoping they will help. BTW - if any of you are upping your fiber, make sure you up your Water too. You need to keep it hydrated. Too much fiber can cause an impaction... if you don't keep your fluids up the fiber can actually dry out what's already in the intestinal tract, and when it can't move, but there's still more stuff being piled on top of it, there's only one direction it can go. I've helped care for someone going through this and it isn't pretty.

Lots of things can play a role. The amount of weight you have to lose. If she lost 40% of her weight and you lost 5%, she's going to move through more sizes. If that's not the case, remember that people lose weight in different places. It took me about 50 lbs to move into a smaller pant size because I was losing in my upper body first. Maybe you're losing in an area that isn't evident in sizes yet. Are you taking measurements or just going by the scale?

Actually I didn't mean it about race or nationality, I meant it as another showing of discrimination, regardless. Damn discriminators, they should all be shot so us non-discriminators can live in our non-discriminating society. :heh: :heh:

True, true. I was reading it in the context of something else he was being charged with though.

If he may be the father to his own sister, that means he raped his mother (unless it was consentual), and got her pregnant. Am I following? If so, the legal dimensions of this, and the complexity of the trial, just tripled... quadrupled... Is it the prosecutor or defense asking you to testify? Defense, I'd assume, as a character witness...?

Big problem with that being three people can read the bible and it tells them three completely different things. Each follows what the bible tells them, and each thinks the other is doing it wrong.

I travel frequently and finding something to eat has never been a problem. I can eat everything I did before, I just eat less of it. Many things I choose to avoid because it's not worth the effort of chewing or hurts going down.