Wheetsin

Hi Cynthia, I'm glad to hear you're feeling better. Any word on your appeal? I'm not a medical person (started pre-med, never continued!), but let me know if you need any help at all... even if you need someone to edit for stronger/more impactful wording. I'll offer any assistance I can give. As for Robyn, she's out of town through tomorrow, I believe, at a family reunion if memory serves. And don't worry about being a downer. You certainly don't have to be only happy. Look at me, I'm never happy. I'm way too cynical for happiness. :confused: Also, if you need any advice with a low-carb diet, I can be tons of help. I LIVED the induction phase of the Atkins diet for over a full year. I know tons of recipes, tons of ways to prepare allowed foods to make them palatable, etc. Again, any help I can give...

Ok, I HATE double posting, so I apologize in advance, but the Illinois area forum doesn't seem to get much traffic and my trip is coming up quickly. I'm going to be in the Aurora/Naperville area the later part of next week. I need suggestions for relatively nice restaurants, with band-friendly menu items, that can accomodate larger groups. TIA! :confused:

I already do 20g day (ah, good old induction days). I'm actually trying to get down to 10. So far today I've had 3, so I'm on target. I'm going to pass on the exercise challenge, I hate to admit it but I have really zero time for exercise in the next month (which is when my summer class will end), and haven't done much in the last 2 weeks. On slow days I head to the pool between meetings, and will use the pool after work hours on my trip this week, but other than that, literally all of my time that I'm not at work is spent with school projects. Note to self -- NEVER take a summer class again.

Then best it is. I'll PM you details later. Any idea what day would work best for you? When I'm in town (Mon - Wed) he'll be in the office roughly 7:30 - 3ish (we both have flex schedules, can work from home, etc. so our office hours are iffy), and when I'm out of town, probably more like 6:30 - 2ish. (We usually ride together, but I refuse to wake up early enough to be at work at 6:30... but when he's driving himself, he'll go in super early). If you know the day that works best, I'll talk to him and make sure he'll be in the office that day.

Hey Cate - I'm pretty booked this week (flying to IL for a business trip Wed.) but we'll arrange something. Are you available during the work day at all, or are you tied to a schedule? I'm thinking - worst-case scenario, I'll send it with DH to work... and he could have their secretary watch it at the front desk. He's near Penn Valley... if you know where Boulevard brewing company is, he's right next door to their building. There's a tiny chance I'll be in the Brookside area Monday or Tuesday... possibly having lunch w/ some people and we drive through the Brookside area to get to our restaurant, and I could drop it off, but that's a BIG if.

I spent a year on the induction phase of the Atkins diet... became intimately familiar with all the low-to-no carb tricks of the trade a few months in, and then started having "nightmares" about food. I'd dream that I was eating something and didn't realize it was high in carbs until I'd eaten the whole thing, or I would dream that I'd "forgotten" I was on a diet, and ate a whole batch of Cookies, then as I'm swallowing the last one I'd finally "remember" I was supposed to be avoiding carbs. In my dreams it was never just, "Oh crap, I forgot" -- it was a horrible thing, like "Now I've just blown everything!" I know that a lot of it came from obsessing over what I ate, how many carbs it had, picking every little carrot shred out of my dinner salad, etc. When I shared this with a message board I was on at the time, I was surprised to see that LOTS of people were dreaming the exact same kinds of things. Lastnight I had a LB nightmare. I dreamed that I chugged a can of Diet Coke, because I forgot I couldn't have it, then started to cringe as I waited for the pain to come... you know like when you stub your toe and you have just enough time to think, "Crap, this is really going to hurt..." before the pain actually kicks in? Then I woke up. I know I'm not the only one...

In terms of goals -- when I wore sz 20 (the pics earlier) I weighed somewhere between 230 and 245. To get back in the jeans I have on in that picture (I still have them) is my first goal. I think ultimately about 180 for me... it's been a while since I've weighed 180 but I seem to remember that is a 12 or 14... which is a good size for me considering my height (and hopefully I'll get back the inch I lost as I lose weight... and get less "compressed"). I'd be happy with a 14. I truly don't want to be *skinny*. And at a 14 I should be able to shop anywhere, which is the most important thing. :confused: BMI... let's see. At 5'10 and 180 my BMI would be 25.8, so I'd still be overweight... even if I got my inch back I'd still be 0.1 BMI point into the "overweight" category. I can't really remember what I looked like at 180, but I didn't feel obese... I could wear a bathing suit, had a relatively flat stomach... I'll have to see if I can find any pics. I guess overall I'm looking more at sizes than weight. I don't care if I weigh 400 lbs, as long as I can get into a 14... but I won't be happy weighing 90 lbs if I'm still in a 22! Oh and I just remembered, when Dr. Sabapathy asked me what weight I wanted to get to, I started thinking about it and he suggested about 180 for me. I told him I'd be thrilled even at 200 - 210.

Holli - I'll do it with you. I need to. I've rediscovered pretzels and tortilla chips lately. :confused: They honey wheat pretzels were always a weakness with me... and tortilla chips w/ guacamole (can you say "Chipotle is evil!") Am I remembering wrong, or did your DH teach? If that's right, can you ask him something for me? I want to buy a used overhead projector, like they use in schools... the EMLO ones or whatever. There are several on ebay but shipping is a fortune - way more than the projector itself, and I don't need or want a new one. I thought if I could find some teachers to ask, maybe they'd know if the schools ever have sales or auctions for used/outdated equipment!

I'm in the 2s!! Ok guys so you know what just sort of hit me? Going by the numbers off my home scale, I'm "only" 16 pounds away from having lost 100 lbs. How did that happen? :confused: I've been so focused in one the day to day, week to week, that I've been forgetting to step back and focus on the larger picture. (I do the same thing when I shop... "Oh it's only $50"... well if I do that 6 times, it's now $300...") If I can lose those 16 lbs in 2 months, that will have me at 100 lbs lost 6 months post-op. I had set a personal goal of 100 lbs in the first year, so if I get there at 6 months we're going to get together and CELEBRATE! So help keep me on track for the next 2 months! :hail:

Bye honey, I'm going to Sam's Club, I need to buy some new purses...

I'm the same way, except instead of blisters my skin starts to "scale" and flake off. After the scales are gone, it looks just like a burn, but it continues to itch, with the same intensity of a mosquito bite. Tea tree oil does this to my face if I even think about putting any on. :confused: I use hydrocortizone, with little effect. I've used oatmeal baths & compresses and those do seem to help. If you try them, make sure you use the oatmeal water as well as the oatmeal itself - the water contains the oatmeal releases, and those oils do wonders for me. A friend told me about baking soda compresses, but I've never tried it - soak a washcloth in a mixture of 2 tablespoons of baking soda per pint of water. Apply to the area for at least 15 to 20 minutes.

Well... umm... are they happily married? :confused: You know, if I weren't already married, I have NO IDEA where I'd go to meet guys. No clue. DH and I kind of just ran into each other... and good thing, b/c I'm really bad at meeting people. I definitely can empathize.

I've lost nearly 100 lbs and I'm still nowhere close to weighing what my driver's license indicates! I am more likely to tell people "I've lost X pounds" than "I used to weigh X and now I weigh Y"... but if someone asked I would be honest about it. The only time I can remember it being tough was the first time I told my husband, about 3 years ago, when I first started a serious effort at a low carb diet. Actually I didn't even tell hem when I first started. He'd asked me what I weigh a few times... not prying... but I'd say "I want to weight THIS" and he'd say, "Oh, what do you weigh now?" or "How much would you have to lose to weigh that much?" So one day when I was weighing, I just called him over and had him look. It was a little tough... mainly because it was such a blow to my ego, and because I weigh more than people think I do (one perk to being tall!)... I didn't want him to look at me differently. Since that one time it's not too big of a deal with the handful of people I'm close to.

Hey Cate - as much as I think it'd be great fun to help send you off, you should take the time you need with your friends. If that means we have to wait until you make it to a support group during a visit later in the year, then we can wait. I've had to leave my friends, and I know how hard it can be -- go out with them, and don't worry about time or whether or not you can meet up with us... your friends are going to be the ones that you miss, and the ones that you'll want to fill your final memories. (I've lived here over 10 years and I STILL wish I'd spent more time with friends before we moved).

Guess whose scale has read below 300 consistently for 3 days now... I was afraid to believe it until it registered consistently for 3 days, because I tend to bounce a few pounds (my scale - fluctuates about 4 lbs). Ok so GRANTED, 298.2... but STILL... :whoo:

Liz - never think you have to settle for one or the other. I'm happily married, starting my PhD next year, and well-established in a professional career. I will plug along until pregnancy comes (at least another year away), then work as much school in as I can. Work will always be there. I love what I do, and make more than DH, so if either of us stays home it'll be him. He loves what he does too, but could make more money doing it as a freelance contractor anyway. And I can work from home. :confused:

What you're describing is a telecommuter position. The bad news is that very few places are willing to train someone to a telecommuting position, as there are usually a LOT of trained & seasoned people willing to telecommute. The good news is that some of the skills you list are ones that fit well with telecomuter positions. I can work from home in my position, which means I can also work remotely. For example, DH has to go to a training in a few months that's in San Francisco. Since he'll be in training all day, I'm going to go with him, and work from the hotel during the day. This means vacation at night, with no charge against my PTO. Woot! However, if you're talking about moving to another country (you mention Guatemala, don't know if you're wanting to move there or...) you will have a harder time, since most business here, esp. the ones willing to take on telecommuters, still have to operate within the convenience hours between the coasts. (My company does have a few who live abroad, and a small focus of telecommuters in Central America, but very few, and only at local wages). Anyway, here's a list of companies that are known to be telecommuter-friendly: http://www.2work-at-home.com/telecommute.shtml

Since you're confused about malabsorption... malabsorption is what allows bypass patients to lose weight so quickly. Long story short, part of the intestines that absorb nutrients & stuff from food is bypassed, so even though you consume it, you don't get anything from it. It's also why the dumping syndrome bypass patients get can be so severe. Different surgeons are biased in different directions. My surgeon, when asked by another patient, anwered that if one of his family members had to have WLS, he would want them to have the lap-band. To me, as he was my surgeon, learning that said a lot. A very good friend of mine had bypass and lost over 140 lbs in about 8 months. She is maintining at a sz 10. She says "I now understand some of the long term complications"... but she's only 2.5 yrs out. I don't have any details b/c this was in an email, but I'm eager to find out. I know that she does not, and has not for a while, look healthy. She's gaunt, pale... her energy is constantly low, and she has to go in for regular B12 shots. She has not come out and said, "I wish I had gotten the band", but it has been strongly implied in things she has shared with me.

Sorry, I promise I won't hijack, but the best me -- am I misreading or did you lose 31.5 inches in 3 months??? There's so little of you, where did they all come from? Share your secret? Please?? :confused:

30, no kids. I've been married over 8 years but for the first 6+ I was adamant about not having kids. I even tried to talk DH into getting snipped. Decided we wanted kids, someday... then decided I needed to be in better shape first. Having a child was my #2 reason for getting lap-band, second only to doing something about the weight before I started developing comorbidities.

Cate - I'm confused! Which really just means all is right with the world... "I can see the two needle sticks from before right hwere it hits" What two needle sticks? You mean from your fills? Or something on the bra is sticking you like a needle? :confused: But no, I can't think of any way that it would mess up your port.

I've tried the papaya enzyme. All it has done is taste nasty and turn my PB orange. I've not tried the meat tendeizer, though I did buy some at the store tonight. How much do you do? Just put as much in a teaspoon of water as you can get to disolve?

Yup, looks like only 2 or 3 of those girls are casual.

Depends partially on the audience. If it's mostly guys, go woth something more... how should I put it... "revealing". If you want to be more respectable/classy (i.e. if you expect many women in the audience - moms of young gamers and such), go with #3. Really it's about whatever image you want to sell to the audience, and that image will come from the demographics.

I would try an appeal if I were in your shoes. It doesn't make any sense for them to pay for your band, but then not pay for complications with it, or to get it to where it's working. But that's just me, and although I work for an insurance company, it's something I truly know nothing about. Ok guys, I just had to PB at work. That was something I was hoping to avoid forever, but no such luck. I guess I took too big of a bite of my FF turkey dog or something, because I got stuck... burped, felt better for about 5 mins, thought that was the end of it, then slowly started started feeling stuck again even though I hadn't eaten anything else... and it just progressed. Trying to be smart I went downstairs to the first floor (public business, top 2 floors are provate businesses) b/c it's much more empty, and doesn't have the constant stream of people in & out of the bathrooms that we do. Got in a stall, started getting that horrible I pain I get, that literally makes it hard to breathe... and wouldn't you know it, some lady and a little girl come in. So I'm trying to hold it, because - who wants to hear someone puking, but dammit, they won't just get down to business. They're having cute little conversations about how toilet paper is made, where the soap in the dispensers comes from... and I just can't hold it back anymore. I dry heave a few times, relatively quietly... no help... whatever's stuck just isn't wanting to move... so I give up and just position myself over the toidy... pain gets worse, to the point where the panic starts to set in and I'm literally having to gasp to breathe... I can't keep up with the sliming so I have a nice little Rapunzel rope of spit between me and the bowl... there's a picture of grace and feminity... esp. considering I'd already tied my skirt around my waist and tucked my shirt into my underwear to keep them out of the way. Finally after about 3 minutes of this PURE HELL *irp* it comes... sounds worse than it was... I'm thrilled because I can breathe again... and I hear the lady say "Come on we have to go right now" and the little girl says, "But mommy I have to wash my hands and kill the germs" and the mother says, "We'll find some other bathroom to wash your hands in we have to go RIGHT NOW. Hurry up!" *sigh* I'd thought about saying something when I heard her come in, about how she might not want to come in just then, but I didn't... *sigh* I *hate* the pain that comes with a PB. I *wish* I was one of the people whose PBs are no more of an event than a burp or cough. I don't mind the PB itself because it stops the pain, but damn - in the minutes leading up to the PB, it's relentless. It got so hard to breathe that I literally started getting light-headed, my hearing partially blanked out, and I was getting tunnel vision. No fun!