HeatherO

Judy, I agree about a rainy and dreary day, yuck. I see you are in Michigan so we are not too far apart . . . we probably have the same weather. I also found that carrying the flailing, unhappy baby outside while lugging a stuffed diaper bag, an extra blanket, a binky in hand and maneuvering in the pouring rain with a big umbrella trying to get sucked away in the wind is trying to say the least, double yuckkk. Jane, I am so happy your hsa is fixed :0). Pam, I am freezing - please send a warm front our way. Mae, 10-15 pounds is really not that far to go. I bet if you do the 5 day pouch test diet, you might be able to get some off really quickly. Haydee, Your pics' are beautiful. I can already imagine you as a blushing bride. Have you given any thought yet as to how you will want to wear your hair on the big day??? I haven't done a 5K in more than a year, I should drag my but back to the gym to get back in shape again, lol. I hope you have a lovely time. :0)

Suzy, that is awesome news about the job. Isn't it funny how jobs just land on your lap sometimes??? I have not been on the market for a job since I first graduated from college 12 years ago because every change in roles or company changes was basically offered to me through colleagues I had worked with previously.

Judy, refund a dollar for the penny phone, lol. I am going to have to take a look at Amazon. Laura, I hope your knee is better. It reminds me of being at taco bell when my son started seriously choking on a taco shell when he was about 18 months old. Everyone just looked at me . . . not a soul tried to help. I had to do the baby heimlich on my own and he puked it up all over the floor. It seems like more people are born with the ignore gene as opposed to the help gene. Haydee, love the shoes and I also like dress #2. Speaking of all the fimming going on, this is the first summer in my life that I was not in a pool, lake, sea or anything else. It has been a crazy summer. Hello to everyone else!!! I am having a funky problem with my landlord. I own a house which I rent out. It is in the country but I rent a different house in the city to be close to work. I need to sell the old house but the timing has been bad with this economy that I thought we'd rent termporarily and sell later. My company has gone through layoffs paring down our company from 150+ employees to less than 50 so I didn't want to have 2 mortgages at the same time. Anyways, she has gone crazy and we decided to move unexpectedly. We are leaving within the terms of the lease so no problem there and the house has been well cared for while in our care. The day before I landed in the hospital with my slipped band, she came to the house to complete a new lease because the old one expired and we were now month-to-month tenants. She raised the rent considerably, she said we were required to stain and seal an external shed which had the front replaced due to rotting wood which failed the city inspection, she wanted us to install a new sink because the 30+ years old sink had a couple of stain marks inside due to the old enamel wearing away. She also mentioned that she would like us to replace the kitchen cabinetry because the paint was beginning to chip slightly (original paint that is 30+ years old). On top of all this, she wanted cash upfront to have professional landscapers to come out several times a year to cleanup leaves (we didn't even have any leaves down at that point in time and we always clean them ourselves. She left a $500 estimate from the landscaper to prune trees, bushes, use chemicals to weedblock and remulch everything with no mention of leaves). We are only responsible for lawn care and weed and pest control per our lease. She also said she was unhappy with the way I kept house because she found dust on the ceiling fan in the kitchen, there was a fingerprint on the white upstairs banister and dust behind the refrigerator (In all truthfullness, it has been at least a year since I looked behind the refrigerator so phooey on me). She even opened the oven to run her finger on the back bottom to see if I was cleaning sufficiently . . . no complaints so it must have been clean enough. My house is cleaner than most, WTF . . . I think it is rude and pretentious for someone to come in with the white glove to critique my cleaning abilities although I was delinquent on dust control behind the refrigerator, so sue me. I sent a certified/return receipt letter to her terminating our lease as of 10/31. She came back a week later never mentioning the letter that she did sign for and said we were the best tenants she ever had, the house looks wonderful, she is so happy with us she wanted to give me a hug (twice) and that she would like to renegotiate the lease. I told her to go ahead and resubmit the lease, we would consider it. She created a new one, and in all truthfullness, she did remove all of the offending items. However, I am still extremely p*ssed with her. I sent her another followup letter stating that we were still terminating the lease, I want the security deposit back in full and also mentioned that we were leaving due to safety concerns since the house has failed inspection for the past three years for "electrical concerns." With the economy so bad this past year or two, there are many houses for rent in the area wanting 300-500 less per month than what she was getting (I was paying market rent from a time when the economy and housing prices where at a high 3 years ago for a large upscale house in an upscale neighborhood on a quiet cul-du-sac). These houses actually have up-to-date appliances, flooring, lack of 30 year old wallpaper, etc. I really think it is impossible for her to find someone else at this time of year for the price she wants without completely updating the house . . . and I don't feel bad for her at all. I can't remember ever being so upset with someone in my life that I had just a casual business relationship with.

I am happy the thread is open again and back to normalcy. I was an infrequent poster but frequent reader. Krtork, I am really sorry about your dog. It is sooo hard to wake up to something unexpected like that. Heartfire, I had an unfortunate experience after camping where my son left the car window open and a racoon got in the car. It was eating cookies and had dumped a kerosene latern in the car. I had a hard time getting it out (open the door and running, lol). It took more than a year of cleanings before the car lost that oh so fragrant kerosene scent. If I am in the same room with my baby and sneeze she is awake for an hour or more, lol. It makes me nuts :0)

It was normal for me to drink 1 cup of soup 4 days out. You may have a lot less stomach swelling than some others 4 days out. Everyone is different. I remember talking with my doctor about quantities and he mentioned that other than watching the calories and making sure you are staying in the guidelines or the correct diet phase for liquids/mushies/etc quantity is not as important as making sure you are not feeling uncomfortable or not following the rules for the stage.

Oh, one last thing I forgot to mention. My band doctor has a policy that if you go in for a fill/unfill, if you have to return before two weeks have gone by, the second return visit is free. Perhaps you should check with your doctor to see if that is the case for you as well.

Good idea, flushing it through beforehand makes a lot of sense. Warmer liquids help to flush it through even better.

I agree with taking mucinex to thin out the mucous a little. If you can get fluids down easily enough, it might be worth going to a liquid diet for a couple of days until you feel better. Hot liquids like tea and chicken broth are going to work better for you then cold liquids. I also avoid dairy during those times because for me it seems to clog me up worse somehow. Drinking a lot of Water for me also seems to help clear up the mucous faster but that might just be anecdotal. If you can't get liquids down then an unfill is definitely in order. I am not your doctor so going by what your doctor says is always better. For me, I have been in that position before and just waiting it out for a couple of days worked fine. Plus going to liquids for a couple of days usually helps me to lose a little faster for those days. After you have been banded for a long time, you learn that there will be those occasional instances where you are tighter than usual. As long as you can get liquids down and it doesn't last for more than a few days, waiting it out seems to work fine.

Sorry if I am posting everyone to death, lol. I guess I am making up for not posting for most of a week. LOL, I am novel prone sometimes. I have to force myself to stop typing or going off on tangents. I seem to think a million miles a minute and type very fast. Funny thing is, if you met me you would see that I am actually a fairly quiet person with a gentle nature. I am more of a listener than a talker. Speaking of which, I really would love to meet Kat (and the rest of you of course) in person one day. I wonder if our personalities are fairly alike since we are both so detailed in writing, lol. OK, I promise I will give posting a break for a little while. :scared2:

I am only about 25 minutes from there. I live in a quiet suburb on a cul-de-sac right outside the city. It is great because it is the best of both worlds, 20-30 minutes can get you to the heart of the city or the heart of the country . . . . or anywhere in between. It really suits me. If you were traveling with Bob, I would have loved to get together to show you the sights or take you out for a nice dinner, lol. Actually this is an open invitation for any of the Vi's. If you are anywhere near me, even if it is an hour or two away, I would love to get together. Cleveland is not a place you think of to go on vacation, but when you are here there are lots of interesting things to see and do. :0) Just don't come in January or February unless you like trudging through snow up to you knees or if you are into winter sports, lol.

I just typed a big post and . . . it dissappeared. Aaaargh, I guess I don't have time to go into it again, lol. Happy Friday every one!!!! Michelle, I am still very very jealous. I hope you have a lovely time.

Sorry if the last post was too long . . . it was just an emotional memory for me that makes me want to explain it well.

Congratulations and good luck. What ages are you considering??? Being a foster parent can be so rewarding but emotionally taxing as well. I found for me that I had a really tough time letting them go. I am still in touch with two of them from time to time 10 years later, lol. I really enjoyed it for the most part. One thing that really amazed and saddened me is that some of the kids had been bounced from house to house to house and had actually had very bad things happen to them while inside other foster homes. Not everyone who provides a home for children actually care for them or try to protect them. One other thing that you should be cognizant of is that sometimes caseworkers are not completely honest with you. This is not meant to scare you but I just want you to be aware that caseworkers have to find placements for their children. I had one that was dishonest with me so she could make a a placement and gave me a distaste for the system. Every other caseworker I had was good to excellent. I had a child in my home for about 1.5 years who was 16 years old, developmentally delayed and was in special classes and suffered from bipolar disorder. He was a real sweety 80% of the time when his medication levels were stable. Sometimes he would be too excited and couldn't settle and would be virtually bouncing off the walls. Other times he would be very sad and broken hearted and didn't want to go to school. He was occasionally challenging but the rewarding times far exceeded the challenging times. He was one of those children that did not really have much prospects for adoption due to his age and his special needs . . . and also I am sorry to say this, it was also hard to place him because he was biracial as well and even just 10 short years ago it was more difficult than it is today. The caseworker said it was really hard to even find a foster home for him because of these things. One day when this child was having a bad day, he was upstairs in his room and started throwing things. He put a hole in the wall, threw stuff out of the 2nd floor window onto the roof, was upset and almost inconsolable. I sat with him for awhile and started talking him down (I mean consoling and trying to calm him). When he was in a state, you had to stay calm and relaxing in order to get him back to normal - anger or threats of grounding would only make it worse. He calmed down and helped me clean up his room. I went out on the roof to bring things inside, and lo and behold I saw soggy pink pills on the roof (it must not have rained for a couple of days). They were the little pink pills he had to take and for several days before bed he must have been keeping hem in his mouth until I walked out of the room and then spitting them on the roof right outside his window. Well, no wonder things were a little out of hand. I knew he was not himself. Later that same day my son came downstairs upset. He said that the boy kept calling him into his room and he thinks he is hiding in the closet but my son didn't want to go. Well, I went upstairs, looked in his closet and he was in there with no pants on. As a parent it scared me half to death and I panicked. I called the caseworker and said she had to find another placement for him immediately and that it wasn't working out any longer. We talked about the issues and I also talked carefully with my child to make sure he wasn't abused in anyway and he said he wasn't. I also took him to a child psychologist to be evaluated and talk about the issues and the psychologist also said that he didn't feel that he was abused in any way, he seemed happy and normal for a 7.5 year old. I thank God to this day that he wasn't harmed and I still pray for the child that was in my home that suffered a horrible life and had considerable challenges. Even to this day I still have love and affection for him regardless of what happened if that makes any sense. Later I met with the manager of the caseworker and said I wanted to review his file further and find out more about what happened to him and if he was getting counseling and find out where he went. I was heartbroken for him as well because now my home was just one of too many to count that had rejected him over the years. At that time I discovered that one of the reasons he was placed in care in the first place was due to sexual abuse by his father (this was not told to me previously, I was only told about neglect and an inability to deal with his issues). The reason he was removed from the prior home was because he beat a small child with a coat hanger (I was told that they thought it was too difficult with his mood swings and medication needs . . . it just wasn't a good fit). There was also a complaint in another home about inappropriate behaviors around smaller children. The manager at that point had changed his classification that he was not to be put in a home with younger children any longer. He was then considered a restricted placement which made the likelihood of a good placement even more difficult. Later he was placed with an older African-American couple that were heavily involved with the church and were well versed in his history. I met them and they were very nice. I also met with him a couple of times afterwards and although he was sad he wasn't in my home any longer, he was happy with his new school and the couple he was living with. I met with them because I wanted him to know that I missed him and still cared for him. If the caseworker had been honest with me, I wouldn't have accepted him for a placement because of the areas of "concern" regarding smaller children. She knew this and decided it was OK to hide this so that she could make the placement. She thought it was OK to risk the well-being of my child by not being honest about the past. I found that she dissapeared from the agency when I asked about her 2 weeks later and I suspect my complaints had something to do with that. So, long story, but strong word of advice. You need to review the full file so that you have a complete history on any child they consider placing with you. I doubt this kind of thing happens often, but it does happen. I was so broken up about this that I never took another new child afterwards and just kept the other child living in my home for another year or so until he moved on. I just didn't have the heart for it anymore because I feel like in some ways I failed that child by giving him up so abruptly but there was no other choice for me.

Wow . . . he is absolutely adorable. He has so much hair. My daughter has a wee bit but it looks like they are similar in that the hair they do have sticks straight up, lol. Now that she is 3.5 months out, it has gotten so much easier to be a new mom. She is a happy baby who sleeps through the night most nights (with one feeding sometime between 5 am to 7 am for 20 minutes but I can live with that). She can now entertain herself and doesn't need to be held all the time. If I am in the kitchen cooking or cleaning, I just bring her swing in and she babbles away watching me walk around, lol. As long as I am in the same room, give her a kiss or a squeeze every once in awhile and babble back or sing, she is content for 30-60 minutes at a stretch. :mad: It just seems to get easier and easier and I am sure it will for you as well.

Thanks. I feel like a million bucks now. It is so wonderful to be healthy again. Do you have some pictures to share??? Perhaps on Facebook or Myspace . . . . if you have them we can send a Private Message to get connected.

Sorry, long post but I have been away from LBT for a little while. Jane, I know Excel inside and out. Go to Tools, AutoCorrect Options, go to the AutoCorrect tab and scroll down to replace “h s a” with “h a s” and delete the line. Your problem will be permanently solved (If you have the same version as me) without turning off AutoCorrect altogether. Judy, I hope the Bobster is feeling much better. He will be in my ‘hood if he is coming to Cleveland. You and Ethan have been fimming so much this year . . . what will you do once the pool is closed??? :0) I am happy Grady is sleeping through the night. Ayla has moved to her own room and has been sleeping through the night most nights for several weeks now . . . and I feel like a new woman. It is just too hard to go through the day in zombie mode while not drinking coffee because you are breastfeeding. Michelle, I so wanna go to Disney. Maybe when Ayla’s is a couple of years older we may just have to go. I also clean before every trip because I love to come home to a perfect house. :0) Haydee, I have never been to New Orleans but I really would love to see it one day. I love Cajun cooking and my mother was from the south so I was raised with a southern influence as far as what we ate as children. I am so jealous of the new car. I am soo ready for a new one but am not sure what I want. Splitting tasks with Juan is a great idea . . . you will need that if you have a new baby for sure. Laura, Can you get some kind of guarantee or something if they replace the port and it doesn’t fix the issue? Too bad you can’t pay half for a half-assed cleaning job. Maybe your parents can have a “talk” with the letter sender but have a recording device ($25 bucks at Radio Shack and records great which can be downloaded to a computer). The law here says you can record conversations as long as one party (your parents) are aware of the recording and as long as they don’t try to blackmail or threaten the other party with it. Maybe if they phrase it correctly and really know the person well, they can get them to admit they sent it. I’m sorry about what is going on with your sister. Being an enabler always does more harm than good. It sucks to be in the middle. Suzy, Are you doing foster care? I did it for years when my son was young. I don’t think they ever mentioned a tetanus shot. Just background checks, house inspections, home studies and training credits required. Kat, moderating is a pain. I don’t really spend much time on other threads anymore because of some of the childishness or I am bored with the gazillion variations of the same old thread. I wonder if that is why most posters are newbies, long time bandsters seem to drift away. I can think of a couple of posters that I don’t bother to read anything they write anymore. One in particular is an opinionated, religiously oriented person who is constantly looking down her nose at everyone who has the slightest difference of opinion in the rants section. This bores me so much that I stop looking at some threads that I usually find interesting. It is this thread (and the pregnancy threads for most of the past year) that keep me coming back. Laura mentioned something about people wanting Susan to step down . . . I think that would be terrible because from what I have seen, she seems to be a very valuable and welcome resource here. I am not a TV kind of person but I watched Glee when I was feeding the baby. I thought it was funny and very entertaining . . . I am definitely going to look for it again in the future.

I was just thinking about this topic again. What do I miss most about soda??? I think I miss popping the top on the cans. I always drank it out of cans and I miss just having a can of something that you can throw in a cooler. There used to be diet lemonade (non-sparkling version) but I can no longer find it in the stores. They seem to only have the full sugar versions anymore. This might sound crazy but I think drinking diet pop to me was like smoking for some people. I would go to the grocery store at late at night if I ran out, lol. I would always have some stashed in the car if I was going anywhere for a couple of hours. I think it was a caffeine mixed with carbonation addiction for me. I am happy that the addicion is over, lol. This is anecdotal I know, but has anyone ever noticed that the majority of people in our lives that drink diet soda are usually heavy and the ones that drink the full sugar version are usually normal or light. What is up with that??? Wouldn't you think it should be the other way around??? Anyways, diet soda never helped me to get to where I needed to be weight wise. I would never trade my normal BMI for soda now. Good riddance to the diet soda in exchange for a much happier and healthier me. :0)

I agree. The neti-pot works fine but it is not always necessary. Even just rinsing with water works great, saline is better, and the neti-pot would be the highest level . . . but they all work. :0)

Michelle, Aqua Tai Chi sounds awesome and there is nothing better than soaking in a bubbly hot tub after a good workout, except maybe hanging out in the sauna, lol. Judy, I have suffered with reflux every night this summer before my band was replaced. It is awful and it really tears your throat up. I ended up with a perpetual cough that was only due to irritation in my throat. I really hope you feel better soon. I did have it last summer as well before I got pregnant but a small un-fill instantly fixed it. Pamela, Have you ever heard of a neti-pot? I had continuous sinus issues and congestion due to allergies for almost all of my adult life but they are almost non-existent now. A neti-pot works great if you are really congested or sick but I actually just cup my hand and snort some water up my nose about three times in a row every day (not strong enough to go anywhere but in the sinus cavity) and then I blow it back out and it has eliminated 90% + of my problems without medication. A quick search lead me to this website if you are curious to see it: http://www.healingdaily.com/exercise/neti-pot.htm. It looks gross and sounds gross but it really works . . . sorry if I sound like a commercial. I have to say that if I made eggs in coconut oil every morning for breakfast . . . I would lose a lot of weight because the thought kind of grosses me out, lol. Laura, I didn’t know what a lovey was either at first. I actually have 2 as gifts and didn’t even know what they were called, lol. They have silken borders that Ayla loves to slobber on. J I guess you learn something new everyday. My son had some bad experiences in daycare at about ages 2-3 and I went to private in-home care. However, I know there are a lot of good daycares out there and one bad experience doesn’t mean anything in the larger scheme of things. Every daycare is different. Your best bet when you are searching is to pop in at different times of day and see if they will give you a walk-through of all the rooms so you can get a feel for the atmosphere. I would never recommend going during open house times because you know that everyone is geared up for company. I think daycare can be very good for learning socialization skills at that age if you have an only child or if other children in the household are considerably younger. Ayla actually goes to my best friends mother-in-law. She is Turkish and does not speak more than a handful of words in English but this is fine for us because we speak the same language. We are happy with this because we want her to be fully bilingual and she gets tons of English exposure but she will need more Turkish exposure since we primarily speak English at home (unless my son is listening in on a private conversation and we don’t want him to know what we are saying, lol). She is absolutely wonderful and I know that Ayla is very well cared for every day. Janie, as far as the kick me goes . . . I am sending one your way, lol. Actually for me, it is always hard to find motivation again but if I can find the strength to stay on task for 1 week, it gets soooo much easier and becomes second nature afterwards for at least a few weeks to a few months. Ayla got transferred from our room and bassinet/our bed occasionally to her crib in her own room about two weeks ago. It worked beautifully. Most nights she sleeps from 10:00 to 4:00 or 5:00 AM, drinks a bottle for about 20 minutes and then sleeps again until 7:00 or so. The night before last she didn’t wake up for her early morning feeding. I would say for all intents and purposes she is sleeping through the night unless she is feeling a little sick and then that flies out the window. My son never slept through the night until he was more than one year old. I tried to let him cry it out but it didn’t work. Every child is soooo different it can be amazing. Perhaps if I had Ayla first I would have more than 2 kids, lol. Haydee, I would make my own invitations but that is just me. So I was wondering, if you plan weddings for other people, does that make planning your own super easy to do? Do you get huge business discounts on items because of your profession?

I just want to say that you are awesome. Not only going from almost 400 to the 160's, but maintaining it for 2 years is an inspiratiion for us all.

I agree with this 110%. The closer I got to goal the more I had to make changes to keep the loss going, which was a slow loss, but I was OK as long as I was still moving in the right direction. I only got to a normal BMI by switching up routines whenever things would slow. This would involve changing exercise routines or the amount of time they would take, calorie switching and I did use the 5 day pouch test a couple of times when I was really in a slump and it got me moving again. As far as switching up exercise and/or calories . . . sometimes I went up, sometimes I went down. All I had to do was play with it until my body found its way out of a rut. I really feel that this is what moved me from the mediocre, expected weight loss and reaching my smoking hot goal. I highly recommend these methods for anyone who is struggling to exceed expectations but have hit a bump in the road to success and your own personal goals. We can all do this . . . we just need to make our decision on where we want to be in the end and have the courage to do what it takes to get there.

If you are closed up on an empty band and having bad reflux, you probably should go get checked out unless it works itself out in a day or two. I just had to go for a barium swallow because my band closed up while it was empty and I was having reflux every night, several times a night. They said things didn't look right, did an EGD and found I had slipped on an empty band while I was in the hospital after having my baby. I was still able to take things in because my pouch had dilated, but evetually things would come back up, mostly at night with reflux. My band was replaced a little over a week ago. I know when it slipped because I could feel it. It involved a lot of back pain near my bra line and I couldn't eat or drink anything very easily for a couple weeks thereafter (but I could still get liquids in). I think after it slipped is when my pouch began dilating. It happened because I took the first darvocet in my life in the hospital and vomited terribly. I found that my band is extremely sensitive to hormone fluctuations. I never had a problem until I became pregnant. I really think that is why I had problems with sporadic tightening. I also think those extreme hormone fluctuations immediately after having a baby may have contributed to the slip as well.

Judy, I feel so bad that you have been dealing with these church woes for so long. It seems never ending and who wants to be separated from their family during times of worship??? Suzanne, I always wanted to be on a board just for the experience. Maybe I am lucky I haven't had that exposure just yet, lol. I also always wanted to do jury duty out of curiousity but they never call me :0)

I also drink before I eat until a few minutes before the next meal. This is acceptable to my band surgeon. Like RestlessMonkey and others, it is not really a question of whether or not you drink while you eat or immediately afterwards. It hurts too much and sometimes liquid comes right back up. Hmmm. I drank soda during pregnancy because I had no fill and was entirely open. I ended up with a slipped band and dilated pouch. My band had to be replaced one week ago. The surgeon said the dilation was caused partially by soda and partially by having a slip for an extended period. The gas expands in your pouch and the gas doesn't escape fast enough. Yes it escapes eventually, just not quickly enough. If you have read very many posts regarding banding, most people complain about gas problems post banding. It is difficult to relieve it and there is a lot of it . . . and that is when you are not drinking soda. Throw soda on top of it and it makes sense you might just have a problem. If you do get banded, gas is one of the first things that will give you problems and you might look at this discussion differently at that time. You would think that, like liquid, gas should also be able to flow back and forth fairly easily but experience for most of us with bands tells us different. Could all of those surgeons possibly be wrong??? There are many points upon which different surgeons disagree . . . but the "no soda" rule seems to be uniform across most. Many of us decide to pick and choose which rules we want to follow . . . unfortunately some of us suffer dire consequences for doing so. I agree on checking on the rationale behind some rules but I think this one is better followed than ignored from personal experience. For your own sake and the health of your band-to-be, please be careful about what you choose to do or not do post banding. Too many of us make our own decisions to not follow some of the band rules and either don't lose, don't lose as much as we want or cause irreversible damage to our bands. Is she holier-than-thou because she has a different opinion than yours post banding? I guarantee you that your feelings on a lot of subjects pertaining to banding will change dramatically once you have the experience of being banded yourself. It happens to all of us since experience is one of our greatest teachers. In my opinion, I don't think Crystal Light if really much different nutritionally than soda. However, post banding you are supposed to avoid soda due to pouch dilation so CL is indeed a better choice than soda given dietary restrictions. Studies have also shown that sugar substitutes can lead to weight gain in some people due to a multitude of reasons, but that would apply to both diet soda, CL and a ton of other beverages. Good luck with banding.

Wow, Haydee . . . are your offices on the wrong end of town or what???