HeatherO

I am sorry it has been so rough going for you. I wish you the best of luck in the future.

It is true that some people are rude . . . but sometimes they don't even realize it. If she is from a different country, perhaps it is not considered so bad to joke around about it. I have a good friend from another country that said "oh I remember you were so fat before" . . . I was horrifically embarrassed at that moment, but I know she never meant it in a way that was insulting, I think it was actually her way of complimenting me. Try not to take things too personally regardless of where it comes from or how it is intended . . . you are you and no-one can judge you. You can also tell someone who makes that social faux pas that you don't appreciate those kinds of comments. Usually that nips it in the bud unles they were intending to be hurtful.

I also hope everything is OK. Even without insurance, I am sure the surgeons office would speak to you and give you suggestions. This is nothing to wait around and hope it gets better on its own.

I used to weigh myself off and on throughout the day in the beginning. That was when I was in the more rapid loss phase. Now that I am more in maintenance mode, maybe only a couple of times a month.

I dont think there is necessarily a window. However, it is easier to lose weight in the beginning because at a higher weight, your body uses more calories to maintain your body and the weight drops faster. It is also easier to lose weight in the beginning because motivation is higher and you start with a liquid diet. I can see that if a person does not follow the program and bandster rules in the beginning after banding and has minimal or no success at banding once they reach restriction . . . then chances of future success are diminished. You have to be committed to the lifestyle. If you are committed, then I think you can find success at banding during any point in the journey whether it is in the first 6 months or 10 years down the road.

What they said

I don't have any regrets . . . I didn't jump into banding lightly. I had already tried to lose the weight on my own and had moderate success but kept going back to where I was before eventually. The difference with banding - I lost the weight and almost two years later I haven't regained. Every day is not a complete struggle with food. My successes with dieting in the past were always connected with feelings of deprivation and a feast or famine mindset. Now, I eat when I am hungry, accept cravings for what they are when I am not truly hungry and move on. I still occasionally struggle, but my weight is no longer the bane of my existence nor is food my primary driving force. There is no comparison between banding and dieting for me.

I like to do wraps now. They work pretty well and go down easy enough.

Hello everyone . . . Happy Friday. I am soo ready for the weekend. Thank goodness it is almost here.

Hello everyone . . . it is a beautiful fall day here. I hope we are going to have a mild winter. OK , , , I must admit, my first fill didn't hardly do squat. I can pb on mini-wheats in the morning but can eat a horse with plenty of bread and rice on the side for dinner. I am definitely going in for fill #2 at the end of this month. I am completely healed and healthy again, but started to be an oinker at dinner time so I need to work on that. I also realized that making the dishes my dh loves and I hate helps with dieting. Last night I made something called kuru fasulye which is lamb seared in olive oil to brown it and then slow cooked in navy beans with lots of onion, tomato, garlic, peppers and some tomato and pepper paste thrown in with salad and rice pilaf on the side. While it sounds pretty good, I abhor any white beans like navy, butter, etc. My dh detests beans that are brown like navy, black beans, pinto, etc. He won't touch chili. The only place where we meet in the middle is chickpeas and greenbeans. What a fine couple we make, lol.

I had to have a band replacement in early September due to a bad slip that occurred when I was in the hospital giving birth to my daughter in June. I am still here to talk about it. However, I did get critically ill and had to spend one week in the hospital. My potassium had dropped to 2.5 (critically low enough to begin having heart issues with a definite risk of death if I had not been healthy before I had gotten so ill) and I had to stay in the hospital for several days before I was well enough for a surgeon to even consider touching me to begin to correct the problem. Of course there are risks of any surgery and they are extremely small with the lapband. However, statistics seem to fly out the window when you happen to be the one with the rare, serious issue.

I have to watch Glee tonight :0). I really luv that show. Sorry I have been MIA lately . . . my life has been busybusybusybusy, it never ends.

I hope everyone has a great weekend as well. I haven't posted in a few days . . . but this has been a crazy week. I am working on the final project to complete my masters. I have to write a paper that has to range between 50 to 1000 pages, lol. Anyway, I had to put the structure together, write a preface, background, start some subsections and put together a reasonable research plan. Initial research is always time consuming, but if you put a good structure together it helps to tame the beast so that it becomes workable. I feel like I have a good handle on the project which is great. I can occasionally get lost in research . . . spending massive amounts of time chasing tangents without getting reasonable results, lol. Perhaps Pamela can also attest to this phenomenon. :0) My move is complete and now I am waiting to hear about my security deposit. I am really curious how that is going to go. The house was in perfect shape and tenants were moving in at the same time as I was finishing up the garage. My landlord didn't even clean afterwards . . . she just assumed I would do it all and it would be ready to go. The thing about it is . . . she was right, I cleaned every nook and cranny. Either she was taking a big risk or she knows me too well, lol. I am still reallllyyyy angry with this women. It is unlike me to stay angry at anyone for more than a day but she really ruffled my feathers in a bad way. I need to let it go because holding on to negativity only makes me hungry, lol.

Hello everyone, Grady was absolutely adorable in his little dragon costume. :0) I should post a zebra picture of Ayla when I get home. Wow Haydee, it is not just you, your sisters are beautiful as well. You must have some good genes to pass on to the wee one yet to be, lol. Janie, I go through that as well sometimes . . . lost time over the weekends which is somehow over in the blink of an eye. I could sure use a few weekends like that now, lol. I haven't seen any posts from Kat lately . . . is she away for awhile or did I miss a post? Getting a dumpster is an excellent idea. I just threw away loads of stuff that was weighing me down with my move. Although it was hard for me to let go of somethings (why do I get so attached to material objects???), I feel clean and refreshed now, lol. I am sure you will feel like a million bucks as well after cleaning out. Mae, congrats on being so close to goal and will the weightwatchers job. I think it will be a lot of fun to work there and motivate others when possible. Laura, poor starving college student . . . I would have been too embarrassed to do that when I was a poor starving college student. Speaking of trick-or-treating - there were almost no kids out where I live. It was an odd year.

LOL, getting a new license is great fun. You know you are a bandster when . . . you go into renew your license and discover you weigh considerably less than the "pretend" number you told them last time, lol. This actually happened to me last year.

My first band was a Realize band. I didn't have restriction after my first fill but the second put me at my sweet spot and I lost almost all of my weight on this fill. I had a slip and band replacement to a 14cc Allergan band. I just had my first fill on Tuesday and I can already feel some restriction. For some of us it comes really fast, for others it is a very slow process. I think a lot of it has to do with how aggressive the doctors are with the fills. Kiz I luvvvv your ticker :0) I was also curious about your name. Kiz in turkish is girl . . . did you choose it for this reason or some other??

My doctor insisted that I just leave them as is until they fall off . . . they stayed for a couple of weeks and healed up perfectly.

One thing I forgot to mention was regarding the source of the problem. It could indeed be gas as is the case for most people. This generally gets better after a few days. It could also be referred pain from your diaphragm that a lot of us experience post abdominal surgery. Sometimes this pain can last for weeks and diminish very slowly over time.

Everyone provided excellent advice regarding how to deal with the issue. I have had the pain as well . . . sharp pinching that is very painful and feels like a horse kicked me in the area between your shoulder and neck. Massage and soaking my shoulder/neck area in a very hot bath helped (with my belly exposed above the Water so my incisions didn't get wet). One thing that does concern me is that you say the pain is in the left shoulder/heart area. I never felt the pain in the heart area. I would say that any pain in the heart area should require a doctors visit or at the very minimum a phone call just to be on the safe side. We can only advise someone based on our own personal experiences but we can't be sure there is not a more serious issue at hand. Any concern at all related to the heart or that general area is best presented to your doctor. I hope you feel better soon.

Ayla's schedule is usually 9 PM to 9 AM . . . or something like that. I can't see putting her to bed earlier because we miss her too much during the day and we want to spend some time with her. I am afraid we might be spoiling her a bit. After waiting all day to see her, she gets constant attention at night amongst the rest of the family. Her babysitter is also the kind of person that gives her tons of one on one attention throughout the day. I am not sure she is going to know how to entertain herself in the future.

I started my capstone MBA course on strategic management last night. I went to work at 8 AM, signed a new lease over lunch and didn't have time to relax, left work to drive to school at 5:00 and arrived at 6:05 (class starts at 6:00) and class finished 1 hour early at 9:00. I missed dinner and was starving so I went through DQ and got a hot dog which I preceded to eat bunless as I was driving. I thought I was being careful with it, eating slowly and chewing well. I ended up pb'ing into a plastic bag on the highway at around 9:30 at night . . . yuck. Not a pleasant drive home . . . but the silver lining is that my band must be working, lol. I think I will need to relearn the bandster rules (or suffer the consequences) after being unfilled for most of a year.

Happy Friday. I love, love, love Halloween with all of the festivities. I am also so pleased that I now have a small child to enjoy it with, lol. My 17 year old has been much to sophisticated to enjoy it much for several years now, lol. Ayla will be a zebra. She looks absolutely adorable in her costume. I will be taking some other friends around with me from house to house. Ayla will not actually trick or treat but she will get to enjoy all of the eye candy with the colorful costumes while we are walking on the street, lol.

Thanks :0) I think she is pretty darn cute myself . . . of course I am biased, lol. :sad:

Rice can get stuck once you are at restriction. It can either be painful and slowly go down or come back up again. However, everyone is so different - many people can eat it, some can't eat it at all. For me, I can eat about a teaspoon of rice with a meal as long as I am eating it along with other things. I luvvvv sushi and I can eat that as well, but I have to take off the majority of the rice in order for it to go down well. As long as I am careful and don't overdo it, rice is fine.

Congratulations and thanks for a great post. Here's to another successful year :0)