lellow

Come on down, hun! I'd be happy to show you around! Australia is beautiful, and Perth (where I am) is particularly laid back. You'd love it! I do! The silicone spray is called Kelo-cote, and it's made in the US. I looked long and hard to find a supplier in Australia. You start using it once your scars are closed over, so you can still get it now because you won't be using it yet for a couple of weeks yet. Check out makemeheal.com - I'm pretty sure they sell it online. I've also read about Arnica Montana and Staphysagria, but am not sure how available they are over here. Might have a look for them at my local health shop this Wed. Thanks for all the tips you've given us, Jeni! I apprciate how generous you've been with your advice. :crying:

Thanks for the tip, Jeni. I still haven't gotten round to getting a toilet riser, but will definitely put a wedge pillow on my list. As for the silicone spray - I've read that silicone assists the healing of scarring so that it doesn't form keloids (raised scars). I'm also olive-skinned, and silicone apparently can help with reducing discolouration too. Some of my lapband scars are raised and darkened, so if a silicone spray will reduce that sort of thing, I'm willing to give it a try!

Here are two NSVs where I've taken insults as compliments! My son got bitten by a kid at daycare, and I went to complain to the kid's mother. In the argument that ensued, she called me a 'skinny cow'!!! I think I took the wind out of her sails by grinning like a Cheshire Cat at her 'abuse'! My dad hadn't seen me since Christmas, when I was nearly 8kgs (almost 18lbs) heavier. When I saw him this last week, he told me that I needed to stop losing weight because I'm starting to look 'wierd'!! He later admitted that he's not used to seeing me as a regular size person, and he just 'can't get used to it'.

I've doing okay. My starting weight was 158.4lbs and I wanted to get to 150lbs by the 1st of April and as of Friday I was 152lbs. BUT I get completely unfilled on Tuesday the 24th of March in preparation for my body lift surgery, and will remain unfilled until the 7th of April. So while I would love to get to 150lbs, I think that if I don't GAIN after being unfilled, I'll be ecstatic.

Hi guys, I did weigh myself on Friday but got swamped at work and couldn't post. Last week: 69.9kgs This week: 69.1kgs (152lbs) Lost: 0.7kgs I'm back to exercising as of today and, so far, am experiencing no pain. Am hoping to get down another kilo before my op on the 2nd of April - it's one and half weeks away still. Don't know if I can do it, but I'm going to try!! I also get completely unfilled on Tues (the 24th) in preparation for my op, so if I do lose any weight from then on, let alone 1kg, I'll have a lot of celebrate!!

Thanks Juli. I think I will be having the surgery. I haven't had a call from my PS saying otherwise so far. I've actually been on Iron supplements for the last three months, and it's only increased my blood count marginally from my BT when I had my lapband surgery. But I guess I still had the lapband surgery despite my low count, so I think I should be okay. Just probably won't be able to donate any more blood though.

I would probably go and ask for a really small fill. Maybe 0.1 or 0.2cc. I only had a 0.25cc put in for my last fill because I was sure that too much would make me feel too tight, and that tiny amount seemed to do the trick. 0.1cc shouldn't tip you over into 'too tight' and may be just enough so that you're not feeling hungry between meals again.

It is hard but you get used to it eventually. I still check the clock to see what time I've finished dinner, so I know exactly when I can go get a huge glass of Water (1/2 hour later). It feels wierd for a while to not drink when you eat, but like all habits, after a while, it becomes less wierd.

I was covered by insurance, and I'm definitely not a slow loser. So yes, I think it may be an over-generalisation to associate how you pay with whether you're successful.

Welcome lou! I know it's hard to imagine being that much smaller, but it can be done! How tall are you? I think it's a good idea to have graduated goals - get to 99kgs first, then reassess and see how you're going. You may find at that point, losing that remaining 30kgs won't seem so impossible! I was also banded by Steve Watson, and I have to say, I am grateful every single day for having taken the step. Good luck with the Optifast diet too - the first three days are the worst, and then it gets easier to bear.

I'm scheduled for the 2nd of April, Jeni. I'm nervous but seeing how well you've come through it emotionally has helped me heaps!

Thanks mrgrta, I can't believe I'm only two weeks away, either! I went to give a unit of my own blood yesterday and discovered I'm borderline anaemic and have low blood pressure. They ended up taking 300cc from me anyway (instead of the 450cc they originally wanted) and are now saying that they're not sure I'll be able to donate the 2nd unit next week, JIC I end up with too low a blood count for surgery. Am feeling a bit fatigued today because of the donation, too. I hope this doesn't affect my ability to actually have the surgery. I would be devastated if after all this, it got postponed. Still haven't finished my shopping for the surgery either. Spent most of yesterday in bed after the blood donation, so didn't get anything done. Still can't exercise due to my injured inner thigh muscle, too, so am feeling a little low at the moment.

I'm only 300 grams from 'goal', and last week hurt my adductor muscle (inner thigh) and have been told by my family dr to rest and not exercise for at least 2 weeks! I can't believe how frustrated I'm feeling, knowing that goal is just one measly lb away and I CAN'T EXERCISE! Just a vent. Can't do anything about it. Just peeved.

Thanks lapbandtalker! It was a real anti-climax actually! Lol! And even though I haven't been exercising due to my injury, I'm still losing, so I don't think my body's quite done yet.

Excellent news Juli (well except the paying part! Lol!) My surgeon said I could start exercising slowly from 2 weeks post op too, building up to my normal regime by 6 weeks post op. And yeah, no more crunches for me ever again, he reckons! Not long now for us! I'm super excited! I keep wobbling my jelly belly and saying to my DH, you better take one long last look, it's going to be gone soon!

Congratulations Katy! That is really something to be proud of! I too had a slightly higher BMI as my goal weight, a goal set by my Dr, but I'm still losing too (albeit slower, but still losing!).

Jeni, it's great to see you posting with such positivity so soon after surgery! How is the swelling? Can you see what you will look like once it all goes down?

Morning all, well I've finally hit (and surpassed) my Dr's goal. I officially have lost 100% of my excess weight. It was a bit of an anti-climax, actually! I would still like to get to 150lbs before my body lift on the 2nd of April, so will still be posting my losses every Friday until I get to that weight. Last week: 70.4kgs (154.9lbs) This week: 69.7kgs (153.3lbs) Loss: 0.7kgs (1.6lbs) Exercise: 1 X 1 hour bike ride around my neighbourhood on Saturday. I hurt my adductor muscle on that ride, and haven't been able to exercise since. I will try introducing exercise slowly again this weekend, depending on how the muscle has healed. Hope everyone managed good losses this week!

I too don't think I'll get to goal this challenge, but will try my best. I only have 2 and a half weeks to get there, and with my injured inner thigh muscle, I don't know how I'll go. Start: 158.4lbs Now: 153.3lbs Lost: 5.2lbs To go: 3.3lbs ktork, I hope the plateau breaks for you soon! It's the most frustrating thing to do all the right things but not see that the numbers on those scales are moving down! Heartfire, I hope you feel better soon. You've been ill for ages!

Definitely would have it done again. Got to goal in 7 and a half months and am the lightest I've been since I was 16, which was over 13 years ago.

I actually found quite a lot of support here online. Not just in the August threads but out there in the general threads too. If I needed some motivation, there usually was someone happy to remind me of the band rules, and how much exercise gets easier the more you do it etc etc. I think looking for a buddy here might be a good idea if you're too far from anything else. And there's nothing to stop you from joining WW too on top of that. The Friday weigh ins have been very motivational for me too - I hate posting that I've not lost, or lost only a little. I was absolutely miserable the one week I posted a gain. Knowing I have that Friday weigh in to be accountable for meant I worked hard to lose each week every week. I also set myself realistic small goals: I only every expect to lose approx 1-2lbs a week, and I rewarded myself each time I lost 10lbs, with 4 pieces of new clothing. And each time I lost 10lbs, I went down a size in my clothes, just about. THAT was incredibly motivational. So I do think you can find motivation even if you can't physcially get to a support group. Good luck, matey. I know it's not easy to get into the frame of mind, but it can be done.

It's sooo normal that if you look around, you'll find tonnes of posts asking exacftly the same thing!

I can't say exactly why our ex-Australian Prime Minister decided to send our troops to Iraq. I suspect, however, that it was more due to the fact that the US remains our biggest and strongest ally, and therefore sending troops into a war that an important ally wished to engage in seemed the diplomatic thing to do. Even as we were preparing to send troops, the feeling was that we were doing it to support the US, and very little was done to even try to convince the Australian public that Sadam had WMDs. In fact Australia in general wasn't imminent danger even if Sadam had WMDs. The popular consensus here in Australia, to be honest, was that we didn't want our troops being sent to a war for no other reason than our govt wanting to stay in favour with our ally. Because I don't think many Australians really believed we were doing it to protect the world from Sadam Hussein. So it was very likely a purely political move for Australia to send troops to assist our ally, than any belief that there may be WMDs.

I lost 7-9lbs a month, and 9lbs only in the months I flogged myself with exercise. At 7-9lbs a month, I lost 57lbs in 6 months. I don't know about you, but I'm personally delighted with those results! Even if you're losing 6lbs a month, in 6 short months you would have lost 36lbs. In 12 months, you'd have lost 72lbs! The other thing, of course, is if you would like to lose more each month, then the best thing for it is to exercise, exercise, exercise!

Thanks everyone. I guess for me, I believed that not being able to exercise meant that I'd stop losing. But I haven't - I hit goal this morning. It was a lot more anti-climatic than I thought it would be actually!