TheGh0st

Breathe in, Breath out. We are all thinking of you. Even if you don't start another thread make sure to let us know you are doing OK as soon as you are up to it.

You go girl! Never stop Raving!!!

I got the idea from a show on TV as well. It was called "Ten Years Younger" Not the weekly 1/2 or maybe 1 hour series but a 10-week mini-documentary that followed the journey of a group of people in Miami Florida trying to look 10-years younger. One of the women had some thin, loose skin albiet nothing like mine on her stomach. After 8 weeks of aggressive massages the stomach looked completely flat. They didn't explain how frequently or how long the massage sessions lasted only that it spanned 8 weeks and was intense enough to almost be painful at times. I still thought it looked a bit too good to be true so I only did one arm to start hoping to make it easier to see a difference. within a month the arm I was working was 3-4" smaller than the other arm. I say that shows some effectiveness. The next question I have which I have no answer for is do I need to keep this up now for the rest of my life to maintain the tone? or now that I've regained some tone is it here to stay?

Hey Angela or anyone else know where Billie is now? I was thinking of sending her a Christmas card. I really mis her.

I hope you are in bed by now and trying to get at least a couple hours sleep before your surgery. I'll be saying a prayer for you. Bring us updates as soon as your up to it.

Good Grief Steph that's terrible! Keep an eye on her. (as if you aren't already) The last job I was at where I was the only female before they hired a second. Within 6 months of her being hired she had successfully worked her way into the owner's trousers and me out of my job. Supposedly she had convinced the owner that my position was redundant and no longer needed but low and behold within 2 weeks of my being "laid off" she convinced him she made a mistake and he hired her daughter.

Good Luck on your consult. Ask Questions, Questions, Questions like Julie says. Good Luck on your arms. Can't wait to hear how it goes.

Me too!! I'm currently working as a bookkeeper for a construction equipment business with 7 guys, but they are bringing on a female salesperson starting the first of the year and all I can think about is how I wish they hadn't hired a woman. I'm totally freaked that she is going to try to walk all over me and treat me like someone "beneath" her that she can order and push around. What's wrong with us? We should be able to stick together and support each other but it has only worked that way for me in a workplace setting once in 20 years.

PB - "Productive Burp" No worries I think it took me nearly a year to figure out what the initials actually stood for even though I had figured out the gist of what it was referring to.

Amen Sister - There has been WAY!!!! Too much of that going around here lately, wether it be by newbies, oldies, tweenies, etc. etc. ad nauseum. Both in and out of the Rants and Rave area which this isn't by the way despite the tone of many of the posts. And NO I am NOT being passive aggressive by not listing the names of those who are behaving more like this is RNR than the Feedback & Suggestions forum, I am only being too lazy to look for and list everyone (including myself after this post) but if anyone chooses to claim that I am I promise I will start screaming so loud my co-workers will be thinking its time for the nice little white men to visit me. Good grief the people making the passive aggressive accusations frequently come off looking even more passive aggressive than the person who they are responding to. I can't wait for the holidays to get over and for the members of this board to start behaving a bit better. ARGHHHHHH!!!!!

Argot - My heart and prayers go out to you as well. I wish I had some wonderful words of wisdom for you but alas I do not. Still I wanted to thankyou for sharing what you are going through with us and applaud you sticking by your wife these past 25+ years. I can't presume to know what you or your wife are going through but I also suffer from some issues of abandonment and know it is hard on my husband at times. I feel my case is fairly mild and has definitely improved over the last two years since I was banded. (Not necessarily because I lost weight but because of the other changes that have occured during this weight loss proceess). The fears I battle have caused me to second guess and misinterpret even some of the most innocent comments (or lack thereof) at times and has definitely had an impact on our intimacy in the past. Strange I know, if I'm afraid he will leave me why would I withhold intimacy, but on my bad days it was like I was afraid that by being intimate I would be too exposed to him, allowing him to see the flaws in myself that I see, which would only speed that "inevitable" day when he decided to leave me. I never went so far as to cheat on him after we were married but these same issues lead me to problems with "faithfulness" in my pre-marriage relationships. Again the idea was if this one is only going to leave me too why not start looking for a new one now. I use to joke that my theme song was "If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with". Warped I realize now but at the time I couldn't break the pattern. If I were to hazard a guess into her thought process right now it would be something along the lines of "yeah, he's stuck by me, and tells me he loves me, he didn't even leave after I cheated each time BUT that's only because of the kids (if you have any), or because of money issues, or because he hasn't found anything better, or , or , or..." And not one of those or's would be because you really love her, at least in her mind. After all how can she possibly convince herself you are staying because you love her if she doesn't love herself? I know I definitely had that problem. I would think, Sure he says he loves me, he even thinks he loves me, but that's only because he doesn't really know the real me. Once he figures that out he'll be gone for sure. And like you said your losing weight would play into that fear that you might leave her if you found something better. And by losing wieght she will think it will be easier for you to find someone else or for them to find you. Again I wish I could tell you how to "fix" her but unfortunately she is really the only one that can do that. You sticking by her though does help more than you realize. After 25 years its hard to say it will get better, but I do think given some time for her to get use the new "banded" you things will hopefully calm back down to a new norm if not a better one.

I should also ask is it coming back up because you get nauseous (sp?) or because you feel too tight in the band? If it is the tightness then try the warm fluids and call your doc to explain what is happening. If it nausea than you should still call your doc but also ask him about getting you a prescription called in to help with the nausea. My doc gave me a prescription for a tablet that dissolved almost instantly in your mouth. It was much better than trying to swallow and keep down a tablet when I was already sick.

Start by trying to drink something warm in small sips. My personal favorite when I have a sore throat is hot (and very dark) tea mixed with Tang Orange mix, but anything warm should help. The warmth of the liquid should help thin out the mucus so it can get through the band (Gross image I know). There is also a belief that getting sick like this can irritate the tissues and cause swelling making you feel tighter when you are sick. The warm fluids may help with that swelling as well. I am NOT a doctor nor do I play one on TV so I don't know the science or validity behind my statements. But I have found it made me feel better in the past. You might also want to call your band doc and see if they would be willing to squeeze you in for a small unfill if it doesn't get better soon. You don't want to risk any complications with the band due to your cold/flu making it too tight right now.

Julie - I'm not sure if you may have misread Living's post or are possibly just poking fun back at her. Just in case, Living didn't use the quote button correctly. She was actually trying to criticize Tiki's original post. I agree with Living. It is odd that someone would find this thread and take the time to sign up just to post such a ignorant comment then disappear which looking at Tikki's profile info is exactly what appears to have happened.

OMG! That is terrible! And I promise as soon as I can get myself back up off the floor from laughing so hard I can't breathe, I will send you the most appropriate condolences. Part of my hysterics are because your stoy reminded me of the last time my grandmother (God rest her soul) took a flight to California to visit her sister. She was a very large lady herself and always waited until she landed to go to the restroom but this time she just couldn't wait and decided to risk going on the plane. But wouldn't you just know it though as she was sitting on the too small seat they hit an air pocket and her Derrière became firmly stuck in the seat. She couldn't get out to save her life and was too proud to call for help. (Lord help me I'm laughing while I write this) She ended up sitting in the loo all the way until the plane landed and a flight attendant found her still sitting there. They tried everything to get her out, pulling, lubricating, eventually they had to physically cut the toilet off her. It just goes to show no matter how bad you've got it someone else has been there, done that and even worse. Seriously, we all have at least one if not a dozen similar stories that led us to this point in our lives. And it WILL get better. I look forward to seeing you on the band-side of life and watching your progress unfold.

:p"Isopuke" - Love that name! I tried several and thought nearly all of them were just plain awful and inedible. But the GrapeFrost flavor wasn't too bad I'll still drink it from time to time when I'm trying to kickstart some more weightloss. It's better if you mix it with some Crystal Light lemonade mix.

I agree 100%, Infact I believe PS WON'T fix any head issues over a persons body image. But I believe just as strongly that the band didn't "fix" the head issues that contributed to my getting severly obese either. What the band did for me was make it possible for me to work on my head issues more successfully than I ever had in the past. That has also been my opinion of Plastic Surgery. NOT that it will fix my head issues, but that it will help in some small way make it easier for me to find my own inner strength to overcome those negative inner voices. I admire those women (and men) who don't hear (or heed) the voices, I just am not one of them. And yes, 6-1/2 weeks out from PS the voices are still here but they are only whispering in comparison to the shouting I heard before. It reminds me of a commercial I see on TV here in the US for the band with a woman comparing her hunger pre-band to the roar of a lion and that post band to the Yeowl of a large tabby cat.

Each doc probably gives different reccomendations, especially depending on the extent of the surgery. (amount of skin, lipo, length of surgery, etc.) For my surgery, it lasted about 4-1/2 hours, the incision went out past my hips on both sides, between 11 & 12 pounds in skin & lipo was removed. The doc wanted me to take at least 4 weeks off work. However, in the end I worked 2 3-hour days after 1 week (with my drains still in) 1/2 time after 2 weeks and full time after 3. Mind you I work a sit down bookkeeping job and had help both getting and putting away files & making copies all the way through the first month after my surgery. So far it APPEARS my insolence has not caused any harm outside of possibly some extra swelling. But that does NOT mean I reccomend anyone else follow in my footsteps. My actions could have caused (and for all I know may still cause) any number of complications I don't even realize. Unfortunately I'm a bit stubborn and known for not following medical advice. I was also back to work only 3 days after my gallbladder surgery and even worse less than a week after having my son via C-section. Infact the PS thinks maybe that is one reason the internal scar tissue in my C-section area was as bad as it was.

I fall into that use to HATE it think people were NUTS category. But after being drug along last year for the first time with my DS & DM I've caught the bug. This year I wasn't back home to go out with them but still drug my sorry backside out of bed at 2:30am aft 3 hours of sleep to be in line for the first store opening at 4am. I shopped 7 different stores, spent at least 2 weeks wages and was home before noon. Sad thing is the majority of what I bought was for me, not for anyone else's X-mas. My crazy, cunning plan is to ask for these same items for Christmas from my family. If they get them for me I'll return what I bought, if not then well I got it a bunch cheaper than I would have after the holidays. Last year I did something similar and got an unintentional added bonus when I couldn't find my receipt for some DVD's I needed to return. I remembered I'd paid around $19 for them but the store gave me over $50 in store credit for their return. I tried to tell the clerk I paid less but since I didn't have the receipt she said it was easier to give me back thier current price than to give me less.

No worries. Just curious is all. I'm no one to judge after all you should hear all my excus..er..um..reasons I have for not having done my scar massages twice a day as the PS ordered. I keep kicking myself in the rear to get on track but haven't done it more than once every other day for the last 10+ days. I'm telling myself now that Thanksgiving is over I'm going to get back on track. I paid enough money for this I really should be doing my part to get the best results possible.

Name...........Chall. Start Wt........Current......Chall. Goal...........To Go TheGh0st...............169....................163 .............169......................6 My goal right now is just to get back to my ticker weight. I'd actually like to set it at 159 but at this point I'm too chicken to set a more aggressive goal for fear of failure. My doc says its just swelling from my recent surgery. I hope he is right and I can revise my goal in a week or two.

Jersey & JFC Below is a link to a thread that I posted some pics of my arms on. I also talk about it in more depth on page 14 of this thread. I only ask that you take some before measurements if not pics and then let me know if it works for you. wombat - I know what you mean I've got one bum shoulder myself and don't rub my arms near as much any more as it aggrevates the problem. I did see somewhere else on LBT and on some other sites that I googled that claimed that you could improve your skin tone/elasticity (along with a whole host of other claims) just by brushing your arms or other body parts with a natural boar's bristle brush. I went so far as to buy a brush and have used it a few times on my legs and arms but never took any before pics or measurements, and I haven't been doing it at all since the surgery. My hope was it wouldn't be so hard on my shoulder to simply brush my skin. And it might be easier to reach areas like my thighs with a brush. There is nothing in my book is a miracle cure for the excess skin, Your skin can only recover so much, maybe more with these methods, maybe not but still for people who have lost as much weight as we have I just don't see it as a cure. My personal hope was it would improve my arms enough that I can stop obsessing over my inability to afford the PS for my arms and be satisfied with whatever improvement it might give me. http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f109/excess-skin-questions-39989/ Oh and one more note on the skin. The *Experts*"?" say that your skin tone, elasticity can continue to improve for as long as 12-18 months after losing weight. Patience just isn't one of my virtues.

I'm so excited for you. This has got to be one of your best Thanksgivings ever.

Mexico - Same here. I'd researched it gotten quotes but my entire family was dead set against it. Not that any of them were offering to pay the difference ofcourse. Still to keep the peace I didn't pursue it any further (at least for now). Ofcourse down the road if I decide I just can't live with my arms or legs as is I may have to re-weigh the whole mexico vs family peace issue.

http://www.plasticsurgery.org/media/statistics/loader.cfm?url=/commonspot/security/getfile.cfm&PageID=23761 Found the above link the other day and thought it might be useful to post here. It lists the 2006 industry average prices for a variety of PS procedures. Mind you this is ONLY the surgeons fees not the complete cost including anethesia fees, facility fees, etc. But it's still useful as most docs will give you a quote with the prices broke down.