*susan*

Have you considered trying a site like FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal for a while to monitor just how many calories you are taking in? It may help you to determine if you are eating too much, or maybe not even enough.

As unfair as it seems, it is true that the junk seems to go down way to easily. Does your doctor ever do fills under flouro? If so, maybe he could do one that way to help better determine what is the appropriate amount of fill for you. I had been having some problems for the past couple of months, so we did my last one under flouro and I am at perfect restriction right now. I can pretty much eat anything except bread, just in small amounts.

Sheree, I am sorry you felt ignored! I promise you none of us meant to do that. We are all here for support, advice and friendship. Congratulations on getting your date. Does your doctor have you doing a liquid diet? If so, when do you start. Keep us posted on your progress.

I was self pay. We refinanced our home to cover the cost.

I like the carmel popcorn flavored rice cakes, they are great. For snacks, I tend to eat fruit cups, a small handful of cashews, 100 calories snacks, cheese and crackers or applesauce. As far as meals, I pretty much eat everything I used to, just in smaller portions.

Wow, what an awesome birthday present! Congratulations!

Hi there and welcome to LBT! I think it is great when couples go through the banding process together (even if it is a few weeks apart). What a great support system you can be for each other. I hope you get your insurance approved quickly and are in bandland soon!

I just wanted to jump in and say hello and welcome you to LBT!

Hi Jess, I am not from Oregon, but I wanted to welcome you to LBT anyways!

How do you do this? Is that through vonage or something? That sounds really cool.

You know, I have often wondered what the heck our president or other representatives sex life has to do with their ability to run the country. So what that Bill Clinton was having some fun on the side. As long as he was running the country well, what does it have to do with us? Why is it any of our business. That should have been between he and Hilary and no one else.

We have a neighbor who has made it clear to everyone that he works very hard during the week. Therefore, he does not want anyone to mow their lawns, trim their hedges, hammer, run scooters or make any other noise prior to noon on the weekends. I think that is a bit overboard. 9:00 seems reasonable to me. Our one neighbor gets out there sometimes at 7:00 am just to tick him off sometimes.

I am such a geeky, techy person. I can't live without my treo 750 or my laptop. I also can't live without tivo, peanut butter tracks ice cream (bad, I know) my hubby, kids or two dogs!

Sunta, I am so sorry that happened, but glad that everything is ok. I always get incredibly tight in the days before my period. Also, stress can cause you to tighen up as well. As far as drinking cold drinks, for me, that is a complete no-no. I have to drink everything at room temp in order to get it down. Hopefully you won't have to wait too long to get another fill. Just long enough for your tummy to recover.

Here is another reason for getting a slight unfill if you are overfilled. I was overfilled. I let it go for a week because I kept thinking it would get better. However, I could not even keep a drink of water down. I kept trying and trying to eat and drink, but everything would come right back up. So much so, that when I finally had enough and went to my doctor, I was dehydrated and had caused my band to slip from constantly bringing everything back up. I ended up having an unfill and fortunately after a month everything was fine and I am back on track again.

Hi and welcome. I understand your feeling regretful. I am assuming right now you are still on liquids? Once you are able to return to regular eating, I think those feelings will dissipate. Especially once you reach proper restriction and you start really losing the weight.

Hi Katherine, I just wanted to drop by and welcome you to LBT too!

Hi Christina, and welcome to LBT! Like the others said, the band is meant to be a permanent thing. However, if you did need to have it removed for some reason, it is 100% reversible. As far as what you need to do, you mentioned you don't have a doctor yet. I would recommend beginning the process by attending a seminar on the lapband in your area. Then, decide on the doctor and go from there. They will let you know what requirements you have to meet prior to the surgery, and it will also depend on if you are going private pay or insurance as well. However, most people have to have a sleep apnea study, psychiatric evaluation, dietician consult, ekg, basic blood work and go on a liquid diet for one to two weeks prior to the surgery. Keep us posted on your progress and let us know if you have any more questions.

Ok, am I the only person here that finds it amusing that the people doing all the complaining here are the exact same people who left during "the dark time" and started their own board. We haven't seem them do hardly any posting in months, and all of a sudden they are here complaining about our rants and raves section???!! Maybe they would be happier if we started a section about "cheese". Yes, that is sarcastic and they will know what I am talking about. This board is perfect as it is. I don't see that enough people have posted complaints about the top five to warrant a change to the way things are. It is easier to have people go in and change their options one time than to have those of us who like the board and the top five as it is to have to search every time we come to the board. And, as others have said, the top five is at the bottom. If they scroll all the way to the bottom, see all the forums, threads and posts that are directly related to the lapband along the way and then seen RNR topics in the top five and decide to leave the site because they think that is all this board is about, they aren't very astute, are they?

I am definitely going to "tivo" this.

I am on the "do not call" list as well. But, has anyone else besides me and my hubby started getting telemarketers calling them on their cell phone? This just started happening to us in the past couple of months and it really annoys me when my precious minutes that I pay for are wasted by people trying to sell me crap I don't want, and if I did, then I am intelligent enough to know where to go to find it!

What I am finding to be really annoying is when I post the page that comes up thanking me for posting and telling me I am being redirected to my post. That just bugs the bejeebers out of me!

I had to check in on this thread, I was so tired last night, I fell asleep on the couch at 8:30 and slept right through it. Thank goodness for Tivo! But, I couldn't wait until tonight to see who was voted off, so I had to come here and check. I am pretty shocked that Melinda is gone. But, I think she will do great regardless, she has an awesome voice. I like Jordin and Blake, but am rooting for Blake because he is more "today". Plus, he is a cutie!

This looks really good, I am going to give it a try. Thanks for posting it!

That is awesome news! Let us know how everything goes, I remember what an exciting time that was!