riley4183

THAT is exactly why we post-ops stay on this pre-op thread . . . thanks for the compliment Tamra! Good morning all . . . got up in time to go to the gym before work, but my computer sucked me in . . . I think today will be dead at work, so I should be able to get out and walk a bit. Happy Thanksgiving Eve everyone!!

Maria, I don't like the sound of that. It should have cleared your pouch in that 2 hours. There may be something wrong . . . . please call and leave a message for Liz . . . . . better safe than sorry!!

Good morning, and thank you all for your thoughts, prayers and blessings - I felt them, I really did! Better this morning; I have a busy day at work and I love my job so that's all good. Up a pound this morning, which should not be a big suprise considering the carbs I was stuffing yesterday! Today my big goal is to drink drink drink. Water I mean, and herbal tea . . 16 oz down so far . . . did the gym this morning, 20 minutes cardio (300+ calories) and 30 minutes weights . . . probably another 100 calories - and I brought a good breakfast and lunch which I am NOT going to ignore today! Have a great Tuesday everyone

Congrats Pat! Sounds like you are going to have your surgery right when you wanted it! Good thing you got the pillow :-) I go do my La-Band talk in the 14-week Kaiser class on December 1st, that is the meeting night at James & Sherry's house so I will miss that meeting :-( but I always like talking to the pre-op class Today sucked; went to my friend John's funeral today; he was only 55. Did OK before and during, too upset to really eat at the after-service shindig - one good thing about this band, I CANNOT eat when I am upset! - but when I got back to work I kind of fell apart, I did not want to be alone for some reason, I was all creeped out feeling like John was going to walk through the door anytime, icky feeling. I was desparate for company and so I kind of followed my coworkers everywhere and ate what they ate and drank what they drank - it just felt really really weird. Snack snack snack all afternoon, chocolate, etc I did not care. I had packed my lunch but I never even opened it. ~sigh~ a bad day, but crap what did I expect? Then when I got home, like and idiot I tried to eat a piece of toast with butter, NOT going to go down - 9 months out and I STILL can't eat toast, but I was pitiful, even when I knew it wasn't going to work I was still like sucking the butter off of it, very sad. . . and I PBed it, for the first time in a long, long, long time I never ever PB anymore. I already can't eat w/band when I am upset, and I have not been able to eat bread or toast since I was banded, so why did I think I could do it today???? Self-sabotage?? I dunno . . . I'm a wreck! Better now, but I WAS a wreck. UGH. I have decided (and journaled) that I am forgiving myself and that's that. One day of stupid and sorrow isn't going to hurt me long-term. So I feel better now, but still creeped out from John's death. He died last Wednesday but I just plain didn't process it until today. UGH. One kind of good thing happened: There were quite a few people there at the funeral who had not seen me for well over a year. Three of them - one who I stood next to for like 10 minutes, and two who were seated near me - did not recognize me for LONG periods of time - like 20 minutes - until someone said my name. Looking right at me, they were. Each of them, at different times. WEIRD. It makes me wonder if they ever really saw me when I was fat . . . OK I am too weird to be on here tonight! Please include my friend Kathy Joyce in your prayers tonight - John's long time girlfriend, she was having a tough tough time of it today. And his partners and childhood friends, Robbie and Mark. Thanks you guys :-) I knew today was going to be tough, and it's been my first really emotionally challenging day since my band, and while I did try to fall back onto food for comfort, my band stopped me from going too far, and that part did NOT make me sad - it made me glad. OK enough. Goodnight ladies.

Maria they did not have them at my Target, so I had to go to Wal-Mart - you might want to go online & find out before ya drive out there . . . TINA!! Heading out for T-day and Disneyland, are ya? I'm jealous!! Have a BLAST

Maria, you poor thing! Glad you got off the meds - they made me see snakes, LOL Cream of wheat makes you hungrier. Try to get a much higher level of Protein, cream of chick has hardly any unless you puree some chicken in with it. Slightly thicker Soups will help too; try split pea with ground-up (REALLY ground-up - a la Magic Bullet) ham. When I was Stage 2 I would walk down to the Chinese take-out place and but some hot & sour soup, bring it home & put it in the Bullet. YUM Also I did that with chili - added plain soy milk to make it thin enough and that really filled me up, but I found out later that Beans were a no-no for months after surgery . . oh well.

I think you got your statistics wrong!! You should get some clarification - the rate of serious complications from a Lap-Band is 1/1000, DEFINATELY not 1/5. Perhaps they were saying that they do 1 lap-band in every 5 bariatric surgeries, that would be about right since most get RNY

The DKNYs that I wore on our walk in Vallejo just went in the pile too - I thought they were 12s, they are 14s! No wonder they got so baggy :-) Speaking of walks, I'm going to go take one - the NASCAR race sucks, a bad last 1/2 of the Chase for my driver. And with Jimmie Johnson making history as 1st to win the Cup 4 times in a row . . .I can't watch. TTYL, as Tamra would say!

Next 2 pairs are Wrangler men's, 32-30 - fit but no good 4 my butt :-) Give-away Another pair of junior 11s, "Rio" brand?!? Nice butt; get drawer space. Levi's 14 stretch?? Oops, give-away! I wonder if I was ever missing those. Oh! Rockies! I used to love my ass in Rockies . . . 38 length? Where the heck did I get these? 33 waist, OMG - rats! They are too loose. But but butt . . . . boo-hoo. I am going to wash them in hot and dry them on hotter! And apparently tuck them into boots because they are 5" too long! Who is really tall and wears about a 12? Couple more thinner materials, clearly too short - go in the give-away pile. Two "dressy" 8s. from a friend who recently lost inches (Sensa) and went from a 10 to a 6, poor me I get her clothes :-) and she never buys somethig that's not designed. I have a special drawer for her stuff; she was hips/thighs like mine and my shape will be a lot like hers when I'm done with this journey. That's it for today! I have clothes to give away, people - especially jeans. Oh and still some size 14 and 16 career dresses that I can part with now that I've found eBay . . . . they need to be dry-cleaned, shoulders are dusty from so many tears of hanging unworn but they are up for grabs!!

You guys are funny! OK I am doing the 22 pairs right now, and really amusing myself! The 5 pairs of 5's I just left on the closet shelf - this is supposed to be uplifting, not a downer. WELL I started with a pair of bright red Zena jeans, a junior's size 11 with a waist that looks like it'd fit Barbie. I tried them first because I thought, ya gads they are bright red, if I'm not going to be able to wear them by Christmas I' just going to give them away. Yes, Pat, I had to lie down on the bed to zip them, but zip them I did! And they are hot :-) They get drawer space. Next some black jeans, fit but too short and material is too thin to hold my pannus in. Give-away pile CUTE size 10 painter pants, khaki came next, fit great nice ass Riley! But too short! I considered rolling them up, but it's winter and by next summer they will bee too big in the arse so - give-away pile. OK I broke into the genuine Levi's, 501s and 505. At my very tiniest teenage twiggy stage, I wore a 29 32. This first pair are a 32 30, they seem long enough but far too tiny. Well they pulled up, and it was a minor miracle but I somehow flopped around on the bed enough to zip the. Wow . . . now I know what they mean by "muffin top"!! I am a giant muffin. I never knew it came out the back of the jeans, too. Sheeez. I'm going to get these off - hopefully I won't have to make my way downstairs for a can opener . . . BRB with more pants -

Here's an idea to get your appetites under control: do an ab workout at the gym! OMG . . . . ya know how you are SO not hungry in the week after surgery, and it feels like you did to many sit-ups? Well I just re-created that lovely feeling - OUCH - but not really hungry! :thumbup:

Band date is in my siggy . . . . I did not do sleeve because 1) wasn't a choice when I went through the program, but more importantly, it's much more invasive than the band - still involves a great deal of cutting and stapling, like RNY but without the re-routing. I would have considered it if Kaiser had offered it at the time, but would still have chosen the band, and it was the right choice for me :-)

OK I don't want to hear ANY one of you say that they can't go salsa dancing - watch THIS!!! If she can do it, WE sure can!! YouTube - Never underestimate an old gal

YAY TAMRA! You go girl!! Nothing is an motivating as a little drop on the ol' scale, is it? You're in the home stretch now; keep it up!!

I just counted 22 pairs of jeans that I have here @ home that I have to try on today . . . . ugh. Most of them are probably WAY too small yet, but sometimes clothes get by me when I'm not looking so I'm going to try them and sort them into piles - can zip but not breathe; can pull up over butt but not zip; can pull halfway up thighs, and 'oh hell no.'

Monique you best NOT eat a slice of pizza! Pull the toppings off and eat that; do NOT eat that crust! You could really hurt yourself doing that girl . . . . . you worry me!

Ha ha, only twice - but the day is young! :thumbup:

I had surgery on a Monday and went back the next Monday (desk job), but the first 2 days I could only handle it until noon. I got an infection on day 4 and I had to take some awful antibiotics to cure it - they made my sick and tired. I honestly felt better on day 4 than day 7 - if I had not gotten the infection, I would have been fine with 4 days. Your port is going to sting for weeks anyways! Good luck, and congratulations for making this choice! You will be so glad that you did :thumbup:

Candra do you see that upswing in my weight loss graph, not the flat line that's recent but the line that actually turns and starts going back UP the darned hill back in April? That was when I was waiting for my first fill! You will go back down the hill after your fill - promise!!

Lee, you are doing great! Candra hunny . . . . frontal lobotamies, bottle in frontamies . . all the same. Wellbutrin worked that way for me too; now I have Tofranil very low dose - works. I forget that I was obsessed with eating a minute ago. Sounds like estrogen to me, dear - you know, that hormone that's stored in your fat, and when you lose a bunch of that fat it gets released and pulses through your body causing neurosis until you can get it out of there? I'm serious here - drink a LOT of water, non-caff beverages to flush that crap out. And yes counseling, even if you feel better on Monday - the structure needs to be in place before you need it. If that doesn't work, call me & we'll go drink :thumbup: Love ya!

That's cause you haven't seen the pillsbury (doughboy) rolls!! Shopping for the right compression-wear (or -ware) now :-) Check my graph - this is COOL - boy that weight loss sure does slow down doesn't it . . . .

Ah but Maria, you will understand this - my port shows under the dress! Darned thing is so sticky-outty after working my abs at the gym today - it's crazy!! When I turn sideways I can definately see it! Looks like a mini-boob . . . . oh joy . . . .

I bought this dress on eBay for $8.50 . . it's a slinky little 10 . . I figured if I worked hard, I could wear it by New Years - a motivational piece, ya know. WELL I got it last night, and guess what? I stepped in and zipped it right up! Fits like a glove. A glove with a lot of lumps, but it fits! Girls I am steppin' out this holiday season . . . .

Sorry I don't know any bad band stories, except john's 2 failed attempts and my infection and a few of this group's emergency unfills . . . that's about it. Really no "bad" stories out of Kaiser, I think they are mostly out of Mexico. Kaiser Richmond is one of the top facilities in the nation - no worries :-) Well I did it, went to the gym at 5 am and did my cardio for an hour, then went back at 1 for resistance training - REALLY helpful to have someone who knows what they are doing! Sge is going to work with me again Monday at lunch, so I will be hitting the gym twice then, too. SO. After gym & back to work for an hour, I went to the eye doc that I had asked my PCP to refer me to . . . .I don't know if you guys have noticed, but the skin above my eyes is so excessive that you can't even see my eyelashes - it just droops/bags/whatever. Covers that top portion of my field of vision. So I went in today, told the doc that this problem has gotten much worse after losing 115 lbs., that I compensate by tilting my head back to see better and that is causing me neck and back pain, and he's like, say no more - you need the surgery. I bet they did not warn you about this when you got the lap-band - well no, they did not! He says it's usually only in folks over 50, well lucky me I have had it (to a lesser degree) since age 16! So he says congratulations on my weight loss, I look great etc., and will look even better after my surgery. KAISER IS DOING MY EYE LIFT!! For my co-pay!!!!! They determined it was medically necessary in like 8 seconds. I LOVE KAISER!!! The journaling is really working folks! Someone mentioned cognative therapy, I am a big fan! And I highly recommend it! It was the basis of my "overcoming emotional eating" class (which I refer to as my "head-hunger class", they are startinga new one next week - the 24th, runs for 4 weeks so perfect for getting through the holidays! I am not taking that session, but am taking the session that starts in January. The mental stuff is for sure the hardest part of this journey - and probably the most important thing to get a handle on for life.

170.4 for me this morning - it took me a whole month to lose that one pound! You guys are doing GREAT!