Devana

Man, I know, this gets into the headwork part. Is there any kind of support group you can get into?

Way to go!!!

What finally decided me to get banded was that I watched a documentary on obesity and heard the statistic that less than 4% of obese people who lose weight will keep it off. After all my yo-yo-ing I just knew that I would never be in that small percent. Once I made the decision, one of the biggest things I had to deal with was a certain amount of mourning for the change in my relationship to food that I was going to encounter. Once I was banded, however, I was so occupied with working the thing that I lost that sense of "loss". Welcome and good luck with your decision.

Welcome to LBT and congratulations on your surgery date!

Hi Jessica. Today was the day. How did you make out?

Welcome to LBT. So, how did it go today? Will you get a surgery date out of this?

Welcome Will. So do you have a date yet??

Hello and welcome to LBT. You posted this awhile ago. How are you doing now?

Way to go Joanne! How are you doing with your first fill?

Nice! What kind of fish?

BJean, I see a lot of people every day and there are a couple of things I've noticed about aging and care. For the most part, women seem to age better than men. Occasionally I'll see a husband who has to care for an ailing wife but more often than not it's the other way around. As the husband deteriorates, the wife works harder and harder often to the detriment of her own health. Eventually he'll have to go into care and she feels awful and guilty and goes through a personal crisis. Then after awhile, she'll start to live her own life a little bit and enjoy going out with girlfriends and being able to make or not make meals whenever she wants. Giddy freedom accompanied by more guilt. Eventually they'll get to the point where they say that they can't believe they lived that way for so many years. So many of these guys from that generation were very dominating and we all know how cranky chronic pain can make even the sweetest natured person, so they often would get worse as their health failed. I'm saying this is a generalization. I certainly know a few couples where it was the other way around.

The biggest difference is one has to make massive profits to keep shareholders happy, and the other has to provide the best possible health care for all.

I don't get the logic here. You're not paying health care bills, you're paying insurance premiums. That means that the money goes into a pot to be used for those that need it. Just by having insurance, you're contributing to the payment of other's health care needs. So now, just imagine if the health care insurance program is not making obscene profits. You still pay premiums, but way smaller ones ($15,000 still almost makes me throw up) and it's affordable for all. Same thing, take the profit out. Just by paying those (bloody awful outrageously high) premiums you're ALREADY paying for someone else's care. And guess what? If you ever get ill someone else will be paying for yours. It appears to me that the insurance companies, with their profits, are able to afford very good and clever PR and lobbying...........their victims are defending them. Be smarter than this!!

I hope she's continuing to improve, patty. My beloved MIL went through a similar thing, a bad gut bleed due to blood thinners. I was with her and I called everyone because I really thought she may not make it through the night. She did. The thing to remember through this is to make sure YOU get looked after. I know when a loved one is in trouble we tend to put ourselves last, sometimes to the detriment of our own well being.

Too funny, guys! What do you think of this Texas curriculum change?

Can I be your token Canuck?

BIG BIG ENORMOUS DIFFERENCE!!!! Private insurance companies.......how to get the biggest profits. Government insurance.......how to best provide the best care for all. Pretty straight forward. Your fear of evil socialism is clouding your thinking and allowing you to be a pawn of big business.

Too funny! Thanks everyone for injecting levity into a subject that is often wrought with fear. I have self filled and unfilled myself, and as well have filled and unfilled my band buddy. My dr. gave me a handful of huber needles for emergency use. The first time, it was an afternoon fill by the dr., and during the night I closed right up. My stomach must have swelled and I awoke literally choking, I couldn't breath and really thought for a minute that I was going to die. What had happened was all my stomach mucous couldn't go down because of the restriction, so it came up and into my trachea, making me unable to breathe. Very scary. After much heaving I managed to get some breath and decided to unfill right then and there. (My fill dr. was several hours trip away on the mainland so not quick and easy to get to.) It's not rocket science. Find the port and sterilise. I think the biggest risk is not infection if you're careful but possibly puncturing the tubing. I wouldn't do it if I couldn't find the port easily. I did my banding buddy in a similar emergency and gave her much needed relief. I've also had a fill from a dr. inexperienced with bands and he was so out of his comfort zone that I felt better doing it myself. I had to show him where to put it exactly and how to measure the saline. The only thing I didn't do was swab and push the plunger.

I've had lots of chiropractic adjustments since being banded. The only one I didn't have initially was "side posture", you know the one where top leg is bent. We felt that due to my large size we didn't want to risk increasing the intra-abdominal pressure in any way. Now that I'm not so bulky (but I'm still far from slim!) I get it done. How I had that adjustment done instead was face down with the table drop pieces set. Talk to your chiropractic doctor about it. He or she will work with it.

Catherine, what a bummer of an experience. It sounds like the group was nice except for those three. Some people can be such jerks. Obviously, one of the perks of losing weight (besides getting healthy) is being able to fit into smaller clothes. Do it your own way, girl! Shopping for new stuff is fun. I'm glad you got an apology from one of them anyway.

"Think about it -- if reason prevailed, how much wingnuttery would end?" Love the sentence, love the word. Here's to the prevailing of reason!

I have a Bamix immersion blender. This is my third in 30 years and it's a workhorse. I do everything with it from grinding coffee to making gravy on the stove and my favourite blueberry ice cream made with frozen blueberries, a bit of milk and a scoop of vanilla Protein powder. What I don't do much of is crush ice, mainly because I can't get my act together enough to keep ice made. It does do it, however. My son recently bought his own regular blender. ( I didn't encourage this, I did not want more junk on the counter!). I find it noisy, space consuming and a pain to clean compared to the Bamix. So for me, a Bamix is it, hands down. I don't know about the new Kitchenaid immersion blender, but I would not waste money on those other piece of crap brands. I see that Gordon Ramsey is endorsing the Bamix now.

I think a lot of this centres around whether or not one believes the bible is the one and only "word of God". I see three things: 1.) the old testament 2.) the "story of Jesus" 3.) and the purported words of Jesus That's a heck of a lot of stuff (and contradictions) to take on as a whole as the one and true way. When I discuss the contradictions with my Christian friends they always come back with "what that passage really means is.." It's like "God's word" is God's word unless it doesn't make sense, then He really meant something else.

Patty, this is kind of what I mean by being in the front seats at the theatre, and please, I really do not intend any value judgement by that. I know many Christians who are totally committed to their faith and yet still have an attitude of "One God and many paths", while remaining true to their faith.

Hell no, BJean. The US certainly doesn't have a monopoly on gullibility. There have been so many issues up here that I've just wanted to beat my head against the wall in frustration over. And, as I've posted in the past, this country has been amazingly enriched by the smart and astute draft evaders who came up in the '60's and '70's and stayed. We're a better place because of them. I posted on a different thread about my boys going over to the mainland to partake in some of the Olympic festivities and how incensed they were about the Coke pavilion. They felt Coke was trying to restrain and "brainwash" them. They have, in typical extreme teenage fashion, declared the Coca Cola corp to be an evil entity and have vowed never again to touch any of their products. What really astounded them, however, is what they saw as most people buying into the whole thing. They said that everyone was getting hyped up and cheering all the coke propaganda, and felt like they were the only ones who weren't. (I'm so proud of them, my free-thinking, analytical guys!)