Devana

Way to go Paulax!!

Holy smokes, Carl, that's tough. Is there any way you could get it done privately in Belgium? Remortgage your house or something like that? It certainly would be money well spent.

I and my friend Jane were banded in Mexico on the same day, June 29. I have a very high BMI and hers was about 32 I think. We both had similar amounts of post op pain, but I had a bit more of the referred diaphragm pain to the left shoulder. I lost 50 lbs very quickly then plateaued for a long while and am only just beginning to lose again. She has lost slowly and steadily with little plateaus and is now very close to her goal weight. She has just gone for a slight unfill because she has company coming from overseas and she wants suspicions on why she's eating so little. She has told me a number of times that it's the best money she's ever spent and she's looking wonderful. She can even fit into her teenage daughter's clothing now! Good luck with your journey.

That's wonderful, congratulations! More love.

T_O_M, install a google toolbar. It has a dandy little spell check that works with forums.

Welcome gal, I'm glad you're posting. Congratulations on your surgery. A whole new life awaits!

I missed the baseball one. I don't know anything about baseball!

Hi Cass, welcome to LBT. I can support what Lee has told you. Keep reading. There are many threads on all those subjects and you can always ask questions in them. All the best.

Welcome lakelady and congratulations for getting through all the hoops. So you'll be getting banded within a couple of months. That's great! Keep posting.

Welcome Carine. I've heard lots of positive things about Dr Oritz on LBT and I'll bet you will be just fine on your own. I flew down from Canada to a different doctor in TJ and although I had a friend with me who was banded at the same time, I was totally prepared to go alone and that would have been alright.

Hang in there. If you want this it will happen. Good luck with it all and I hope things speed up for you.

Mari, good luck with all this.

Derick, keep that thumb on the remote! Banish those ads from your presence!

I just checked. It was slow coming up but it was indeed there.

Welcome shay shay, and good luck with your plans.

Good luck with your decision, Sue. This is a great place for information and support.

She is so lucky to have you!

Many years ago I saw a powder pink vehicle coming towards me on the road and as I was snorting in derision I saw that it had vanity plates that said "I WON IT". My snort turned into a guffaw!

In my province in Canada each school district has a "price per pupil operating cost" or PPOC. The private and independent schools get a portion of the PPOC for each student depending on what their own operating costs are. If an independent school's own PPOC is equal to or lower than the school district's they get 50%. For example in our district, the PPOC is around $6000. The school my son is in spends just under that amount per student so we get $3000 per student from the government. If this was a more upmarket private school with lots of specialty teachers that would drive the cost up to over $6000 per pupil that school would receive only 20% or $2000 and therefore have to collect a lot more tuition from parents. Our school is very careful to stay under the provincial PPOC because we know the parent body would not be able to handle the increased tuition otherwise. Most of the independent schools in the province have no church affiliation (my son's school doesn't), however, it's my understanding that the church schools receive money from the churches and therefore can pass on a lower tuition for the families. My son's school is a Waldorf school and the teachers salaries are roughly half of what they are in the public school system. Every once in awhile there is a groundswell of public outcry about independent schools receiving government funding and calls for it to stop, however, the government usually issues figures at that time to show that they actually save money by having some students educated privately. They could not afford to have all those students in the public system. Everyone has to pay taxes for education and all schools have to meet government standards.

Wheetsin, does she still drive? If not, you may want to consider taxi vouchers. We did that for both my grandmothers when they were alive. They seemed to view taking a taxi as a luxury and were reluctant to do it when they were paying for it, but getting a big fistful of vouchers allowed them to get out and about more.

A notice just came home from my son's school that they were going to have their playtime before their morning recess snack and lunch. This is for the reason that you mentioned, kids weren't eating because they were in a hurry to get outside. So now they will go outside first and be called in early with plenty of time to eat before their class starts. They did suggest a hearty Breakfast because it would be an extra half hour before their morning recess snack.

1. What, if anything, is too serious to joke about? Exploitation of any kind but especially exploitation and abuse of children. 2.If you could wake up tomorrow having gained one quality or one ability, what would it be? I would dearly love to be able to sing well. You know, like those people who can just open their mouths and let it rip. 3. Whom, if anyone, do you envy enough to want to trade lives with them? Although there are people with traits that I admire, sometimes enough to try to emulate, there isn't one person that I would like to trade lives with. 4. If you could change anything about the way you were raised, what would it be? I would have like to been taught that how I think is important, that I do have a huge amount of control over how I think and that I'm not a victim of my thoughts. There's so much power to change one's life by choosing to think differently about events and situations. The glass half full rather than half empty kind of thing, or the shedding of light on a situation. Now, my parents and the other significant adults in my young life could have never taught me that because they didn't have it figured out themselves, however, in a perfect world I would have liked to have known this from the beginning rather than finally understanding in middle age. 5. If there were a public execution on tv, would you watch it? I'd probably be picketing the local television station, protesting the broadcast. 6. Would you rather arrive at a party under dressed or overdressed? Under dressed. 7. What's more important: actual experiences, or the memories that remain from those experiences? This is an interesting one. I am who I am largely because of my past experiences and the lessons learned from them whether those lessons are a conscious memory or not. And I value those lessons, I think I would be a completely pathetic human being if I hadn't had them. So I suppose that they're equally important to me. 8. In real conversations, do you tend to talk more or listen more?If you had to chose one, would you rather be blind or deaf? I talk or listen according to the need. I would rather be blind. I can't imagine a world without being able to hear music.

It's interesting how that happens, isn't it. It seems like my younger siblings had a totally different set of parents, as far as the rules and expectations went.

Congratulations on your date!

Welcome and congratulations on your banding date! My suggestion is to hang out here. There's a ton of information and support. Keep us posted.