Humming Bird

I still have fatigue at 20 months post-op. I also take sub-lingual B-12. I believe the reason I still have fatigue is because in 2006 I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia (FMS) and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). They say the two go hand in hand. The shoulder and upper back acheyness you mentioned is a symptom of FMS. I'm not trying to diagnose you over the internet, just telling you my own experience.

That is sweet oh BTW, I noticed the new pic in another thread and love it!

I'm a dental hygienist, so I will still be cleaning other people's teeth. I just hope this will be a better place for me. I would love to see South Africa and Australia someday!

My brother-in-law was the lead singer in a band. My girlfriends and I would go to hear the band play and dance. We would dance with any guy that would ask. I was very thin then. It was so much fun! I'm sure all the dancing helped me stay thin. I guess I could say my husband and I fell in love on the dance floor. The band used to joke around about us being "couple number one" because we would be the first ones to get out there and start the dancing.

I hear ya, it grates on your nerves sometimes. I think by asking people are trying to be supportive, but it gets old. Maybe change the subject like the southern gal in another thread explained so well. Say something like "Now, you don't really want to hear about my weight every time we see each other. How is your mother doing?" Maybe say. "Oh school is keeping me so busy I didn't even think to weigh today. I'm so happy I started grad school!" Or just say "I'm not focusing on the numbers." Or maybe you could come up with something witty that would let them know it's annoying without hurting their feelings.

You are already going to have a long "no-no list", so why deprive yourself of coffee and showers a word of caution on the shower ...... don't make it too hot or take a long one..... mine wore me out for a very long time when I was new post-op. I would smell better, but was exhausted from a simple shower.

LMAO.... I see that image daily!

Anything you do that is moving your body is exercise in my book. Parking far away from the store and walking the parking lot is better than parking up close. I don't do any type of formal exercise or "working out." I am not saying that is the proper way to do things, but It's the way I do. I have been more active since being banded and think it helps. I do things like going bowling. I didn't like bowling as much before I dropped a large amount of weight just because I felt like everyone was viewing my big a$s I would love to get back into dancing! That is what I was doing when I met my DH so many years ago. Last summer after being banded we went fishing often. There are not many calories being burned while fishing, but it sure is better that being a couch potatoe

I could shower every day. In my case, I could take off the strips after one week because, unless there was a problem, I did not have to go to my one week post-op appointment. (I live in a different town than my surg) They just made sure I knew the proper way to remove them and I had no problems. You may want to call someone at the surg. office to double check about the shower. I think they may have told me not to take a bath, but shower was fine. coffee was ok'ed for me as well. I pretty much drink it daily.

I am no insurance expert, but when all the billing gets complete, the hospital (or whoever) may just have to "write off" that $2000. They have to stick to whatever deal they have with tricare. They have not told you that you owe $2000 or billed you directly, correct?

I just love your personality Bobbie Are they going to fix the hernia at some point? ah, you have to wait for some insurance ......... Well, I don't feel the need to kick your ass. It almost sounds like you are doing a good job of that yourself.

After I was reading this thread I got an ad in my email from a sort of fast food deli type place. The subject line of the email was "Did someone say bacon?" OMG, those sandwiches look so darn good! It made me think of all the ads that were mentioned in the other thread. All of us, including kids, are seeing way too many of these types of ads. I guess I can't blame the people trying to sell products, but geez, when they try to make the stuff sound healthy it is wrong.

I think a teen may be too young, but at 26 I think you are at a great age for this. Why wait for old age to creep up and live more years morbidly obese? Your youth is on your side when it comes to recovery. If you waited until you are 50 the health problems that come with obesity would have set in. Why live the rest of your 20s as a morbidly obese person? You have so much life ahead of you and you are old enough to make this choice for yourself.

For me it is both a restriction (tightness of the band) and a sensitivity issue. I found that from the day my band was placed, even during bandster hell, I could not tolerate some foods like bread and pasta. Dense meats like steak have also been a problem from the beginning. Eggs are also a no-go from the beginning to today.

I agree with all you just said. Your age has nothing to do with it. I was just saying it was a natural feeling I had as a parent who has been parenting longer than you have been alive. You do bring up some great points and it is something we should all think about. No harm intended.

I do agree with many of your points. I think part of the problem today may be that both parents have to work and our lifestyle is so fast paced. McDonalds is so fast and easy. I know in many cases food that is less healthy is also cheaper. IMHO, I don't think it's a good idea to make kids clean their plate before they can leave the table. I have seen this happen and feel it leads to obesity as well. I do think there should be balanced meals offered and less junk in the house. I don't think there is anything wrong with having things like birthday cake, but have also seen households that offer this type of stuff too often. I think a topic like this may ruffle a few feathers because you/we are telling people how to parent. I'm not saying that anything said was wrong in any way. I'm just saying that even I had a sense of "who is that person telling me how to parent?" My youngest child is older than the OP and I have a grandchild. I do think we all need to take a look at how unhealthy we may eat and teach our kids. It's just a touchy subject when we try to tell others how to parent.

ice cream isn't clear, so it would have been a bad thing for me on day 4.

We did learn about this in the many science classes I had to take, but it has been many years, so I'm not good at explaining it. The sister who had the tightness may also have some air in her band. The pressure of any gas, including oxygen will increase as the altitude increases. It has something to do with Boyle's Law. I was trying to find a good explanation about shampoo and lotion bottles when flying, but have not found a real good one yet. The Fluid in the band will react the same way.

It depends on how tight you are and what altitude you are used to and several other things...... Think about what happens to shampoo bottles when you fly. I didn't have trouble when I went to see relatives a year ago and my band was pretty tight. I did find that I could eat more when I was there because I live at a 8,500ft. and the place we went was a great deal lower in altitude. When I go up over 9,500ft. I can hardly eat anything. It has to do with the pressure of oxygen.

I did try a sample in a Walmart. It tasted great at the time and the lady said it is great in coffee and cereal and oatmeal. All they had were very large ones, so I went ahead and got it. I tried it in coffee and oatmeal.....yuck

What a great idea! I got some almond milk, but don't like it much. Maybe this is what I will try to use it for.

Hang in there folks. It gets better every day. Follow your doc's orders. They are all different, but it's best to just follow what they say. My post-op was 7 days of ice cold clear liquids (the cold to help with swelling)...... anything you can see through. I guess I was pretty lucky that the hunger growling didn't start for me until week 3. When I could go with stuff that wasn't ice cold I found sipping jello (strawberry banana) in it's liquid state was heaven.

I can feel my port, but can't see it. It's located in the center of my torso about 1-2" below my sternum. My BMI is 24 now, so I'm pretty sure the port is in a good place where it won't show if I drop a few more pounds. It doesn't really creep me out at this point. It is kind of like having an extra little body part that I'm used to now.

Melody, I hope you are feeling better by the time your surgery day comes. It sucks to be sick anyway, but when you have big plans it sucks much more. I found a different job. Wooo Hooo! The stress at the other one was no longer acceptable. Greed had taken over and they were doing some illegal things with my pay. They were treating me very bad. I guess they didn't know me well enough to know that I don't tolerate being treated that way. Life is too short to put up with that sort of thing. Anywho, life goes on and I'm fortunate to have changed jobs without skipping a beat in this job market. I had been playing around with 2 pounds during this time and they are back off this morning. Yay!

LOL, so true. Those were both foods I ate when I got the OK. When I could eat a bit more solid stuff I started adding tiny pieces of broccoli to the Campbell's cheese soup. I still eat that. It tastes so much better than soup that already has broccoli in it.