Humming Bird

I went bowling one time in January. I had not bowled in maybe 10 years or so. It was fun, but the next day I felt it. I pulled a butt muscle. I hope I'm not feeling it like that tomorrow. Tonight I had to keep pulling my pants up. No ripping out the crotch now.

I just got home from going bowling (3 games). I am NOT a very good bowler, but at least it gets me out of the house and moving. Maybe it's something I'll start doing more often. Broke a nail.....damn it. Oh well, it will grow back.

Liquid yogurt smoothies.......yum. They do have "lite" ready to drink.

Cocoabean! You are so close to goal! I am so happy for you! It sounds like your dog is good for you. I am petless the last 4 years and kinda enjoy it. We had every kind of pet over the years, but it's nice to take a little break from it.

I agree. I was self pay and it is a lot of money. I should have checked the details better years ago too. I thought my weight was not high enough to justify WLS, but I'm sure it was the last couple years.

I can't stand greek yogurt either! The stuff is just gross! I tried mixing in SF preserves and it was still gross. Then it went to the round file.

I agree. People come here to LBT to ask other bansters about a problem they are having at the time.

Bob, you have done well with recovery! I think all that pre-op weightloss helped you. I was much slower with recovery. Did they give you a 10cc or 14cc band?

I agree with you. I feel like it is the easy way and will be much more effective than all the other weightloss options when it comes to keeping the weight off. I have delt with more difficult things in my life and try not to dwell on things that may be a little difficult with the band. I'm not saying the people who are having to work so hard are wrong at all. I just have not had to work so hard that it changes my thoughts on it being the easy way.

The same thing happens to me off and on. Sometimes food just have the same appeal.

Being scared is normal before any type of surgery. This is a big decision you have made to change your life. It helped me to know they have come a long way with this surgery over the years and it has a great success rate. I hope you have some good support around you. I know that helped ease my mind a little about it.

That just goes to show how different it can be for everyone. I had a hard time with all meat for a long time. Now I can eat fish, but not chicken.

What a great Birthday gift!

Yes, some of them you can even watch for even before banding. Mine was a hiccup. Now after being banded, the hiccup comes way too late. I find that if I eat one bite over my full I sneeze like crazy. Sometimes when I'm full I get a runny nose.

Below is a post that I copied from another banster's post many months ago. I hope this helps ..... Best explanation of left shoulder pain I've ever found. permalink If you woke up with a pain in your shoulder, you'd probably think something was wrong with your shoulder, right? Maybe you slept on it the wrong way, maybe you're a weekend warrior who threw the football a few too many times. In most cases, your hunch is probably right. Pain in the shoulder usually indicates an injury or disease that affects a structure in your shoulder, such as, say, your subacromial bursa or a rotator cuff tendon. Makes sense, doesn't it? But you might be way off. Sometimes the brain gets confused, making you think that one part of the body hurts, when in fact another part of the body, far removed from the pain, is the real source of trouble. This curious (and clinically important) phenomenon is known as referred pain. For example, it's unlikely but possible that your shoulder pain is a sign of something insidious happening in your liver, gall bladder, stomach, spleen, lungs, or pericardial sac (the connective tissue bag containing the heart). Yup - conditions as diverse as liver abscesses, gallstones, gastric ulcers, splenic rupture, pneumonia, and pericarditis can all cause shoulder pain. What's up with that? Neuroscientists still don't know precisely which anatomical connections are responsible for referred pain, but the prevailing explanation seems to work pretty well. In a nutshell, referred pain happens when nerve fibers from regions of high sensory input (such as the skin) and nerve fibers from regions of normally low sensory input (such as the internal organs) happen to converge on the same levels of the spinal cord. The best known example is pain experienced during a heart attack. Nerves from damaged heart tissue convey pain signals to spinal cord levels T1-T4 on the left side, which happen to be the same levels that receive sensation from the left side of the chest and part of the left arm. The brain isn't used to receiving such strong signals from the heart, so it interprets them as pain in the chest and left arm. So what about that shoulder pain? All of organs listed above bump up against the diaphragm, the thin, dome-shaped muscle that moves up and down with every breath. The diaphragm is innervated by two phrenic nerves (left and right), which emerge from spinal cord levels C3, C4, and C5 (medical students remember these spinal cord levels using the mnemonic, "C3, 4, 5 keeps the diaphragm alive"). The phrenic nerves carry both motor and sensory impulses, so they make the diaphragm move and they convey sensation from the diaphragm to the central nervous system. Most of the time there isn't any sensation to convey from the diaphragm, at least at the conscious level. But if a nearby organ gets sick, it may irritate the diaphragm, and the sensory fibers of one of the phrenic nerves are flooded with pain signals that travel to the spinal cord (at C3-C5). It turns out that C3 and C4 don't just keep the diaphragm alive; neurons at these two spinal cord levels also receive sensation from the shoulders (via the supraclavicular nerves). So when pain neurons at C3 and C4 sound the alarm, the brain assumes (quite reasonably) that the shoulder is to blame. Usually that's a good assumption, but sometimes it's wrong. From: Anatomy Notes: Referred pain

The pain in the collar bone area is usually from the air/gas they fill you up with during surgery. The left shoulder pain is usually caused by pressure on the phrenic nerve. Some people have that pain for a short time and others, like me, have it for months. It was my "full signal" for quite some time. The one thing that helped me the most were equate brand menthol pain patches from walmart. They are only about $4 and well worth the trip to walmart. I hope the pain doesn't last long for you.

I love hearing good NSVs!

Yes, for me it is the easy way. Why would I want to keep trying to win the weightloss battle the hard way?

It is amazing how my stress level dropped when I moved up in the mountains. So peaceful. I consider it one of my successes. I worked hard (and still am) so I could have a nice house in the mountains.

I take it you have insurance? They should have been very clear about the $$ part with you from the beginning. I would call just to make sure you know. I was self-pay and paid 100% upfront (financed)

Banded 7/09/09 I got restriction pretty quick. I've had a few issues along the way, but the journey continues...............

It depends on work and such, but I think what Betsy said is a really good way to do it. If you follow the clock, your body will start being hungry at those times. Follow those times on days off work too. This helps me so I'm not hungry at strange times during my work days when I can't stop to eat.

That is so Great! I am happy for you ! It is posts like this one that really make my day! I hope to be in that place where you are very soon ...... just messin' around with the last few pounds ........

Just wanted to share........ I know how "interesting" the teen years can be. been there , done that. I feel like I will be heading into it again very soon. I have an 8 yr old grandson who spends so much time at my house I feel like I am his mother rather than his grandmother. (I am young enough to be his mom and some people think I am) They lived at my house until he was 6. He has been going through a bad behavior stage and it's just about driving us all crazy. Last weekend after my son came and picked him up, I noticed my grandson had added to my shopping list. It said, I will be nicer - TOY!