BJean

late: I'm not one of those who lumps all Christians in one bunch. There are as many different Christians as there are people. However I was just making an observation about how the yays and nays are sorting out here. I don't think for one minute that the people here who are for women's right to choose will sway any of those here who are not. My only hope in posting here is to try to speak up on behalf of women who believe it is within their rights as American citizens to have the freedom to decide for themselves whether they will have an abortion or not. It has been shown time and again that getting into a slug fest over who is a good person or a bad person, over who believes what, or when life begins, is a huge waste of time. I believe that the question boils down to whether or not we believe that American women have the right to control what happens to their bodies, medically speaking, in every single way. Nobody should have the right to tell another person that they should or should not have a particular medical procedure performed on them, no matter what the circumstances are. That is not to say that I believe that abortion is good or bad. Abortion is not a judgement that I can make for any other person, only for myself. And I believe that no other person should be able to make that decision for me, no matter what they believe.

Sharon2U: Don't be nervous. In a very few months you'll be sounding just like us! Welcome!

YOU GO, GHoST!!!!!!! You're an inspiration!

Me too, karey!! I would be dancing all over the house if I lost five pounds! :whoo: Lisa I hope your friend gets her GERD under control. Having it that bad can do a lot of damage over the years. And karey you're doing just fine as far as I'm concerned with the posting.

LadyHR: I definitely have had problems getting all the water in. At first it was very difficult to not drink during a meal. I would feel totally parched after meals. Before the band, I drank water all the time and pretty much kept a bottle with me. I always drank a lot of water or iced tea with my meals. So when I had to be more careful when I drank water, I had a hard time remembering an hour or so after meals that I needed to start downing it. Now I am used to it and although I do still have to work at getting enough water in, I am doing much better and don't mind not drinking during and right after meals. I was banded September '06.

It seems that the people here who believe that women should not have the right to choose, use their beliefs in God and the Bible to validate their views. Just a guess, but I think Green was addressing that part of this discussion, not directing her comments to one particular individual.

I agree! As we all know, courts awarded alimony for many years when the husband in the divorce "strayed", and it was used as punishment for him making a mockery of his wedding vows and also because he had broken one of the Ten Commandments. When I was contemplating divorce in Arizona, I discovered that it was a no-fault divorce state which meant that we split everything 50-50 that was accumulated during the marriage. Rarely was alimony part of the deal unless as someone posted earlier, one of the spouses sacrificed her/his career for the other. The court did not want to hear any arguments about who did this or that during the marriage. If one person in a marriage wanted a divorce, it could be obtained. If the couple could not agree on the division of property, everything had to be sold and the proceeds divided equally. Quite an incentive for couples to work things out without doing it in a court room.

Bubble that is definitely interesting. If you find out why they don't cut the connective tissue completely when there's a hernia repair, I'd sure be interested in learning why too. I wonder if it is so that the hernia repair will stay in place better? It also makes me wonder if there's a correlation between bandsters with hernia repairs and those without, as it relates to weight loss? Thanks for any info you can share.

Oh good grief, Kat. That's a hellacious story! That was the divorce from beyond hell. My sister got awarded alimony when she and her husband divorced. He was cheating and was caught. He just wanted out and didn't contest the alimony (their kids were grown). After they'd been divorced for a year or so, he went to court and asked to have it reduced. The court sent them to arbitration. He got the alimony reduced because she had a good job and he had moved out of state and had a lower paying job than when they were married. My sister, actually the bitch in the story, was so spiteful that she quit her good paying job and took a lower paying job so that he would not be able to get the alimony reduced again. She got half of his retirement and insurance and everything else. To be fair, she worked their whole married life so she actually probably deserved half of everything they had accumulated, but I'm not so sure about the alimony. They were married 34 years. He definitely done her wrong, but she was a bitchy woman so who's right?

Bitter: Your posts are always entertaining. Car salesmen are something special, aren't they? My FIL has a used car lot. If the truth be known, he's your stereotypical used car salesman. Except when someone comes to his place to look at a car, he outright asks them if they have any money! They usually wind up buying although I know if I were a customer of his, I'd high tail it out of there as fas as I could. More than once we have looked at new cars with the intention of buying, only to leave the dealership in total disgust. We could never get a straight answer about how much the car costs. They dance around and waste your time and want to know how you're going to finance it, etc. Anway, I hope you enjoy your new car and all the gadgets don't drive you batty!

Oh, thanks. I thought the terms were interchangeable. Yeah, my doc fixed mine when he placed the band.

Bubble: What's the difference between a wide hiatus or a hiatal hernia? My doc said that if mine was too big he wouldn't be able to do the LB surgery. Another woman was in one day too that I met who had a really big one. She was having to get it treated which was likely to take 6 months or so. But after it had calmed down, she was going to be able to get the band.

Katt: Oh man, that sucks! I felt sorry for myself because it happened to me in a posh restaurant in Scottsdale. We were at the top of the building overlooking the city lights and the restroom was downstairs. I had to take the slowest elevator on the planet! And I had to take it 5 times during the meal. I had never had a PB event like that. I even had to make them stop the car on the way home. Then back at the hotel room, I slimed and hacked until I finally got a tiny piece of veal chop dislodged. It was horrendous. At least I was with 4 other women instead of couples. 2 of the women don't know I have the band so I couldn't give a good explanation for my behavior. I'm not sure what they thought was wrong. But doing it outside where people might see you had to have been even more stressful! I'm still shocked that egg drop soup could cause it. Just goes to show you that sometimes we didn't cause it from taking big bites or forgetting to chew!

Yup, well said, Green!

P.S. None of my doctors ever mentioned it, nor have I read any literature on it, but I swear that the other problem that you were having (when I diagnosed you as having picked up a bug on your last trip to Mexico), was also a symptom that I had to deal with when I had the hiatus hernia. I never knew when it was going to hit me and for years, it was a real problem. I did find that taking refrigerated acidopholis that I bought at a health foods store helped tremendously in getting that under control. Sorry I missed the proper diagnosis on that one. I remembered the bug I picked up in Mexico and how bad that was long before I had the hernia, and never dreamed that your problem could be as a result of a hiatus hernia! Two very different problems, but both with the "dumping" symptom. If you'll pardon the term. (A real term in medical books, by the way.) Here's some :girl_hug::girl_hug: and :kiss2::kiss2::kiss2::kiss2: coming your way. Hope you feel much better soon!

Whoa there Green. Calm down. I know that you're very worried and right now you're very uncomfortable and anything you eat causes you grief. But trust me, it can get better and if you play your cards right, it will! The very first thing you should to TONIGHT is to elevate the head of your bed. You will probably be told to take some kind of medication that will calm down the cough and reflux (making your throat burn) and the pain in your chest. That will take some time to get resolved because yours is in such an inflamed and angry state. I have had a hiatal hernia for 20 years. At least I did until I had the LB surgery. When my doc did the surgery, he repaired my hiatus hernia. Many of the people who post at LBT, have one too or did until they had theirs repaired. It is usually diagnosed with an upper G.I. series of x-rays. I didn't consider the surgery sooner because the surgery for many years was not all that successful and many times made the situation worse. That was before doctors became so proficient at laparoscopic surgery. My LB doctor was chosen by me because for years he has been a leader in the laparoscopic surgery for correction of a hiatal hernia. He has taught many other doctors how to do the procedure and has done thousands himself over the years. He decided to start doing the LB surgery because with his exposure to so many overweight people who he treated for their hiatal hernias; he knew how difficult it was for them to lose weight and keep it off. He felt that the Lap Band was the first thing with a relatively low risk and high success rating, and since he'd been working in the "neighborhood" for so many years, with a laparoscope, it was a natural transition. You have to understand though that I lived for over 20 years with my hiatus hernia. Gaviscon was the drug of choice back then, but I just couldn't gag the stuff down. Nowadays, they have Prilosec and Prevacid which are much more effective. The one that worked the best for me was Prevacid. When I took it and elevated the head of our bed, it was almost like I didn't have a hiatal hernia anymore. Sweet relief!!! So don't worry too much. It is definitely treatable. Personally, I wouldn't recommend a repair since you already have the LB, but of course I'm not a doctor, much less YOUR doctor. If you can get a medication to work for you, long enough for it to calm the area down, and you stay really aware of what you eat and drink, and smoke... you can whip this into submission. Now for the not fun part. You really do have to quit drinking coffee or tea for a while. You have to quit drinking Scotch (or other alcohol) for a while. You really do have to not eat chocolate. And smoking really aggravates it. You need to stop that too. You just have to baby it until you get the thing under control. Spicy foods are out. You can forget chicken fried steak or barbeque, at least for the time being. Yeah I know, for a while it's going to be a huge, seemingly impossible way to live. But when you have as many problems as you're having, you just have to give it a chance to heal as much as possible and then baby it for a longer period of time. The Prevacid takes about 3 weeks to really kick in, but you'll find yourself not coughing and uncomfortable after a meal. Any other wisdom out there for Green on this topic? Who loves ya, baby?

People have been talking about population control since I was in college. It was all the rage back then to declare that you were only going to have a maximum of 2 children, no matter what the Catholic Church said. Then there was the phase where people declared that since Americans were soon going to be outnumbered by the mass of humanity in the overly populated parts of the world, we should keep our numbers up so that we could compete if (or when) it became necessary. Now it's global warming and the suggestion that we should be cognizant of our footprints because the earth is dying. Who knows what it's going to take for people to believe they should worry about the future of the planet. Right now, many Republicans pooh-pooh Al Gore's movie and declarations about global warming. I have friends who actually say that they believe that global warming is a myth and that we're only going through the normal cyclical weather phases. I've never understood why they think that the term "global warming" was something Al Gore invented just to get attention. :phanvan

Sunta I totally agree! Hey this is getting fun. Wheet, Sunta, Green, laurend and Alexandra - now if we could just hear from TOM and Jack Where's funny Mark and TommyO? Right before TOM stopped posting, he had a little health scare and of course, his DW's mother was very ill. I hope his health scare didn't turn out to be anything significant. Does anyone know anything about him?

Sunta: What do you expect them to say? That they don't care about the Polar Ice cap as long as they can reproduce? I guess they could go silent but I'm sure they have certain beliefs and feel they are justified in doing what they do. I am like the newgirl07, I've always been a "live and let live" kinda girl. There will be a point at which that will no longer be possible and we'll all have to get proactive about this and other planet threatening behavior. There are other ramifications to consider when addressing the issue of overpopulation in the United States. newgirl07 touched on one of them gently, in the middle of her post.

I lost a pound, I lost a pound, I lost a pound!!!! You can't imagine how happy one measly pound can make you until you go for so long without losing any. What a wealth of information you all are posting! Loving it!!!:whoo:

Janet I am going to be sending the most positive thoughts your way that I can!! I don't know anything more nerve wracking...having it done and then having to wait. Thank goodness that you have some knowledge through your sister that it is probably not going to reveal anything you will have to worry about. Keep us posted. We care very much about your well being!

I believe I've had 7 or 8 fills, perhaps more. I've lost count. I was banded in September '06. How true about sweets being the easiest thing to eat. True also for me taking no time to gain it from some sweets and a long time to lose it. I'm at 3.0 cc's. I thought 2.8 was too much, but he put 3.0 in anyway. It hasn't been as bad as it was when I was at 2.8. What tha? :eek: Makes no sense. I am beginning to wonder if water retention has something to do with all this and/or regularity, if you'll pardon my candor.

Laurend, you're back! How was your vacation??

staindgal: Great post. I am pulling for you both. My DH and I both need to lose so we can enjoy better sex more often, like we used to. I know several people who have had the diabetes diagnosis and then later were able to get off of most of the medicine when they lost quite a bit of weight. That would be such a good thing for your man! Isn't it amazing how finding out what is really going on with your spouse makes everything so much better?

You know, Katt, when I was first losing weight and could see a loss practically everyday on the scale, I felt very happy and inspired. I just knew I wanted it so much that I would be able to get to my goal in a reasonable amount of time. I'm not sure what happened. I don't know if I was overfilled and then when I could eat, I over compensated by eating too much, or what. But I want it back. I am really happy for you that you've broken the code and you're doing so well. I hope I can recapture that feeling and get another 10 lbs. off for good! Then another ten, and another ten, and so on... Egg drop soup? :eek: Who'd a thought that?! I haven't been to a Chinese restaurant in a really long time. I just cannot handle rice at all. That means no sushi either. Blast!