BJean

Emily: Thanks for the encouraging words! Sounds like you're doing well and have a great attitude. Do you have a date yet for a fill?

gonnabethin: I was very close to having some nausea but it subsided before I was able to panic. I didn't get the pain between my shoulders. Ouch! I don't want it either. Sounds awful. I got my first port site pain though. That was scary because of all the talk here about inflammation and knots there and all that. Glad to know about the s/f orange sherbert. It was offered to me, but I didn't take it. I will avoid it. Thanks for the tip on that and grits w/ butter. I actually had some turkey chili tonight and so far, so good. We were out of any kind of soup and I didn't want to go to the store. I knew I was taking a chance, but the stats on the can were within range for fat, calories and carbs. Tomorrow I go for my first post-op dietician appointment. Have you done that? I'm wondering what she's going to say. I know the first question will be "have you been exercising?" Well, I haven't been because of the knees, but I'm definitely more active today than I was pre-band. In other words, I'm off the couch as much as I can manage. Nothing to brag about, but some improvement. You're doing well in the exercise dept. aren't you? Walking, etc.?

TOM: That was great!! I hope you won't mind me sharing it with my DH because he will appreciate it totally. For some reason I am finding myself wishing I knew you were at American Airlines taking care of the planes I fly on! We've discussed many times that we fear that the up and coming work force just doesn't have the commitment or training or even smarts that our generation did. Who knows, maybe our parents thought the same thing about us. But I honestly don't think that was the case. My Dad preached loyalty to your employer ad naseum. I still feel that if you work for someone, you give them everything you've got and are loyal in every situation. The times that I've voiced that to some of the younger generation however, they all ask why they should be loyal to a corporation that isn't loyal to its' workers. Hmmm. They do make a point.

P.S. I love your scales!!!

Dana: I would be overjoyed if I got a cute manly guy to check me out! I'd forgotten that could even be a goal. I'll keep that as a mini-target! Glad we're going to be going thru this together. Yeah, mushie time was about when I started feeling hungry again. I think that and as the swelling goes down, we have no other real restriction so it encourages eating more than we need. But I am happy to have found that I can't really get away with anything. And that really helps with the resolve. I sure didn't get this "implant" so that I could figure out ways to defeat it!!! I think this is a learning journey and every day is one step further along to health and beauty.:biggrin1: Swapping stories with each other helps. Hope you have a great day. BJ

Manal: Welcome to the club! I was banded on 9/11 also. How are you doing? I had a weekend where I pushed my limits a bit and I was sorry. I am better off having semi-tasteless food and very low or no carbs. Once I ate something that tasted like pre-band food, I felt out of control. :embarassed: However, I am back this morning with new-found resolve and I'm going to stay on the straight and narrow. As long as I stay away from bread and other white carbs I don't even think about eating bad stuff. I was shocked this morning when I weighed myself and there was no gain. I consider that a very good sign and I'm encouraged! :nervous Have you had any problems with hunger yet?

My husband suffers from the same "abuse"! One day his poor ears may fall off. I try really hard not to be misunderstood. That's one reason I use so many words. Another is that when someone relates a personal story, I want them to know that I understand what they've said, and so that they believe me, I tell them of a similar experience that I've had. I think it is probably very off-putting for some people because they think I'm trying to turn their story into something that is about ME. But I don't know how to participate in a two-way discussion any other way. And I haven't been able to overcome my years of working for attorneys, who as we all know, use 30 words when 2 will do.

That was quite a tribute to your wife. Seems to me that she's a lucky lady having a man who recognizes her saintly ways and shares them with others. I don't doubt for a minute that you have the ability to abuse someone with your words, but I do doubt that it is in your heart to do follow that path. Don't get me started on Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson!

When people say that our military should be able to use whatever means they deem necessary to get information from suspected terrorists or terrorist sympathizers, I wonder if they've forgotten Viet Nam and how our prisoners of war were treated by the Viet Cong. They were outraged over it and now they want us to handle our suspected terrorist prisoners in a similar inhumane way. There are Americans these days who profess to be against the Geneva convention - which was the only hope for many Americans who were prisoners of war in WWII.

Cindyn: We were banded the same day. You've done a little better than I in the weight loss department. Is your 22 lb. loss just since surgery or did you lose some pre-op? Hope you don't mind me asking!

Larry: Great that you've kept your sense of humor! Your experiences were fun to read and reminded me very much of my own. I was banded 9/11 and it is still a little uncomfortble to bend over and pick stuff up. I get better about that each day though. When your appetite comes back, it's kinda surprising and comes back with a vengence. Some people have gotten so hungry that they have eaten things that have caused problems. Try not to let yourself get that hungry. The day I was so darned hungry, I ate a little something almost all day long. When I figured out the calories, it was around 1300, but certainly not earth shattering. (Who knew you could eat enough broth, juice and s/f jello to reach 1300 calories??) It took about a week before I could maneuver to my right side and catch a few winks. Then not too much longer I was able to prop myself with pillows and kinda sleep on my left side - which (not to be rude) helps with the passage of gaseous emissions. And you're gonna love those! It was like climbing Mt. Everest for me. I was thrilled. Of course I'm over that now and although I do get accumulation from time to time, I'm able to be a little more discreet. (My DH and I have never, in 32 years, passed gas or burped around each other - so you can see why those events kinda blindsided me.) Good luck this week. You will be moving slowly, but in a week you will begin to see dramatic and welcome changes. Hang in there Larry, and I'm sure glad Mike didn't get to use his power of attorney! BJ

Gosh T.O.M., I am continually amazed at your insight! My husband and I are probably as opposite in every way as any two people could be. Sometimes I think that's WHY it works. I absolutely feel like one of the most loved people on this earth, but I also have felt very selfish in this whole health care costs issue. He has done everything in his power to reassure me that our health is the most important thing we have! I loved hearing about your and your DW! To think you two are sharing in a similar experience is very gratifying for me. I sometimes wondered over the past 32 years if we are freaks of nature! So thank you very much for opening up a little with me. This knee thing has been something that has been an unbelievable challenge for us. You and I are both fortunate to live with a spouse who understands and loves us enough to just deal with it. It is easy to get depressed when your health is compromised, but just think how much harder things would be if you didn't have Mrs. T.O.M. to, if nothing else, commiserate with. That sounds trite, but for me it sure isn't. You're a wonderful, very smart, quick man, and you haven't stopped contributing to society - believe me, you are educating a lot of people and providing a lot of support to many people on LBT. Just because you can't see their faces, doesn't mean they are aren't important, caring members of society in America. P.S. I don't think I've been to Stuart. We lived in Orlando for 16 years. I never got used to the humidity - or the packs of tourists~!

Green: As far as I am concerned, you are not only completely welcome here, you bring a fresh viewpoint and interesting insight to these discussions. I am very happy you decided to jump in!! I love Quebec!

gonnabethin: You must be pretty conflicted with our current administration. You say you are conservative and are unhappy with BuSH's liberal leanings. You mentioned that you are against bigger government and more taxes because you're against the "sit on your ass" theory of collecting welfare. Yet you say you are for abortion. If the Republican "moral majority" (as they like to call themselves) had their way, they would make any abortion illegal. If that were to happen, there is a darned good chance that many folks would have children who they could not (or would not) provide for. Our government would be obliged to give assistance to protect our future generations, or watch a lot of little members of our society (children) go without proper nutrition. Malnutritioned children subsequently require more medical care. I am not sure how this can help in the government's quest to get more people off of welfare. So I'm not sure I fully understand your line of thought in all this. As for the pro or anti gun discussion, I've always been anti-gun ownership until the past 6 or 7 years. Now I'm realizing that our founding fathers brilliantly made sure that Americans "have the right to bear arms." The purpose of that was not so that bad people could own guns and commit crimes and take away our valuables. The purpose of it was so that our leaders would not be able to take away our civil liberties and control us by military means when we are left with no means to defend ourselves. You know, like under Saddam Hussein in Iraq, for instance. Never before in my life have I believed that a scenario like that could exist in America, but watching the immoral atrocities that this administration has committed both here and abroad, I am thinking that it is a distinct possibility if we don't wise up.

Well T.O.M. I didn't read when you posted about your rooster comb injections, but I wanted to tell you that I've been through a similar experience. Both of my knees are shot - arthritis, cartiledge injury to both knee caps, I've become bow-legged, etc. In one year, I have gone from working out 3 x per week, to hardly being able to walk any distance at all without pain, and being unable to climb stairs unless I use all fours like a dog. I had rooster comb injections (Synvisc), starting in march. A series of injections (only one per knee, per visit) over a 3 week period. The first week the shots weren't very painful. The second week, I thought I was gonna die and afterwards couldn't stop crying. The third visit, the shots didn't hurt at all. At first the Synvisc helped a little, then in late May we went on an Alaskan cruise and they seemed to help some during the cruise and just after. Then about 3 weeks later, I was almost pain free. It was fabulous!! Now the pain level is slowly creeping back in, although I am not taking the Naproxyn daily like I had been pre-LB, so I am sure that's part of it. I am completely terrified of knee replacement, but I will probably have no choice if I don't want to wind up in a wheelchair. I'm hoping that the weight loss from LB will help alleviate some of the pain and allow me to postpone the knee replacement surgery for at least a year or so. However, I think there is wisdom in getting it done while I'm still strong enough to be able to go through the rehab and become functional again. (I'm the same age as you.) Right now the only exercise I am told I can do without causing more injury to my knees, is under Water walking and simple leg lifts, etc., under water. I'm too embarrassed to be seen in public in a swimsuit, so we've managed to build (almost completed) an exercise pool in our backyard (we BOTH need the exercise). This pool const. debt and my LB surgery debt are pretty depressing since it's all come out of the funds we had set aside for retirement. My DH will undoubtedly have to postpone retirement for another couple of years. Not good news either! Hearing my story isn't helping you in any way, I am sure. But I want you to know that I think I understand a lot about the pain you endure every day, and the inability to be able to do a job that a few years ago would have been a snap. My heart goes out to you and I hope like everything that the rooster that donated his comb provides a perfect specimen for you and that you'll be much improved as a result!

Green: You definitely make some good points about health care in Canada - and maybe that's why most of the scare tactics used here in the U.S. seemed to cite Great Britain's problems when they're trying to keep Americans down here from thinking that socialized medicine could be an answer to our horrendous insurance-controlled health care. (We lived in Montreal for two years, and enjoyed the very good medical care we received.) My LB doctor dropped out of network because he became so frustrated with insurance companies making medical decisions for his patients. He is a highly skilled laprascopic surgeon and his services don't come cheap. But he can get it because of the care he provides. He has even helped get a hospital opened nearby that provides surgery for well-patients only. There are no sick people in that hospital; also a very attractive benefit to people who are having any type of prosthesis like LB or knee replacement surgery. I think we all know how risky it is for a patient like us to contract an infection. I was willing to pay $20,000 out of pocket to ensure that I received the best possible chance at a successful outcome from my LB (and hiatal hernia) surgery, my hospital stay and my after care. My insurance company refuses to pay any part of the LB procedure. Of course they have been paying for my doctor and medicines and lab work for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, depression and probably would have eventually been adding the condition of diabetes to that mix. I don't know how many people remember when Clinton was elected, that one of his primary goals was to get Hillary involved (because of her experience and intelligence) in making some changes in our health care system. Well, the good old boys in Washington made a mockery of those attempts and scared the heck out of the majority of us by insisting that the Clintons were out to turn our system into one of socialized medicine, God forbid! Over and over the spin doctors ranted about how people had to wait years for any kind of surgery or cancer treatments in England. So here we are so many years later... with our personal health care decisions not being made so much by our doctors, but more often being made by cold-hearted, profit minded insurance companies. I think this thread has been so lively and had so many good participants because we are all tired of the heavily partisan media reporting we are hit in the face with every day. It seems that we're looking for a healthy exchange of ideas and experiences so we can learn the truth about how people are being affected by politics in this country.

Tired Old Man: yeah, what you said... that's what I meant to say. You go, man.

Carlene my daughter just carried her baby boy, Jake for 8.5 months and he died before we could hold him, on July 2nd. I have taken care of my breast cancer riddled mother on her death bed, and I have had to sit through the gut-wrenching death of my father after a botched surgical procedure, so death is very, very real to me. And Life is very, very precious. All life is precious. A woman's right to life is just as precious and important as her unborn child's life. No one should ever have to choose one over the other. But none of this is the issue for me. The issue is that some people on this earth want to tell other people what they should do in personal sometimes life-altering situations. I prefer to believe that we live in a country where the right to make one's own personal decisions is guaranteed and is the same for everyone. There are man made rules and their are God made rules. Sometimes men think they are God and that they can make all the rules for the rest of us. That's where I draw the line.

gonnabethin: What is it about those Laughing Cow lite triangles?? They have saved me more than once! When I got so hungry I thought I could eat a cow, I sucked on a triangle of Laughing Cow instead and by the time I ate the whole triangle, I thought I'd eaten a whole cow. :heh: Ok. not really, but they honestly have saved me several times. I did find some very low carb, lo-cal crackers (very tasteless too), but I find that the cheese alone works just as well - even better since I don't have to worry about the calories or carbs in the crackers. Or the texture going down. BTW - I reported last night that I had a sm. simple salad and some very mild pasta with no ill effects. Well, not so fast BJ... later I had the blotation from you-know-where and it hurt! Took me quite a while before I could settle down and get some sleep. :confused: No more salad for me! And who needs that carb-laden pasta anyway? I'm back to eating cottage cheese and LOVING IT! :nervous

Hey guys, my dietician recommended the Caramel Nut Rush Snickers Marathon Protein Bar with 20 gr of protein per bar. It's 290 calories, not to be eaten indiscriminately, but they are really good and that's quite a lot of protein for something that yummy. I am only going to use them for a meal replacement, not as a snack, unless my meals on either side of the snack are very low calorie. Actually the first time I tried one, I ate about a fourth of one just as a snack. When she said Snickers, I thought she was putting me on! There are some other flavors, which my DH bought and tried, but although they are lower in calories and carbs, they sure aren't as tasty. They do have 16 gr of protein, so are probably better per ounce all the way around, but them dang Caramel Nut Rush thingies is awesome, dude. :confused:

What's a highjacking? Boy am I a novice when it comes to this internet jibe! If I'm supposed to apologize, I do, I really do.

Does anybody know if Serendipity is still a thriving business in Old Town Alexandria? The woman who owned it bought my store in Fairfax County when we moved to Florida. A wonderful woman, with excellent taste! LOL Old Town has always been a favorite haunt of mine too. We have lived in Virginia several times and I would move back in a heartbeat!

Carlene: I appreciate that you are not in a position or want to "debate" abortion or religion, but please tell me you don't equate murdering your next door neighbor to having an abortion. If you believe that they are the same thing, I'm afraid I don't understand. I am certainly not as eloquent as you, but I hope you will please hang in there with me and try to understand what I'm asking and saying. Doesn't it make any difference that a fetus is not viable without its' host? I know you said that you believe that life begins at conception, as do I, however, physiologically or biologically a fertilized egg cannot continue to live and thrive without a mommie of some sort. I'm honestly trying to understand. I have very strong feelings about this, but just like everything else in my life, I crave information whether it is contrary to my beliefs up until now or not. (BTW, I am a card carrying United Methodist parishoner, but I attend mass with my DH and kids, who are all Catholic.) It is important and wonderful that you are so caring to women who have had to deal with this question up close and personal. Do you think that Congress and the Supreme Court will ensure that those same women get that kind of respect from the government if Roe v. Wade were overturned? Silly sounding question, but historically women have been disrespected by our government in very important ways. It's great that your Bro-in-law had such a great outcome from his government employment. Do you think that his experience is fairly routine across the board for government employees? We know hundreds of people personally and our own experience tells us that it is just not true for the masses. Nice rosy picture though! As for the Star-Telegram and the government employee issue, I live in Ft. Worth and I stopped subscribing. I understand they're having trouble giving it away to keep their advertising numbers where they need to be.

EM1125: Sounds like you are definitely not getting enough food to me. Your body may have reached a point where it thinks you are starving and it has gone into "store everything" mode. I ate probably 1100 cal. yesterday and hadn't lost anything for several days prior to that. This morning I was down 2 lbs. I do agree that weighing everyday can set you up for not being as successful, but I thought I'd keep track pretty much every day until I get my first restriction. Good luck. Other than what the scales say, you sound like you're doing fantastic!!

P.S. Tired Old Man: I agree totally about the wealthy's ability to rule quietly from the shadows. It was an interesting thing to watch during the Reagan administration. And it was interesting to hear my parents and grandparents discuss it when they were my age. The very wealthy's ability to pit the working class majority voters against each other over "moral" questions, instead of about the political issues that affect them in the pocketbook, has worked very well for them over the years. When things start looking dicey for them, another scandalous "moral" delemma crops up and we all start arguing over it and labeling our beliefs "Democrat" or "Republican".