green

I remember when Furbys first came out. The adverts said that you could teach them English. I wanted one in order that I could teach it how to say rude things. Then my plan was to release it back into the wilds of ToyzRus or whatever in order that it might shock and amaze some other family. Well, it turns out that you can only teach it what it is already programmed to learn. What a disappointment! I gave mine away to my French nieces. At least it spoke English.

While I was fat I always looked young for my age. As I lost weight I started looking closer and closer to my real age. People were no longer expressing shock when I told them my age. This definitely hurt and was why I had me a face lift a year after I was banded.

Ha ha. That's just what I was going to say.

Yah, I sat permanent shiva, too. I also avoided having pictures taken of me whenever possible.

Congratulations to you!

Now that really is a tragedy.

If it tastes good, it is likely to be fattening.

My thing always was about vanity. I couldn't stand not be able to wear nice clothes anymore.

Thanks, Peaches, I am feeling verrrry depressed over this set back.

The services offered by clinics can be very useful to the weight loss patient. These may involve more than just a lifetime of aftercare for the mechanical system, including fills and defills; they may also offer the services of dieticians, psychologists/psychiatrists, and mutual support groups. While I found that losing weight was very easy once I had the band and followed the bandster rules of fine dining, people can run into difficulties. Finding oneself newly thin can play with your head in the most unexpected ways and, too, many of us can do with a dietician's advice. (I did some independant study on how to eat well while I was recovering from my band op but I am sure that I would have profitted by listening to a dietician.)

Thanks, Wasa, for answering my question.

I had it done in Toronto, Canada which is where I live. It cost me $16,000 Cdn and I have unlimited aftercare with this package. Sometimes one can need quite a few fills and defills over the years and these can be expensive (especially considering that these are quickly performed) depending on your fill doc. The centre where I had mine done has good support programmes available for those who would like or feel they need a bit of additional assistance. I like the fact that the centre is in my neighbourhood; I can walk there and home again. It is called the Toronto Lap Band Centre.

It is important that your aftercare costs - the price of fills and defills for example - be included in the total cost. I was banded a couple of years ago by TLBC for $16,000 and a lifetime of aftercare was part of the package. I have since come to learn that this was a good deal and TLBC has treated me well. An added plus for me is that it is close to my house. I can walk there!

Correct me if I am wrong but I am under the impression that Mexico does not have universal health care.

One of the tragedies of living up here in Canada is that we don't get to enjoy the Black Friday shopping experience. And our Thanksgiving is on a Monday, so we are expected to work the rest of the week. And we Gave our Thanks the first Monday in October; it's always a long wait to the next big party, eh. We enjoy our Thankgiving celebrations but you folk south of the border do a much better job of this celebration. And there is BF shopping.......!

Yep, my doc likes 4 weeks to elapse between fills. I would like to remind our poster that it may take a number of fills before the sweet spot is found. It took me 4 tries.

Good luck with your trip, grrl. Being thin is much more fun. Feel free to write to us about the scenery you experience during your travels into skinnyLand. I personally found mine of interest and would love to hear about yours.

Cystitis is a urinary tract infection and used to be called the honey mooners' disease. Perhaps you are thinking of this. Women can get a bout of cystitis after a lot of heavy love making following abstinence. The folk remedy is to drink more cranberry juice than you can stand. This flushes out the bad bacteria. I have occasionally had it; it is like pissing razor blades and you constantly feel like you are about to wet your pants if you don't find a toilet. I always felt that it was a rip off that I hated the taste of cranberry juice and yet loved sex.

That's the amazing thing about living in a democracy; any fool is free to display his idiocy. In a dictatorship, we have no choice.

By the way, congratulations on your weight loss, Yasmina. We Canadians are now entering the most challenging time of the year: winter, which is comfort food time.

Thanks for asking. I was doing really well up until last week when my ENT surgeon attempted to sew my trach hole close. It hadn't entirely closed by itself. He left a chain of stitches that looked like he was working on a crazy quilt (or was crazy). Over the weekend I started running a fever, my motor co-ordination skills completely crashed (I couldn't hold anything in my hands and I kept falling on the floor), and I began vomiting. Two visits to downtown ERs later, it turns out that I have pneumonia in my right lung and a giant oozing infected hole in my gullet. I feel lousy and the hole is seriously gross to look at. I am back to spending most of my time in bed. This is depressing because I was - only last week! - in the process of getting my life back. I was just starting to contact friends I haven't seen since I first got cancer and I was beginning to work renewing my passport. Well, this should slow down my weight gain, eh. lol

Reasons have already been posted as to why kids do not have the same legal rights as adults. As for marriage between sibs or any close relatives, there are genetic and psychological reasons why this is a bad idea.

Providing that they are a couple of adults and capable of giving legal consent, that is.......

I would figure that any marriage that is performed by a state official must be a right that should be, if permitted to some, then permitted to all.

Just as many people drink booze without becoming hardcore alcoholics, lots of people smoke marijuana without going on to harder drugs. In fact, I know quite a few people who have been smoking recreationally for many, many years now without ever moving on to anything harder. Marijuana and, for that matter, booze are gateway drugs for those individuals who are that way inclined. The reasons for drug abuse and addiction are debated; it is believed that psychological problems play a role as do genetics. In the case of pornography, it is likely safe to say that all perverts look at pornography. But very few men who look at pornography will go on to commit anti-social acts. This being said, I do believe that there is "normal" pornography and "abnormal" pornography; an interest in anything to do with violence towards women, pedophilia, and bestiality is a bad sign, in my opinion.