green

It is normal to hit a plateau from time to time. Sometimes you will find that you may not be losing any lbs but that you are losing inches. It can be, I think, a period of time when your metabolism is in the process of recalibrating itself. And the others are right, it does take awhile and a few fills before you get to your sweet spot. This is normal. It is important to understand that we all experience weight loss differently; comparing yourself to your friend might be counter-productive for you at this point. And it does sound like you have done quite well with your initial loss. It does strike me that you do have an additional factor to take into account now that you are losing weight. This is the business of managing your diabetes. From my understanding of the disease, a diabetic can run into difficulties, especially a needle-dependent one, whenever there are changes in diet and exercise patterns. Eating less and exercising more will mean that you will have to be very, very vigilant about monitoring your blood sugar levels until you are at goal. But this is likely all information which you know already.

Yah, what is it about men? I have seen men who make Jabba the Hut look hot and there they are...getting all picky about fine looking women! Must be that all trolls have no mirrors under their bridge, eh. WTF?!?

There was a big demonstration in my city the other day because Walmart wants to open up a store in an old part of the city and no one wants Walmart there. As for what that extraordinarily wealthy company is doing to that handicapped woman and her family...bastards!!!!

I periodically have insomnia problems. My doctor gives me a presciption for Imovane (zopiclone) which I use when I am having a bad night. The over the counter sleep aids do bad things to your blood pressure. Zopiclone doesn't.

Good point about the MAN treatment. It is different. Though women earn less than men we pay more for haircuts, drycleaning (shirts cost less than blouses, we pay for alterations on our clothes and men have their suits altered for free when they buy them, and we don't get the same respect when it comes to shopping for cars, high-end audio equipment, etc. And thanks for posting the website. I spent about two hours loitering on it this AM. It is fascinating.

Serena makes an excellent point. :clap2:

Start travelling again now that I am looking good again.

That sounds like a terrific idea. :clap2:

This is where my rage issues would have kicked in and I would have snarled something to the effect of "listen, you pimple, I've had the lemonade before and I know that it is not carbonated. The machine is broken! Get it? Broken!!!"

Gibson, it is gonna be the tiny hands of third world children.

The question of customer service is, I think, complicated by the fact that some people are rude, some places are understaffed, and sometimes you find people, and they can be found on either side of the counter, who are just plain bone dumb. Stupid or undertrained people are not going be capable of giving a customer good service. No one is going to be able to squeeze answers out of an idiot. And it is difficult for someone in customer service to find him or herself stuck in the situation of being able to successfully provide assistance to an idiot. It is both frustrating and time-consuming. In fact the activity may result in eating up enough time that it results in keeping other people waiting, including the rude person. Wise people know that honey works better than vinegar but not all people are wise or kind. There are many arrogant and rude customers out there. Generally speaking, they figure that they have the right to give attitude because they view themselves as being more valuable than the one who is helping/serving them. I don't approve of dissing folks for no good reason and I personally tend to think that giving attitude can result in Very Bad Things happening to the one who Disrespects. For example: I have heard of restaurant workers spitting in the food of those who give them prickish treatment; and certainly rude people who are asking for your help will only get it........only eventually, eh. But, that being said, customers can also find themselves on the receiving end of rudeness. Women clients often find themselves dissed by male help, especially when they are shopping in the so-called man's sphere, old people are often ignored by young people, then there is that racial disrespect, and fat folk are dissed by normos. None of this is right, is it? And sometimes some of us don't feel that we are getting the treatment that we receive but we must realise that this has nothing to do with those who are there to provide us with service and everything to do with understaffing, a situation which may be a temporary glitch or chronic to the company. Though my own approach is to commence by being very respectful when I need customer service I have ended by showing my claws. In general I try not to act the monster with front line personnel but I admit that I have been a very bad bitch from time to time. If I am not too insensible with rage I will make a point of apologising and asking to be transferred to a supervisor. I do, however, remember 30 hours of telephonic violence when dealing with my electrical company after our rented hot water heater burst and they did nothing about it apart from acknowledge that it was broken and that they were gonna fix it. This despite the fact that the damn thing was spewing water (they had turned off the heat at least) all over my tenant's flat! I did blog the entire event and I named names. I did the same thing when my bank screwed up business in their handling of their share of my mother's estate. I a) kicked up a big stink not only took the account away from them but made a point of letting them know the dollar value of what they were losing out on and c) blogged the whole sorry event, naming names. As it happened, while I was ranting and raving about my idiot bank - and we only have the big 5 in Canada - a cousin and a close friend told me their tales of recent frustrations with the same bank. For sure I included these tales of idiocy on my blog. :heh: I will tell you that my own personal approach whenever I initially engage with those folks in customer service is to have all of my ducks in a row. This is to say that I will have all the necessary papers, the receipts, credit cards, yadda yadda, with me. This saves time for everyone and also displays that I certainly have my sh!t together. I will, for this very same reason, have a pad of notepaper and a pen or pencil at hand if I am doing the telephone walk. These are the basics of taking care of business. It is disrespectful to phone up customer assistance and then ask your rep to wait while you hunt for the necessary info. I find myself growing real cranky when I have made a point of having all my ducks in a row before phoning and then find myself launched into some kind of nightmare of incompetance land. This happens. The smart grrl or boy, the one who has done all the homework, finds herself spending up to 2 to 3 hours drifting around hellotellophoneLand, endlessly repeating the same damn story. Yup, it seems that the history of Joseph K was perhaps a little too prescient, eh. [read Kafka] Oh, ugh! At the same time I have watched nice people in the service industry savaged by jerks. Why, this happened the last time I saw the fill folk at my lapband centre! I was there because I needed a complete defill because of the acid reflux biz. When the nurse entered the waiting room and called for the defill patient I put up my hand. She was about to take me but then there was an ugly commotion. It seemed that there was another patient who had booked a defill and who had arrived before me. Though she had not indicated that she was also there for a defill when the nurse had initially asked she immediately got real pissy when she saw that I was going to be treated first. That she had the right to go before me certainly did not bother me. There was no reason why it should. But when the nurse brought me in for my defill a few short minutes later she was awfully apologetic for the wait. She was also very upset. I told her to calm down, that I wasn't bothered by the wait and couldn't see why anyone would be. Well, it appeared that she had been savaged by her previous customer and she was left feeling pretty shattered by this experience. She was expecting more of the same from me and this very nice and competent woman, a woman who is likely in her early to mid 30s, was oh so relieved when I treated her in the fashion that people usually treat each other. It is always disturbing to come across an intelligent and competent adult who has just gone through an experience of being (emotionially speaking) whipped like a cur and who then regards you as being a "lovely" human being simply because you treat them with the normal dose of respect. Sorry for the long post, eh. :bounce:

Hooray! :clap2: That will be too cool!! :biggrin1: It will be great to finally meet you in Real Land. :bounce: Do you ever hear from Cloe?

That is an excellent thread. Thanks for posting it. I didn't see it the first time around but it sure does apply to me. Manatee, weight loss seems to be a two-pronged issue, and the second part lives directly inside our heads. This mental conflict is what you are experiencing right now. I think that it is safe to say that all of us who have lost a great deal of weight have a certain amount of trouble wrapping our heads around our new slimmer bodies. In your case it sounds as though the excitement of successful weight loss has now left, and left you with an emotional hangover. For many of us, as reading the above link will show, we are left feeling a real sense of disbelief in our new, normo bodies. Thin on the outside and fat in the head........

Yep, you should crash the bash. We would love to meet you. :bounce:

Hi, Wildcat. You would do better to post your enquiry on the Lapband Support Area of this site. You will be certain to receive more answers to your enquiry. As for my advice, I would suggest that you ask your surgeon. Usually port revision takes place when the port has flipped as far as I know - but I admit to knowing very little about this topic.

I can wear belts again and I can tuck in my shirts and sweaters!

I ended up getting acid reflux because I was a little too tight. Now I am defilled. I have been since August. I am still waiting for everything in my physical life to return to normal. It is better to be a bit on the loose side, I think, that to get reflux. I must say that although I am at goal I sure do miss having my band guarding me from drifting back into the Land o Gluttony. This is my latest worry: going back to fat.

I'll be there or I'll be square.........

Thanks for posting this. I find it very, very interesting. :biggrin1:

You have been terrifically successful. Congratulations to you, Argon. :clap2::clap2::clap2: And hi to you, Wheezy. :biggrin1: It has been awhile....

I can wear belts that I haven't worn since I was 30 years old.

I have always been able to eat just about everything, just in very small quantities. And of course I had to chew, chew, chew.

I use small utensils, a desert fork and a coffee spoon.

As for milking rats, we would have to use child labour. Their titties are very, very small. Too small for adult hands.

I once tried to milk a cat but I was unsuccessful.