carolel

Hey, As long as you don't try acrobatics or gymnastics in bed, there's really no time limit I've ever heard of!

Hi, I was banded on Oct. 3rd and had my first fill in November right before Thanksgiving. I felt some restriction but not alot. Then I went back on December 19th ,got another fill. This made a total of 1 1/2cc in a 10cc band. I still haven't felt much restriction since then either. I went to New York City for Christmas and ate anything I wanted, just not a whole lot. This was a good thing because I didn't want my Christmas holiday ruined with PBing and such. All that to say this......it's been 32 days since my last fill and I am now feeling real restriction in just the last few days! I guess it takes longer with some people.I had an appointment last week for another fill and I canceled because I felt I was doing OK and was feeling some restriction beginning. I wqas alos at a standstill with my weightloss and in the last few days, it's picked up again. We just have to get to know our bands. This is a honeymmon period of sorts.

Hi, 2 horses ( my favorite), 3 dogs, a ferret, a fish (beta) and a bird ( sun conure) here. TOOOOOO many to care for. My DH says the horses are 1200 pound termites.

I get the runny nose, hiccups and too much saliva forming. I know it's time. If I don't ....then I'm very sorry. Also, it's been 3 months for me and I still have a problem taking small bites. I try too much in a mouthful and then it gets stuck. That's no fun at all. I guess i'll eventually learn how to take smaller bites as too.

Hi all, Thought I'd start a new thread to see how those of us who had to self-pay financed our surgeries. We took out a second mortgage with payments of $350. per month. Me... I teach school and our ins. refused to pay. I also tutor afterschool for 2 hours per day. I've always baked cakes and sweets for friends. Well, soon after my surgery, people began asking me to bake a cake here and there and asked how much I'd charge. I told them I couldn't charge since I don't have a license to sell baked goods but they could make a donation to recent medical bills we'd accumulated. (They have no idea it was for lapband surgery. Only my DH knows about the surgery.) Well...long story short through Thanksgiving and Christmas, my profits from donations were in the neighborhood of $900.!!!! Now the orders are pouring in already again for Valentine's Day and birthdays. I have to bake 7 cakes this Friday!! It's so funny ...my DH and I laugh about it....my WLS is getting paid for with cakes and cookies!! So how are you paying ?

bitteroldhag, Yes, I think we do gravitate towards those we're most comfortable with. All of them are challenges though. Just this morning I've had to go over rules of the classroom again with my 5th graders. We just came back to school from the holidays on Monday and they had completely forgotten all rules even though they're posted. It was getting crazy! Just talk ,talk, talk and get up to move around if they wanted to. Like you said, I can cow my little 3rd graders and they're great but my problem is that I teach most of my kids for 3 years and they become way too comfortable in my class by the 5th grade. But I still love them and certainly miss them when they move on to 6th grade. I met a group of 4 boys the other day at Walmart that I taught 6 years ago. They're of another race than myself and totally different cultures but you know we stood and talked for over an hour and I had to be the one to break off the conversation. One kept hugging me and saying how much he misses me. Oh..this created so many good thoughts about my career. It reminded me of why I wanted to be a teacher in the beginning. Afterwards, my son who is the same age as the boys told me that he's never had a teacher he wanted to talk to for an hour in Walmart! Made me feel GREAT!!

Hi Tracy, It sounds like you did your research on financing. Good luck with your surgery. It's been worth every penny I've spent for me. I feel great!

OH MY! So touching and so true.

Hi, I'm a teacher. I teach elem.students with disabilities. I have a Masters in Elem. Ed. and Interrelated Special Ed. I'm in college presently working on my doctorate. I have many students who are SLD (specificly learning disabled), a few who are EBD (emotionally and/or behaviorally disordered), several OHI( other health impairments such as ADD and ADHD). I have two blind students and one hearing impaired student.I absolutely LOVE my job. I can teach K-12 any disability or regualr ed. K-5 but I chose my 3rd -5th students with disabilities becasue this is just where I belong. I've taught all of them. The littler ones are way too busy for me and the middle-schoolers gave me headaches (bad headaches). I liked the high school pretty good but this is just right.I also tutor for 2 hours a day 4 days a week. I love it.

Oh Lord how could I have forgotten my love!!?!??! I absolutely LOVE Richard Gere.

OMG!!!!! Wheetsin. I don't care for Vin Diesel..never have ....but that pic. WOWEEEEE !!!! I'm steaming!!!!! I had to go back and look again, again , again and again!!! then you said that about his belly button. I had to look again!I never noticed the bellybutton!! :) YUMMMMMMMMMY!!!!!! I need to cut, paste and blow that one up. Don't know where I'd put it though. In my wallet?! :0

bitteroldhag, sounds like we have the same payment plan. it will take years but like you, I feel it's already been worth the $. I feel great! And I have the energy to bake those cakes.I stayed up around the clock the week before Christmas..catching little 20 minute catnaps for 3 days. No way could I have done this before losing this 46 pounds. The nice thing too is that I have absolutely no desire to cheat while I'm cooking all these sweets. not even a taste. Margon9, I wish I had known about your doc. I could have saved about 6K. Does he do free fills? Mine does for a year. And enterprise01..I applaud you for taking care of three of Gods' creatures. Your cats and YOURSELF!!! I'm glad that you have that heart. So many would just put the cat down and be free of it.And you deserve this surgery. We all do. No-one wants to be overweight and we deserve to feel good. I had a NSV this morning. I bought some boots the week before Christmas and they wouldn't zip all the way up. This morning they did!!! yeah!!! I've wanted to wear nice boots for years!!!

I have one and only have 2 friends there but that's ok cause I got it to spy on my sons and their girlfriends!! My youngest (15) can't stay off. he's addicted.

Steph! Rings in the nipples? OWEEE!!! And bullrings too :)??? Do you want to be pierced? Do you feel like a bull sometimes? :) I have 3 holes in each ear but that's far as I'm going! Too painful! Anyway, I've always felt that our dreams have meanings and try to figure them out but htta one has been stumped. :) Kim, Burt DOES look good in that pic. Maybe I was subconciouslessly (sp.) remembering how he looked. Who is this Paul Walker? He look good but a tad too young for my liking. I forgot earlier..that guy who plays on The Transporter.....I don't even know his name..now he's a turn-on. I don't usually care for that type of movie but I watch his movies just to watch him. The quiet strong type. llewis

OMG guys!!! what's up with our dreams!!??? this is crazy! is it that we're finding ourselves so much more sexy now and we're reverting back to celebs. from long ago or what?!!! And Wheetsin!!!! I'm with the others! Fred Flinstone????!!!!! I have never!!! LOL!!!!! LOL !!!!!!LOL!!!!!! I did tell my hubby that I had had 2 strange dreams back to back. I told him that Burt was in one. Didn't tell him that I made love to him though. I also didn't tell him the other dream involved an old flame. That wouldn't have been good.. And BTW....the sex wasn't good with either Burt or the old flame in my dreams. In both, the dream ended with me seeing my DH and loving him so much!!! llewis

OMG.kim2bhealthy and Jimboss!!! No kim, I've never had any desire to be a stripper. I wish I could move like one though and would love to have the body of Demi Moore. If I were a man..she'd be at the top of my list. She's beautiful! And Jimboss...How dare you dream of MaryEllen! LOL!!! She was such a GOOD girl! I do wonder where and why these people come into our dreams? I dearly love my DH and would never ever cheat on him and then to dream of Burt being the one I ultimately did do it with!!! UGHHH!

Oh Nathalie (in Michigan! !!!!! Don't say it won't be your kids!!!! We never know what our kids will do and how they'll act. I'm a teacher of special education at the elem. level. I've taught kids in all grades - K-12 with and without disabilities. It's all the same..some want to strivefor good/outstanding grades and others could care less. Mediocre is fine for them. they have other things on their minds that are mre important to them at the time. I have a son who is 21, in college and becomes upset with a b. Then I have a 15 year old in 9th grade who cares only about football. B's and C's are just fine with him. He's perfectly capable of A's but doesn't want to put forth the effort and sees no need in busting his butt for an A when a B or C is sufficient to pass. But it's a differnt story when it comes to sports. he strives to excel in that area and does. I assure you...we have instilled the same quality in both boys......to try to be their best.....they have just chosen different avenues to do their best in. Yes...it bothers me that my 9th grader doesn't care about his grades. it bothers me more than it would alot of others since I'm a teacher but we have given both of them our best shot in raising them and instilling values. Kids are different. But yes, mediocre seems to be just fine for many of our students today. It's sad because we currently have the best education available ever in the US. There's many different reasons for the mediocre attitudes though. It's not just the faults of parents and teachers. It's our environment and cultures as well. Please NEVER say NEVER when it comes to your children.

Strange as this may be......I just dreamed 2 nights ago that I made love to Burt Reynolds!!! I've NEVER like him as an actor. He's much older than me and I watched him on Striptease the other day and thought he was just awful. I was ashamed of him!!! Then I dream I slept with him!!!!! WHOA! Not good, not good at all.

Hmmmmmm......... 1. Johnny Depp and Matthew McConaughey together (LOL LOL LOL) but if not... 2. Johnny Depp then 3. Matthew McConaughey I've had the hots for Johnny since he played Gilbert Grape!!!

Randi, Most likely you're filling up on air while you chew and this causes problems keeping anything down.

threebeauties said it perfectly. These are all the same reasons that nobody knows my secret except my husband. Just last night, my slim brother was sitting in my kitchen pigging out on a cheeseball,crackers, ham croissants and a bluberry dessert. He was talking about our very overweight niece who is 24 and weighs close to 400 pounds if not more. Mind you now...this slim brother just lost 80 pounds on diet pills, which he swears he didn't use, but we all know he did. Anyway, he was talking about our niece, her weight and her lack of willpower. Of course it was all negative. He was calling her lazy, good for nothing,sorry, etc.... I mentioned that she might be a good candidate for Lapband and he again commented on her inability to stay on a diet and laziness.he also mentioned that the band is an easy way out for lazy people who won't get off their carcasses and work on the weight. I wonder how long HIS weight is going to stay off!!!???? We'll see. He had no idea that I knew what I was talking about because I've been banded since Oct.3rd and have lost 40 pounds. He thinks I have found some great willpower. Yeh! Huh-Huh! But...this is the reason that i haven't told anyone. I WANT to tell my niece because I WANT her to lose the weight and feel better but I can't handle all the negativity. Maybe I'll just encourage her to do it and supply her with lots of support. llewis

I drink some water first to open up the band and themn take them with a full 8 ounces of water. Enough to wash them down. I take chewable vitamins so that's not a problem.

Hi, rice may get stuck and even though it's soooooo good, it's not really that great for us bandsters. No protein at all. Just starch which turns into sugar. Mashed pot. aren't so great for us either but at least they won't get stuck. I cut chicken chunks up into tiny, tiny pieces during this stage and chewed them thoroughly. I also ate lots and lots of Yoplait yogurt and SF jello. There's many soups out there too that would be seen as mushy stage food. Cream of pot., Dinty Moore Beef Stew is great too. Just mash up the chunks with a fork. My doc. let me have homemade chili with ground beef at 2 weeks. It went down fine. I had no problems until my first fill. At this time, I began having food get stuck and throwing up. I had to learn how and what to eat. It's a learning process. Just try things you think you might can handle...just a little at a time. Good luck.

Hi , I went to see my doctor this morning. He was sort of iffy about doing a fill. I am losing 2 pounds a week but I know how much I can eat.....and I could really eat alot if I let myself. Especially at night. He gave me some pointers on my exercising/walking and a book on exercise.We finally decided to do a slight fill and combine it with my new exercise routine to see if that helps my eating habits at night. He did a 1 1/2 cc fill and it really was strange. It didn't hurt, but when he inserted the needle it made a funny popping sound...twice. He sort of grunted and said he was sorry. I asked what was that and he didn't say anything. I wondered if that was a normal sound. Does anyone know?

mypov..... BTW...I'm 5'2" and weighed 295 at my highest. We're about hte same size sounds like. I began in a size 22/24 and am already down to a loose 18 pants and 20 top.I feel great!! llewis