Betsyjane

My biggest scare would be that when I took diet pills pre-banding, I always ended up gaining MORE weight back later. Wouldmn't want to deal with those horrible starvation cravings again. For energy now, I take one or 2 sublingual B-12 pills (over the counter) under my tongue. Gives me energy without the sweats of those thermogenic diet pills.

Good grief, Catherine! You sound as nervous as I was! First, ask you doctor. Hopefully he or she has a pre op seminar that will answer a lot of this and will be available for questions. Band complications can arise, and the incidence of all of them is very very small. I think it seems bigger here because people come here for support in trying times. A lot of times when people are doing well, they're too busy living life to check in with the support group. Seems like I remember the incidence of all complications together as 3%... Your doctor will know. I used to take ibuprofen, and my doctor said to switch to chewable Tylenol for my arthritis. I don't even to that much now that the weight is coming off. I have read that some people here still take ibuprofen. Hopefully one of them will check in here. I take Benefiber in my Protein shake. Check with your doc on Metamucil. I never get pain from swallowing air. Some people say never to use a straw for that reason. I haven't had trouble with that either. Don't actually know anyone who has.... What causes pain is overstuffing yourself. For me, that's a good thing! I eat between 1/2 and 1.5 cups of food at a meal. Some days I eat 600 calories. Most days it's more like 1100. Some days I can eat anything if I chew a lot. Some days I can't. You can feel more restricted in what you eat based on stress, mentrual cycle, illness...you name it. You'll find you just learn to rock and roll with it. What I THOUGHT was that the band would simply take care of me. What I have experienced is that I have a lot of hard work to do, and the band just makes it possible. Everybody is different. Many people have trouble eating white bread or anything that turns pasty. Some people have trouble with stringy vegetables. But generally, the band just gives you portion control. Then what you decide to put in your tummy is up to you. Milk shakes go down sooo easily, and make you fat. Proteins have to really be chewed up, so they are hard work, but they fill up that little pouch and make you feel soooo full, and that's a good thing. Generally, the reason you succeed with this instead of having yet another diet failure, is that when you feel full, you don't obsess about finding food anymore. So we can then do what everybody has always told us to do...we can exercise self control! I was never able to do that before the band. Congrats on writing in with your questions. Keep them coming. Gather whatever you need to feel comfortable. What state are you in? I'm in Texas.

I have solved part of my problem, at least until my body or mind come up with something new and creative to bother me with..... I was drinking a Protein shake for Breakfast because of restriction in the morning. And that lead to hunger...and more hunger...and another Protein Shake...and more hunger. It's not just that there's no sense of fullness with liquids. For me, it's also that sugar and artificial sweeteners both make my blood sugar go up high, and then I am on a mad roller coaster of cravings for the rest of the day! I stopped my 6AM protein shake and started eating breakfast around 9 (a little eggbeaters suually), and I'm mostly back in control of my eating. I just can't handle the artifical sweeteners any better than putting a cup of sugar in my mouth..... Live and learn, eh?

I remember before when I lost weight, people close to me started saying I was getting too thin when I wasn't at my goal weight. I think change is hard for everybody, and those close to us have to adjust out of their comfort level. We're not our old predictable selves anymore. I'd probably take their recommendations in stride and go for something more objective. I am never able to judge my own weight. I have no idea when I'm thin. I can see it in pictures, though. Get yourself a good before pic, and some current pics and just sit and look at them. Then you decide.

I had an interesting discussion with a young man (early 20s...I'm an old woman) who said that abortion should be banned because if we still had all of the aborted babies, there would be enough workforce to support social security as the boomers retire. He blames boomers for killing off the workforce that his generation needs now. So we had a discussion solely based on the pragmatics, rather than when life begins or the sanctity of humans. I believe that it's equally likely that that workforce of unwanted children would now be draining social services. Is it possible to have a discussion about what it means for our country to not have abortion...without that discussion seeming too crass? What do we do with additional teenagers having babies they can't afford, not completing their education, living in poverty with babies they don't want? I know that there are other circumstances in which people get abortions, but a lot of abortions do happen because the mother is young and uneducated, and the baby is unwanted. As a society, what should we do with a million more unwanted children a year? What does that do to our money, our standards, our obligation to the moms and babies? If we look for objective hard data about life, might we also need to do so about living?

Why might it be a HIPPA violation? Curious... My sadness for this patient is that in her desparation, she is now immortalized saying those things, and someday when she is older and more mature, she may be really embarrassed. It's kind of the bariatric equivalent of filming drink Girls Gone wild.

There are three medical procedures associated with late-term abortions: Dilation and evacuation (D&E) Early induction of labor Intact dilation and extraction (IDX or D&X), commonly known as Partial-birth abortion Abortions done for fetal abnormality are usually performed with induction of labor or with IDX; these procedures result in an intact body that the parents can hold and take pictures of as part of their mourning process. Elective late-term abortions are usually performed with D&E To simply say that late term abortion is about stabbing the fetus in the head is to be inflammatory. It's a complicated issue and not just a sound byte. Abortions that are performed for convenience rather than medical necessity should result in huge efforts to create a healthy support network for those unwanted babies, before limiting a mother's right to terminate the preganancy. The Supreme Court put the cart before the horse, IMO.

Hi dear. Nobody should judge you. We're all trying to get somewhere. If you can eat that much, you may have a dilated pouch....or need a fill, even if you throw up some things. Might be worth talking to your fill dr. Other than that, your eating is emotional according to you. How about addressing the emotional issues...and maybe underlying depression? Maybe a good eating disorder therapist or a depression doc might help. Do you go to a support group?

East on 1960. Just before you get to La Villa, turn right at Walgreens (W Lake Houston Pkwy). Drive a few blocks and you'll see shopping strips on the right. I think it's the second one. There's a Forever Young MediSpa next to it.

The new person is Rebecca P.

Nara Thai 18455 West Lake Houston Parkway 281-812-0291 Wed 25th 5:30 PM

PRBrooksie-You look absolutely wonderful.

Wednesday 25th?

My hubby works too late to join us. I usually don't we him before 8:30! Anybody up for Tues the 24th?

Why did my signature lines just become partly black and partly teal? There are 7 Golden Retrievers, a 100 pound lab, and 2 standard poodles asleep around my feet. Life is good.

Yeah. Did Dr. Speigel give you a hard time, or have you educated him well enough by now? I'm game for whatever..... If we don't change our day, I'd sure recommend going over there to eat sometime individually.....as I sit here eating my bland tuna and...oops....working at the computer at the same time.

My husband hovers over me when I eat. It's annoying, but I know he's trying to be helpful. Remember that you have no restriction yet so you may be able to eat anything and everything. The fact that you aren't, and that you are losing, is great. But you're still just practicing being a bandster until you have restriction. It will happen in time. In the meantime, you keep practivccing and keep thinking about what you want your new healthy eating lifestyle to be like, and head that way. I'm not one who believes in moderation alone...I want to become a total health nut,.... You ahve to decide how you want this thing to work.

How's everybody doing with exercise? just when I think it's become a habit, I hide out again. It's strange. I'm always glad when I go, but I sure can talk myself out of going!

I'm a nut for Thai cooking, so here's more than you'd ever want to know. Thai is about fresh fresh food. It's mostly light and breezy... and doesn't include the weird foods or uncooked fish that Japanese and Chinese cooking does. Mostly fresh fruits, veges, and meats. And layers! Southeast Asian (both Thai and Vietnamese) cooking is about layers of flavors. You'll often taste sweet, sour, savory, and spicy hot in the same dish, but they stay distinct flavors. The Thai people never ate with chopsticks in their history: They've always used spoons, just using a fork to push stuff onto a spoon. In traditional Thai eating, putting a fork in your mouth is like us putting our knives in our mouths. It's impolite. Thai people eat little bites of lots of things for a meal...just one or two bites of each. Eating a bite of a lot of things, you feel full from the amazing little bursts of flavor and the variety. There is no set time for breakfast lunch or dinner (except to cater to Westerners). It's more about taking a bite from a street vendor whenever you feel like something...or having a meal because it's a chance to get together with friends and family. The street vendors line all the shopping streets and so do the massage therapists. So you shop, snack, and get a massage as you go through your shopping day. You might have a tiny bite of fresh fruit with fresh mint and herbs on it...walk a bit and then have a delicate bite size puff pastry with a quarter of a teaspoon of homemade lychee nut ice cream in it....and then a single bite of BBQ pork wrapped in kaffir lime...and later an asparagus spear sprinkled with lemongrass and ginger. The two best known Thai dishes in this country are Pad Thai (Pad mean stir fry), mostly rice noodles covered in a sweetish sauce made from tamarind and garlic, with some meat and veges thrown in, and Panang, a coconut curry (red or green) meat dish that is hot spicy and creamy, with Thai curry that doesn't taste like Indian curry, but more like Mexican hot sauce made creamy. Ok. I'll quit now.

Amazing. When you swell up, you really swell! Suzanne...you OK with Thai? Nara Thai 18455 West Lake Houston Parkway 281-812-0291 Here's the kind of stuff they have.... I used to love Pad Thai (Pad=stir fry)...I'm guessing rice noodles won't work anymore, though. Panang is my favorite....meat in hot red curry. Curry in Thai is not like Indian curry. It's a Thai version of creamy hot sauce with your choice of meat. It is so unbelievably good. They also have a wonderful shrimp lemongrass Soup, if you can eat shrimp and Tom Kha Kai soup, which is chicken, coconut milk, kaffir lime leaves, mushroom soup. Then they have lettuce wraps, salads. We might do well ordering Panang to share, and Soups... Oh wait a minute...Never mind. They are closed Mondays!.

Wow! Glad you're getting better. Do you have any warning so you can go on liquids and get the swelling down, or does it just happen? Let's get some more votes in, but I'd love to go next time to the Thai place.

Will do. Gladly!

On a good birthday note, I just got back from driving my 90 year old mother to Missouri for her best friend's 90th birthday party! They ahve been best friends for 80 years. Can you imagine???? AND at the party were 4 other classmates of theirs from high school, all born in 1916. And all looking great, like they just stepped out of a Dove pro-age commercial. Amazing. You can't make better memories than that.

Cooked stringy spinach when I'm very restricted due to illness!

New rule: Never eat stringy cooked spinach when you are super restricted from illness. Oy.