Llyra

For what it's worth to you all, I am delighted with my band experience. There have been a few ups and downs in the process of learning to live with it, but none of them are any worse than the normal ups and downs of life. True, some people have horrific experiences with the band, but then some people have horrific experiences with childbirth, wisdom tooth extraction, and driving cars. Are you going to stop driving over bridges because one collapsed in Minnesota a few years back? Keep your perspective: be aware there are risks but don't lose sight of the potential benefits.

I had both surgeries done at the same time and all I really recall is the wonderful relief I got from pain associated with the hernia. I do remember the doc telling me that I'd feel some pressure and pain from the gas used in the surgery, but it wasn't nearly as uncomfortably after lapband as it was after another surgery I had. Hang in there. It will improve on its own schedule.

I weigh myself once a week, first thing Monday morning. If I forget, I just log a 0 onto my Labor Day and Christmas challenge list and wait until the next Monday to step onto the scale.

Gather your courage and take the class! You will never want to ride looking at the back of a guy's head again! Sturgis is a crush, but coming from Houston, the crowds may not get to you as fast as they get to me. A female friend of mine is riding her Harley from Big Spring in west Texas through Wyoming to SD to Minnesota and looping back down the Mississippi River home. I expect her here about August 21 and am looking forward to riding with her part of the way, but I don't think my butt could survive several thousand miles in 19 days. :thumbup: We are planning to go to Junction, TX next May for the CloudRiders gathering. Haven't decided yet whether we will ride the whole way or cop out and trailer the bikes. Depends partially on how much vacation time we have for the trip. Most the trip down there is great, but the front range of Colorado is one big mass of ungodly traffic, so I suspect we'll go around through the mountains (the long cut). If you're interested in a bike forum with a bunch of good folks, many of whom are in Texas, try http://www.doofclenas.com/forums/index.php

I read a number of surgery day stories on the forum before I realized I have no surgery day story of my own. I don't recall checking into the hospital. I don't recall the surgical prepping process. I don't recall waking up. I don't recall going home. I don't recall how I felt in the hospital or when I got home, though I have a half empty bottle of liquid painkiller to indicate it must've hurt enough at some point to take the medicine. All I recall is looking at a tray of hospital food at some point, none of which looked remotely edible: clear soup made with beef bouillon, orange jello, some kind of awful protein drink. Might've known my single memory would be of food! My husband says the anesthesia is probably accountable for the memory lapse which was so thorough that I didn't even realize I had a memory lapse. I had to ask him if I actually had the procedure done in the hospital as opposed to the surgical center and whether I stayed on the surgical floor overnight. I don't recall if I came home and went to bed or if I stayed downstairs on the couch or if I took off to the mall to go shopping. It is extraordinarily disconcerting to have such a sgnificant event totally erased from my memory. I thought talking with my husband would trigger some kind of "oh, yeah" reaction, but it didn't. Huh. The mind is an interesting thing. Makes me wonder what else I have forgotten so thoroughly that it might as well have never happened.

My husband and I got back from Sturgis last week (we went pre-madness week to ride the Black Hills with friends). It was my first long trip on my very own bike and not looking at the back of some male's head. I put over 600 miles on my bike, rode through a howling electric storm that dumped inches of rain on us, not to mention more than a hailstone or three, down miles of gravel roads that were furrowed by that rain I mentioned, and up Iron Mountain on pigtail bridges and through narrow tunnels behind bikers much more expert and a hell of a lot faster than I might've been on my own. It was wonderful. I'm ready to go again. In the midst of all the gleaming Harleys and a few truly weird ass custom bikes, our good solid rice burners took us everywhere we wanted to go. I have a Yamaha Virago 1100 and my husband has a Honda Shadow 1100. The Virago is such a faithful Harley ripoff that it even comes with its own oil leak located in a seal that would require the engine be removed in order to fix it. I can buy a lot of oil for what the repair would cost, so Veronica and I happily continue to leak our way down the highway, doing our part to contribute to the economy and the well being of American Oil. My husband's bike developed a problem with the fan and no one could decide exactly what was going on until we got it back home to our local guru of all motorcycles, Legacy Cycles in Casper. Turned out to be a bad fuse. On the slower roads, he had to spend some time cooling the engine, but as long as he could ride at a good clip, he and the bike did fine. Finding things to eat wasn't quite the trial I thought it would be. I ate basically what everyone else ate, though far less and much more slowly. Nuts were a good source of protein and easy to get down and I even managed most of a taco salad one day. Had a long discussion with a riding friend who has considered banding, but whose insurance company denied her several years ago. In hopes that insurance companies are more enlightened now, she is going to apply again and I wish her luck Not sure where the next bike trip will take us. I am ready to leave again this weekend, but alas, my husband is on call at work and it would really be too bad of me to make a run back to Sturgis for the final Friday, Saturday and Sunday without him. We are talking about going to Minnesota and Wisconsin this fall before the weather sets in. I don't care where, really. I just want to get on the bike, point it in some direction, and ride.

Hello? Anyone out there in the wilds of Wyoming? Casper? Cheyenne? Hawk Springs? Meeteetse? Spotted Horse, even?

Dr. Beckstedt is da bomb. Not only an excellent surgeon, but a friendly guy who looks you in the eye when he talks to you and always has words of encouragement to offer. His wife has had band surgery and he knows what we all go through in real life. There are two other excellent surgeons who do banding in central Wyoming, but I wouldn't take anything for Dr. B's bedside manner.

You're off to a great start, Bryce. May the surgery put wings on your feet as well as restriction on your tummy.:thumbup:

Give yourself a break, honey- it was a bagel and not a measure of your self worth or of your future success with banding. We have the banding done because we have a problem with eating, right? If we could "win the battle with food" with willpower alone we wouldn't need medical intervention. Don't make it a battle; let it be a learning process and don't spend a lot of time beating yourself up over each error. Diets suck, plain and simple. The band and the process of adjusting yourself to it will help you develop a new and positive way to deal with food. You'll be just fine.

My March 3, 2010 surgery day story is a bit different from the others I've read here in that I recall almost nothing about it. I don't recall checking into the hospital. I don't recall the surgical prepping process. I don't recall waking up. I don't recall going home. I don't recall how I felt when I got there, though I have a half empty bottle of liquid pain killer to indicate it must've hurt enough at some point to take the medicine. All I recall is looking at a tray of hospital food at some point, none of which looked remotely edible: clear Soup made with beef boullion, orange Jello, some kind of awful Protein Drink. Might've known my single memory would be of food!:thumbup: My husband says the anesthesia is probably accountable for the memory lapse which was so thorough that I didn't even realize I had a memory lapse until fairly recently.

I think it is pretty common to want to get in all the unfettered eating you can before your new reality sets in. I asked my doctor about it and he laughed and said almost everyone does it. By the way, eating like a horse is relatively sane compared to eating like a humming bird. Horses eat 7 times their weight in a year. Hummingbirds eat 24 times their weight. :thumbup:

Too cool! Most folks pay big money for tattoos they eventually don't want. Think of it as your Line of Destiny and wear it proudly!

Please excuse me if this has already been posted. Llyra In her radio show, Dr Laura Schlesinger said that, as an observant Orthodox Jew, homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus 18:22, and cannot be condoned under any circumstance. Response: Dear Dr. Laura: Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination ... End of debate. I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God's Laws and how to follow them. 1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians? 2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her? 3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of Menstrual uncleanliness - Lev.15: 19-24. The problem is how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense. 4. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them? 5. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should I ask the police to do it? 6. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination, Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this? Are there 'degrees' of abomination? 7. Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle-room here? 8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die? 9. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves? 10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev.19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of threa (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? Lev.24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair, like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14) I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable expertise in such matters, so I'm confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging. Your adoring fan. (author unknown) PS It would be a damn shame if we couldn't own a Canadian

ONEderful! Congratulations from a sister belly dancer.

I feel it when I've taken too big a bite, not chewed enough, or in the morning when nothing wants to go down. I have occasionally had food come back up when the passage gets blocked, and it is not like regular throwing up, but just sort of a flush. Ooo, gross. :thumbup: Nice to correspond with people who won't freak about these weird subjects we need information on.

No one can make you feel like a failure without your permission. If someone tries, smile sweetly and think, "Permission denied, sucker." No one who has recovered from alcoholism is a failure. As for a device controlling your eating: it is a medical procedure to help you cope with a medical problem. Would you hesitate to use insulin to control diabetes or an inhaler to control asthma? As for encouragement, I can only tell you that the band is working well for me and that I would do it gain in a heartbeat. Good luck and great blessings to you.

Hurray for both of you! I'm glad we can walk together on the journey, if only online.

8-9-10 and I am down 36 pounds, from a high of 240 to a current 204. When I first got started with this banding process, it was sobering to realize that I'd have to lose forty pounds just to get down to 200 pounds. Seemed like a long way to go to still be the size of some linebackers on pro football teams. Even though 36 pounds is a fair amount of weight to lose, I don't feel like it has really begun to show. My clothes are looser and my husband says he can tell a difference, but it is not yet the dramatic change that I yearn for in my heart. I'm still a fat girl, just not as fat as I was. I don't spend a lot of time bemoaning this, but it has crossed my mind as I get nearer to the mental dividing line between 200 and 199. The next forty pounds will put me at 164, the weight I hovered at all through high school and college; no matter how many times I dropped another twenty pounds, I'd gradually find my weight creeping back up over 160. When I think of the agonies that used to cost me and look of the pictures I thought were so ghastly, I realize that if I had never gone on a diet, never fought my way down below 140 time and time again, I might've stayed right there at 164 for many years. I looked just fine at 164. What is it that makes me think that one number is better than another, that somehow 143 is far superior to 148 or that 199 is superior to 200? That somehow hitting 175 will magically entitle me to wearing my unitard to teach dance classes instead of hiding out in black pants and a black knit top to teach? On the other hand, some days I feel so much freer in movement and agility that I actually feel normal sized at 204 until I catch an accidental glimpse of myself in a mirror or picture and realize that to the rest of the world I'm still a lump of too too solid flesh. Once again, I mostly don't dwell on the matter but it is interesting to see how my viewpoint has changed over 45 years of weight-related struggle. At age 27 and 145 pounds, I felt fat and ungainly. At age 55 and 204 pounds, I feel relatively normal and graceful. From an emotional standpoint, I'm better off now than I was at 27 and I may be better off physically, too. When I think of the strange diets I observed to in order to hold a magical number on the scale, I wonder how I managed to survive my youth without developing some exotic type of malnutrition usually found only in third world countries. In some ways, my food choices now are as strange as those I made thirty years ago, but now it is due to what I am able to eat and not what I think I should eat. I eat more nuts as a source of protein than I ever did in my life because there is a fair amount of protein in a small amount of food and I can chew them up well enough to keep them down. Every once in a while, but nut intake becomes- well, a bit nutty and I have to remind myself that there is also a fair amount of fat involved here. Sherbert also calls to me louder than it used to, largely because it never bothers my stomach and I can eat it when everything else seems like too big a chore to deal with. I am a night owl and nights can still be a time when I eat more than I should, partially because that's the way I've always been and partially because it is so hard for me to eat in the morning. The first meal of the day is usually a challenge, as if my stomach has as hard a time waking up as the rest of me does. Forget eggs, forget toast, even oatmeal can be a challenge to choke down and keep down some mornings. Once I'm past that first meal, though, the rest of the day is easier, and if I let myself get carried away, I can eat more than is good for me in short bursts late at night. Still, it is progress not perfection that matters. I know myself well enough to know if I get into the calorie counting journaling every bite that goes into my mouth routine, sooner or later I will rebel against the regimentation. I am better off nibbling my way through the day than I am with three distinct meals, the earliest of which is usually torture. I've struggled my whole life to learn to eat when I'm hungry and stop when I've had enough, and I've found that eating at 8 am, noon, and 5pm with a small snack at 7:15 pm completely negates any effort on my part to be aware of hunger/satiation. Know myself should be the title of this day's entry. I am not a poster child for the lapbander's ideal life, but I am gtting where I want to be, slowly but apparently surely. I don't mind when it hurts to eat or when things occasionally foam back up because I have taken too big a bite or haven't chewed well enough. It's all part of an enforced learning process that works much better than any type of willpower I ever employed. Eating is not the pleasure it once was with the exception of a few items, and that helps a great deal. It is hard to eat for emotional comfort when excess results in physical pain. That means I've had to find other ways to deal with emotions, but that's okay, too. For right now, I am mostly content with my progress and my life style. As time goes on, I will make other enforced adjustments and they will become normal for me. I never thought I'd be able to give up my favorite fast food hamburgers and french fries, but it hurts to eat them now and I realize I don't miss them nearly as much as I thought I would. Life is a series of compromises; what I can eat and what I can't has become just one more thanks to a physical barrier to past eating excesses. I could not have come this far again without help, and I am grateful I was able to have the banding done. Good insurance made it possible, as did some financial sacrifices in other areas on the part of my whole family. My band is a second trip overseas, the new living room bump out we didn't build, a remodeled kitchen, a new truck. I can't imagine anything I'd rather have more, though, than my life and mobility back, not to mention a decrease in physical pain due to too much weight on my joints. I'm grateful that my husband has supported me the entire way.

Good for you, August, on all counts. When I had surgery many years ago, I was concerned about the use of pain pills. A very wise nurse who was also AA told me firmly that even addicts and alcoholics had the right and need to be pain-free after surgery, and that if pain pills were used properly, there was no danger inherent in the use. When the pain quit, so did I.

Carbonated drinks are my guilty pleasure. I love perrier water and diet Pepsi. My doctor says carbonation is more of a problem with gastric bypass than banding and as long as I don't drink the "fully leaded" (sugared) types I don't need to worry about it. I can only drink them on an empty stomach though- carbonation and food do not work for me at all.

Early Wednesday morning and I am still awake as usual. I wake, therefore I write. I weigh on Monday mornngs and otherwise avoid the scales because it would just make me crazy. This Monday morning I weighed 207. Things are still moving in the right direction. Last night I gave a reading of my short stories and poetry at a local music and literature event that happens each summer. It's fun- I get feedback on my work and $100 for 45 minutes of reading. A friend of mine took a picture of me last night and showed it to me today. There is less of me than there was, though I still look pretty soft and spongy. I wondered if it is really possible that I shall eventually dig myself out of all this too, too solid flesh and if a thin person might actually emerge in time. It won't be the same person that emerged the last time I lost weight- for one thing I am six years older and even in the normal course of events, certain parts of me would be heading south by now. I'm a bit afraid I might wake up one morning and discover I am a thin person hiding inside a fat person's skin, and I don't have the financial resources to have a lot of excess skin sculpted away. On the positive side, I don't have a lot of stretch marks to indicate damage and I didn't have a lot of loose skin the last time I lost a significant amount of weight. On the negative side- well, no reason to belabor the batwings or relaxed throat that come with five and a half decades of life even in some of my thin friends. It will be what it will be, and even so will be better than hauling around the equivalent of my fourth grade self on my body. A loss of 33 pounds is just beginning to really show to other people, but I feel much better living inside my body. I move better, dancing is easier, my horse doesn't have such a load to carry, and my jeans need to be replaced pretty soon. I saw the doc last week as planned and told him that I was still dealing with some issues including carbonated beverages. He asked, "Do you drink the high octane stuff?" I thought he meant caffienated, but he meant sugar. Told him no, I haven't drunk sugared soft drinks since Tab came out about a hundred years ago. He said, "Then what's the problem?" I explained I'd read and been told that the carbonation caused stomach stretching. He smiled and said that was usually more of a problem with the gastric bypass than with banding and not to worry about drinking occasional diet soft drinks. That made me quite happy as I love carbonated drinks, including things like Perrier and lime, and it makes life easier and more pleasant to not have to work to give them up altogether. DISCLAIMER: I am not suggesting anyone else should or should not imbibe diet soft drinks and I am not particularly interested in discussing the pros and cons of diet soft drinks. We shall now return to our irregularly scheduled blog. I have discovered there are some things I can no longer eat and the reality actually bothers me less than the anticipation of having to give them up. Black pepper Trisket crackers don't sit well, with or without Brie cheese. Microwaved chicken breast is a seriously bad idea. Hamburger patties are on the way out of my life, which is just as well since I really liked hamburgers and ate a lot of them before banding. French fries aren't too bad in small amounts, but what good are french fries without hamburgers? Most bread is a problem, though toast seems to be okay. This was one of the biggies for me- man may not live by bread alone, but it was a pretty serious part of my diet. Still, pain and foaming are excellent incentives to give up certain foods, and I find it bothers me less as time goes on. On the positive side, I can still eat rice and angel hair spaghetti and I am learning to eat fruit so that the fibrous membranes don't trip me up. Cheese and low fat low sugar pineapple sherbert are still edible, though I have to be careful not to eat all my meals in some form of frozen milk and eggs. That'll probably get easier as the weather cools off and as I figure what else I can eat without causing myself problems. One step at a time; I'm not going to freak out because of a chocolate malt every couple of weeks. I am not a person who can eliminate all fats and sugar from my diet; eating an occasional small package of cocoanut M&Ms is not going to set me back, but I also need to not become complacent about the amount of sweets I eat. Getting enough protein has always been a problem for me and even more so now, but I'm working on it. I've been eating a fair number of almonds because they are easy to chew up and get down. Well, this has been a remarkably boring entry, but it helps me to line some things out on paper in order to see where I am so I know where to go next. I haven't eliminated all problems from my diet, but the good old LAP-BAND®® keeps me from eating too much of anything. I realized this week that I am stopping when I feel full instead of finishing that last bite of ice cream or the second half of a sandwich. "Clean your plate" was hardwired into my psyche sometime early in life along with the idea if you fail to eat what someone puts in front of you their feelings may be hurt because food=love and affection. For years I've known intellectually this isn't true, but tell that to my inner child. Maybe she's finally getting restructured. Off to bed. I have several newspaper articles to write tomorrow and need to get up before noon to do the research. Blessed be.

I missed weighing in one Monday because I was out of town, so I weighed after I got home, knowing that I'd eaten alot of salty snacks which invariably cause water retention. Weight went up 1.5 pounds. Weighed again today and was back down 2 pounds. Note to self: salty snacks probably not a good thing in quantity, even if they are protein packed.

Most negative comments are directly related to the ignorance and intolerance of the person making them.

Early Wednesday morning and I am still awake as usual. I wake, therefore I write. I weigh on Monday mornngs and otherwise avoid the scales because it would just make me crazy. This Monday morning I weighed 207. Things are still moving in the right direction. Last night I gave a reading of my short stories and poetry at a local music and literature event that happens each summer. It's fun- I get feedback on my work and $100 for 45 minutes of reading. A friend of mine took a picture of me last night and showed it to me today. There is less of me than there was, though I still look pretty soft and spongy. I wondered if it is really possible that I shall eventually dig myself out of all this too, too solid flesh and if a thin person might actually emerge in time. It won't be the same person that emerged the last time I lost weight- for one thing I am six years older and even in the normal course of events, certain parts of me would be heading south by now. I'm a bit afraid I might wake up one morning and discover I am a thin person hiding inside a fat person's skin, and I don't have the financial resources to have a lot of excess skin sculpted away. On the positive side, I don't have a lot of stretch marks to indicate damage and I didn't have a lot of loose skin the last time I lost a significant amount of weight. On the negative side- well, no reason to belabor the batwings or relaxed throat that come with five and a half decades of life even in some of my thin friends. It will be what it will be, and even so will be better than hauling around the equivalent of my fourth grade self on my body. A loss of 33 pounds is just beginning to really show to other people, but I feel much better living inside my body. I move better, dancing is easier, my horse doesn't have such a load to carry, and my jeans need to be replaced pretty soon. I saw the doc last week as planned and told him that I was still dealing with some issues including carbonated beverages. He asked, "Do you drink the high octane stuff?" I thought he meant caffienated, but he meant sugar. Told him no, I haven't drunk sugared soft drinks since Tab came out about a hundred years ago. He said, "Then what's the problem?" I explained I'd read and been told that the carbonation caused stomach stretching. He smiled and said that was usually more of a problem with the gastric bypass than with banding and not to worry about drinking occasional diet soft drinks. That made me quite happy as I love carbonated drinks, including things like Perrier and lime, and it makes life easier and more pleasant to not have to work to give them up altogether. DISCLAIMER: I am not suggesting anyone else should or should not imbibe diet soft drinks and I am not particularly interested in discussing the pros and cons of diet soft drinks. We shall now return to our irregularly scheduled blog. I have discovered there are some things I can no longer eat and the reality actually bothers me less than the anticipation of having to give them up. Black pepper Trisket crackers don't sit well, with or without Brie cheese. Microwaved chicken breast is a seriously bad idea. Hamburger patties are on the way out of my life, which is just as well since I really liked hamburgers and ate a lot of them before banding. French fries aren't too bad in small amounts, but what good are french fries without hamburgers? Most bread is a problem, though toast seems to be okay. This was one of the biggies for me- man may not live by bread alone, but it was a pretty serious part of my diet. Still, pain and foaming are excellent incentives to give up certain foods, and I find it bothers me less as time goes on. On the positive side, I can still eat rice and angel hair spaghetti and I am learning to eat fruit so that the fibrous membranes don't trip me up. Cheese and low fat low sugar pineapple sherbert are still edible, though I have to be careful not to eat all my meals in some form of frozen milk and eggs. That'll probably get easier as the weather cools off and as I figure what else I can eat without causing myself problems. One step at a time; I'm not going to freak out because of a chocolate malt every couple of weeks. I am not a person who can eliminate all fats and sugar from my diet; eating an occasional small package of cocoanut M&Ms is not going to set me back, but I also need to not become complacent about the amount of sweets I eat. Getting enough protein has always been a problem for me and even more so now, but I'm working on it. I've been eating a fair number of almonds because they are easy to chew up and get down. Well, this has been a remarkably boring entry, but it helps me to line some things out on paper in order to see where I am so I know where to go next. I haven't eliminated all problems from my diet, but the good old LAP-BAND® keeps me from eating too much of anything. I realized this week that I am stopping when I feel full instead of finishing that last bite of ice cream or the second half of a sandwich. "Clean your plate" was hardwired into my psyche sometime early in life along with the idea if you fail to eat what someone puts in front of you their feelings may be hurt because food=love and affection. For years I've known intellectually this isn't true, but tell that to my inner child. Maybe she's finally getting restructured. Off to bed. I have several newspaper articles to write tomorrow and need to get up before noon to do the research. Blessed be.