Lap_dancer

crank it up [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUx5z9O2ZGk]YouTube - Squeeze - Black Coffee In Bed[/ame]

WOW ..you say music I say WHEN! THAT is what we should do, we should go to Red Rocks for a concert some time. What an awesome adventure. I dare not try it anytime soon but that is a dream. Next time a neighbor offers to tell you the latest gossip being spread by the infection next door just be real "eh" about it. You know? Like "yeah yeah yeah...same tune different day". They want you to pay, lawyer wants what his clients want..you to pay, you have no judgement against you, it's just paper games at this point. ( I got to a point I LOVED the paper games). They use big words to try and threaten you. Like getting a letter from a lawyer is going to make you shake in your shoes. *Lawyers are actually pretty cool people with great jokes, the best ones are lawyer jokes* Too bad their lawyer got a putz for clients. Eh...their problem come to think of it. If somebody wants to pay them money to make an argument over a property line, hey, they gotta make a living right? Funny. People like your neighbors can be "RS" really stupid. Need a report on that concert. I love love love concerts and live musical performances. Awesome thing to do on a Saturday night.

She doesn't know everything you know and that's the bottom line. If she did, and she is a rational woman, she wouldn't have been so heavy handed. But, like our lawyer told us, bad things happen to good people every day. My husband and I went through a very tedious three year legal process and prevailed. I can tell you be patient. Don't rush to respond whenever you hear from them. Take an "I'll get back to you on that" attitude and let it be a month or more before you do. After all, you don't have any legal responsibility to respond to a letter from a lawyer. He's being paid to get stuff for his clients. You are not his client. Another thing..no lawyer that I have ever met or what I have heard EVER likes to go to trial. It's too expensive. If they lose they have to eat the costs if the client isn't bound to pay. I know it is easier said than done but try to ignore all parties in this matter. Take a TIME IN. TIME INside yourself. It does wonders for me. I avoid adversity, I don't answer the phone, I stay in my room, I choose what I read, I don't put the cable on but watch movies. I control what goes into my environment. I'll say that again: I control what goes into my environment. It's my objective now to protect myself from negative influences. My normal response has been to eat over anguish and I am like a junkie going through withdrawal. Try a little tenderness.

Friends do take the time to photograph yourselves. I have a digital camera and took nudies of myself prior to the surgery. I took side photos of my volumous stomach. DANG Had I not taken another set today and compared them I wouldn't realize the VOLUME that is gone from my stomach. I can see the lifting of fat off the bottom of my stomach and it pulling inward. ....................... Loss for this week is a shiney little 1 pound. ............ Physical therapy hurts like a son of a gun. Doing CORE STRENGTHENING: Pelvic tilt: Flatten back by tightening stomach muscles and butt, hold 3 seconds, repeat 5 times, twice daily. Hip and Knee strengthening: Isometic Hip Adduction: With folded pillow between knees laying on my side on the bed, squeeze knees into the pillow, Hold 3 seconds, repeat 5 times, do twice daily. Khip and Kneww Quadriceps: Tighten muscles on top of thigh by pushing knees down into the bed. Hold 3 seconds, Repeat five times, twice a day. Abdominal Bracing: Breath in and pull belly inward at the navel, hold for five count, breathe out, relax. Repeat ten times.

We must be kindred spirits! So often I read something you have posted and thought to myself (hmmmmm....yes). *Another thought for all, look at the mistakes other people make and learn from them. It's free and costs you nothing. A good friend had an affair with a younger man. The thrill of his young body, his stamina, sent her to the moon. That was all well and good for the first few months then she tried to continue on with him and establish a LIFE. Life as in living day to day, bills, home mortgage, family, car payments, and suddenly her stud was not so studly. He was not the responsible one her husband had been who enabled her to drive a nice car, have a good home and live in a comfortable place that was warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Gone were surprise weekend getaways. Sure, hubby was losing his hair, getting a paunch belly but there was a lesson in there. My friend ended up having a nervous breakdown. Worth it? Not in my eyes. The media portrays romance as this imaginary state of life with oiled bodies and candles and exotic beaches. Those people go into hair and makeup before they start being filmed or photographed. Romance for me is when the rubber hits the road. I think a mature, responsible man is sexy hot. Take away some of the stress in my life, pay the bills, think of me and rub my back after a long day of hard work, speak kindly and respectfully the way you do to strangers. THAT is showing me love not just saying the words. And as I so often am known to say in this house: " Your actions speak so loudly I can't hear your words."

Possession is Nine-Tenths of the law. Lawyers can say whatever they want. It's a Judge that has to rule in favor of your neighbors and bind you to legal responsibility to pay for a survey of the land. Of course that will require a court date, a hearing..MONEY and honestly, to cog the court system up with trite things like this is annoying. Remember: Every time the lawyer sends you a letter, it costs your neighbors money. After so many letters it would be cheaper for them to move the fence and buy the survey. As an FYI... we bought land 10 years ago. Our neighbor had put a fence up that was two feet over onto our land. The result? Since the fence had been there for so long, the general consensus was to let it go, not worth the cost and we would probably lose because...possession is 9 / 10ths of the law after that much time. No worries. You have greater things to focus on such as yourself. Put your energy there.:tongue:

Originally Posted by BellaPerdente Ok guys I need to vent. I guess I took a leap of faith and started a profile at match.com a while ago. I have winked, emailed and im'd. Nothing:cursing: Most guys want fit and slender women. No one even gives me a chance to get to know one another. What's the harm in talking. My profile picture is not too bad either. My daughter thinks it looks nice. I am feeling better about myself since I have started losing weight and I think I am ready to pursue a companion. I am not looking for a long-term relationship at this time but I would like to have someone to talk to and have the occasional date. Why are men so shallow. Should I take my picture off and let them get to know me first before they see me? Do men even look if there is no picture. Has anyone been on this site? Bella I have an unusual take on some things. I believe there is destiny and a path for you. The lesson for Match.com is??? for you it could be whatever you have learned from the experience. You put the energy and effort out and if it is meant to happen that way it will. My story: I dated my high school sweetheart four years. I moved my senior year of high school to another state. We continued a long distance relationship but started itching for something new. He persisted. Friends met him and said it wasn't a good match. I insisted they were wrong. After graduation I took one year before marrying him and ended up at a business that I worked at until I married. Fast forward two years: I seperated from my husband and we divorced. In need of a job I went back to the old business and they hired me back. Within three months I met a great guy that I ended up dating. He was friends of the owners and had my head been in a different place two years prior I probably would have met him anyway since he was in there often. I ended up marrying that guy and we have two great kids, 25 years of marriage under our belt and a new grandson. Put the effort out there, try new things and if it is to be it will.

Wow this is fantastic advice. A great way to navigate those situations too. Thanks for posting this and for sharing so openly.

MORE: Eat solid foods, slowly and chew throughly. Many patients have a diffucult time with solids during the morning hours. If this is the case for you, open up your band by starting with a couple of glasses of liquids before your first meal. Eat solid foods slowly and chew throughly. The band was designed to restrict solids. A normal meal for anybody is typically composed of mostly solids. This means we want you to enjoy what you eat. A properly adjusted band will permit you to eat only a third of the volume of food you were use to eating. The brain takes 20 minutes to detect that your stomach is full. Since your new stomach is now your upper pouch, this smaller space is filled by less food. Eating slowly will permit you to fill it to an acceptable level without overdoing it. It will also permit you to enjoy your food thoroughly with less quantity, more quality. Chewing thoroughly will permit you to eat adequate amounts of food. If you gobble and neglect to chew your food thoroughly, pieces of food will not go through the stoma and will clog the pouch. ( Think of a pebble clogging the hole in an hourglass, preventing the sand from falling.) You will soon learn that chewing thoroughly is very important. When an excessively large piece of food clogs the stoma, then your body reacts in a way that feels quite unpleasant. It will create a good deal of viscous saliva (many call this thick solution "slime"). You will feel like you ate a baseball, and you may become slightly nauseous. The nauseous feeling and pain will increase, and most banded people find they have to vomit, but not the violent vomit common before surgery. It will be a pinkish goo that is regurgiated. This condition is popularly referred by Lap-Band patients as "PBing" or "Productive Burping" though this is not a burp. Following one of these episodes, it will be a while before you feel like eating again.

Thanks for the kind words of encouragement all. Heartfelt words are greatly appreciated. I decided to stick with the Extra Strength Liquid Tylenol. It works better than what the doc gave me so why change? Yup. Started doing my exercise program today. CARDIO IT AIN'T! It is called "Core strength training". ............................................................................ For the benefit of all, here is some from Lap-Band For Life by Ariel Ortiz Lagardere, MD: Chapter Nine. 1. Eat only three small meals a day. 2. Eat solid foods, slowly, and chew thoroughly (approximately 15 to 20 times a bite) 3. Stop eating as soon as you feel full. 4. Do not wash down your solids with liquids. 5. Do not eat between meals. 6. Eat only quality foods. 7. Avoid fibrous foods. 8. Drink enough fluids during the day. 9. Drink only low-calorie liquids. 10. Exercise at least thirty minutes a day.

yeah Mini with all those letters and numbers I was glad there was no blow out. Been doing Google searches and I have: Spondylolisthese of L5 on S1 which arthritis from what I can understand. I have "mild levoscoliosis of the lumbar spine" which is curviture of the spine..no doubt from this huge stomach on my body. Oh weight off off off soon

Well group I got my MRI results back! NO WONDER!!!!!!! I have disc d...... at L4. I have a disc bulge indenting and compressing the nerve in my spine at L5. I have another esis of some sort at S1. No blow-out of anything but what I have is enough to explain the pain. Plan: Physical therapy very mild. Re-visit with my doctor for a change in medication therapy. Keep losing weight ( oh yeah) and because of the pull my stomach is having on my back ( right there) reduction of tissue. That I cannot do until next summer. So that's the news.

Yes. I've often thought they are simply listeners who allow us to hear our own thoughts.

OH AND THANKS FOR ASKING!! ................................. Weigh in....305

Adorkable, Mare and Lap -- how are ya'll doing with the surgery, endoscopy and MRI/PT (I guess this is a good place to put in the word, "respectively".)? Thanks for asking! My MRI, Magnetic Radiation Imagery was simply DIVINE. Closed quarters coffin heaven. Why, just remind me to bring one out on Halloween. My favorite part was laying on the back that is so painful for 45 minutes and told "don't move". Or maybe it was sliding into the HUGE human Mammogram. Can't make my mind up. The MRI was 45 minutes long. According to the tech the images came out "perfect". I meditated, thought of lavender fields, dancing in the rain, belly dancing and twirling across the stage at a theatre I have often worked at getting my mind off the pain at hand. MONDAY or TUESDAY we get the results. Scheduled the first physical therapy for next week Wednesday.

ATTA GIRL!!:thumbup: Gotta love that Retail Therapy.

flouro is just an xray type machine. No biggy. I had one done once, shortly after my surgery so I could stay local. It was uneventful. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!! Tropicana call the office and ask for Natalie. She is a great go to person and wonderfully full of information. Best to you. HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Michelle is is awesome to see you posting. Dang I missed you. Now..GIRL, we could talk. Starting with the too much fat in my diet, changing that, then DRINKING past my band...not booze but things like coffee with cream and sugar and then of course laying in bed all the time zero exercise..NONE..and popping pain pills to keep the pain at bay. The upside is that like you, my body has changed for the better. I am smaller by two sizes. I just wish I was farther along down the process. BUT here is where my head is at and the conclusion I came to: I started off with this band as a committment to me to get healthy and if I had to do gastric surgery to make it happen I would. Nothing changes that. No problems make me waiver from my goal. It is what it is and if something funky is going on (which for me it has) I will not quit, I will find out what it is, work around it and keep going. I simply refuse to quit. So be it a year, be it five years, I will not quit until I see my goal weight achieved and a lifestyle where I can run, or ski, or whitewater raft or do the things I dream of doing! It's awesome to see you here. HUGS! DEE, pages back there is a part of this big volumous thread where abuse is talked about. It comes up every so often. Many of us have that in our history. It hurts, it is so painful to repeat the memory in our minds but it is there. I know for sure I have eaten endlessly over some of the pain in my past and food has always been my first reach since about the age of 9. Why do we eat over things? I personally believe we seek things to soothe and develop a pattern that we carry with us through the years. I'm glad you are here, I'm glad that you acknowledge within yourself what you believe is going on. Counseling helps, talking here helps, reading helps. Keep it going friend. We are replacing bad habits all the way around.

Welcome Jogirl. I had mine done in Parker as well. I highly recommend it. This is not one of those doublewide trailor looking buildings but very pretty with lovely sculptures and a huge gallery type entry. Staff was so very friendly. It's not a behemoth impersonal place either. Holiday Inn Select is so close you'll be glad you chose it. LUCK! Munchkin what's the latest with Nurse Betty? BAHOTMAMA - thanks so much. I am so glad that I have direction to go in with the pain. Lifesaver..sqeels...details details! Ha ha. LOVE IT. Our friends on here are riding the Love Boat. MAL! Hey girl. HUGS sqeeeeeeze. Anita dah=link where are you? Schools is starting already here. Amieru hey! Hope all is going well with you. Sidann I start the torture on Thursday. My mechanical coffin visit is then. Once I get that MRI then we can know exactly what my spine is doing. Friday is my physical therapy. ** I'm sharing these thoughts that a nurse told me years ago. "Pain is not normal". So if you find you are feeling some pain for some odd reason and there is nothing visible or it can't be readily explained...have it checked out. I should have done this sooner because I have literally been living on Tylenol Extra Strength gel caps for aeons. Walking should not be so painful and since my feet stopped hurting, my knees stopped hurting ( less weight thank you very much ) there was no reason the back should NOT have stopped hurting. I want to dance. I want to take long walks. I want to run. I want to ride a bike up the Suncoast trail. Right now it is too painful to do any of that. SOON!

Sidann: thank you for the optimism. I'll let you know if I am sufficiently tortured. I some how feel they can come pretty close to some of the pain but knowing I'll get some remedy helps. ........ Munchkin...one acronym: HIPPA. (warning, Lap_Dancer is getting her black thigh high stelletos and whip out and the mouth is letting loose) Munchkin, I would be so far up that nurse's azz she'd need a flashlight to shit#. I would get her supervisor's name, copy of your insurance card with Hubby's name on it and you as the primary which they HAVE but still. Do they ask to see divorce papers when patients are admitted? Why did this nurse choose to be SELECTIVE in how she chose to give information? It wasn't okay for her to tell YOU HIS WIFE but it was okay for her to tell a "FRIEND" that YOU provided her the name and contact information of? Taken names and kickin ass.

Thanks GREEN! One chorus of HIGH HOPES for me. It makes me feel so up, I love that song.

Sing it with me friends!!!!!!!! click this link and let's sing together........... [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlsitMRQAdA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlsitMRQAdA[/ame] Next time your found, with your chin on the ground There a lot to be learned, so look around Just what makes that little old ant Think hell move that rubber tree plant Anyone knows an ant, cant Move a rubber tree plant But hes got high hopes, hes got high hopes Hes got high apple pie, in the sky hopes So any time your gettin low stead of lettin go Just remember that ant Oops there goes another rubber tree plant When troubles call, and your backs to the wall There a lot to be learned, that wall could fall Once there was a silly old ram Thought hed punch a hole in a dam No one could make that ram, scram He kept buttin that dam cause he had high hopes, he had high hopes He had high apple pie, in the sky hopes So any time your feelin bad stead of feelin sad Just remember that ram Oops there goes a billion kilowatt dam All problems just a toy balloon Theyll be bursted soon Theyre just bound to go pop Oops there goes another problem kerplop

Challenge adjustment but that's okay, I'm cool with it. This may read as bad news to some but considering I brushed the skirt of 400 pounds I'm not at all discouraged. First up: My scale is off. I have a digital scale and it is off by the doctor's office which I can now weigh at thank you very much. It's off by 14 pounds going the wrong direction so....rather than being at 293 I am at 307, like I said, I'm cool with it in the grand scheme of things. Second up: Remember how I told some of you it hurt so bad to exercise and I hated the pain that went with it? FINALLY went to the doctor specifically focusing on the back. TWO HOURS LATER and after a head to toe exam, they suspect I have a bulging disc, not herniated because of the movements I can do...but because of the scream I let out when the X spot was on my back was pressed and the limited range in motion I can't do, they think I have a bulging disc. I really am cool with it, honest I am. It's like knowing there is something not normal going on and then thinking..."ahhhh I'm just too fat" but then seeing other people who are fat too being able to walk, and do all this increase in activity you start to question am I lazy? or is there something funky going on. So attacking the something funky question and finally hearing the suspected culprit is a physical problem actually comes as a relief; I felt validated. Hearing my doctor say, "Is it your weight? Yeah, probably has to do with the problem but could it be something else going on? Absolutly." I love doctors who don't chalk up all ills to justt being fat. MRI is scheduled, yes, that wonderful mechanical coffin. Also.. medication, anti-inflammatory for the back for during the day when I am working so I can function and not drool on myself and also for nighttime...SOMA to help me sleep more soundly. Also..... Physical therapy. Got a script to start physical therapy and they are sending me to a facility that deals with more rehab patients rather than say a twisted ankle type problem ( a little more oomph). So friends this feels awesome. My new goals for this next challenge are to satisfy my physical therapy rehabilitation which will be exercise in the form of mending and strengthening. Going to call that: PT-Rehab and also 23 lbs. TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!

You aren't the only one who has PB's in fact there is an entire thread dedicated to PBs. Just go to search and type in PB, it will scroll like a ticker tape. I SLIME if I: Drink a cold liquid following a bite of food. ( or it gets hung up it feels) Eat something hard like an apple. Three bites and I'm a goner. Eat too fast. Eat too big of a bite at one time. Eat certain food combinations ( like having a piece of biscuit with a bite of sausage ..ahhhhhhh ) You just make a mental note of what isn't a good thing ( like right now I had a THIN slice of raisin bread that I toasted. I have some tea, straight up, for some reason that combo isn't settling well with me. It's my guess that the wet of the tea is creating a cog, a 'dough ball' in my food shoot.That's the kind of mental note I make.

Ready for this challenge. Dee my friend, thanks for keeping us logged in data wise. Start weight for me is 389. Can you believe I typed the above??? I am editing it right now but that's how engrained HEAVY is in my head. Make that 289. I almost want to go weigh again to pinch myself that I am out of the 300's. Been there for so many years!!!

Sharing some positive energy and inspiration Start small Even the smallest accomplishment has great value. Because it sets in motion a positive momentum. Once you begin to create value, you easily and naturally move toward creating even more value. The best thing about success is that it provides greater opportunity for even more success. Go ahead and start small, and if you're unable to start small, then start tiny. The point is, do whatever you can with whatever you have, and that will be plenty to get you moving in a positive, productive direction. There is always something you can do. There is always some small step forward that you can make right now. Your ability to accomplish does not get used up. In fact, the more you use it, the more powerful it grows. Create a little bit of success, and experience how great it feels. From that positive, empowered place, there's no limit to where you can go. -- Ralph Marston ......................................................................................... I liked these to help deal with anxiety, stress and so forth: STINGO - Stop Think Inhale Now Go On - Soldier Billy. WASP -Wait Absorb Slowly Proceed - Soldier Billy. Resentment makes resentment - Soldier Billy. Resentment - The best cure is to ask yourself: Have I ever done what I am resenting that person for? And playing on Soldier Billy's thoughts I will add my own: I have never met anyone who went through searching for a surgeon, financing their Lap-Band, following the pre-op diet, undergoing surgery, enduring the soreness of recovery and changing their life small bites at a time because the price of food was raised. We are a unique group of individuals who have experiences with food unlike typical people. It's this experience that brings us together and unites us. - Lap Dancer