jena

The Lap Band is made from hypoallergenic plastic. No metal parts. The only way he could have trouble with it at an airport would be if he was pulled aside and had an xray. Even then it would probably be hard for the untrained eye to notice it. She must have misunderstood what her husband told her.

I would certainly call the OCC and ask for their advice. He may need to stay on warm liquids in case there is still swelling. It may also be indigestion. I've felt this before and I've chewed a couple of Tums really well and it helped. Seriously though, call the OCC. Jena

Looks like I'm going to be the dissenting opinion here. Oh, not that Trav isn't looking good, but that just because someone says there is "no chemistry" means they are not attracted because the other person is fat or not the right height or not the right color or whatever and that makes them shallow or a jerk is not true. Speaking as a fat girl, I have my own set of physical things I like in a man. 30-40 years old, taller than me, normal weight. I have standards too. Smart, makes at least as much money as me, nice car, nice home, no children or grown children, no smoking, light drinking, not a Democrat, preferably Libertarian, believes in God, at least as much education as me, loves cats and big dogs. Am I a snob? No, I have learned from experience what I like and what is best for me. Could I fall in love with someone with NONE of these qualities? Of course. EVERYONE has what they like and what they don't like. I can have fun all night with a guy and there not be any chemistry and I don't care if I see him again, especially if I know he's looking for a relationship and I'm not. What I'm trying to say is we all have the things we prefer in a mate, but if someone has all of those things, unless there is that chemistry, it just ain't gonna get off the ground. My friend Shawn who is lovely has met quite a few guys on a couple of the online sites and she's never had a relationship with one of them! She's rejected some and and some have rejected her. Don't automatically assume it's anything wrong with YOU. It happens to skinny people too. It happens to beautiful people too. Things won't change when you lose weight. You just have to keep on meeting people and taking a chance. It will click and when it does, you'll be glad the others went by the wayside! The BIGGEST lesson to learn is that a phone "romance" is not a romance at all. It's the whole package, not just the phone personality. As for the guy that never came back...UN-FREAKING-BELIEVEABLE!

Thanksgiving is one day. Stick with your pre-op diet. Get yourself a Lean Cuisine that has the turkey, dressing and mashed potatoes or the one with turkey (or chicken) with dressing and gravy and cinnamon apples. If you're going to treat yourself, Entenmann's has fantastic 100 calorie treats. The carrot cake with cream cheese icing is fantastic. Yeah, it's small, about 3 bites but it's 100 calories for goodness sake! Add a big salad and maybe some green beans, steamed broccoli or other green veggies. Put your lean cuisine on a plate instead of eating it in the container and eat with everyone else. YOU CAN DO IT!! Next year, you will really have something to be thankful for! Good luck! Jena

The simple truth is the only way to take care of hanging skin is surgery. There are factors that can make the chances better that your skin won't hang so badly. 1. How much weight do you have to lose? The more you have to lose, the more likely you are to have hanging skin. 2. How old are you? The younger you are, the more elasticity your skin has. 3. How many times have you lost and gained weight? The more you've gone up and down the less elastic your skin is. 4. Do you have stretch marks? The more you have, the more chance you have of having hanging skin. If you already have "bat wings" and a saggy tummy, they aren't going to go away by losing weight. They will get smaller but if the skin isn't tight now, losing weight and building muscles won't help much. In some ways I feel like my loose skin is like a badge of honor, but when I get down to a weight I can maintain I'm getting the skin removed. I'm saving for it now as a matter of fact!! DON"T LET WHAT I'VE SAID DISCOURAGE YOU FROM LOSING WEIGHT!! That is the most important thing you can do for yourself.

Hahahah! I drive a 2007 Miata with a gas tank that holds a whopping 10 gallons. Considering it gets about 31 mpg, I have to fill up about once every 5 days or so. Gas in Atlanta is now between $1.65 and $1.75.

I agree with everything you are saying. It is the small business owner who will be hit and that equals businesses going out of business and people losing jobs. Corporations won't suffer, they don't pay taxes anyway. The "corporate taxes" they pay are just passed on to the consumers. I am enjoying the gas prices too! I filled up for $1.71 the other day. It cost me $16.50 to fill up!! A few weeks ago I was paying over $40 to fill up. HUGE difference! Jena

Dana, I am so very sorry. That must be heartbreaking. My sister owns her own business. She employees 5 full time people and 1 part time. She's one of those "makes more than $250,000 rich people" who are going to get hit with more taxes thanks to our new administration. What most people don't realize is that $250,000 + that goes on her tax return is from her business that employees 5 1/2 people. She doesn't even take a salary for herself! Everything goes back into the business. She said if her taxes go up it will break her back and she'll have to start laying off. Another friend in Middle Georgia has a business that employees several hundred people. He had 3 lines of credit at banks and although a good customer who always pays his bills on time, one of the banks pulled his line of credit. They had no credit to give him! Now he is forced to start laying off because he doesn't have the liquidity to make payroll without his lines of credit. This credit crisis is really snowballing. My only bright note is that I'm picking up lots of good stocks at rock bottom prices. I'll have to wait 5 or 10 years to get a good return on them, but that's what investing is all about.

I love the Mike & Juliette show and yesterday they had a couple of web sites to save/make money. These two I found interesting. The first one is shortcuts.com You put in your shopping card(s) (I have a Kroger card that gives me discounts) these aren't credit cards, just the discount card. Then they show you coupons like you would normally clip and you select the ones you want and it automatically loads them to your card so when you buy the items, the coupon is automatically deductedfrom your grocery bill! It doesn't cost anything to use the service, so that's really cool. The second one is gazelle.com If you've got any kind of electronics like old cell phones, cameras or MP3 players this company will buy them from you & even send you the prepaid mailer to mail it to them. I'm going to round up my old cell phones and DVD movies and see how much I can get for them. Anyone else have any money saving tips?

FYI, if you did sign up for this and didn't receive instructions on how to get in to the webinar, go to PayPal and file a dispute in order to get your money back.

Sing it sister! I've been under terrible stress because of the economy. I'm an IT engineer and I've NEVER had any trouble finding a job and I make pretty darn good money. I was working at a job I absolutely loved with some of my dearest friends. I started in Sept of 2007 and this past June, my whole entire team was laid off! I was totally lucky and had a contract job in 2 days. I hated that job and once again was lucky enough to get another consulting job offer that was for more money and as it turns out, I LOVE the place.(It's the corporate office of the second largest retailer in the US) My best friend that I was working with who also got laid off last June HAS NOT BEEN ABLE TO FIND A JOB. That's 5 months people! He does what I do. My step-brother was just laid off from his job. He was a reporter for a small newspaper in South Carolina. He's 24 or 25 and had to move back home with my dad and step mom. I am worried sick that I'm going to get laid off and not be able to find a job. I'm single and I have no other source of income. I'm 50 years old. I'm too old to move back in with my 70something year old dad! Forget the automobile industry! I want a bailout for ME!

I'm doing good myself. Funny thing about the restriction. My last fill was 5 or 6 weeks ago and I'm just NOW feeling restriction. Strange isn't it? The link is in my first post up there to the webinars. UPDATE...I received no response to my emails from Fill Centers USA about the webinar. I did receive a "How did we do?" email!!! I gave them just a little piece of my mind and now I'm going to PayPal and dispute the charge.

"I'm not a doctor, but I play one one the lap band forum" Ha! somebody had to say it. Ladies, you read my mind.

No response as of this morning, however they are on California time, so it is still early there. Didn't they wonder why no one signed on for the webinar? Mona, how you doing girl? A webinar is like a seminar, but it's broadcast over the web. It's live and the person speaks and there is usually a slide show or a demonstration and at the end, the people attending asks questions through something like instant messaging. There is usually a moderator who gets all of the questions then asks them of the speaker. I signed up for about 6 of these things and the only conformation I have are my paypal payments that went through. I don't even know which ones I signed up for! CrazyCoolB - did you sign up for the first one? I'm sorry I missed it. If anyone did participate in it, let me know how it went. Jena

Here is the link, http://www.fillcentersusa.com/mindbody.html But I don't know how good they are because I missed the first one and this one I never got instructions for. You pay through PayPal and they are $10.

I'm pretty miffed right now. I never got my email instructions to get into the webinar tonight. Just wondering if anyone else signed up for it and received the info. I've emailed 3 different people at FCUSA and haven't received a response yet.

Ha! That will go over like a great big lead balloon! :sarcastic_hand:

Will you share a couple of days of your food journal? That will help give us some perspective. Have you lost any clothing sizes? I've gone up and down the same few pounds for weeks now, but I've dropped a size and people who don't know I have the band are asking me if I've lost weight. Sometimes the scales don't give a true picture. Are you getting plenty of fiber? Between 25 and 30g per day? (doesn't matter if you are "regular", you still need every one of those grams of fiber) Is it possible there are some "hidden fat/calories" in what you are consuming every day? Are you having fruit juice, protein shakes, regular milk, sugar free pudding, cheese? How about condiments? Many people forget to count them. Ketchup, mayo, salad dressing, salsa, butter or margarine (they both have the same calories!) ? Fruit? Bananas are very high in sugar. Sometimes those darn calories sneak in where we aren't looking for them! From what you've said you're doing everything right. I know it's frustrating now, but hang in there. It is worth having the band and your changes will show sooner or later. Hopefully sooner! Jena

Dude! Chill! I'm not trying to start anything. I just wanted to prove it to my sister by sending her some links. I couldn't find any by googling "wisdom teeth", "wisdom teeth roots" and various other combinations. You said you have enough medical studies under your belt to know how and where to back this up. I just thought there might be something on the net that I could send my "Know-it-all" sister, AKA "The General." Not only is she a know-it-all, she's bossy. No worries, though. Just wanted you to know I had no ulterior motives.

It's called a gaff or plastic vagina. Don't ask.

Fan-Freaking-Tastic!!! What a difference a few months make. It seems like yesterday when you were counting down the days until your surgery!

That's cool. I would love to have a link or two to the medical studies you site to pass on to my sister from whom I got the information.

Wisdom teeth don't keep growing like a rabbits front teeth which need continual friction to wear them down to a manageable level. They keep growing in the sense that the continue to break through the gum like all of our teeth do until they have finished growing. It can take years for the wisdom teeth to finally finish their growing cycle. It's just a coincidence that your wisdom tooth has chosen to grow some now. We don't just use our teeth when we are eating, we are always grinding our teeth, even in our sleep, so being on a soft or liquid diet isn't the cause of the wisdom teeth growing. Go to your dentist and if you don't want to have them extracted, have that one ground down to fit your bite. You probably won't have to even have Novocain to have it done. There's no reason to suffer.

Hi Mona, I've been reading here, but not posting much. I've missed all of you too! I'm so surprised that so many of us have had similar experiences. When going through it, it seems so hard, but when you are on the other side you've really grown as a person. Women have an amazing inner strength don't we? Jena

Let me speak to you as one who has walked in your shoes. Twice. Your husband has a serious illness, and you are a contributing part of that illness. Don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean you don't love him. I know you must love him very much to be willing to work on the marriage after his betrayal. You have to love him enough to let him live his own life and let him go with love in your heart. He has made his choice right now. Two important things to learn and take to heart; the only one you can change is YOU and people treat you the way you let them treat you. Make a list of the conditions by which you will let him back into your life - and there will come a time when he will realize his mistakes. At your next session with the counselor, make this list very clear to him, but be careful. You have to be able to stick to your guns. Make up your mind to get on with your life. You HAVE to do this. Then get on with your life, a life that doesn't include him. When he is ready, he will contact you, and hopefully you will make him PROVE that he is worthy of you. If this happens before you have found love again, good for both of you. If it happens after you have found new love, too bad for him. This is what happened to me and my Husband. By the time he had come to his senses, I no longer wanted or needed him. I still cared for him, but I didn't love him any more. The second time (the guy and I weren't married but we were living together) it took over a year before he reached out to me. I honestly thought he would kill himself when I threw him out of the house, but he picked himself right back up and found somewhere to live and got a job. By the time he contacted me my head had cleared. I realized that for my own self respect I can never be involved with an alcoholic or anyone who is addicted. We are now friends, but he is still drinking and using drugs. I've set limits on our friendship, like no "drunk phone calls". I hung up on him the first time and he's never done it again. Sorry about the rambling! Hugs to you and lots of prayers. jena