Back in Blogland

I've been less busy with work the last few days and spent ages reading blogs. I don't have a list down the side-bar of my blog, but thanks to Roo at http://abrandnewroo.blogspot.com/ I managed to read through most of my old favourites, and some new favourites too.

I have so much to be thankful for, bandwise. No major complications, good weight loss and reasonable restriction.

Yes I whine and complain a bit, and yes I could make better choices and lose another 15 pounds. But on the whole life is good and I'm thankful for my band.

I really feel for people who've had to lose their bands - Jen and Sally - and it makes me grateful that I've not had these horrible complications.

I've been banded for four years. Another year, and I will become a statistical anomaly- someone who lost significant amounts of weight and kept it off for five years.

Reading all these other blogs, I realise this is probably the most boring (esp visually) blog in the blogsphere. But I haven't a clue how to jazz up my layout.

I need more restriction

Since my last fill I've not gained any weight, but I have only lost 3 or 4 pounds. I don't really have enough restriction, and I am as hungry as ever.

Not particularly happy coming up to the holidays worrying about my weight and needing a fill. I'll prob wait till the New Year, but I do need to lose weight.

I don't like carrying around an extra 15 pounds. I know that on BMI charts I am ok, my BMI is 23, I am not technically overweight. But I don't have much or any muscle, so that weight is all fat. (Well, apart from the bones etc :-)

I don't seem to eat a huge amount (fill-wise, I can't), but I do eat too often and the wrong things and I don't exercise. Sigh. Need to get things sorted.

On the brighter side of things, it is 4 yrs since my op, and I am sooo glad I had it. I don't really mind that I'd like to lose a few pounds. I am not massively overweight. I look reasonable in my clothes, I can move around comfortably and no longer feel "un-abled" by my size/weight.

I am so glad that I had surgery. My life hasn't had the same dramatic changes as some other bandsters, but losing ten points off my BMI is great. And I never ever want to get to that point again. I need to get another small fill, and work with my band.

And if I don't post again, happy holidays to everyone.

October Update

It was great having only 5 mils in my band. I hardly knew it was there. In fact it felt like it wasn't. And in seven weeks I gained 13 pounds. So off I went for a fill. This time, he put 1 mil back in. I wasn't sure if that was too much; I was going to ask for 0.25 but he suggested a whole 1 mil.

I'm still on fluids, but can tell that my restriction is back with a vengeance. I wonder how long it will take me to lose these 13 pounds. Longer than it took me to gain them, no doubt.

I feel like I've had a WLS holiday over the last six weeks. With no restriction and eating whatever I wanted, I stopped reading WLS blogs or the WLS forum. I need to get back on track.

September update. Weight wise I stay about 136 - 139 pounds, if I get over 139 I immediately cut back.

I am doing no exercise at all, I know, it is not good.

I don't eat a lot of real food - mostly soups and slider foods. And I've been having no-specific pain in my stomach and back. And when I do eat real food, I am often sick (pb).

So I decided that enough is enough. Went along to a fill provider (Dr Marc Focquet) (he did not do my surgery, but is in London every fortnight on a Saturday which is v convenient for me) and asked him to check exactly how much was in my band.

He said 6.5mls. I thought it was more than that (though I know sometimes some stays in the tubing etc) He then put 5mils back in, so I have had a 1.5 ml defill.

That's a lot. It felt/feels really weird (my stomach I mean) (and even my back feels weird) and if I breath in too hard I get a stabbing sort of feeling in that area (stomach not port)

I bet I put on a ton of weight in no time :-) and go rushing back for a refill. But for now, I need to eat solid food, slowly and stop when I am full. And stop pb'ng full stop. (Stick to the basic bandster rules I mean)

I have a horrible feeling I probably wrote this same post a yr ago :-) I'm going round in circles a bit with my band. But at least I'm in skinnier circles than I used to be!

July

It is a while since I updated. Nothing much has changed. I've lost a few pounds which is good (well, three, which is hardly much to write home about) but to be fair I really have not been trying very hard (at all)

My band is tight, I can only drink hot fluids in the morning (coffee good - water bad); but as the day goes on it gets easier

I don't eat a lot of real food, mostly soft foods and soups/protein drinks. That is partly my own fault, I could eat more real food if I could slow down and take the time to chew properly and concentrate - *and* stop before I am full.

But life is busy and I generally don't which means I am sick, which means I go back to fluids or soft foods. I can eat out with friends who don't know about the band if I am mega careful, so that is good.

I have had a few days recently where my stomach has been really sore - not gastric acid sore, but painful - very. Pre op I had a hiatus hernia, which was repaired during my banding op. I wonder if part of the repair has come undone. It is that sort of pain, along with difficulty swallowing - which is not the same as the difficulty swallowing with a tight band (I had difficulties swallowing for yrs due to the hernia)

If it continues I'll maybe get an endoscopy to see what is happening. But hiatus hernia repairs do tend to go wrong (in fact the NHS here would not repair it for me) (it is a complex procedure and many UK surgeons would rather manage the symptoms than go for surgery) so I'm not sure if I'd want more surgery.

Assuming, of course, that that is what the problem is. I've had my band for 3.5 yrs and this is a new pain - well, it's the old pain back again. It's not unbearable, but annoying. And I have to be careful with posture, how I sit, esp leaning forward, since sometimes part of the stomach gets caught under the diaphram (first time that happened I thought I was having a heart attack, seriously!)

I've not been reading blogs for ages, new computer and lost my old links, but will try to get back into it

Till then, love to all bandsters!

Just to update to keep an accurate record of my fills/unfills - because I've used two diff providers neither of them has a clue what is in my band - nor do I, tbh, but I could work it out via this blog

I felt my restriction was getting to be less and less and was beginning to worry whether I had erosion of my band. It's not common, but it is not *that* uncommon either

I had an x ray done, privately, it cost £95 and I just had to walk in off the street and was out inten mins. I got a copy of the xray plus a disc with it on - great service, Harley Street Xray Express is highly recommended.

I had to wait a month to see Dr C again, and during that time I worried myself sick that the xray didn't look good and showed erosion/migration of the band.

When I finally saw Dr C, he thought the xray looked great, but warned me that erosion can't be diagnosed by xray necessarily; and added that in the 8000 Heliogast bands he'd fitted, there had never been one case of erosion.

And he gave me a 0.5 mil fill.

And today I am down to 142, losing weight ever so slowly,but I hope I am getting back towards my goal

Dr C always tells me I've lost enough weight while I think I could do with losing another 20 pounds!

Till next time. .

Updating

I had 0.5mils replaced in my band on May 5th.

My weight is up by quite a bit, to 150 lbs, from a low of 124 lbs. Not happy. Got to make better food choices, don't feel any difference in restriction, tbh, but time will tell.

I also had an xray done, but won't have it looked at by a doctor till next month

Another un-fill

I feel like the last one mil in my band has cost me at least as much as the operation itself!

Since a recent vomitting bug, the only serious vomitting virus I have had since being banded three plus yrs ago - not good - I felt I was being sick (pbing) too much and went to see Dr Marc about getting my band defilled by 0.25ml.

I only wanted a tiny tweak, since the band is working for/with me mostly right now and I am down to 133 pounds (9 stone 7).

He had different ideas, and when he stabbed my port with the needle, he said (and I could see) that fluid was pouring into the syringe, without him having to do any pulling. He said that that showed my band was under pressure. He let it continue until it stopped, by which time 0.8 (nearly a whole mil) had come out.

He insisted I have that removed, so I have.

Wonder how it will affect my eating patterns/weight loss

Happy New Year

In the interests of honesty and fairness, I need to say that I feel better now. I somehow managed to pick myself up a bit since my last post, and got down from 10 stone 4 (or 10 stone 8 on a bad day) to 9 stone 12 (or 9 stone 9 on a good day). I realise that that is only ten pounds or so of difference, but it makes a huge difference to how I feel.

What happened to make that work? Well, I am no longer going to the gym, and I'm doing less exercise than ever since before this journey started, pretty much. But, on the other hand, I am probably less hungry - exercise always made me starving.

I took appetite suppressants off and on for a month (I never take them daily, just now and again, maybe 10 - 12 days a month) and that seemed to kick start the weight loss.

I'm now maintaining at around 9 stone 10. I'd love to be ten pounds lighter, but I can live with this.

I'm sorry I've been MIA for so long, I love the bandster community, and I read regularly, even if I don't comment

Happy 2011 everyone