Snakes and ladders

Tomorrow sees my first “fill”.  An as-yet-unknown amount of saline will be injected into the ‘port’ buried in my stomach, from whence it (mysteriously – at least to me) travels to inflate the band and restrict the opening from my new upper stomach to my old stomach.  I imagine they will go pretty cautiously because of my extreme sickness when they put the band in. Getting the right level of fill is not easy and varies from person to person.  What they call the “sweet spot” is the point at which you are not hungry between meals and eat far smaller portions than a ‘normal’ person and consistently lose 1-2lbs a week (I’d like a bit more than that tbh – 2lbs+ is what I’m aiming for).  Too little in the band and you’re hungry, too much and you can’t get anything down, even well-chewed food.  In extreme cases, you can’t even swallow your own saliva, let alone eat anything.  All too often, people ask for a more substantial fill as they think they’ll lose weight more quickly that way and end up not being able to get anything past the band and bringing it back up – and then usually have to go back to have some fluid removed.  Not fun.

Obviously, to date I have no fill and thus no ‘restriction’ (there’s an entire vocabulary around this).  I’ve been sticking to my 1000 calories a day with varying degrees of hunger.  But I haven’t fully learnt the rules that need to be followed to successfully live with the band.  These revolve around eating small portions, slowly and chewed very well (so it doesn’t get stuck in the band opening), with a pause between bites.  I still eat too quickly and don’t chew enough, a lot of the time.  I also eat to the maximum of my calorie limit, rather than the rules which say you should eat from a side plate for no more than 20 minutes.  Sometimes I forget that you’re not allowed to drink (anything) 20 minutes before and 20 minutes after eating (and also whilst, obviously).  So, I have a lot of learning to do. 

I’m also happy to go with the nurse’s recommendation on how much to put in.  It’s tricky in that it could then take quite some time to get to the right point, which isn’t ideal as work aren’t thrilled about me leaving early and means a tougher than average time of it.  Tomorrow I have to leave work an hour and a half early.  I might be able to book lunchtime appointments as I think that might go down better with my boss.  I’ll have a better idea after tomorrow how long I will be there.  After the fill you have to wait and drink a glass of water which you need to be able to keep down.  Fills take place roughly every month I think (might be 5-6 weeks).  Then after each fill, you have to go back to liquids only for 3 days and mushy food for 3 days.

The bright side – apart from reaching that nebulous sweet spot at some point – is that even the 3 days on liquids should force at least a modest drop on the Scales of Doom.  The story so far: I dropped to the lowest weight since the op after being sick or about to be sick for the fortnight after the op.  Rehydration saw me put on 5lbs.  I’ve been inching back to that dehydration point and finally reached it at the beginning of last week.  Then I had two (restrained) evenings out and went sliding straight down a snake.  I’ve been pulling myself up a ladder painfully slowly, just to go back to that point.  I just about reached it this morning – but it’s wearying to not be making much progress.  Next week I am hoping to have a whoosh.  I’d better, three days on liquids is not going to be fun (since apparently ‘liquids’ does not include gin, wine or champagne).