Well October 20th is my 1 year anniversary of having my Lap Band done. I wish I could say that I am where I would like to be, but I am far from it!
My last band fill was on Feb. 13, 2009. I had lost 20 pounds in 6 weeks. My surgeons assistant was very pleased. In fact he didn't give me a fill now that I recall. He told me that he wanted to see me back in 2 months. I knew right then that I should have said no. In fact I tried to get him to see me in a month and he didn't think it would be necessary. So we booked the appointment and went home.
Some time in that month I decided to go on a feeding frenzy. My thing was chocolate cake. I had added stress like mom didn't have a car and I would have to taxi her and Kelly around. Money was an issue, like always. And there were more but I don't want to bore you with the details.
In that month, I gained 20 pounds!!! I thought, that's ok I have a month to get it off. Well it never happened. In fact I gained another 5 pounds. I went from 325 lbs to 350 in a month and a half!! I canceled my appointment and rescheduled for the next month. The next month came and the weight is still hanging on. So I canceled again. This time I didn't reschedule.
I worked hard at the gym, but I was also eating a lot of food. I have to admit, it was not all good food either. I was settling once again for fast food or buffets where I would eat too much. Sometimes being in a hurry I would eat too fast and then lose what I ate. After I lost it, I would then come back to the table and eat again. Since I was taking my mom and sister around the trips would take all day. So rather than packing a lunch, we would eat out. This was making things hard in many ways. Money was getting tight, and so were my pants.
Now I have to admit that I was able to keep my weight to the new 350 lbs for the 7 months. But I couldn't take it anymore. I had my surgery almost a year ago and I have only lost 20 pounds. That is disgusting!!! Any way you look at it, that is disgusting!!!
So I broke down and made the appointment with my surgeon on 10/7/09. I worried about it for a month, but I knew I had to go back. I was not feeling hungry or full, I was eating probably 3000 calories a day again. What was the point of going through all of this if I was going to throw it all away. Not to mention the previous months episodes helped me get my mind back into the game.
The day came and it was time to face my surgeon. No excuses. Tell him like it is. I can feel my heart pounding and my mind racing with how to deal with his disappointment. I have to stay strong. I need his help. Well when Dr. Le came into the room I could see his disappointment. He said that he wasn't going to throw the book at me but.... He was actually understanding when I told him that I was too embarrassed to come back since I had gained the weight.
We talked a little and then it was time for the fill. He checked to make sure that my band was not leaking, then he put in 2cc's of fluid in. Now I have a 14cc band in. I have now 10cc's of fluid in it. I have never felt any restriction from any of my other fills. This is one of the reasons my surgeon gave me a larger fill. Normal fills are only 1cc at a time until they get the right amount in.
I drank some water and had no problem with it going down. Dr. Le said he wanted to see me back in a month. So my next appointment is Nov. 6.
After a fill you are supposed to eat only liquids. So I got some soup which had roasted corn and shrimp in it but I chewed it up really good. I ate about a cup of soup and I didn't feel full. I didn't even feel a restriction. I started to worry. I ate the same thing for dinner with the same result. Great! What if this isn't going to work.
The next day's breakfast I decided on some cottage cheese just to be safe. Well I felt a restriction but it was in my throat not my stomach. It took me an hour to eat 6 ounces of cottage cheese. I figured out that I was going to have to make myself eat slower, smaller bites, and chew, chew, chew. Yes I know....this is what they told us BEFORE the surgery. But I never had a problem so it sort of went out of sight out of mind. Well now it's back in sight.
For dinner we had some breaded fish. I could only eat about 6 ounces of that before the breading was getting stuck. So rather than pushing the issue, I stopped eating.
This is going to take some getting used to again, since I have been so lackadaisical about the whole thing. In fact I'm noticing that taking my medicine takes longer too. So I guess I'm back on track. I have updated my weight goal for losing 10 pounds by my next dr. appt. So the journey starts again.
