Inpector Clouseau strikes again....

I got a phone call, out of the blue, yesterday from one of the managers at Healthier Weight. Apparently, a lady had written a letter to me about this blog and wanted to pass it on but didn't know how. This lady (who will probably be reading this) left the letter with Dr Ashton, my surgeon, who then passed it onto the practice manager and asked her to forward it to me. But of course, they don't have anyone on their books called Theresa...... let me explain.

I have never said much about my professional life. That's because I am desperate to avoid anyone I know in a professional capacity finding out about my band - rightly or wrongly - that's how I feel. As part of my job I have a web presence - in my professional name of course - including a personal web site as well as in the 'staff' pages of my employer. If I developed this blog in my proper name I imagined that one day, someone doing a search on the web for me in a professional capacity, might come across the blog. I had visions of bumping into somone at a conference and them saying "oh hello Theresa, I read all about your burping, and constipation, and saliva-pouring on your blog the other day - by the way, how's the work going?"!!!! Yuk!

I have also been a little afraid of my family finding the blog too. They know about the band now but in the beginning I wasn't going to tell them. Somehow, I feel comfortable being really honest about my band experiences with people that I don't know, but I'd feel really embarrassed if one of my brothers read some of this stuff!

Consequently, I have always used my middle name on the blog - Theresa. Ironically, as a child and teenager I always wanted to be called Theresa rather than my given name and now I am! In fact, I have continued to use Theresa as my name at the HW support groups and it's really nice being called what you want to be called for the first time in your life!!! So, back to HW. The manager who received the letter decided to become Inspector Clouseau for the day and worked out who I really was! I imagine it wasn't too difficult - this blog has all the details of when and where I was banded, and when all my fills took place. It wouldn't have been that difficult to narrow it down and identify the real me.

Anyway, the result is that this morning, I received the most wonderful letter through the post from a lady who has read the blog and found it "inspirational" (her word, not mine!) and helpful. She is having surgery very soon and I wish her all the best and hope that some of the experiences I have relayed here will help her and others like her. I don't claim to have all the answers (or even any of them!). I don't claim to be an expert on anything, other than what I am experiencing at any given point in time. I only know that before I took the decision to have surgery I read about other people's experiences through blogs and online forums and without their input would have found the decision-making much more difficult. Every so often I re-read the guidance manual that I was given by my provider. It's an excellent source of factual information and advice and generally keeps me on the straight and narrow (generally, I said!). But what it doesn't do, and can never do, is tell me about the huge breadth of day-to-day ups and downs experienced by fellow bandits. My experiences are not unique but we are all unique and the way that the band impacts upon our lives, our bodies and our minds is very individual. So, this is just my story. There are lots of others out there and they will all be different.

I find writing about it therapeutic, I hope you find it interesting and helpful (and even inspirational, ha ha!!).

To the lady who wrote the leter (I will e-mail you privately), THANK YOU for taking the trouble, THANK YOU for reading and THANK YOU for saying such kind things. All the best with your op.