Booked my next fill

After several weeks of prevaricating, I have finally decided to get another fill. It's booked - I'll be acting the pin cushion again on Thursday 7th March at the Birmingham clinic of Healthier Weight. I could have got it done sooner but on 27th April I am going away, to Scotland, for a week on work-related business. I didn't want to get a fill just beforehand as I would have had to somehow manage fluids and mush while away with colleagues. Not only would that have been difficult from a practical perspective, but would also have been rather interesting, shall we say, to try and explain!! So, why another fill? I haven't said too much on here about progress since the last fill because it's so been so variable on a day to day basis. I haven't really sorted out in my mind out whether the last fill 'worked' or not! If I can generalise about my experiences at all, here are the generalisations I would make:

1. Most mornings I have to eat my breakfast carefully and pay particular attention to eating slowly. If I don't, I get lots of burping and gurgling and mild indigestion. I also find that hot drinks go down easier in the morning than cold drinks. I usually drink my tea first and drink the cold orange juice after - otherwise the orange seems to 'stick' somewhat (i.e. it goes down slowly).

2. If any time I completely forget to eat slowly and take small mouthfuls, I get 'slime' (I have previously referred to this as 'saliva-pouring' - but most bandits call it The Slime - sounds like a horror movie!!). I had this quite spectacularly after wolfing a Danish pastry down a week or so ago (probably a good reminder that I shouldn't have been eating such food anyway!) and it was rather unpleasant. I also wolfed some berries down at breakfast yesterday morning and had to sit and wait for five minutes while my oesphagus sorted itself out! I've only had slime twice since my last fill.

3. Occasionally, probably once or twice a week, I get what feels like really good restriction. After eating a meal the size of a 7-inch side plate I feel really full and cannot eat any more - and don't want to eat any more. I feel as though the band should be producing this level of restriction all the time.

4. Most of the time, especially at lunch and evening meals, I can quite easily eat a full side plate of food. I have noticed I can eat slightly larger mouthfuls than I was a couple of months ago and am chewing less than I probably should. But most of the time, that's fine and I suffer no ill-effects. After meals, I can eat a fromage frais or yoghurt and sometimes some fruit too. After lunch, in particular, I often feel hungry again within a couple of hours.

I realise that if now, occasionally (see 3. above), I get good restriction, then having another fill could mean that occasionally I am very tight - or even too tight. In the early days of being a bandit I used to get my knickers in a proverbial twist about this - being too tight, I mean. I used to worry that I wouldn't be able to eat enough or consume enough calories to supply the energy I need to lead a normal life (!). However, I am now experienced enough to know that there are ways around this. For a start, if I was occasionally too tight to eat solids, I could always have a protein shake instead. I have previously made some lovely protein drinks by adding milk, bananas, apples and all sorts to the strawberry powders I get from my provider. Alternately, I could adopt the philosphy of my surgeon - if you're not hungry, don't eat!! Obviously I wouldn't want to be like this all the time. However, if another fill gives me good restriction most of the time and too much restriction occasionally, then I would be very happy with this.

Somebody posted on the UKGstricBand forum that at a fill, their doctor had asked them if they wanted to be comfortable, tight or very tight. I think that most of the time I would describe my current situation as too comfortable, and occasionally as moderately tight. I don't want to be very tight, and never have wanted to be. But too comfortable means I have to put in a lot more effort and willpower than I'd like. After all, if I'd had willpower aplenty I wouldn't have bothered with the band in the first place!