Back on solids - or am I? Part three

...continued...... Saturday and Sunday were definitely cases of My Jekyll and Hyde Band. At breakfast on Sunday, I ate the same as the day before but I felt as though my band had got tighter. Although I got everything down in the end, it took an eon. I noticed that pure liquids like black tea and orange juice were becoming even more difficult to swallow - and I started experiencing mild indigestion. I even had a near-miss slime moment at one point and thought I was going to have to make a quick dash to the toilets! This tightness continued to lunch time where we ate in a small coffee shop. I selected jacket potato with melted cheese because I thought trying something soft was advisable. Again, I got it all down in the end but it took about an hour. I am sure the ladies in the shop were wondering how it could take anyone so long to eat a simple jacket potato! I was putting a few flakes of potato at a time onto the end of my fork. We were back home by the evening and again I opted for soft food - quorn cottage pie with soft cooked mixed vegetables.

I'll jump forward to today - which raises all sorts of unanswered questions about the behaviour of this band. In a nutshell:

1. I couldn't even drink tea first thing this morning - it took a couple of hours before I could gently swallow some low sugar Ribena
2. I had three attempts at a Muller Light yoghurt over the course of about three hours before finally getting it down
3. I ate a tiny portion of All Bran breakfast cereal at about 1230h
4. I managed to consume some leftover cottage pie at about 3pm
5. When I got home from work at 6pm I ate a Weight Watcher's mushroom soup - it took about half an hour to eat what has previously taken me five minutes

I haven't eaten my dinner yet. I'm going to attempt some soft salmon (a small portion!) and runny mash potato. I have no idea whether I will be able to get it down or how long it will take. As I have been typing this I have been slowly sipping a low sugar Ribena - it's going down but I'm getting al sorts of gurgling, a little heartburn and indigestion. Earlier today I was experiencing a tight 'band' (no pun intended) around my middle - about where my bra line goes - every time I ate or drank anything. And in case you're wondering, no my bra isn't too tight - I checked by taking it off and eating!!

So what is going on? I sailed through the mush and liquid phases after this last fill and initially, the solids seemed to be going down without any problem. So much so, that I thought the fill hadn't 'worked' and I was getting disheartened. Now, steadily over the last few days my band appears to have been getting tighter and tighter - where will it end?

Earlier today I posted a reply on the UKGastricBand forum - to a lady who was experiencing very similar symptoms to myself and was wondering if she should have a de-fill. I guess I need to take my own advice. I advised her: (a) If she was getting fluids down OK, then there's no need to panic and get a de-fill immediately - but to persevere for a little longer. (b) Switch back to soft foods and mush for a while to see if the band settles down.

I have already been down the road of getting an aspiration and would rather avoid that again - it feels like taking a step backwards. I am determined that unless this tightness becomes unbearable, or unless it actually stops me drinking and I start to become dehydrated, I will persevere and see what happens.

I'll keep you posted! Thanks for reading.