An acid-free night!

I'm back on solid food today after my complete de-fill last Saturday. I've had no problems eating, but then I wouldn't expect to with an empty band. I'm still surprised, though, that I still have a significant amount of restriction, presumably just from the presence of the band itself. I am still getting pretty full after eating small portions. The bariatric nurse said to book an appointment for. Re-fill three weeks after the de-fill, but the way I am going I will be a little frightened doing that, and afraid that my acid reflux will come back.

The news on my acid reflux is that last night, for the first time in over a year, I didn't take any medication at all, and I had a good night's sleep. I plan on doing the same tonight, and see what happens.

So what have I eaten today?

Breakfast: Strawberry protein shake made up with soya milk and water.
Mid-morning snack: A sneaky cake. It was very small, but I was stuffed afterwards!
Late lunch: Weight watchers ocean pie (only 190 calories).
Afternoon snack: Some olives and pistachios.
Dinner: Wholewhat rice with flageolet beans, steamed aubergine and red onion. Followed by a fat free Greek-style yoghurt.

I must say, I really enjoyed my dinner - the first proper meal I have had in more than a week!

Slightly confused.....?

After my complete de-fill two days ago I've had a slightly confusing time. I had expected to be extremely hungry, but I haven't been. I guess there's still enough restriction from having the band, albeit empty, that it staves off the hunger pangs. On Saturday night I had no acid reflux at all, so I had the first decent sleep I've had in ages. But Sunday night I woke up with a nasty dull ache in my chest - about where my band is. It went off after a while and I went back to sleep. But the pain came back with a vengeance about half an hour after I got up this morning. I'm not sure what it is or what causes it. All I can do at the moment is monitor it - but it is a little worrying. All the talk of possibly needing an x-ray on Saturday has got me wondering what could possibly have gone wrong? If anything? I suppose I just have to be patient.

As far as food is concerned, I'm all souped out! My diet has consisted of soup, smoothies, yoghurt and milkshake (not all at once!). At work today, I took a can of soup with me. I hadn't realised until I went to open it, however, that it didn't have a ring-pull, and I didn't have a tin opener! I ended up trawling around people's offices trying to find someone who might have a Swiss Army knife! I found one eventually (thanks Ade!).

Tonight I've already had some mushroom soup (blended to remove the bits), and I'll have a fruit smoothie soon. I'm planning on moving onto mushy food tomorrow, and am looking forward to an ocean pie for tea!

Scary times.....

Thanks Maria (you know who you are), for convincing me that I should get back blogging. Over the coming days and weeks I can fill in some of the gaps since I last posted, but for now, I'm in a scary times sort of limbo - my band has been emptied this morning. 

 I've often wondered what it would feel like to have no restriction again, so I could compare it with how I have felt over the last four years since getting bended in the first place. But I never actually thought I would experience 'emptiness' so to speak. So why, I hear you ask? Acid. Or acid reflux to be more accurate. I've had it on and off for long periods over the last couple of years and I think I'm due some serious commission from Zantac, Rennie and Gaviscon. I've had two small de-fills already to try and solve the problem, but each time, I get a few weeks of improvement and then it comes back again. If you've never had acid reflux it's horrid. You get woken up many times in the middle of the night with this nasty acidic taste in your mouth and sometimes acid shooting up the back of your throat. You never get a decent nights sleep and it just wears you down. Things have got quite bad because I've even been getting it during the day over the last couple of weeks. Hence my visit to my friendly bariatric nurse, Clare. 

 I thought it might be a case of needing yet another small de-fill but Clare convinced me that it wouldn't solve the problem, and that I needed for my band to be completely emptied to let my stomach settle down. I've to see if things improve over the next week, and if not, book an x-ray appointment to see what's going on. If things do settle down, then I can skip the x-ray and start to get my band re-filled again in about three weeks time. 

 The band was emptied two hours ago and I don't feel any different yet. Maybe I'm expecting to be ravenously hungry, or maybe the presence of the band itself will provide enough restriction to keep the hunger pangs at bay. I don't know. I'm really not sure what to expect, but I'll keep you posted.