Tight - Oh so Tight!

I had a .5ml fill on Thursday before Easter taking me to 6ml in my 10ml band.... and it had been 5 weeks since my last fill. The glass of water at the doctors rooms went down fine and so did coffee, and crackers and cheese later that evening and I wasn't hungry... so I was pretty happy. BUT - the next morning was a different story. My band was so tight... I could not even get a cup of coffee down before it went cold. At first I thought it was just the "tight in the morning" issue but as the day went on it didn't get any better. Everything was a struggle - a glass of water took an hour to pass through my band... with plenty of weird gurgling noises accompanying this. I spent most of the Easter weekend struggling to swallow enough fluid to keep hydrated and some protein shakes to get some nutrition in. Had several bouts of near vomiting and lots of regurgitation - was very unpleasant and uncomfortable!! Not even chocolate or ice cream seemed to want to go down - so I knew things were not right!

I did contemplate trying to get a local doctor or nurse to remove some of the fill over the weekend but noone here in my hometown has the knowledge and as I was managing to keep hydrated I hung on until after Easter. I did have a non-cored needle and I used to be a nurse and I seriously considered doing the deed myself... I was pretty desperate! Luckily sanity prevailed and I waited for the experts to save me! The clinic receptionist was fantastic yesterday when I rang with my sorry story, I did a mercy flight to the big city and she hastily arranged for the doctor to come in and sort me out...! I had .3 of the fill removed and felt an instant relief and then snacked on her lunch crackers, water and juice - Big thanks to the clinic angel! It's amazing how such a small amount can make such a difference.

What have I learnt from all this....
1. I now only need a very small amount to make a difference - might be .1ml fills for me from now on
2. You can feel fine straight after a fill but be too tight the next day... weird but true. I might stay overnight in the big city next time I have a fill - just in case
3. You can lose 3.5kgs in 4 days if you only manage to swallow 1 optifast shake in a day - I am fully expecting to gain a fair bit of this back in the next fews days as I make up for lost time
4. I did not eat (well did not keep down) any hot cross buns or chocolate this easter and the world did not end!