Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Doctor visit and an un-fill

I went to see my doctor yesterday.  The GOOD news is that when the nurse measured my waist I was 5" smaller than at my last visit (my 1 month post op visit, now 3 months ago!)  Yeah for small victories.  He said that my weight loss is right on target but he was concerned that I was having issues with solid foods.  I really didn't want him to do an unfill but after he checked me out he thought it was best. He said the best way to work the band is to eat solid food, not yogurt, soup, ice cream. He warned that eventually eating only soft foods would catch up with me.  OUCH did that needle hurt. (way more than the 2 fills I've had). He only took out 3/4 of a cc which leaves me now at 2.50 cc's.  That certainly doesn't sound like much but I do feel so much better since the unfill.  No stuck issues. He thinks I'm pretty close to being at the optimum fill level.  He also said that if I continue to have issues with solids foods then we would have to go back in under fluoroscope and take a look while I drink so he can watch the fluid pass through my band but I don't think that will be necessary. We'll see!

I wish I could say that I am drinking the HUGE amounts of fluids that I should be but I am not.  I have never been a big drinker.  I just never thought I needed that much fluid.  But I will say that after having been plagued with horrible headaches for years I think I've finally figured out that I've been dehydrated for all these years!  Soon after my surgery I realized that I was not having as many headaches and I started paying attention to how it correlated with my fluid intake.  Sure enough....when I don't take in enough fluids I tend to get a headache and the less I take in the worse the headache!  My doctor recommends 64-80 oz. of fluid/day (probably pretty much the same as my fellow bandsters?)  We I usually drink a cup of coffee in the AM (8 oz) and if I get an UNsweet tea from McDonald's I drink that by the time I go to bed (not sure how many oz. in the tea) or if I am running late and I don't have time to stop at Mcydee's then I drink bottled water (sometimes with Crystal Light mixed in).  One bottle of water (the kind we have at work) is roughly 16 oz.  I must admit that some days I do not get even a whole bottle down.YIKES!  Yesterday I drank one before lunch and one before I went to bed.  So that would be a total of 40 oz (1 cup coffee and 2 bottles of water) and that's on a GOOD day!  Why is it that I don't like to drink? I guess if I'm not thirsty I don't think about drinking.  AAArrrgggghhhhhh! Very frustrating and definitely something that I need to work on.

I had an awesome lunch today or at least I thought so.  I was in a hurry this AM (had to be at work at 7AM0 so I grabbed something out of the freezer.  It was a Great Value (Wal Mart) brand frozen chicken cordon blue chicken breast and it was so good! Yum, yum and it filled me up!  Just thought I would pass that along to anyone that is interested.  They come packaged 4 to a box and they are individually wrapped.  It's a quick and easy meal.

Gotta go get Bekah from school.  I finally caught up on the back log of blogs I had't had time to read.  I hope I can keep up now!  You girls are doing great and it's so nice to have a group of friends (I hope I can call ya'll friends) who are going through similar circumstances and that we can support each other.

Blessings to ya'll,
Sarah

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for the post, and I have to say water is REALLY important..so drink up. Don't have an ice tea until you've had a bottle of water, trick yourself that way and if you really enjoy the tea, you'll get the water in too. I am pretty sure I'm in for an unfill also, just waiting for the appt on Dec 16 and looking forward to it, hope it helps you.

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  2. Oooh these doctors need to practice on their fills - (but NOT on us) mine is the same - he hurts.
    Congrats on upping that water of yours. It's a tough call and we don't realise just how much good drinking it does.

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  3. Oy vey, I've got the same issues with the liquids !! It's just too much to get in !! I'm sure if I upped the fluids I'd probably lose more but how do we find the time to get it all in ?? ARRGGHH, so I totally share your feelings on that.

    hope you're doing better with the unfill, my fill this week as a little one and Im hoping i'm cc'ing my way to that perpetual sweet spot.

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