Needed a small un-fill yesterday....

When I got the fill 7 weeks ago I was extremely tight, stayed on liquids for a week or 10 days and it loosened up by itself to what I consider to be my sweet spot.

Just before the weekend it got tight again... and on Monday it got so tight that I could not even drink a shake, could not eat dinner but was able to eat a small sample size of Pretzel M&Ms (maybe 7 M&Ms in it) at midnight. I do not even know why I ate them because they were so not worth it... While shopping I was donating $20 for abused/battered women and the lady was giving away those free mini-size M&Ms, which I declined to take but she was so pushy that I eventually took it. Anyway, I woke up 3 times that night and had bad acid reflux and woke up because I had blue/green colored liquid in my mouth (from the M&Ms that I ate several hours earlier). Then in the morning even my hot coffee would not go down sitting in my pouch for about an hour.

At first I didn't want to go for an unfill, but my husband really convinced me and now I am sooo glad that I did. Feeling sooooo much better. :-)

I can tell that I still have restriction because I just had a very liquidish pureed split pea soup (have to stay on liquids for at least 3 days) and I know that it is still in my pouch. Hopefully it will be just perfect by the time I can have real food again. And I really like to eat real food. I make much better food choices, that truly satisfy me instead of resorting to slider foods because nothing else goes down.

Last weekend we had a friend staying with us, that I have not seen since around Christmas... he was really shocked to see me and later asked my husband privately if I was sick or something because I've lost so much weight. Once he knew that I am fine he couldn't stop talking about how much weight I have lost, which was really funny, because it felt genuine. He brought some Pakistani Food (that was so extremely delicious btw) and I found the perfect excuse to explain my new eating habits. "It's all about portion control... I am eating very small portions but eat them so slowly that I can get real satisfaction out of it". I did really well... I don't think that anything looked weird or raised any questions or suspicions, even though I chewed what felt like a 100 times ;-)

I do not mind talking about the band with strangers and tell overweight people how great the lapband is and how it saved my life ... but under no circumstances do I want this to be known within my inner circles. 

I am not blogging a lot lately because I do not even know what to blog about... on the weight loss front all is going well. On Friday I was 98 pounds down and I am anticipating Friday to (hopefully) celebrate my 100 lb loss.

It still feels weird. I know I have lost a lot of weight and there are moments when I feel "small" and when I look in the mirror I see MY face that I have not seen in a long time. I am a true 14 bottoms and wear XL tops, which is great because I can shop in all the "regular' stores... but I also have a lot of fat days...

In 2 weeks I will be flying to Europe... really looking forward to see my parents, brothers, grandmas and my very best friends, to be spoiled in "Hotel Mama" and do all the European things that I can't do here.

I am sure I will blog before I leave and if not I will definitely post some pictures from my little vacation.

Hope all are doing well and losing weight.... can't wait to read your blogs and follow up with all of you.

Weekly Weigh-in, Shoulder pain, Port pain... Am I getting old?

It all started on Sunday... I made my first unhealthy food-choice and my band punished me immediately. I got stuck, slimed and PBd... by far the worst and luckily only episode I have ever had. No idea what happened exactly, all I know is that it took 2.5 hours for the pain to subside. Out of lap-band land the following would sound a little like an eating disorder but within Lap-Band band land it seems to be acceptable. I really love my band... instead of eating a 650 calorie meal I was only able to eat 4 bites of it and those four bites didn't actually stay inside of me while I still got the satisfaction from having something I was craving for some time. Now I am completely "healed" because just the thought of that certain food makes me sick. The same happened to me with Bacardi almost 20 years ago and I was never able to drink it ever since.

On Monday I started getting port pain... I don't know if it was caused by my episode or if I tore a muscle/scar tissue while wrestling with my dog. Definitely something I need to keep an eye on. I can feel it when I move a certain way or if I want to sleep on my left side. Don't think that it is an infection but I have not completely ruled it out yet, because my belly button area is warm to the touch and it looks a little red-ish. However when I ask my husband to look at it he says that it is not red and that his belly button area is hotter than other areas as well. Will wait and monitor it until Monday and if the pain doesn't subside I will definitely call my surgeon.

Do you still have port pain once in a while? I have had surgery 8 weeks ago and I am not sure if I am overreacting or if I should be concerned.

Since Monday I am also getting left shoulder pain when eating certain foods. Not all foods cause shoulder pain but solid foods definitely do. No idea why this is happening out of the sudden and the only thing I can think off is that I either agitated my diaphragm or esophagus during my episode and the shoulder pain is referred pain similar to the gas pain that I experienced after surgery. It may also be caused by my last fill... and I am a little lost here because I do not know what to make of it.

Anyone experiences shoulder pain while eating?

I still have to figure out a lot of things regarding my band and I am not sure what is considered normal and what not.

I also want to share my good news with you.... I have lost 3 lbs last week and this brings my total weight loss to 31 lbs. Still working towards my Thanksgiving goal of 255 lbs... but will have to take exercising more serious starting tomorrow.

I hope all my fellow bandsters are doing great, I will catch up on your blogs once I hit the submit button.

Happy Weekend :-)