I felt good.  I got on the exercise bike and rode for a while, did some chores, worked at my job for a while and decided to rest.  When I got up I felt a really heavy sensation in my chest.  It was like I needed to burp the size of a hot air balloon while an elephant was sitting on my chest.  I figured it would go away so I watched some tv, did some more chores.  A house that hasn’t been lived in for a year has lots to do.  Dust everywhere!  I’m not coming back til October so I need to make sure it’s clean and all the soft furniture is covered when I leave.

So, next morning, Thursday, I still felt pretty crap so I called my surgeon’s office and the first appointment I could get was Friday afternoon at 3:45 and I had to drive to Yarrawonga (neat name, eh?)  about an hour from where I am.  I wasn’t sure I could wait that long but I didn’t have a lot of choice.  I decided to invite my friend Pete for a bowl of soup for dinner.  Pete will eat anything and he has a new Scottish terrier puppy and I wanted to play with her.  I called him and told him he could come for soup or he could just send the dog.  They both arrived.

I put the food on the table and took one very tiny sip off the spoon and had the most intense pain in my chest.  It wasn’t going down.  In about an hour I couldn’t swallow saliva.  Not good.  We all assume that when we swallow it’s going to go down.  I’ve never thought about not being able to swallow spit!  I didn’t sleep all night because it was really hard to breathe and I worried I would fall asleep and not breathe.  Doc says that’s not going to happen, I’ll always wake up but that night I wasn’t convinced.

Just before 3pm I arrived at the hospital in Yarrawonga where my doctor was working for the day.  I know, 3 was early but since I was being squeezed in, I decided that maybe I wouldn’t have to wait that extra 45 minutes.  I was in quite a bit of discomfort by this point.

She looked at me and said, “I apologize for saying this, Maureen, but you look like shit.”

Of course that made me feel better.  Then she said that if she took some fluid out of the band I would have either instant relief or there was a serious problem with the band.

I got on the table, pillow under my stomach area and she stabbed..  no joy, she missed the port.  Stab again.  Missed again.  I was feeling like a pin cushion.  Then boom, she took out 1 cc of fluid and the pain instantly left.  I felt like a new person.

I sipped some water and I could feel it going down – cool, refreshing and very much needed.  I’d had one cup of tea in 2 days.  It took me one day just to get it all down.

She suggested that I stop in town and get a milkshake to get some calories and fluid in and pick up a bottle of water.  That was the best tasting milkshake ever.  I had a delightful drive back home on a beautiful sunny Autumn afternoon.  By the time I got home I was exhausted from having no sleep the night before.

If you have a band and you’re not in a place that does barium swallows with lapband fills, know that if you gurgle when you drink that first sip of water after the fill, you’re gonna end up in trouble. 

Next fill, October 29th.  It will be a lovely Spring day.  Hopefully I’ll have nearly all my weight off by then.  I’ve lost 3 1/2 pounds this week.  Not eating or drinking isn’t a smart way to lose weight.