Gaining Weight and Adjustments

Weight at last weigh in: 138.7
Amount of saline in balloon : 1360ml
Amount lost since last entry: 0kg

I had my clinic appointments on the 1st & 2nd March and found I've put on 4kg in the past month so I had 100ml added to my balloon on the 2nd.

I can definitely feel the adjustment this time! From the moment I got up I could feel the pressure and in an attempt to keep to fluids for the day I had a skinny Chai Latte, only to be in extreme discomfort the moment I finished it, so I didn't go near anything else all afternoon. Well I did have a small amount of water and a little pepsi max, just to see if the pepsi could get me burping and the burping helped with the feeling of indigestion and heartburn. It did a little, but not nearly enough to be total relief. Later that afternoon I decided to take my son to get McDonalds for dinner, seeing as I couldn't eat solids I wasn't going to cook a whole meal, and whilst there I got a major craving for a cheeseburger. Now normally I don't give into my fast food cravings, well not nearly as much as I used to, and this time I really shouldn't have seeing as I was supposed to be on fluids only but I got myself one and steeled myself to eating so slow that a snail would be proud and chewing really thoroughly.
In the end I think I ended up downing the whole thing in the space of 50 seconds and you know what? I felt sooo much better for it. I think somewhere along the way my discomfort from the adjustment had become hunger pain and I couldn't tell the difference. That happened a lot in the beginning, right after my surgery and eating a little of something solid always made me feel ten times better.

I did feel better but my stomach still hurt, like it was over full even though I'd eaten so little. I know that's the whole idea of the balloon implant but surely not to the point of almost starvation. Ok, that was a little dramatic but you get my point. I couldn't even sleep comfortably, being a tummy sleeper, I was putting too much pressure on the implant, which in turn was squashing my stomach more, making the whole ordeal more uncomfortable.

By Thursday morning, the instances of heartburn and reflux were so common that I just had to go buy myself some Mylanta, double strength. The Mylanta worked wonders! Up until that point I was close to calling the clinic and asking them if Dr Layani could take 50 ml out of my balloon as soon as I could drive there but once the mylanta helped I decided to wait and see how things went after a few more days. It usually takes a few days, up to as long as a week, for me to get used to the new restriction, or rather my body to adapt, so I decided to wait and see how I went.

Each night got better, and I was able to sleep as I normally do last night. Today I woke up really hungry and went immediately to make myself a sandwich, which was gratefully received with no immediate discomfort, indigestion or reflux. An hour later, as I write this, I just feel the contentedness of being full. I am burping quite a bit, which is normal for me now, but there's no sign of any reflux. I say burping is normal because it seems there is no room left in my stomach to store those burps any longer so they come up the moment they are formed. Reflux really is feral. I feel for those banded people who have issues with it and PB. PB wouldn't be as bad though I don't think, at least there's no stomach acid to sear your throat with PB.

On another note I've been rather sick for a few months now with what seems to be sinusitis and lung infections. I've had a myriad of tests from bloods to Xrays and even a CT scan. I've yet to get the results of the CT but my xray showed nothing. My blood tests showed that my inflammatory response is way up but my doctor can't explain why. Anti-biotics don't help at all, well not with my lungs. They seem to help clear whatever the head cold things is that I get now and again but I continue to cough even once that's gone. It's not always a chesty cough either, it varies. Some weeks I'll be coughing up crap and the next I'm coughing so hard that I almost throw up and nothing comes out of my lungs. The tiniest whiff of something foreign, eg cigarette smoke, sends me into a coughing fit not to mention what dust does.

I am over being sick all the time, I just hope my doctor works out what is wrong with me soon.

Oh, and I've been using my pedometer, not as much as I probably should though. I've done 2 days with wearing it all day and averaged about 5000 steps per day. Once I get 7 days worth of measurements I'll average it out and start trying to add just a few more steps per day.