That annoying gastric band.

This morning I dressed in my winter coat and gloves, and got on my bike in the cold and drizzling weather to ride to the hospital. It was 10 minutes to eight, but I had gotten up on time and had enough coffee to be very alert, and I had also had the chance to walk Tyke.

 

The only negative thing about riding my bike to the hospital, is that I have to go across a high bridge that covers the railway station that is close to it, and I always have to put my bike in the smallest gear and hope to make it across in one go. The thing is, though, that I have been doing it frequently lately, and that I am getting better at it all the time. The trick then is, not to lose control over you bike when you get to the other side where you also have to cross the road to get to the bike path, and not get run over by a bus in the process. At this point you are gathering speed.

 

I made it to the hospital on time and only had to wait in the radiology waiting room for just a few minutes until my name was called. The nurse said, "You know the procedure by now, right?" And I said I did and prepared myself to have the series of X-rays taken. I had to drink a contrast fluid and swallow it while the X-rays were made to see how quickly the fluid passed my gastric band. After I had done this, there was some consternation and the radiologist showed me the screen, and on it I could see that the contrast fluid was stuck in my esophagus and would not pass the gastric band at all.

 

She asked me if I had a lot of trouble with burping and food backing up and vomiting, and I told her I did and that eating and drinking were very difficult things. She said that it was no wonder if the contrast fluid would not even pass. She told me that she would empty the gastric band more than she had planned to and then check again to see how it would function.

 

She checked with the injection needle that she used to extract the fluid in the gastric band first to see how much there was left in it and then decided to take out half. When she made another series of X-rays, we could see that the opening of the gastric band to my stomach had become four times as big. She decided that this should allow me to eat with much more ease, but she said that if it didn't, to call and she would take out more.

 

When I got home, I could not wait to have a cup of coffee, but expected to immediately start burping like I always did. Much to my surprise, that did not happen at all. Some time later, I had a tall glass of milk and I expected some sort of problem with that, but that also went fine and I could drink the whole glass without effort. For lunch, I fixed myself a slice of toast with cheese on it and I am always barely able to eat that and it always  does cause me all sorts of problems. I ate that without any at all, and could even eat a second slice and drink another tall glass of milk to wash it all down with.

 

For the first time in a very long time, I had a full stomach and felt satisfied. Now I know I will be able to eat a plate full of pasta for dinner tonight. I can not begin to tell you how happy that makes me and I feel like a newly born woman. It is so nice to be able to still your hunger without aches and pains and other interferences. This really has turned into a good day.