I DIdn't Break My Band! Woohoo!

Well, Kristin my PA seemed very upbeat and positive that we could reverse the problems with my band with a little TLC. So today she took 2 CC's out of my band (leaving me with about 3.5 CC's in a 10 CC band), opening it up a bit to let things heal. I am on a full liquid diet for another 5-7 days and then I can ease back into mushies and then eventually solids. I will go back in early July and they will do an Upper GI then to see how things look. I can feel a difference already! Thank goodness. I am going to be very, very kind to my band for the next few weeks. She didn't seem concerned at all and we discussed some good hints for the future:

• If you have a stuck episode, or vomiting or anything that may irritate your band--ALWAYS do a day or two of liquids or mushies to let it heal and calm down.
• DON'T tolerate being miserable for any length of time. Often things will not get better on their own. You need to go see your doc--or at least call their office and discuss some options. Things like reflux and/or heartburn is not good, if you have these symptoms you are probably too tight and/or irritated. 
• If you have to think too hard about FOOD choices your band is not in the green zone. You should be able to eat familiar foods you know you can tolerate. When you start avoiding things (other than the obvious things) you won't make good food choices. Choosing foods shouldn't be full of "I can't" statements, instead it should be about what you can eat, what fuels your body. If your list of foods you can't tolerate keeps getting bigger, go adjust your band! 
• Even though I have a band I am ultimately responsible for making good food and exercise choices. WORK your plan! Having a well rounded plan of attack is the only way to make progress, the band is just a tool, it alone is not enough. 
• I will always have to perform MAINTENANCE on my band, after all it is a foreign object in my body. The human body is dynamic and changing, so your band has to be tweaked once in a while to work to its best ability.

I feel positive about the plan for the next few days/weeks--although doing a full liquid diet can be challenging and hard to come up with good food ideas. But I've been there and done that for surgery prep, so I just have to get creative. According to the doctor's office scale, I had lost 7 pounds in the 2 months since my fill. So good to know that the scale was headed in the right direction--now if I can just get it back to being a tolerable fill level and not feeling like it is a burden.


Thanks everyone for the words of encouragement and good thoughts for me! My blog buddies rock!