I have decided...

...To name my band! DH and I have been discussing names for her... And well tonight he thought of a good one... at least I think it is good! Since my port is tilted slightly downward, he says I should call her Eileen! Ya know "I Lean"? It also could be for "I plan to be lean". Ok you can stop laughing now and just call me crazy!

Fill #2

I have to say I am almost ashamed of myself, for not posting this sooner however I have been running, running, and running for the last 2 weeks for one reason or another. First it was DH's car that died and I had to not only figure out a way to get him TO work but then had to go and get him after work too! And then there is the issue that I work too! Got that situation straightened out and then I had vocal practice for one thing or another EVERY night or afternoon for the last 8 days. (I have 2 more before I can rest my voice for a week then I'm back into it again!)

Anyway, Thursday 3/25 was my appointment for my 2nd fill and I was really nervous and completely praying that it would NOT be an ordeal like the first one! Turns out it was not! I will copy BG here and say it was "Easy Peasey".  I walked into the office after a very long day of work, appointment was for 3:00 PM. and did all the normal rigamaroll with the nurse. Then my surgeon comes in and says... "Not getting any restriction?" (I had not lost any weight since the last fill, I was EXACTLY the same) So I say... "well, no, not really. I have had a few "stuck" episodes but no real feeling of restriction".  He then precedes to have me lay on the table and puts the pillow under the small of my back. (My port is to the right of my belly button). I almost felt as if he wanted me to do a back bend, ya know like the gymnasts in the Olympics do on the balance beam! HAHAHA... Not yet but maybe after I get to goal! He tells me that "just in case" he is going to numb the area this time! Ok, that doesn't bother me, then he gets the fill needle and BAMM... (Not that hard) :-) right into the port on the first try no searching no prying around no pushing! Just a little "pop" feeling... NO 2nd, 3rd or 4th tries! Yahoo, I'm getting really excited now! I sit up... He puts in a little, I take a drink, he puts in a little more, a little more and then a little more... Nope, not that much... backs a little out! Ok feels restrictive but not to tight to me so we call it good! another 1.5 CC's are in my band right now. I am at a total of 3.25.

I'm out of the office and one my way to another singing practice! All before 3:45... Yippee, I sure do hope they are all this easy from here on out!

Stuck... UGH!

Hi all... I'm off the hometown comfort PC for blogging this weekend at an educational event for my competition chorus and quartet... and I just have to tell you that I have had a couple of horrible "stuck" scares this week... Let me elaborate and please tell me what you think. What YOUR opinion is of the 2 situations... #1. was Thursday at work, I had put a left over portion of a quesadilla in the microwave and then found a seat in the staff lounge to wait for it to cook. While waiting I put a spoonful of tuna on a saltine cracker and shoved it in my mouth... I have never been stuck. I've had pills go down really hard but nothing like either one of the situations this week. Anyway after chewing and swallowing the tuna covered cracker, I suddenly felt the horrid feeling that OMG, I think that cracker got stuck... OMG this really hurts... and OMG I think I'm going to throw up, PLEASE GOD, don't let me throw up. There are other staff in the lounge and thankfully I was able to slither sneak out and head to the ladies room thinking I was not going to make it... I did... leaving my lunch sitting on the table. then when I got into the bathroom I managed to get a burp out without expelling anything except air... whew! what ever that was finally went down with all the saliva that was being swallowed you would have thought that it would have gonn thru alot sooner than it did... but NO. it made me miserable for at least a good horrible 5 minutes first... Ok that passed, I was afraid to eat after that so I slowly went back to my desk and got down a protien drink... All I can think of is that I didn't chew the cracker enough and topped with the tuna... well I'm sure you are all well aware of what I went thru.

Then this weekend I am away... what a great educational time I have been having singing and learning how to make the songs we sing much better than we are for this competitionn coming up in May and well... #2 happens like this... I get up this morning, take my shower, vitamins and am ready to go... I've been up for almost 2 1/2 hours, the rest of my quartet wants to go eat breakfast before heading to our first coaching session... Ok, I can handle that I'm hungry, haven't had anything except vitamin water and vitamins, so I figure a breakfast of eggs and bacon would be good... right... WRONG! I get the breakfast buffet in the hotel restaurant. $8.95... good deal for how much food you would have been able to eat on my OLD size stomach before the band! I get a spoonful of eggs, a handful of bacon slices, and a spoonful of homefried potatoes (with some hot sauce and ketchup). NOW, remember that there are only a very small handful of my friends that know about my band. One is the bass in my quartet. (Another one is a fellow "lead" in my chorus.) My bass was with me... I grab a bite of bacon... now this bacon was not done real well. I really wish it had been crispier. I bite off 1/2 a slice and chew and swallow... OMG here we go again... my eyes start to water, my mouth starts to water... and I start to hiccup. God this hurts. please go down, please go down... FINALLY... My bass is starting to panic I can see it on her face... My bari (who just so happens to be 21 years old) looks at me and starts to say... are you ok? Waitress shows up and says "can I get anyone anything" Whew... thank you for the impecable timing of that waitress. I take a sip of OJ... and very very slowly eat the rest of my eggs and homefries... left the bacon... I think if it had been more crispy like I lik eit anyway, I would not have had a problem... Why is it that we are tighter in the morning? I thought I'd be ok... I normally eat after being up 2 hours in the morning... Was it the bacon???

I'm very interested to see what your thoughts on both situations are... Please let me know... Tonight I am relaxing with my roomate (My bass) at the hotel. we have a 7 hour meeting that we must attend tomorrow and then I will be heading home. Hope the rest of your weekend is enjoyable. Pray that I do not have anymore STUCK problems.... Not just this weekend but EVER, Ever again!!!

Got Snow???

Yeah... We got snow... Yesterday we got about 5 inches of fluffy, light, easily shoveled stuff. Last night the wind blew, and it snowed some more. I was on my way to go to work this morning and when I opened the back door to the carport, there was a 3 foot drift from the back door to the car and all around it. Then the driveway was mostly clear. However, DH's car was drifted in and there was a drift from his car across the driveway to the roadway that runs past the house. We live in the very Northeast Central part of PA. 6 miles from the NY State border. I work for NY State. And before you say it NO, I am not a "typical state worker" LOL. I drive 56 miles one way into NY everyday to work. And well as you can see I didn't do it today.  I'm home today, watching the snow still come down and blow all over where the DH has shoveled. He has just left for work, and if it drifts again it will be up to me to shovel. You would think that the neighbor, directly across the road, that has a snow blower would get out and do his driveway and maybe offer to help DH & me with ours, but NNNOOO he is probably still wrapped up warm in bed. This is the same neighbor that starts his truck 30 - 45 minutes before he has to go anywhere to let it warm up. He is crazy, wasteful and yes also just a tad bit on the lazy side! He lives with his elderly parents BTW. And we see (And Help) the 80 something yr old father doing more than this 50 something yr old guy!  Oh well, at least I'll get some exercise in today if nothing else, right?

OK, enough of that soapbox...

With recent BG's blog's being alot about foods, today I wanted to ask anyone that wants to comment about their first fill experience and what they ate or what kind of a diet they were on after a fill? I ran into a girl from support group the afternoon of my fill and she was telling me that she could eat anything she wanted after every fill. She never had to stay on liquids for any length of time. I know some Dr.'s make you stay on liquids for 3 days or a week or whatever. Mine said 12 - 24 hours of liquids and then ease back into my regular food. he said I may want to be careful and eat mushies for 12 - 24 hours too, before heading into regular food. So after running into this other person. I am curious.

Also, Do any of you (besides BG) drink caffeine? I have not since surgery, but am so craving my 1 measly cup of coffee in the morning. I weaned myself to one cup many years ago. But my PCP said one cup in the morning was ok... Since getting my band, I've been drinking decaf tea and coffee, and milk and flavored waters. But I'm wondering if that one cup of caffeinated coffee in the morning with DH (instead of making 2 pots) will be a problem?

Finally... My 1st Fill

WHOO HOO I can now say I have got my first fill and well the experience, while much more of a process than it should have been, was "easy peasy" as BG says! So now my story today reads below:

My appointment was for 10:30 so I get to the radiology department of my hospital at 10:15, DH could not go today due to his work schedule, so my very good friend... and next best supporter met me there. A little after 10:30 a nice nurse comes out and says that she is just waiting on the Dr to tell her if he wants to do this on the actual fluro table or go to another area near the OR and use a "C arm" machine. He opted for the C Arm (should have just gone with the table... and I'll explain why). We go into the "Quick Care" room near the OR and Dr. comes in, he's ready with pockets loaded full of the needles, saline, numbing medication etc. Asks me how I'm doing... ya know the little small talk that we do to take up time and space while they are setting up the machine and table... I say "I'm good, but wait til you see what you did to me on Monday!" Dr. says "bruise?" I say "look!" and flip my shirt up and waistband of the pants down. He says "OMG... I am sssooo sorry. THAT won't happen today! C'mon over here lets get you a fill" Anyway, if any of you have had this done by this C arm thing you'll know that the machine is a great big letter "C" and you stand in the middle of it while they take the pictures.

He numbs me this time... not a problem. that needle is tiny, and I hardly even felt it. Then in goes the fill needle. hits the port, doesn't go in... tries again... no luck... Yup, you guessed it, my port is tilted but he can't tell if it is tilted up or down. SO, here we go again. Pack everything up and head to the regular flouro table room, find a "intervention Dr" that is more specially trained to do this and try again!

Yup the intervention Dr finds the port tilted down. (No wonder the surgeon couldn't get it in... he was hitting the side of the bottom of the port!) AND intervention doc is the same guy that did my GI swallow procedure after my surgery to make sure there was no leakage. I like him he's good... Stuck that needle in and right into where it was supposed to go! Whew... they put 6 cc's in... Holy cow! I can't swallow anything, I feel it sitting in my throat... (Oh, and by the way BG... to answer one of your questions... My surgeon said there WAS a small amount in the band already. he didn't say how much but said there was some!) Ok, so they back out to 5, the stuff they made me drink was barely seeping now, back out to 4, starting to go... back out to3, and then to 2cc's... It's going easier now. Back out to 1cc... I don't feel any restriction, so... I get .75 more put back in. That seems to be good. I'm drinking water and it is going thru ok... Dr. says that should be good for now but if I have any problems or concerns AT ALL to call him... and I will. 

So I got 1.75cc's today... After leaving the hospital, that was about noon, my friend had to go, so because I took the entire day off work, not knowing what would happen... I called and met another dear friend for lunch. I drank a glass of ice tea. Seems to maybe be going down easier than it should. But I am not concerned right now. I leave her so she can go back to work and come home. I'm drinking vitamin waters, and I had a glass of tomato juice for dinner. It went down ok, but I can tell that there is restriction that wasn't there before today, I'm happy... I got my first fill! AND My next fill appointment is 3/25.