After going through this thread and refreshing my memory, I'm uncertain whether I've missed any updates here regarding cherri's band.
It's quite possible/probable that the last fill noted above was her last fill in a while.
Since that time (or since the last fill, if the one above isn't that one), a couple things have happened.
First, cherri's weight got into the low 170's. She never managed to break 170. Her weight has fluctuated since then.
It been a weird situation. You want to eat healthy. But healthy foods wouldn't play nicely. So you have to eat crap foods, like potato chips (known as 'sliders' in the LAP-band community, because they 'slide' on down when you eat them, unlike healthy foods), which is exactly the wrong thing to eat. But you gotta eat *something*.
On top of that, cherri would also experience poor, choking sleeps. Like about 1-3 times, every 3-6 weeks. As in, the band would be so tight that the saliva we all generate and subsequently swallow while we **82**, couldn't get past her band, so it would back up, go down her trachea, and trigger a round of coughing. And that goes on either all night or at least for a few hours until she gets up to sit at the computer till things settle down. Many times she would try to **82** on the couch, so that I would be able to get a quiet **82**. That, and the arms of the couch have just the right incline to help things drain better.
We couldn't figure out what was causing the nighttime coughing fits. The catalyst for the band holding things up, I mean. She thought that it might have been related to her period. Or maybe eating too late. Or having a late evening beer.
For some months now, I'd been pushing her to get her band drained. Completely. It's bothering me a lot that she's willing to suffer so much with this to get to where she wants to be, or perhaps more accurately, to avoid going back to where she was. We would discuss it. She would tell me how afraid she was of going back to the way things were, going back to the ravenous, insatiable hunger (which was one of her pre-surgery complaints).
Mornings she couldn't really eat (or drink) anything. Her appetite would typically come on mid-afternoon, and she would eat what she could. It might not be a whole lot, but that was pretty much it, her one full meal for the day. At least, typically. See note further below.
Recently she finally agreed to make an appointment with the LAP-band clinic to get it completely drained. When she went to her appointment, she gave them the background, and they told her she should have come in months (years) sooner. Long story short, they drained out a net volume of 0.25cc. I don't recall whether they said she was at 2.25cc and they re-filled her to 2.00cc, or she was at 2.00cc and they re-filled her to 1.75cc. I think it was the former. She's napping on the couch next to me at the moment, else I'd ask her.
She had the usual post-fill process of limiting her intake to fluids for the first bit of time. Man, I can't even remember whether it was 24 hours or 48 hours or what.
But the big thing is that she hasn't had any nightly choking fits since her last adjustment. It's been less than a month, but it's looking promising.
I'm admittedly having the "man, we should have done this a long time ago" feeling. Thing is, we both had done the thinking through of what was going on:
- one symptom was that she would have nights where she could eat ANYTHING, as if she never had the band - logical conclusion: band needs to be tightened up
- another symptom was that she would have nights where she would lose **82**, choking on her own saliva because it couldn't pass the band - logical conclusion: band needs to be loosened up
I should mention that before her latest adjustment, she also had problems most mornings **94** anything. Cold fluids were particularly bad, but things like coffee would just tend to sit there.
So what do you do when you have conflicting logic (band should be tightened vs band should be loosened)?
Calling the clinic wasn't the most approachable option. Trying to get through was always a challenge; at best you could leave a message to have someone call you back to make an appointment to a) come in for an info session, b) come in for a pre-op consult, c) come in for a band fill/drain. There was no option for anything else, such as "wtf is going on here? please advise". There was no way to know that she would get the consult she wanted, as soon as she requested they drain it completely.
Oh yeah, she was also (re)given the do's and don'ts of what to eat after a fill. It's good to have that refresher.
It's been good so far. I still think we might need to spend some time changing habits, because of the whole "sliders are easy, mmkay?" issue.
Somewhat related, but her knees have gotten worse. She got a Cortisone short recently for her 'bad' knee, and subsequently her 'good' knee popped while in a seated martial art position, and has been clicky/clunky ever since. She just recently got a Cortisone shot in that knee as well. So the treadmill/elliptical is not an option for the foreseeable future.
Side note: her fill part has pretty much blended in with the landscape. It used to bother her early on, being a bit pokey outy, but I don't think it's bothered her in quite some time now.
She's still a fab cook as far as I'm concerned. She'll take care of my need to eat, even if she's not interested for herself.