Alphabetical
List of PROCEDURES
READ OUR CLIENT JANET DUNCAN'S ONLINE BLOG WHERE SHE WRITES EXTENSIVELY ABOUT HER GASTRIC BALLOON IN PRAGUE........
BLOG ENTRY: MONDAY 12TH NOVEMBER 2007:
There’s enough detail about the procedure in the New You literature to cover pretty much what happens. It doesn’t state just how fantastic the medical care is, though, nor how spanking clean the clinic at which it’s carried out (such a relief after the shabby old NHS with its cobwebs in corners and dried blood on the floor in A&E). You could eat off the floor at the Prague clinic, not that the lovely nursing staff would let you, of course. Having experienced the procedure and two days of fabulous follow-up care, I’d be very leery of anyone trying to do this as a day procedure in the UK, having to drive home after an hour or so.
I had the procedure done on a Thursday afternoon. It wasn’t a barrel of laughs having a naso-gastric tube shoved down my left nostril, but I’d been given a sedative, and a numbing agent to take the worst of the edge off. The actual insertion of the balloon took about 10 minutes, and wasn’t as bad as I’d feared. It just felt a bit odd, that’s all. Thursday and Friday were actually a bit on the dull side – I had occasional crampy feelings, but nothing unmanageable (girls know about dealing with cramps anyway – bet it’s tougher on blokes, getting to grips with gripes, so to speak!).
Saturday and flying back home felt a bit weird. You can definitely feel that there’s something in your stomach, but it’s not painful – more an odd feeling. You get the occasional cramp to remind you that you have a foreign body in your body, but that’s about it. No nausea or vomiting as yet – I suspect I’ve been very lucky.
Not a very eventful journey home – but my first ‘home meal’ was a bit of a revelation – my daughter had made shepherds’ pie, and I can normally be hugely greedy with that. Not today – even though I gave myself half of what I’d normally eat, I ate only half of that!
Sunday: Bit more difficult. Felt bloated and burpy most of the day, which wasn’t much fun. Same story with lunch – ate about a quarter of my usual amount. Had a bit of a nap in the afternoon, and found it more comfortable to sit up a bit rather than lie down. Evening I was sick for the first (and I hope only) time – I had supper, and that bloated, burpy feeling just got worse and worse until in the end I whoopsed the whole meal. Felt infinitely better thereafter and slept like a baby.
Monday, had coffee in the morning, and my usual probiotic yoghurt. That’s about as much as I can tolerate for breakfast. I’m going to have a mid-morning snack and a lunch snack and see how that goes from here on in. Today’s was a tiny portion of smoked haddock (poached in milk, drained and with a twist of black pepper – Heaven Food). Lunch was pumpkin soup and my homemade bread (cut very thin, one small slice). More than enough. Supper was a small portion of chicken and steamed veg. I’m anti the idea of fats at the moment, probably psychological, but I simply don’t want to eat anything greasy.
Tuesday to Friday was much the same. Small amounts, not feeling hungry after a few mouthfuls. I’ve managed to have a glass of wine without mishap, but even that left me feeling rather full.
Friday night for some reason it all backed up on me again – I had a medium-sized supper quite early, and started feeling ‘off’ at about bedtime. I spent a most uncomfortable night, with searing heartburn and cramps, and eventually tossed the lot in the small hours – after which I felt much better and managed to sleep. Suspect this episode has more to do with my being around my son, who’s had a vomiting bug this week, than anything the balloon’s been doing.
Took the weekend at a gentle pace, as I’m pretty sure I have a virus – ache-y joints and generally mouldy-feeling. It’s now ten days or so since I had the balloon inserted, and so far I’ve lost a fraction short of two kilos. If that keeps up, the twenty or so kilos I have to lose will be off in under four months. Amazing.
BLOG ENTRY: WEDNESDAY 12TH DECEMBER 2007:
Post the initial weight loss, I went on a much-overdue holiday, and the relaxed lifestyle overcome my regime a bit – ten days away from the home routine, and off for a week sailing with friends meant that although I didn’t eat much during the day, the evenings were rather heavy on the alcohol (yachtsmen have an awe-inspiring capacity to put away the beers!) so instead of continuing to lose weight at a steady pace, it stalled, and the needle stayed firmly stuck on the scales. The good news is that I didn’t gain any weight, where normally I would.
Now I’m home, and the gym and eating-less stuff is kicking in again, I’m confident that the weight will again come off rapidly. I’ve learned a valuable lesson – Diet Coke or low-cal drinks are the answer: alcohol doesn’t give you anything except too many unwanted calories, and it isn’t worth the extra drink to lose the benefits of the gastric balloon, in my opinion. There’s enough variety of the sugar-free drinks out there that you can’t get bored – bubbly water with Angostura bitters is a nice refreshing long drink, and spritzers are a far more sensible option for both your waistline and your concentration if you can’t keep off the wine.
I’ve also become adept at burping as inconspicuously as possible! I’ve never been much of a burper before, so this is one side-effect I don’t enjoy very much, but it’s a small price to pay for a slimmer outline, I believe. It’s worst on an empty stomach, so early mornings turning over in bed can be startling for my husband, who has taken to teasing me with ‘Mmmm….nice one’ whenever the burp issues forth. Very feminine, not!
On a related feminine front (look away now, boys) I do believe that the menstrual cycle affects the needle on the scales too – PMS means a bloated feeling and water retention, and I noticed that my weight bounced around for a day or two, following no known logic. Worth remembering if you’re afraid you’ve had a blip – as long as the general trend is downwards, it’s not worth stressing too much about your exact pound- or kilo- results day to day.
I also wonder whether the BIB moves around – some days I have what I think of as a ‘hungry day’ and I can eat more than others. Other times, I eat very little, get horrible heartburn and stop abruptly. I suppose it’s all still settling down.
The prospect of a restricted appetite over Christmas is actually pleasing me rather – although I love cooking and everything to do with preparing the feast, I just don’t want that horrible overloaded feeling after Christmas lunch. I can have whatever I like, but won’t pile my plate, and then suffer for it in January. Lovely.
So it’s onwards and upwards (but downwards on the scale) and I’m glad to be back in my routine and achieving the benefits that the balloon is giving me. I don’t have to beat myself up for overeating, because I just can’t do it, and as long as I keep the glass of wine/beer to a healthy level, I should enjoy the festive season as much, if not more, than the rest of the family.
BLOG ENTRY: MONDAY 7TH JANUARY 2008:
More to follow...
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