Since Violet was born, I have been having a few issues with my band. I ended up having an emergency c-section due to the fact that my blood pressure was going too high and the induction was getting me far enough along to deliver naturally. Well the first few days after the c-section I was very restricted, my band was closed for business. It took me a super long time to eat and then the morning after my c-section when my nurse pushed the uber gigantic prenatal vitamin on me which I then proceeded to throw up while trying to hold Violet. I shouldn't have taken the vitamin but I was still in a haze due to the magnesium they had me on to prevent seizures. Magnesium = feels like you have been hit by a Mack truck. (Side note, Violet's pediatrician who I had never met before her first appointment had heard about me from the hospital, I am known as the "Magnesium Mom", that is how awful that crap is).
Anyhoo, throwing up a prenatal vitamin 12 hours after a c-section equals NO FUN AT ALL. Holy hurt, batman. Anyways, after that I was very cautious when eating and my midwife was kind enough to prescribe my medications in liquid form. I was in the hospital for 6 days, when I got home I had zero appetite. I just had no interest in food for about a week.
Fast forward to this week and I'm having some pain in the area where I imagine my band is. It is not my port area but it band-ish area, at least in my mind. Yesterday I was concerned enough to call the surgical weight loss clinic and make an appointment. They were able to see me yesterday. So my nutritionist left last summer and then my surgeon left shortly after that. They have another hospital filling in to cover the clinic.
Let's just say I have never been so outraged at the medical profession.
Here are some choice phrases from my meeting with the covering surgeon...
"You haven't been very successful with the band"
"I see you have gained weight over the last few months, what has been going on?" (Mind you, Violet is right next to me in her car seat, DUH!)
"What have you been eating while pregnant?" I answer that it's easy to eat around the band, ice cream goes down real smooth and he proceeds to say, "I don't understand why people do that to themselves."
Those are just the tips of the iceberg really. I have never felt this way about our clinic, they are usually so supportive and helpful. I have been successful with the band! I'm up only 17lbs from my last appointment in August, I think that's pretty damn impressive as I just had a baby THREE weeks ago.
So basically the surgeon wants me to go for an Upper GI to see if my pouch is dilated. He seems to think I've been eating so much (not the case if he'd listen to me) that my pouch has expanded. He didn't over any fill being removed or anything. Oh and I need to do two weeks of food journals to see the amount of calories I'm taking in, he insinuated that I could be consuming as much as 5,000 calories a day.
He treated me like I'm a freaking idiot, I'm 2 1/2 years post op. I KNOW how this works. Yes I've had bumps in the road but I count myself a success, I weigh less than I did when I started.
The more I think about the pain I am in, the more I think it's a muscle based pain. It reminds me of when I had my port relocation in 2010 and went back to the gym too soon. I just had to take it easy for a few weeks and it went away. I think that is what it is, seeing as I'm keeping food and water down and the pain is only at night after I've been running around all day. I'm doing a lot more than I have in months due to my broken foot and bed rest.
For now I think I'm going to skip the Upper GI and see what happens. Of course if it gets worse I will go for it. I don't even know if our new insurance covers anything band related so I have to check that out too. I also think I'm going to follow my old surgeon to his new hospital. I don't like this new guy, he's a jerk.
