08/17/07: Update

I made myself go back into my bedroom at 5:50 (friggin) AM so that I could turn the alarm off and not bug my hubby.  He doesn't like the alarm as early as I do.  So at 6, it went off, I turned it off and my doggie finally convinced my cat to let him on the bed so that he, doggie, could cuddle with me.  And I fell asleep, discomfort and all.  It was in that that both my hubby and I realized I wasn't going to work today.

When I woke up, first thing I did was call my doc.  The lady who answered the phone said "no cancellations, so sorry, you'll just have to wait".

That wasn't good enough for me.  This isn't resolving and I am not going to risk damage/further damage to any of me because they can't accomodate urgency.  If it were me trying to make a schedule change, yeah, I wait.  But this aint that.

So I ask, "then what do you do when someone is so tight they can't eat and they suddenly got pretty bad heartburn for the first time in their life?"

She says "hold on, you'll need to talk to a nurse and she can tell us to get you on today's schedule".

So she transfers me to a nurse, nurse hears the same story, nurse transfers me back to the same front desk but different lady.  And different lady, not knowing the story, says, "I'm sorry, but we are full today".

Are you effin kidding me?

But then, before I have to go into the story, she suddenly had a cancellation at 1:30.

So I had an appt at 1:30.  I get myself there and I'm thinking...what if it's beyond "too tight" and it's slipped?  ARGH!  Please let my Lady be ok!!!

I check in and I sign all my paperwork.  And I get called back for a weigh-in and vitals.  My weigh-in...get this.  It's been exactly one month and two days since I was there last (not for a fill but a follow-up for the infection).  And I'm down 9.8 lbs.  I guess I don't think of weightloss by the month...because while I know some of you would thumb your nose at a pittance like that, to me, that's huge.  To me, that's ideal.  More than 8 but not so much that my skin gets confused.  I was very pleased with that!

And then I wait and wait and wait.  And finally the RNP calls me back.

She starts with a barium swallow.  All of their fills (and unfills) are under fluoroscopy.  I like that, personally.  And we all get to see the image of how everything looks - the size of the opening, the size of the pouch, where the band is sitting.  I like it.

And get this.  It's all fine.  It looks like ideal restriction in their book.  No slip.  Not closed off with tightness. 

So who knows where this heartburn is coming from.  I'm gonna do some research, that's for sure.

She did take 0.2cc's out.  She agreed when I explained how it's felt the past two months that it probably was too much, in spite of what the fluoroscopy said.

The heartburn is fading, too.  I'll have half an hour of being just fine and a wave will hit...calling it a wave is weird, yes, but work with me here.  And that wave will wave around for about twenty minutes and fade back to nothing and I'll feel fine for half an hour or so.  And each feeling fine session is getting longer and longer.  Enough so that I wanted "lunch".  And I ate "lunch".  "Lunch" being my first meal of the day at 3:45pm...  And I feel all kinds of better about how the eating felt.  For one, I could do it.  For another, there was still something there telling me to take it slow and chew and all that. 

She told me to keep my appt for next week as I may want my 0.2cc's back.  Or I may want this infection looked at again.  Wouldn't you know it...the wound looked ok today.  It's still there...but it wasn't red or protruding like it normally is.  So from what she could see, there wasn't anything to worry about.  She told me to try bacitracin this time...so I stopped at the store on the way home and bought that and some zantac to have around.

She also told me that if the heartburn doesn't resolve in the next day or two that they will want to know.  They'll order a scope to make sure everything really is ok or see what they can see.

I now have to do some research of my own and see if I can come up with something that may have caused this.  Yes, I know my two bites of cheese last night were a supposed "no no".  "They" always say that anyone and everyone should not eat before going to sleep.  I know that but when my tummy is growling, I usually can't fall asleep.  So I take a bite or two of something and that's enough to stifle the beast and I can get to sleep.  But believe me, the cheese bites are gonna take a backseat for awhile (at least) until I know what's going on.  Any bites, for that matter.

So off to my research.

I hope everyone is having a great day.  I hope you all feel much better than I do (did).  Thank you so much for all the well-wishes this morning.  Made my heart beam to know that 1) people get it and 2) people care.