I've just had a horrendous time. I started with another sick attack last Friday (29th Aug), which lasted longer than ever before - started at 1am, and it continued right through the day, with no sleep, until 11pm - like, 22 hours.

However, the next day (Saturday), I had a wedding to go to - but I felt fine the next morning, all raring to go. Because the wedding was in a neighbouring town, we'd booked a room for the night, and was looking forward to a bit of a knees up. When I've had the sickness before, once it had finished (and providing I took it gently), I was ok the next day.

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(Dave & Me at the wedding, a few hours before hospitalisation!)

However, this time was different.  I felt fine until the meal.  I'd taken it really steady, just one tiny mouthful of the starter (melon & berries), & a full bowl of soup with a tiny mouthful of bread.....  with the intention of eating only a mouthful of the desert.  About 10 mins after the soup, at around 6pm, I got very hot, went bright red and felt ill.  I tried going out for a breath of fresh air, to no avail. I ended up leaving Dave with the rest of the meal while I went up to the hotel room for a lie down.  The whole process started again though - I started being violently sick again.

I knew that my body couldn't really deal with a second 20 hour session of being sick/having no fluids inside me, etc, and phoned NHS direct.  They (eventually) advised me to go to the local hospital.  I did this at around 10pm, and had to wait for (what seemed like) a lifetime to be seen, with my paper kidney bowl in my hand.

I was seen, given anti sickness drugs (which didn't really work, they just took the edge off) - and was eventually admitted for an overnight stay.  I was hooked up to a drip to get fluids down - which made me feel a little bit better.

Jane in Hospital

The ward was noisy, people snoring, nurses shouting, but I didn't feel much like sleeping anyway. 

The next day (Sunday), I started to feel better in the morning, got dressed and felt good.  Then I had a little cup of powdered ministrone soup.  Within ½ hr, same again, bright red face and feeling ill.  This time, I felt inconsolable.  The nurses had said it was ok to have the soup!  And worse of all, I knew that, once it had started, I was going to be a good 15 or so hours before I felt ok again - that's a long time when you're just at minute one.....

Every minute of waiting for your medication to come feels like three hours.  I asked for medication at around 7pm, and ended up waiting (crying) until 1am.   And even then, it only just took the edge off.

So, I had to stay in overnight again, and the following day (Monday), I was told to stick to protein drinks.  I had 1½ of these thick drinks, and started again at about 5pm.  Dispair doesn't come close.    I was sick again until Tuesday morning.

In the morning, a doctor who'd previously been the day before, visited again.  She was Spanish and had done some sort of project with my surgeon previously.  She had a knowledge about gastric banding that no one else there seemed to have (I'd had comments from nurses/doctors - such as "what's a gastric band?" and "what do you mean by a fill/defill?" - eeek!).  She made some phone calls - the result of which was my band providers insiting that I make my way over to them in Sheffield for an emergency defill.  Apparantly, my problem is common with being overfilled.  There was some concerns about who would foot the bill for the ambulance (!), but I was so desperate for treatment, I said I would make arrangements for someone to come collect me - thanks Andrew (my brother).

I had the defill  Mr Collins only seemed to take out 7.4ml from the band, which would be a loss of 0.4ml - rather than a gain.  However, there is a small amount of slippage - hopefully this isn't bad enough to require corrective surgery.  I guess its to be expected with how often I've been sick lately.

The funny thing is about all this, is that you get used to the way you are - or, at least, I do.  I've been struggling with the band for months, but didn't really realise that it wasn't normal.  That I shouldn't be sick after everything that goes in my mouth.  That I was, horrendously over-restricted for too long.

Well, now I have nothing in my band, and I'm going to have to rely to being good and dieting until I get some kind of a fill - and as I'm off to Turkey next week, and don't want any problems when abroad, I'm leaving it defilled until my return.  And when I do have a fill, I'm not going anywhere near where I was before.  I want to still be able to eat textured things, salads and healthy food, rather than liking on soups - how did I fall into that trap?  I'm not stupid, how did I not see that creeping upon me?

Anyway, hopefully it's the wake up call I needed to take more care of myself.

I got as low as 10st. 07lb in hospital, but as that was due to nearly a week of no fluids etc, it was unsustainable.  I'm now 10st. 10lb, which is still a decent loss.  Just need to maintain it. 

I'll post some photo's soon.