northern

Wow!

I haven't posted since before Christmas.

Don't worry - I'm fine.

I spent a few days at my mom's for Christmas, and then again for New Years.

As planned, I ate too much, especially rich foods and chocolate.

Watched a lot of DVD's.

Read a lot of newspapers.

I buy all the Toronto papers (Toronto Star, Toronto Sun, Globe and Mail, and National Post), as well as the local papers for the two cities that are somewhat close to me - The Sudbury Star and The Sault Star (that's Sault Ste. Marie). Both the weekend before Christmas and the weekend before New Years they have lots of year-in-review type columns, which I enjoy.

And yes, it's a lot of reading.

Since then I haven't been doing much.

Went to see my family doctor about the trouble I've been having with swallowing.

It's been a problem for a couple years, but it gets worse and worse.

It started with a bit of gagging when taking pills (which I do everyday).

I still took my meds of course, but cut down, and then eliminated, supplements.

But over time the gagging has become much worse. I sometimes even end up regurgitating my pills.

One the of the meds are time-release capsules, so now I'm just opening them and poring the little pellets out and swallowing them like that. (Yes, it's okay for me to take it that way - I checked).

But my throat is always somewhat sore, and it even hurts to swallow liquids now.

The nice thing is that it's reduced my appetite, since I don't like to swallow anymore. (And no jokes about not liking to swallow, okay?)

Now since my surgery three years ago, I've become slightly accustomed to reguritation. If I overeat, or eat the wrong thing (like bread usually), then my stomach tells me in no uncertain terms that I've eaten too much, and the food comes back up.

I should make clear that I'm not talking about throwing up. All that comes up is the food - it's not vomit.

That's the reason I got the gastric band in the first place - to limit how much I eat.

And it's been working - I've lost over 100 pounds in the past three years.

But this is different from what the band causes.

This in my throat, not my stomach.

I saw him at the end of December, and he sent me the following week for an extensive flouroscope (like a full-motion x-ray) of my esophegus and G.I. tract.

A couple days after the tests, I got a message to call my doctor because he wanted to see me about the results.

Okay, that's not a good thing, is it?

I called back and spoke to him.

Due to the band, I've developed something called a pseudo-hernia.

Apparently it's causing some major acid reflux, and so now I take meds for it.

Yes, I have to take pills for it.

The irony is rather amusing.

I've made an appointment to see him to find out more about this thing. I'm not sure what it is or where exactly it is. Is it in my stomach, my throat, or where?

See - the gastric band is something placed around the stomach, near the top, and then tightened.

It restricts how much and how quickly I can eat.

The idea is that since the food is sitting near the top of my stomach while it slowly passes through the opening made by the band, that I'll feel full much sooner and thus stop eating. The advantages over traditional gastric bypass are that the band is actually adjustable (the band is filled with saline and can be adjusted by injecting more into it, or drawing some out to loosen it, through a port implanted just under my sternum), it's also reversible should something go wrong, and you don't risk malabsorption of nutrients, since your stomach remains intact.

Anyways, for all I know the pseudo-hernia is what they're calling the upper part of my stomach.

So I need to find out what exactly they mean by it.

I've also been clenching my jaw. Almost all the time.

Not grinding my teeth - just clenching them.

I think it's related to my throat being sore, but I have no idea how acid reflux could cause me to clench my jaw.




I have no idea why I'm telling everyone this. It's not like I'm worried about it. It's just frustrating.



Here's a picture my mom took of me on Christmas morning (Yes, I actually woke up in the morning on Christmas day - there must still be a kid in me).



I have one where I'm actually opening a gift, but I couldn't get it small enough to post on the site.


And finally, a couple videos from YouTube - they're both only about a minute long. Friends sent them to me, and I thought they were both worth sharing.