day 5

219.0

Whee! I can tell that some of the swelling in my belly has subsided. I am now down a total of 10 lbs!

Today so far I've had one white grape juice box (100 cals), 1 Dannon Light 'n' Fit strawberry and banana smoothie (70 cals), and 1/2 cup of tomato soup prepared with chicken broth (43 cals) topped with maybe a tablespoon of tomato-basil feta crumbled into it (23 cals). Oh, and a one foul, disgusting gulp of the GNC liquid vitamins I bought.

(Updated: supper was a half-cup of split-pea soup, pureed and thinned with chicken broth (~95 cals); later I had another juice box (100 cals) and a sugar-free popsicle (15 cals) for a daily total of something close to 431 calories.)

I cannot drink that stuff anymore; I don't care if I spent $25 on it! It threatens to gag me every time (well, okay, both times) I take it. I am going to have to get some children's chewable multivitamins. Also, M needs to pick up my Unjury at the post office box tomorrow so maybe I'll ask him to stop in and get me some at the grocery next door.

I have really been debating what to do about getting my fills. Before I got banded, I researched my options in this department, and knew that I had the options of returning to the OCC for my fills, and/or using the Fill Centers USA. They have a provider practicing in one of Atlanta's suburbs, Darlene Zebley, who gets really stellar reviews. So I felt that I had good options in that department.

While I was at OCC getting my band, the doctors implored me to return for fills. They don't charge for them (well, they do for the fluoro but not for the actual fill or office visit) and said they don't make any money doing fills, but that successful patients are their best advertisement and that they have a track record of patients needing only 1 - 3 fills per lifetime, while they hear of other patients needing 5 - 6 or more per year elsewhere. And, of course, I'd like to be able to get a regular band "check up" coincident with my first fill, so I was pretty set on going back to OCC for at least my first.

However, I've done some research. Flights to and from Atlanta are heinous: I priced a ticket on Delta for October 13rd (7.5 weeks) and flying direct, up and back on the same day, would cost me $800! I could go Airtran for considerably cheaper (~$400) but I couldn't do an up-and-back on the same day, so I'd have to get a hotel room in Tijuana. And then there's the cost of transportation, and of course the cost of my time, and it has all started to seem (especially after my hellacious day of travel on Friday) as not worth it.

But my biggest doubt is about the possibility of needing an emergency unfill. For that reason alone, it seems smart to go ahead and start up a relationship with the Fill Centers USA, especially since Darlene seems to come highly recommended. So, if/when I do have a situation arise where I need an urgent unfill, I don't have to arrange the money and time to go to Tijuana. Combined with the cost savings of using Fill Centers USA, I'm leaning pretty strongly in that direction.

Today I swung by Whole Foods and picked up two puree-able soups: Indian corn chowder and split pea. They didn't have any black bean soup, which I was really jonesin' for, with a big dollop of reduced-fat sour cream!

Tomorrow I have to go back to work. I'm not really looking forward to it. I'm still really tired and I don't relish the thought of sitting all day.