My recent big event was that I had the lapband gastric banding operation on Wed 6 May, so I hope I’m on the path to getting smaller. I wish I could say that everything’s different and I’ve lost my appetite and am eating tiny meals, but I’d be bullshytting if I did.

The op was easy – in on Wednesday morning, first bus off the rank (yeah, I feel bus sized) at 8am and back in the ward by 10am I think. It was only an overnight stay, but I was allowed to get up and walk around, and I was home by 1030am the next day. Amazing. No stitches – the small wounds were just glued together and covered by a thin film of plastic, which slowly dissolved off in the shower over the next two weeks. It was all laparoscopic, so there was only one incision of about 6cm (I just measured it) and half a dozen other holes. No mess, very little pain.

Sure enough, for the first five days, I had little appetite and the mandatory clear soup and fruit jelly filled me up. But then my appetite returned and I felt as hungry as ever. They didn’t tell me much, but I’m assuming there’s no saline solution in the band at the moment, because I can’t feel any constriction. I’m supposed to start gradually eating soft foods, which I did, but I’m supposed to eat slowly and chew 32 times and all that, but frankly, I just forget and eat normally. I’m not having any reflux problems, and my weight is slowly creeping up again.

I have an appointment on Friday 5 June and I assume saline is going to be injected then to fill the band and increase the constriction. I hope so, because I was really looking forward to help with appetite control. I am so tired of dieting! I can never eat or drink without feeling guilty about it and seeing the result on the scales next morning if I transgress. Oh well, I’ll see how I feel after this first appointment.

I’ll keep you posted on progress.

Pete