I'm back - grab a cuppa it's going to be a long one!

Hey guys,

Thanks for all your comments on my photos. I mentioned facebook having more photos so if you want to add me as a friend that's cool but pls don't publicly say anything on my wall about lapbanding because as you know, it's a bit of a secret! I've added a little avatar thingy to the right which if you click on it will give you an email address for me - not sure if you can use this to search for me on facebook or not but if you flick me an email we'll work it out between us!

I've started wading through all the blogs I've missed but I'm a bit all over the shop. I use this RSS feed toolbar that scrolls across my browser with unread posts but they're not in any sort of order that I can tell so it's a bit like Blog Post Lucky Dip! I'm especially loving the ones about "lady bits"! I will comment when I can but until I get through the backlog I may not - don't be offended! If you're on my bloglist I'm reading you!

The last 6 weeks have been so insane I don't know where to start! I'll start with my hens night the week before the wedding. My sisters had planned the whole thing and I knew some vague details but that was it. They picked me up mid afternoon and we drove to some hotel apartments in the city. They'd booked a 3 brm apartment for us to stay in over night for the 3 of us plus 2 of my close friends and my cousin who lives in Sydney who came early just for the hens night. We had a few cosmos and some nibblies and then I was told that I had to sit in a seat and they were going to tie me to it and blindfold me. I was having none of that shit! I refused to be tied up but sat there blind folded. They knew I didn't want a stripper so I wasn't too stressed and then someone came in behind me and I think they were playing "You can leave your hat on" and someone started blowing in my ear and giving me a lapdance! I assumed it was one of my girlfriends and then my blindfold was taken off and in front of me was one of my best friends from England! My sisters, dad & mum had paid to fly her over for the wedding! It was amazing, there were tears and screaming! After more cosmos we all frocked up (we all wore masquerade masks and caught the bus to Northbridge for dinner with about 20 other friends and family members. After a bit of kerfuffle about where the table was located, we tucked into some champers and dinner. During the night my sisters had arranged rounds of Emma Trivia. It was heaps of fun. Then about half of us headed off to a karaoke bar where as usual we got shitty about our songs not being picked and were almost about to leave when we finally got some on. We partied on there (numbers dwindled) till about 2am, then headed to a club which had an area upstairs playing 80's' & 90's music. There we came to an epiphany. The girls of today wear FLAT shoes!! Here we were being all hardcore in our ridiculous heels and they've smartened up and worn flats! Anyway at about 4.30am we decide a trip to Fast Eddy's (24hr cafe) is in order for some chips and sundaes (what else would we eat at 4.30am?). We walked back to the apartment and finally fell asleep at about 5.30am. I could only sleep for a couple of hours and I'm telling you I was unwell. I'm far too old for those sorts of shenanigans!

And that started a downward slide that week. I assumed it was lack of sleep and a hangover but all of a sudden food was revolting - I couldn't stomach anything (YAY I hear you say? Not that much fun in reality). Then the reflux started again and it was BAD. I was nearly in tears each night. Tuesday I called Watson's rooms and they didn't have any doctors in that day but got me in the next day. I saw Maria Ingram (think I blogged a bit about it). She was concerned because I didn't have that much fill in to begin with. She took out about half and said she'd left about 1.7ml in - which is less than you have when you're first banded. As I mentioned she sent me for a barium swallow in case I had a slip. I might add that trying to fit in time for a doc appt and a barium swallow while you're trying to get the final bits of your wedding organised is NOT easy! Anyway it turned out I had a band dilation which is a stretched pouch probably caused when my band was too tight (regular readers will know I've had quite a bit of probs with this). Dr Ingram called me while I was having my nails done to say she got the report and basically I need to get back to basics to relieve any pressure on my band to allow the stomach pouch to retract to its normal size. Which has not been easy as the hunger has slowly returned and my portions are getting back to pre band sizes!!! Hard to manage while you're on your honeymoon! Anyway I decided to put that all aside to concentrate on the big day.

I had the beginnings of a head cold that week before too. Then on Friday (day before wedding) I woke up with NO voice. Pretty hard to say your vows when you can't speak! Over the day it came back, scratchy but back. Thursday night we picked up all my family who were coming in from Sydney & Melbourne. It was a great reunion. Friday we all headed to Margaret River (about 3hrs south of Perth). I should mention that since December Perth has had virtually no rain and the weather has been ridiculously warm. Well in Margs on Friday it was cool and overcast. I was not impressed. Everyone said though that its good that there's clouds because it makes for better photos! Anyway, Friday night we all surprised GB with one of his best friends from England. He was over at Christmas and told me he was going to try to come back but with his job and $$ it may not be possible, but it all came together. GB almost lost his mind! Fri night it was a friend's birthday so 10 of us headed to Must Winebar and had dinner (yummo). Saturday morning arrived and GB took off first thing for golf with his friends - the last I'd see him before the ceremony.

A little bit later my sister called from her apartment to see if i wanted to walk into town for a coffee. So we did that. We also had to go to the chemist to see if they had anything to numb her throat. She had the WORST case of pussy tonsils I've ever seen! So bad that one of her glands was so swollen that it was causing a massive lump on the side of her neck! She really wanted to have a good night. The chemist suggested this spray thingo which we used and she said it was immediately better. From then on we moved all the dresses to my apartment, the hair/makeup lady showed up at 11am to get us all started. The day seemed to go quite slowly, and then all of a sudden it was 4.30pm and we were all rushing around to get ready!

I knew that I'd lost a couple kgs in the past week from being so ill but hoped it came off my arse. As soon as my sis did up my dress though I knew my boobs were smaller than at the last fitting. Sure enough I had to keep hoying it up after the ceremony, during the photos!!! Luckily I'd had spaghetti straps sewn into them so I pulled them on for the reception and it was smooth sailing. We arrived at the winery and that's when I finally had a meltdown - I couldn't stop the tears! It was almost funny. I think I was so overwhelmed that the time was finally here! I pulled it together and got the show on the road. To be different, both the boys & gal's walked down either side of the guests (rather than a centre aisle). It was a bit hairy walking in heels on grass and down a few stairs (and I stepped on my dress a couple times), but I had a great laugh when I looked over to see my fiance doing a dance down the stairs to the music. (All you need is Love - The Beatles). The ceremony was pretty quick and I managed to hold it all together! Although it was a bit cold outside it all went really well.

From there the bridal party had a few pics and then returned to the winery for the cocktail reception which was fabulous. We got the 2 very quick speeches out of the way and then did our dance. GB and I danced for a minute to our song (Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol) but as that's a difficult song to dance too (no beat!) we had been practicing with the rest of the bridal party to do a evening quickstep sort of dance to Love Will Keep Us together. There was a bit of confusion at the start but we pulled it together and apparently it looked fabulous! Can't wait to see the video! Then the party got started in full swing. Our DJ was fantastic - I had to ask him to play a shit song so I could go and pee!. The cocktail food was great and everyone seemed to have a brilliant time. We'd set up a kind of photo booth with a backdrop and camera on a tripod for our guests to have photos in front of and there was a little white board for them to hold up messages. It was a bone of contention between GB and I which I won and it was a massive hit! We've had really good feedback that it was one of the best weddings they'd ever been too. After the reception we all hopped on the bus transport we'd arranged back to the hotel and then partied on in my sister's apartment till the wee hours again!

It was like a big 3 day party. The next day we had a lunch just with our immediate families and then put the word out that we'd be having a bbq in the middle of the apartments for dinner which a lot of people rocked up for.

Monday we took my Aunty from Melbourne to a few wineries and the chocolate factory and slowly headed back to Perth. That was the day that Perth was hit by the hail storms and a few of our friends have bad damage to their cars. We were lucky that we were late enough just to hit torrential rain.

Tuesday night we headed off for our honeymoon. Details of that I'll leave to another post.

Today I did an official weigh in and I'm back up to 77.5kg which is disappointing but it has been 4 weeks with basically no fill in my band and drinking wine like it was water and eating out nearly every single day.. oh and no exercise, so a 3.5kg gain is understandable! I've been pretty much fluey this whole time but this past week my asthma has been chronic. Went to my GP yesterday and he put me on antibiotics & steroids. I haven't slept properly in 3 nights which totally sucks. Was planning on getting back into exercise this week but just haven't been able to. Did do pilates on Tuesday and also went to the gym after work for 45mins cardio where I thought I might actually pass out. Will give the weekend for the drugs to kick in and hopefully will be full steam ahead on Monday.

Well that's enough for one post!

Talk to you all soon!

Mrs Em :)