Gastric Balloon - Spatz3 - Vejthani Hospital, Thailand - my Experience

I have always struggled and yoyo'd with my weight, but in recent years due partly to depression and partly due to a bad traffic accident my weight had ballooned to an all time high of 94kg with a BMI of 33.3. I was 40yo (now 41) and I made some personal choices to deal with my depression (divorced my husband) and went on a diet. I managed to reduce my weight to 90kg or BMI of 31.9 but then I plateaued. Increasing my exercise was not really an option for me, partly because I'm lazy, partly because the weather here is so hot and humid and also because I work about 60 hours a week (or more if there are problems), so I was reliant completely on diet to manage my weight. I have a family friend who has a gastric band so I started googling options. Actually based on what I have read my first choice would have been a gastric sleeve as I consider this to be a permanent solution, but although I was categorised as obese I was not fat enough to get bands or sleeves. I read about the balloon and decided I could either try this or actively try to get fatter so I could get the sleeve. In the end I decided it would be wrong to get fatter just so I would qualify for an operation so I started to research the balloon.
As I live in SE Asia, but don't have any faith in the hospitals where I am so I researched Thailand. After a lot of research I decided to go with the Spatz3 because it is a 1 year procedure (more time to loose weight) and Vejthani Hospital in BKK was offering this. They managed to book me in on relatively short notice (my treatment had to suit my work, i.e. when I could take time off) so I only booked about 3 weeks before my procedure and had to take about 2 weeks off work. When compared to what I had read bout the procedure in other countries this seemed vey full on. What I've read is that it is a day procedure under a local anesthetic but Vejthani insisted I have a general anesthetic and stay in the hospital for a few nights. Part of me believes that this is a bit of money grubbing, but that being said the general anesthetic means I have no memory of the procedure so I probably didn't gag or something which was a worry to me with the endoscopy. I was going to take a friend with me but when I realised I had to stay in the hospital it seemed pointless.
It was a bit of a worry to me that they couldn't be certain if I could have the procedure until after they had assessed me, so I asked to wait to pay such a big amount of money until after the procedure was confirmed. This caused a few problems as they had me put my belongings in a locker but then they had already started some pre-procedure works (involving needles etc.) when the receptionist came in asking for money. I was already stressed, and because I was fasting pre-procedure they were having trouble finding my veins, so I got cross, hopped out of bed and stormed to the locker room where my handbag/wallet was. I feel they could of managed this better, but I was more stressed than normal (I think most people would be though). Really though all the staff were nice enough including doctors, nurses and admin staff. I understand the hospitals do have to cover their butts though so when the Doc asked me my goals with the procedure I told him I wanted to get down to 60kg and he virtually scoffed at me that this wasn't possible and that I would only loose between 10 and 25kg (not 30kg). I explained that I understood this but wanted to have set a high goal for myself, so he pretty much said that after the first balloon I could consider a 2nd balloon. This brought on my stubborn streak, partly because of the cost, but also I didn't want to be in and out of hospitals.
So the procedure went ahead with no problems, although they did also discover I had heliobacter pylori (a spiral bacteria that can lead to ulcers) and all the follow up tests etc. said I was fine and just needed medication for the bacteria and anti acids for the duration of the time I had the balloon inserted. I was only allowed to eat/drink broth for the first few days and then slowly increased to creamier/thicker soups/yogurt etc. I was allowed to return to my hotel and also to fly to Chiang Mai for a holiday about a week later. I was still only on mushy food but all good. About a week and a half later I caught up with a friend and his wife had cooked us dinner. I decided to just eat a little bit to be polite but I did spend that night over the toilet vomiting. It actually wasn't like regular vomiting as when I bent over the food just seemed to fall out. I had a follow up appointment with the Doc before I returned home and he said this was to be expected as I had moved onto solid foods too quickly.
So returning home I made some changes to my everyday life such as quitting sugary drinks, and cutting my meals in half. My lunch is prepared at work so I explained to them that my meals had to be half the normal size, and I bought some beautiful plates and bowls for my house that were small sized. I also tried to eat healthier options overall but still get a good variety of meat, seafood and vegetables. When I did go out for dinner I was ordering a starter instead of a main meal.
So then for me the weight loss went very well and I had actually reached my goal of 60kg (30kg loss) after 8.5 months. I was still slowly losing weight but about a month later I was having a lot of pain. I was finding that the only way to stop this was to eat some bread or something. I emailed the hospital and we decided to remove the balloon early so in total I only had the balloon for 10 months.
When I got to the hospital I was almost a tourist attraction with the staff as I was much thinner than previously and expected. The balloon was removed again under general anesthetic (so no memory), and they also took a look and the problem that was causing me pain was that the balloon had been rubbing against the stomach wall and caused an abrasion. So this was a good thing as once the balloon was removed and I took anti acids for about a week it had healed up. For the removal I didn't have to stay in the hospital, so I just spent a long weekend in BKK before flying home. Again the Doc made me stubborn as I asked about how to maintain my weight as I was worried I would be starving once the balloon was removed and his comments were I could always come back and get another balloon if I gained weight so I decided bugger that I will make this continue to work.
So the removal was 4 months ago, and I have actually lost a little more weight and now weigh 55.5kg with a BMI of just under 20. So now I am happy with my weight completely, in theory based on height, BMI etc. I can go as low as 52.1kg and still be "healthy", but I honestly feel my weight is perfect now. It's still not easy. I have been tested and officially my metabolism is normal, but supposedly I would loose weight on 6,200kj per day, but I find I need to restrict it to about 5000kj just to maintain my current weight. I am very careful and weigh myself every morning without fail. If I go above 56kg I eat rabbit food and don't drink any alcohol, juice etc., but if I am in the low 55's I will allow myself a treat like a glass of wine. It's still not easy and I assume I will have to be so careful for the rest of my life, but I figure it's easier to monitor daily and loose 1/2 a kg than to have to loose big amounts again in the future. I am constantly looking for skin tightening/firming creams as between age and such a big weight loss my skin has lost some elasticity. I will admit though that it's not as bad as I would have expected, and although I'm not a doctor so this may not be true, but I think the moisture in the air here (very humid) helped a little with this. So yes I am glad I got the balloon, but my experience won't be everyone's. I didn't tell many people about the balloon but as it took about 10 months people think it was solely diet, and I do see it as a private matter anyway.