Fill'er Up!

Yesterday was my first fill - that is, they injected saline into my band in order to tighten it up and create restriction. I'm glad I didn't stress about getting it done at all - because it would have been wasted energy. The process was quick and easy!

I went in and saw the nutritionist. We talked about how I was doing and since I'm cookin' along, decided on a conservative first fill. The doc numbed the area with Lidocain, which to be honest, I barely even felt. Next up came the giganta-needle which I opted not to look at. He had to dig around a bit to find the port, but it was odd feeling rather than painful.

Once he had the needle in the port, I sat up (yes, with a big needle sticking out of my tummy). He then started to inject the saline while I drank water. He put in 1cc - my band holds up to 4cc's - which is a safe, conservative first fill. Most people take 3-5 fills to hit the elusive 'sweet spot' where you have what is considered 'good restriction' - defined as losing 1.5-2 pounds/week with relative ease, little to no hunger (except at meal times, when it's appropriate to be hungry), and few to no episodes of having food get stuck.

Most people seem to settle in at somewhere between 2-3cc's. The reason they don't do that off the bat is that it increases the risk of erosion - a complication where the band literally grows into the stomach. Bad. Thus, I was happy as could be with my conservative fill, esp. since I'm doing ok eating for the most part! Some people get more agressive fills out of the gate because they are starving all the time and eating essentially as they did pre-banding. I'm not in that boat (thank goodness!).

More to come! I'm on liquids today, mushies for a few days and then I can start seeing how solids do. I'll keep you posted!