My First "Fill"

Okay, so when you have your lapband surgery, the band (which has a saline pouch attached to it) is placed around your stomach - attached to this lap band is a tube that links itself to a "port" I *think* the port sits just on your stomach and may or may not be stitched into place (don't thin it is - from what I understand, it floats freely)- this is the site where saline is filled from (or saline removed if you're not coping well with food) Anyway, normal procedure is that the band is put onto your stomach with no saline in it. The idea of the saline is to make the band tighter and therefore allowing less and less food in and also giving you a very full feeling for quite a while.

So I've had it reasonably cruisy for the past 3wks...no saline in my band, which meant I was limited in what I could eat and also to the portions, but I was feeling hungry around the 2 hour mark (after eating). Hunger is my enemy ! So today I saw my surgeon for the first time since my operation. He weighed me (was floored at my weight loss :-)) and then told me to pop up onto the bed and lay down........

So I'm laying there, he's pushing on my stomach (kinda in the middle between your rib cages) and he's having trouble grabbing the port...so he asked me to stand up and lean back over the bed (so as to push my stomach out). He found the port and then the needle went in. Then for 2 very long minutes, he jiggled that needle around trying to find the correct entry site in the port. FINALLY, he found it and 4mls of saline went into my port site, which then flows into my band, making my band tighter.

4mls is quite a lot....so here I was, white as a ghost from having a needle jiggled about in my stomach for what seemed an eternity, so he tells me to lay back down again...... all was good after I got over the shock of what had just happened LOL

I managed to drink some water before I left, which meant all was well.

I now am on fluids only for 24 hours, then return to mushy food with a gradual transition to real food. His only rule is "no crap food". That's okay, I don't "do" crap food much. It's all the good food that got me here (Just too much of that good food)!

I see the dietician on Monday to move me onto the real food stage. Gone are the steaks and white bread sandwiches, but WHO CARES...I've lost a hell of a lot of weight my friends !!!!