Today is 3 weeks post-op since my Lap-Band.  It's four weeks since my pre-op visit when I started a no carb/no veggie diet in prep for surgery.  I am the same weight today as I was 6 days after surgery - that's dissappointing!  I do realize that a lot of that weight loss may have been from being on a liquid diet, for 6 days, too.  So I'm still 12 lbs. down from my visit one week pre-surgery.  I should just be happy.  But I've been working VERY hard, and doing pretty well, and I want to see more results.  I don't see anything yet except on the scale, which will have to suffice for now.

He told me to stop obsessing - I'm down 17 lbs. from my heaviest - which I think was back in July when I visited him to kick this off again.  So,... that's promising!

I kept reading about fills here and on Bandedliving.com where people talked about how many cc's of saline their doctor added.  Lots said that their doctor will only do 5 cc's at a time.  My surgeon had previously stated that I will leave there after every fill at the perfect point, and I'll come back when I notice that I'm able to eat more than I used to be - for another fill.  Huh.  Today I asked him how many cc's he starts with.  He was like, "WHERE did you hear that nonsense?  STOP listening to anyone but me!"  (Jeez - I wasn't "listening" so much as hearing!  I'm following no one's recommendations but his.  I tell him that - that I can't believe how he only had me on liquids for 6 days following the surgery, when I see elsewhere in print or online that people have up to 6 weeks on liquids and purees.  He says, "There's no reason for that - it's just that some doctors don't treat any of their weight loss surgeries any differently.  They do the same thing for band, sleeve or bypass.  And their patients are suffering needlessly if they're band patients.  Of COURSE they lose weight - they're on a liquid diet!  He says that it's not the end of the world, and it usually doesn't hurt anything.  But it's really unnecessary.  He says that he'd love to do an experiment where people who want WL surgery are told, "You're having WL surgery", but not told afterward which one they had.  Then treat them all the same as if they'd had the bypass, and you'd find out that they all have the same results.  He's convinced of it.  Lol.  Says that of course bypass patients are on liquids and purees longer than band patients - because they NEED to be - their stomach can rip if they don't do things slowly enough.  But doing that to a band patient is just scaring them when there's no need.  Interesting.

Anyway, he lays me down on the exam table, he asks me where my port is.  I point.  He wipes it off with alcohol wipes.  He says, "Little pinch", and I feel the needle puncture my skin (such a little thing).  He pushes in some saline.  Then he sits me up so my legs are dangling over the table.  The syringe is still in my stomach.  He hands me a glass of water, and says, "chug".  I do, and he makes me stop after about 4 gulps.  Says, "Okay, where's the water now?"  I point to my stomach.  Says, "Okay, tell me when it goes down past the band".  He withdraws a bit of the saline back out, and I think I feel a change.  So I say, "There".  And he says, "Okay, then we're good", and pulls the syringe out and puts a band-aid over the port.  I tell him that I'm not sure of what it feels like for something to go down past the band - I've never had that sensation.  He says, "That's okay - you go home and try this.  If it's not enough, you just come back and we'll work on it more next time."  Ummm, okay?

I asked him a few questions today.  I said, "Your information packet says that the point of the band is to keep the food above the band for a time, alleviating hunger.  But elsewhere, I see that it says, "wait for the food to pass your band before you take another bite."  He says, "Dang - NO ONE has asked me that in all the years we've had that packet.  Now I'm gonna need to fire my nutritionist, who put that in there." (he's obviously joking).  I say, "So which is it?"  He goes into a long explanation with me about how the band is designed to make a pouch at the top that food holds in for a few hours.  If food is passing the band as you're eating, then the band isn't tight enough - and it's virtually pointless.  K, got it.  Next I ask him about why the band needs to be tightened/filled over time - does the saline seep out?  No - it's because of a few factors - one being that your stomach below the band is thinner than above it - just like once you get a ring past the plumpest part of your finger, it slides off from there on down.  So you need it tightened occasionally.  Also, it can slip down a bit and need to be tightened more for that spot.  This is not the "bad" slippage - this is more incremental migration.

I also asked the doctor what makes the food in the pouch above the band move down past the band eventually?  Is it just a log-jam effect that takes time?  Nope - it's that the stomach acid starts eating at the food in the bottom of the pouch, which makes it break down and fall through the band.  Ah - got it.

I'm going back in a few weeks for a pre-holiday check.  I'm hoping to get down past 300 in HIS office (vs. my home) this time!