I had my surgery done on Nov. 21, 2005 and I weighed in at 357#, today I weigh 321# (a lose of 36#). I just had my first fill on Jan. 16 (1.4) and it was not painful at all.
The dr. numbs you upper stomach, up by were you port incision is and you drink some berium and water and he watches it go down (you can watch also). Not much to it, follow it with 2 days liquids, 2 days pulverized, 2 days soft or until I felt comfortable after the 6 days to start adding a new food again. He said to remember small bites and lots of chewing.
The soft food that I ate was mashed potatoes, noodle soup, squash/yams, cooked carrots, chicken in the blender then just cut very small, applesauce, yougart, canned peaches & pears. I was told that soft foods can be cut/mashed with a fork but requires chewing, and to also only introduce 1 new food a day.
Hope that this helps, it was my first posting.