argon

Hey Donna, Nothing really happened making me need the defill.. I've just been feeling too tight for a while, and decided it was the time. I got it about 4 days ago, and I felt immediately better. I drank a bottle of water and of milk right away, and they went down amazingly. I was so happy! Since then, everything is great. I have a drink JUST before lying down to sleep, and I don't have to worry about it! Wooo! I haven't gotten too crazy with the food, luckily, so I hope if I gain (which I'm expecting), it won't be THAT much. I had a little more than I should have for xmas breakfast AND dinner, which made me uncomfortable, but not that I had to pb/throw up. I was just trying to look TOO normal eating with my family. Definitely not eating normal person portions, so that's good... but I'm scared that because I'm getting and keeping down much more than I was previous to the defill, that's gon make me gain. Guess we'll have to see! I'm getting pretty sick of people telling me to stop losing weight! Just to spite 'em, I'm gonna lose 15 more!

Merry Christmas, Maria! Hope you had a good one!

p.s. I don't think I've ever found a sweet spot

Keep in mind, the sweet spot is a moving target, once you lose a bunch of weight, you'll probably find you're "looser" and need to start getting fills again.

holy moly, bringing up an OLD thread! You should just start your own! You're the fabled Bluewater Clinic patient. :confused:

Yay! Congrats!

I just did my measurements yesterday, and amazingly, I lost 18 inches EXACTLY each from my chest AND waist AND hips. That's pretty damn proportionate, I'd say!

If it makes you feel any better, when I was last (and first) defilled, I gained 10 lbs in a glorious 2 weeks, BUT once I was re-filled, I lost it again in less time than that. It's no biggie. Enjoy your 'time off', just not TOO much.

Hi Donna, Yeah, I wouldn't be getting defilled before even getting to goal if I didn't have to. I did my measurements today, cause it's been a VERY long time. Here are my totals. I'm amazed at how PERFECTLY even the numbers from my chest waist and hips have come off! Head was 23" is now 22" = 1" neck was 16" is now 13" = 3" chest was 55" is now 37" = 18" waist was 48" is now 30" = 18" hips were 54" are now 36" = 18" thighs were 43.5 are now 34.75" = 8.75" calves were 30" are now 23" = 7" left arm was 18" is now 13" = 5" right arm was 18.5" is now 13.5" = 5" that's 83.75" gone, baby. It seems a little suspicious that the differences are SO equal, but I swear, I wasn't even looking at my old numbers when I was writing these newest ones down!

Wheezy, I've had a couple painful fill experiences... *gag* I feel your pain. I hope you feel better soon, and this fill is good for you! How much did you get this time? You saw Sue? Does that mean you went to the Missisauga clinic, not to anyone in Ottawa? I'll eat a LITTLE turkey for you :huggie:

I'm sorry, Lisa... I'll be thinking of you. :hug:

I have a week left. A week until I leave for home, and a week until I also get defilled. I’m too tight, I know it, and have been for a while. When my plane lands, my parents are going to bring me to see some fill nurse I’ve never met before, and get either totally, or almost totally defilled. I have 1.3cc right now, and the clinic suggested I go down to 0.5cc, but if I felt more comfortable, I could get totally defilled. It’s nice to have that option, because I know the consequences (weight gain) will be a little less if I keep a 0.5 in my band, BUT… this is being done to try to reverse anything ‘wrong’ with me, be it a slip or stretched pouch, or maybe nothing at all, I’m doing myself a disservice by NOT going totally empty and giving myself the maximum repair time. I think I WILL go totally empty, and get refilled a bit, 3-4 weeks later. I gained 10lbs in 2 weeks last time I was defilled… this could be scary. But then again, maybe now if I CAN eat the healthier things for me, I WILL. You know? I will try my best. But for now, I don’t know if I even want to get to goal just to have to say goodbye to it again. I haven't quit my job yet. I will definitely wait until after Christmas. Don't get me wrong, it's not all about her... I don't want her to have THAT satisfaction. I don't like my job... it's not what I wanna be doing. I despise it. It just doesn't help having to work with someone who thinks that way about you, and SAYS it to other people. There's no way getting around working with her, it's gotta be that way. Dan and I had our Christmas tonight, since I'm leaving next friday, and we won't be able to have Christmas together. :huggie: I got lots of goodies, but most notably, clothes from THE GAP. Yeah, that's right. Up til now most of my stuff has come from Old Navy. That's because it's cheap, and with how quickly I've been growing out of stuff, it's just worked. I've gone into some nicer, more expensive stores to just try things on, but never bought anything. Anyways, he got me a nice, super colourful (and itchy) striped (freakin' HORIZONTALLY!) sweater, in MEDIUM, and some size 10 jeans. I looked at the sweater and said no way it would fit... but it did. The jeans... I dare to say they could probably be a size smaller?! They're very roomy in the hips. That's the latest from me. I'm going to bed now. 'Night.

Vegas, do you have to go on liquids or anything while you’re defilled to try to shrink your pouch back?

Mind sharing who the PS is, Paula? I know you're also a fellow Canadianite, and I'm having a hell of a time finding many surgeons with websites! (pm me if you prefer)

I'm around 145lbs as of today, and wearing size 10's. (I started at 284lbs, and size 24 sometimes 26's)

Just thought I'd update my pals that are keeping track of it. I don't know what I'm doing right, but whatever it is, I'm keeping it up, cause I only have 1.6lbs to go! I'm too tight, that's why I'm losing so well. There's so much crap going on, and I can't get down to Nova Scotia for a defill, so I'm hoping that when I fly back to Saskatoon on the 21st, I can get a defill there. Just in time for Christmas. Hopefully I don't go too nuts with my new found freedom. I had to go to the mall tonight, so I figured I'd go into some store and see what size I could get into. I just bought a couple of pair of size 10 jeans at Old Navy this past weekend. I grabbed an 11 and a 9. (whatever THOSE numbers mean? misses sizes?) Tried on the 11's first as to not disappoint myself. They were comfortable. I tried the 9's, and they were a little more snug than I'd like. You know that tight in the thigh-ness that you're not too sure you should be walking around with? I had that. So, if I had to wear one of them RIGHT now, I'd buy the 11's. I don't know what 11's translate into in even numbered sizes. I'm thinking about quitting my job, again. When I started my new job as a production assistant, I had to sacrifice by agreeing to work along side THE biggest bitch I've ever met. I figured I'd give it a try, since when I took the job/position, I was hours away from quitting, and it was a better option than being unemployed. Well, about a week ago, she up and moved spots, along with the 2 animation directors (she and they were right beside me until then). It was because they needed more wall space than was available where we were. I found out 2 days ago that she is "sick of watching me not work" or doesn't think I do anything. Needless to say, I'M PISSED. I actually have been quite impressed with myself in how much I'm getting done compared to my old job. How she has so much time to watch over me to determine this, I don't know. I check my personal email a couple times a day... MAYBE reply to one, but that's about it! She's nuts! And just in general, a miserable person to be around, and I've decided I don't want to work with her anymore. There's no other jobs there for me, so I think that's it. I'm gonna take my leave, and be a homemaker until Dan gets his job, and we can go to Vancouver. Maybe I'll go back to school. Everyone thinks I'd be a great chef! I'm just not sure how I should do it. We have our Christmas vacation paid for (dec 22 to Jan 1, pretty nice), but I don't want to give my notice right now, and miss out on a paid vacation! I was thinking about waiting until about a week before the Christmas break, so that I'd work a week AFTER the break... but I'm thinking they could possibly just tell me not to come back at all after Christmas, and stop paying me when the Christmas break starts. I could suck it up and wait until AFTER I get back from Christmas, but man, I HATE this job. Not only working with mega-bitch, but it's just an all over awful job. I just don't know!! Just needed to share. Thanks :eek:

Congrats Paula!!! I really must get out the camera and start taking pictures.... it's been too long. And now... I don't know how it happened, but I don't care. 1.6lbs left :faint:

I hope it helps too Loriely, good luck

The nurse who tried it out on me was supposed to be the portocath expert, and still couldn't do it. She said it was because those ones are so close to the surface, and ours (at least mine) isn't.

I pretty much had the same problem, and had to go to the ER. How about calling your Dr., and telling him the problem, and asking that he call the ER, or be willing to talk to an ER Dr. if they need to? In my case, they unsuccessfully tried to access my port for WAY longer than I liked, then when I finally found out they had a flouroscope... they scheduled me in to see the radiologist the next day, and he did it, pretty easily and successfully. It's worth a try. If not... you're gonna have to drive that 267 miles again.

loriely, what specialist?! I missed something.

Yes, not sure who you are addressing. Gotta add though, you could also get it done in BC as well as Toronto. Not in Saskatchewan, and not in Alberta, unless you're a AB resident, and have the time and patience to wait.. they're not doing it as a self-pay thing. I was living in SK when I was banded (I went to SWLC www.lapband.ca in Toronto ), and at that time there was no one doing fills in SK, so I was prepared to travel to Calgary (or back to TO) each time I needed a fill. My dr. has been training people in each province to do fills on his patients (and some non patients, I think), and now has one in Saskatoon. I'm sure there's no one in Weyburn doing fills, but I know for sure there is one or 2 in Saskatoon. That's the biggest thing, I think, to consider when thinking about where to go, as an out of provincer. You don't wanna be screwed when it comes around to actually having this thing work!

I feel bad for you, how you've gone about losing your weight. "One more month of this and I'll go for an unfill" Are you kidding? And your ticker says you have 20lbs left, you're gonna lose 20lbs in a month? Why are you punishing yourself? Get a slight unfill RIGHT now, learn some habits that are going to help you when you ARE trying to maintain, and lose that last bit of weight slowly!!! You shouldn't be longing for a meal of meat and veggies! You said it yourself that you're malnourished, what more proof do you need that what you're doing isn't a good thing?

Sorry to hijack the thread, but congrats on your success, Dorr! You look great

I'm sorry, but GOOD GAWD, why aren't you figuring these things out BEFORE you decide to get banded? What if there is no one in Calgary who does fills?! Andrew went to Dr. Cobourn (as you can see from his signature), and some of the people who do fills only do them on Dr. Cobourn patients (because Dr. C trained them for his own patients).