Why can't they fill band the first time?

[mindyemt08 0]

If you are totally healed at 6 weeks, why can't they just fill (or nearly fill) the band at that time? Well, even 2-3 cc's at a time. What is up with most people getting 3-5 fills before they hit their sweet-spot?

[nadean 0]

I think every doctor is different with their fills. I was banded on the 16th and he put in 6cc in my 10cc band. My dr said my stomach was smaller and that is what it took to sit well. I also go to get my first fill 4 weeks after surgery and I have seen a lot of people that had to wait 6-8 weeks. I'm sure dr's don't want to fill people to fast because they don't want you to lose to much weight to fast and they don't want to fill people to much because you can get really sick if you eat and it can't go down.

[steph_co 9]

Being aggressive on fills CAN cause complications. Before anybody jumps on me, I said "CAN," not WILL. I think that's why some surgeons are more conservative. If they had possibly been aggressive to begin with, ended up having problems, they may have changed their method.

I had 3 cc in when I got the band installed. For my first fill she tried putting in 2 cc and I couldn't get Water to go down, so she took out .5 cc to bring me to 4.5 cc. I COULDN'T have had any more than that amount then. My band loosened, I was then able to have 2 more cc put in on my fill yesterday. I'm now at 6.5 cc. Sometimes you need to let your body adjust to this band thing - it is a foreign object, you know. It's good to be gentle with your body in this process. It's doing a lot of work for us.

[Jachut 487]

Yes, they CAN fill it at 6 weeks and often do. But I'm all for avoiding fills you dont really need and not just having them becuase they're scheduled. I didnt have one at 6 weeks becuase I didnt need one until about 12 weeks.

But they wont totally fill you up at that time, it takes time to approach more restriction. I now have the same sort of restriction at 3ml in a 4ml band as I had when I had 1ml in a 4ml band, your body changes over time and with weight loss and hence the need to fill more. And for some people it takes several fills to even get restriction, everyone's different. Then you can get filled and it not settle for a few weeks and suddenly you're too tight.

[niki 1]

Each doctor has his own politics about fills. Mine for instance is very conservative about fills, meaning I've had 8 fills during these 2,5yrs I've been banded. My doc says it is important to allow your stomach and your body to adjust to the band (even if this means I'm loosing weight at a very slow pace...).

I sometimes get very frustrated with that, but at least I notice that my skin is doing OK and slowly adjusting too (of course that exercising 4 times/week it helps too).

[travelgirl 3]

Everyone's sweet spot is different. Mine might come at 1.25cc's and yours might be at 4.5cc's. There's just no way of knowing where your's will be, and even when you do find your sweet spot, you'll find that it changes with time.

[snowbird 2]

Are you asking why they don't fill it up all the way? That's what your question sounds like, since most doctors do begin giving fills by six weeks.

The amount of fill you need changes over time because as you lose fat around the stomach, the band becomes looser and needs to be re-adjusted. I had my first fill at 7 weeks out from surgery, and was tight for a few weeks. I lost over 10 lb and it loosened, so I went in for another fill six weeks later. After the second fill I was tight again, to the point of barely being able to eat any solid foods. Now after another two weeks, I have lost another 8 lb and my band is getting looser. I expect I will need another fill in a month or two to re-adjust to the proper tightness.

The amount of fill you need is different for every person, as is the amount each person needs for the following fills. I assume it is different because the size of each person's stomach is different, the amount of fat near the stomach is different, and the rate of fat loss is different. This is what makes the band great: with gastric bypass, a patient often loses weight after surgery, but may gradually increase the amount he/she can eat over time and regain the weight. With the band, we can get a fill to adjust to the changes in pouch/stoma size to keep the weight coming off.

Doctors do seem to have differing ideas on how much the initial fill and the following fills should be, and of course it varies according to which size band you have. My husband has a larger VG band (10 cc capacity) and received 4 cc for his first fill and 2 for his second. I have a smaller 4 cc band, and received 1.7 cc the first fill and only .2 cc the second.

[NYgirl01 0]

I have a 14 cc band and when I had my surgery he filled it to 6 cc's before he closed me up. A month later I was at 7 cc's.

[destiny79 0]

I got my first fill at 4 weeks

[Skinny_Jill 36]

I have the APS band which holds 10cc and many have a fill during surgery of approx 3cc. My doc does not fill at surgery. I received my first fill 5 weeks after surgery (3.3cc's) and my second fill three weeks later of .5 cc's bringing me to 4cc's. They switched to Omnipaque at my 2nd fill. I had good restriction after my 2nd fill but I can now tell that I need more. I can't even imagine how tight I would have been if I had more and I was thinking that would not be enough. As others have stated your stomach size does adjust as you lose fat and everyone has a different size stomach. The reason the band is so wonderful is that it can adjusted to work for all of us. It can be a frustrating process but it is so worth it in the end.