Fill Question

[happytobebanded 1]

Hi, I am a bit confused about the fill thing.... I have a 10 cc band had 4 ccs in it and reached a plateau I could not get the scale to move for a month so I went in and got another, well since then I lost 10 more lbs but do not feel as tight anymore. I can eat more now than just after the fill. I am at 5 ccs going in Friday for another one. My question is do most of you stop getting fills once you end up going back to get more taken out like after experiencing an over fill ? I was a bit nervous of being aggressive with my fills but now that I see results I want to keep going on schedule to get another . I am just wondering if I will hit that to tight feeling ? Since it is all guess work as far as how much to put in seems like you would not know until you got to tight. Then again if I am loosing regularly then that would tell me that its just right. Just a bit confused at to how to get it just right, so I am using the band to the best of its ability but not getting to tight. From what I see most have around 7ccs and up in a 10 cc band. Sorry to just ramble , hope you know what I mean Thank so much

[KelinTx 1]

The nice girls at the fill center i go to explained it this way to me. They compared the band to a belt, as you lose weight the belt gets loser. So if you apply the same to your band as you keep losing weight you lose restriction. Its held very true for me. I have an 11 cc band that is filled to 10 cc at the moment. I always lose great right after a fill then it slows down. When the scale wont move or im overly hungry in a short period of time i always head back in for yet another fill. Im going in for my 11th fill next tuesday.

[MerryHearted 20]

I am just wondering if I will hit that to tight feeling ? Since it is all guess work as far as how much to put in seems like you would not know until you got to tight.

Yep -- most people get too tight at some point.

The closer you get to goal, and the closer you get to a "full" band, the less you'd have put in at each adjustment. In the early days, I was getting .5 ccs put in at a time. At my last fill, which got me to my sweet spot, it was .25. And next time I'll ask for only .1 cc. Tiny adjustments mean less likely of getting too tight, but there's always the chance.

In the meantime, work on your strategies for successfully losing without being super-tight. i.e. don't rely on the band to stop you from eating, but rely on it to keep you satiated between meals. The tighter you are, the more chance of complications.

[azchick 0]

Mollymolly,

Can you really tell them how much to fill your band with? My Dr. told me how much he put in for the first fill but he wouldn't tell me on the 2nd just that he put alot more in than the first time!

[MerryHearted 20]

It totally depends on the philosophy of your doctor or fill nurse. The person who does my fills isn't going to be negligent and just do whatever I say, of course, if it's going to put me at risk. But I'm thankful to have a doctor with the philosophy that patients should be involved in the management of their bands. Someone with a brand new band probably doesn't know how much they need, but once banded for awhile / after a few fills, you can kind of tell whether you need a big fill or a little one.

The center I go to also doesn't prescribe set fill times like I've seen some bandsters describe. (like "You can only come in once every 6 weeks") We are given guidelines as to how to determine whether we need a fill, and then when we need one we call in and make an appt, even if it's only been a week since our last fill.

(this is about fill levels, too, not about which size band gets installed or some other decision that the doc should be making without patient input)