I had my first fill today, 22 days post-op

[amberd910 0]

the first one is done in the radiology dept and they make you drink barium to see how tight your band is on your stomach already, to make sure it's healed in the right spot, to make sure Fluid goes thru ok, to make sure after they tighten it that fluid still passes thru. So I drank the barium while they took xrays and everything looks perfect! Then the machine layed me down (it was like an amusement park ride) and the dr numbed my belly and he located the port near my belly button and added 4 cc of saline to my band. He told me that he puts 14 cc band in ALL of his patients so there are no questions to wether one patient has one thing or another. He said it offers more flexability doing the 14 cc band rather then 10 cc. He said the max fill he will do is 8-10 cc in the 14 cc band. It was funny because he numbed my belly and he had me do a "sit up" and I look and I had a huge needle sticking out of my stomach. I was laughing becuase it looked like a horror movie. I made the dr laugh with that one. He found the port hole, xrayed it to make sure, filled the band with 4 cc. Then the machine propped me back up and I drank some more barium while they took more xrays to make sure I can pass the fluid ok. The opening for my stomach is about 1 cm right now, according to the radiologist and dr. So hence the reason I have to chew, chew and chew my food 30+ times before swallowing. I was bad and got my son McDonalds for lunch after his dr appt. I "cheated" and got McDonalds for lunch (it's been over 2 months!!) so I got a 4 piece nugget and $1 fry and I am so stuffed off of that it's not even funny and I ate that over 1 hour ago! I am down 16.2 lbs and my dr is so pleased with my progress since it's only been 22 days. He knows I am 100% motivated to this (well, besidees my crappy mcdonalds, which, if you look at the fat & calories content, it's not even that high since the Protein offsets it). Just wanted to share my "fun" experience! All my other fills will be done in the dr office since he had to make sure everything was healed in place (which it was perfectly). My dr makes you come back in a week for a checkup (not sure why)? Maybe to check out how the fill is adjusting? But he;s on vacation next week so I go in 1 1/2 weeks.