Today was my first fill. YAY! I took the afternoon off because I had no idea how long this process would take (and it is a great day to do it - since it is beautiful outside). I got to the hospital and went to admitting, did the requisite paperwork (only about 5 pages today), and then was sent to the Pain Center. My reaction was, "is that where I go to be caused pain?!?!?"... At any rate, that is where they have the band-fill clinics on Tuesdays. When I first got to admitting, I noticed a woman who had been in my class before the surgery, and who also saw Dr. Carmody. We got to talking about our experiences, which was really nice. Yolanda (the woman) has had a few more issues than I have - she got a bit sick and had to have the fluid that came in the band removed. But she is so upbeat and positive about the whole thing. She cut her hair off too, right after the surgery! I guess there is something to be said for changing the outside a bit in this process to kickstart the rest of the body.
Once the paperwork was done, I think I walked through the entire hospital to get to the Pain Clinic. I got there before Yolanda did, and was the 2nd person to sign-in. After I sat down, I realized that the guy in front of me had also been in my class (his name is Ken). It was really nice to see a few familiar faces and to be able to share experiences and hear what was working and what wasn't. We're going to try to stay in touch, since there aren't many local groups that I've found online specific to this area yet. There are the classes, but I haven't been able to get to them lately with my work schedule (meetings at night that tend to fall when the classes are).
At any rate, the process was interesting. It seemed like they gave 3 of us a 1:30 slot, then another 3 people a 2:00 slot and so on... The fill itself only took a few minutes. It was done under floroscopy (sp?). Basically, all I had to do was go in to this VERY COLD room, stand in front of an x-ray machine, and pull up my shirt. Easy enough! :-) Then, Jeanine (the nurse practitioner) found my port, and stuck the needle in. Ouch. But, just a pinch. Apparently there WAS fluid in the band already - 4cc's, which is a good amount - explains why I've been feeling SOME restriction, but not enough. First, she put the 4 cc's back in, and I had to take a big swallow of this chalky stuff so they could watch how quickly it went through the band. Her response was "woosh" the first time. So she added another 2 cc's to the band, and the 2nd swallow went thru more slowly. Once she finished, she told me to make an appointment for 4 weeks out. She's pretty sure I'll need another adjustment. Then I went out, and drank a glass of juice and sat around for 15 minutes or so, to make sure I could swallow the liquid, wasn't feeling any pain, etc...
I am definitely feeling more restriction than I had before. I'm drinking a Slimfast as I'm typing this, and feel more full than I've felt in a while, so that is a good thing! I'm on liquid for 24 hours, then mushy food for 2 days... Come Saturday, back to regular food, including measuring and chewing everything really well. Sorry this is probably kind of boring, but I wanted to explain it all! I'll keep you posted. Hopefully this will be a good thing to re-start the weight loss!
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