First Fill Experience

So yesterday I had my first fill. I was a little upset at first, because my appointment was at 9:30, I arrived before 9:00, and my doctor didn't show up until after 10. However, I felt bad though when he did come, he was in his scrubs yet and had just gotten out of surgery. Oops.

I think their fluoroscopy setup is a little different than others have. I had to stand on a little step with my back against a vertical table, basically, and the machine slid down in front of my stomach. Then I had to drink some barium (which, to be perfectly honest to people who haven't had this done yet, the taste is really NOT as bad as everyone says. It's like a thin, chalky milkshake, not the horrible disgusting thing some people make it out to be). Once he got a good idea of how the plumbing was flowing, they rotated the entire table and scope backwards until I was laying down. Kinda cool.

Now is the icky part. He found my port on the scope TV thing, but he had a hard time finding it in my stomach. 1) My port is ALOT lower than my scar which he originally said it should be right under. Like about 4 inches lower. 2) He did numb it first, but he kept pushing around (which still kinda hurt) trying to find my port and about halfway through asked for a different needle. I didn't watch him do any of this due to my needle phobia, but when I took the bandaid off later, I have about 6 or 7 needle holes and a nice big bruise to round it all out. So he did the fill and they turned the table back upright and had me drink again.

They took a picture and he showed me afterward. He tried pointing out my band, but I couldn't really see it. I could see the clips that are around my stomach holding it in place though, and that was creepy. But what WAS cool is seeing the barium stuff just sitting above my pouch, which means there's restriction of some sort.

He put 1 cc in, but when I asked how big my band was, he said 10 or 12 ccs...makes me nervous that he didn't know which it was. I know it's a Vanguard though. 1 cc doesn't seem like much, but he said that was aggressive for a first fill. We'll see.

Good news though, he told me I don't have to see my dietician anymore to get fills, because I told him she doesn't tell me anything I don't already know. I was considering going to another doctor and now I hope I don't have to, the dietician was killing me at $75 every month for no reason.

So far, I was hungry all day yesterday on liquids until dinner, where Matt made this nice and thick cheese soup, which filled me up something good. I wasn't hungry when I woke up this morning, which is a first. I ate breakfast (mushy) simply because I knew if I didn't, I'd be starving later. I did get hungry around 12 and ate lunch at 1. I ate maybe 1-1.5 cups of mushies, but I couldn't tell if I was hungry or full while I was eating. But then, I wasn't hungry at all when I got home from work, which by then I'm usually starving. I ate some dinner, which ended up being probably less than 1/2 cup of food. I just knew I didn't need to eat more. It was actually a good feeling, but I was sad that I couldn't eat more. This is my biggest dilemma with the band--I just love food. I was offered a calzone tonight and I really wanted it, but I just wasn't hungry and abstained (not to mention I'm still on mushies). It's hard to get used to.

Hopefully it will be worth it in the next few weeks!