The Incredible Shrinking Woman

Hi everyone,

Hope you all had a great weekend. I am trying to relish as much of the good weather before Autumn sets in this week :-(

I had my second fill on Friday. If you have read my post about my first fill you will know it was not an easy process.

I have the mid band as shown above.

So firstly I was dreading meeting the dietitian as she had told me I had to lose 8lb before this visit and I hadn't. But she wasn't there and the surgeon was very pleased with my slow but steady progress. But he tells me he is only going to put in half a ml as he wants me to learn with the band and not let the band do all the work! WTF I have 3ml and NO restriction.

They x-rayed the port which looked fine. He then remembered that I had the last fill laying down so I had to spin around on the x-ray bed. (quite fun really). So he asks me "long needle or short needle?" I thought "in for a penny, in for a pound" so I opted for the long needle. He starts poking around and immediately has problems. Even the nurse said she could hear him hitting metal??? It was uncomfortable but not too bad. Several pokes later he tells me that his registrar fitted my band and must have flitted my port backwards. He was getting quite frustrated but not angry (he is a lovely guy). Then he sighs and says I can't do the fill.




So at this point I stepped in and explained that every morning I wake up with my port resting on the front of my ribs, I have a little feel and then guide it back under my ribcage. I can actually hold the whole thing in my hand and feel the membrane that he needs to poke the needle into. I ask him to let me demonstrate. He says OK and I grab the port and get it into position. I am not missing out on this fill aaarrggghhh.

He smiled and said "the patient is always right, I should listen more often, thank you for your assistance." Then he takes the port from me and gets the needle in first time. I did ask him if it would be better to fill it up as its SO awkward to get to ;-) but he said no. So then they stand me up with the tube handing out and I have to wait for the little xray guy to give me the nod and then drink the chalky liquid while they time how long it takes to go through the band. The cool thing is that I get to watch all this too.

I drank the first lot and he says "you have no restriction at all." No shit Sherlock! so he puts in 1 ml. I drink the second lot and it goes through really quickly so he puts in another 1 ml. The next drink takes 26 seconds to pass through and he seems happy with that. He said he could make it tighter (yes please) but wants the weight loss to be a slow process as it is better that way. Really? Oh well he knows best. I want it all to drop off by Christmas but what do I know? Anyway he tells me he is struggling to keep up with the fills as he has so many patients so in future rather than schedule fills by date he will contact each patient by letter or email and they have to fill in a questionnaire to determine if they need a fill or not. Sounds OK to me. But it means I have no idea when my next fill will be.

I intend to make this fill count. I know I was complacent last time and took liberties with the band, eating the wrong food, snacking, and eating too much so this time I have to make it work. Given the government cutbacks that are imminent I really am grateful that I got the band when I did because I know for a fact I would not have been approved now. I do not have any health issues that meet the new criteria and a BMI of 50 is not enough to get you approved now. So when I feel like cheating I think of all the people that need a band and can't get one. I hope this will keep me on the straight and narrow.

I have been on liquids since Friday, graduating to mushie dinner yesterday evening and a yogurt this morning. I can certainly feel the restriction now. My port site was quite sore for a couple of days but seems better now. My main problem is remembering to sip rather than gulp. I have become used to drinking normally and its such a sudden change it's hard to remember but the band soon reminds me.

So I am looking forward to some good weight loss this month. I started this month at 235 which is the same weight that I started the summer melt down at so NOT good. That means I have lost nothing all summer. In reality I have gained and lost, back to the yo yo really. But I determined to get under 200lb by Christmas. I am hoping weight watchers will help keep me on track.

I can't believe September has come around so quickly. I can imagine how excited all you BOOBS are getting! I am looking forward to hearing about how much fun you had and putting pennies away to be able to make the next gathering.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week,
Much love x