First Fill

I had my first fill today. First pic is Dr. H. explaining the fill. Middle pic is finding the port. (Easy-peasy). When I first saw the needle he said not to panic, the whole needle is not inserted. Then two pics of actual fill. (Thank you to 17 year old who came with me and took pics. Next time she said she would do a video. :)

Whole procedure took less than 1 min and a half, tops. If I had to rate it on a pain scale of 1 - 10, I would say barely a 1.

When I saw the pix, I was kind of surprised. Who would know you look fatter in a horizontal position with your shirt up? I have this uni-chin going on and my belly just looks bloated and white. Sort of like a beached whale. That explains why I had lapband. Too bad we can't pick and choose where we want the weight to leave (5 lbs. for chin, 30 lbs. for stomach, 10 lbs. thighs...). Also, I was dressed in my exercise attire; less than attractive.

According to the dr's scales I had lost 24 lbs since the fall when I first looked into lapband surgery. He was pleased with the weight loss in 6 weeks. Dr. H. says that he likes to be aggressive with fills and he leaves that up to me. We started out with 5.0 ccs in my Realize band. After that we will do .5 - 1.0 cc increments. He said if I wanted another fill in a few weeks, just to call the office. My fills are covered 100% the first 90 days, and then after that they are just an office visit copay ($35 for specialists). I have a couple of trips planned this month, so I will probably hold off on another fill until I get back. Later this week I will post some "Band Commandments" one of the nurses put together for lapband patients.

I also met with the nurse (blood pressure, questions, etc....) Then followed it up with the dietitian. All in all, the visit took a little over an hour and was very easy. I'm going to go back for a follow up mid-August and maybe get a smidge of a fill then.

Also, got the release to exercise and made an appt. to sign up with the health facility (free 2 month membership) and 8 free visits with a personal trainer. Plus, I get to have a support person join me free as well. My 17 year old is very happy. :)

Happy Hump Day!