The first fill

Ok so yesterday was the big “first fill”. I was so nervous going in I thought for sure my blood pressure would be through the roof. Once I got to the Dr Office I followed normal procedure and stood on the scale and then inside to get my blood pressure taken. Luckily everything was fine with my blood pressure and it was completely normal. The nurse started explaining to me what was going to happen and asked if I had any questions. I told her I was very nervous and she told me not to worry that it didn’t hurt at all. I told her that I wasn’t afraid of the pain but having it too tight and throwing up. She began to explain to me that Dr Cahn normally starts out slow and then progresses into more tightness later on so not to worry now but it could happen in the future. Ummm thanks? She then proceeded to tell me that everyone “BP’s” (I have no idea what this stands for but it is what everyone refers to when they throw back up their food) that has a lap band and that I would get used to it after a while. I am thinking to myself this sounds crazy who wants to get used to that and then say it is completely normal??? Not me! I have a goal to not be a part of the norm; we will see how that goes. I asked the nurse if I would know something was stuck and I was going to “BP” and she said normally you have some warning; pain in your chest the feeling that you have to keep swallowing and nothing goes down. But then she said sometimes there is no warning; you could bend over to get something and ooops your food is back in your mouth...... GROSS!!! This is not ok with me. I was done for my education in this particular topic for the day so I just stopped asking questions and she told me the Dr would be in shortly.

So in comes the Dr and he asks me what I have been eating this last week. I was so proud that I had been keeping track of everything so I jumped up and handed him my notebook of food entries. He in turn flipped through the pages so fast I don’t know how he read anything and says “looks great keep going” Seriously that was it? All my time I put into writing down everything and all he does is scan it..... I just don’t get it. He asks me to lay down and puts a pillow under my back so my head and feet are down farther than my belly. He asks me to pretend I am doing crunches so he can find my port. Once he found it I could barely feel the needle stick in; it was a lot like getting blood drawn just a little prick and then nothing. He explained to me that he would have to push the saline in and then draw it back a few times to get rid of all the air bubbles. It was a little uncomfortable because he was pressing down pretty hard on my stomach where the port is. All of a sudden I feel this gurgling sensation in my throat..... Weirdest thing I have ever felt. I told him I could feel the saline going in and out and he said yeah that sometimes happens. Imagine the sound you hear when there are air bubbles in a hose or straw; that is what I was actually feeling in my body... creepy! Within minutes he was done. Immediately after he makes you drink a cup of water in one gulp to make sure it isn’t too tight. So he hands me the cup and I just stare it for a moment and ask him if I really had to drink it all in one gulp.... he said yup it is just like taking a shot..... I closed my eyes and chugged it down praying that nothing would come back up. Immediately he asked how I felt I said I think fine but maybe I needed to wait a minute. He assured me that if it was coming back it would already be here. So I guess things are good. Next appointment is in 30 days. I am sure I will need to post something before then so until next time...

Hello Solids

Finally some real food! Well as you may have guessed I have made it through to eating real food just in time for my first fill this Thursday…yikes. Things are going much smoother now. It is nice to be able to actually chew my food instead of just swallowing it. I am still having some trouble gauging my portion sizes. My mind definitely thinks that I can eat more than my stomach does. Even when I am starving I will grab a normal (well my normal) portion of food and end up only eating a few bites then I am done. I think it is really going to take some time for my mind to catch up with my stomach. I have experimented with bread and luckily, or unluckily depending on how you look at it, I have not had any issues. I almost hoped that I would be one of those people that couldn’t eat bread without throwing it back up because that would keep me away from it. But no, for right now I have no issues not even a little pain or discomfort; that all may very well change when I get my first fill so we will see. I have started exercising again and that has been nice. For as much as I wanted to go back to the gym I am having a hard time staying motivated every day to go. I am thinking that it is just like when I first started working out… hard for the first few weeks then gets easier.

My weight is bouncing back between a pound every day it seems like. This was to be expected and I haven’t let it bother me too much. I am really trying not to focus so much on the scale as I do other things like how my clothes fit. Speaking of my clothes I am now officially able to take off my “jeans right out of the dryer” without unbuttoning them!!! They are getting pretty baggy and after one wear I have to wash and dry again because otherwise I look a little silly with baggy bottoms. I am not complaining one bit but I am also not ready to go out and buy new clothes yet. I don’t want to spend a lot of money just to wear something for a while and then have to buy new again(I am thinking positive here) So until these jeans literally fall off my body with no help I am just going to have to deal with baggy pants. I have received a lot of compliments from people that I work with about how they can see a difference already so that is encouraging as well.

I am getting a little scared for my first fill on Friday. It is such a guessing game as to how much to fill it and the worst that can happen is they fill too much and I end up throwing up. I do not take this lightly because as you may have been able to tell I HATE throwing up. To help my doctor understand how much he needs to put in I have had to write down everything I have been eating, my exercise amount and my weight everyday for a week before my fill. I am not taking any chances so I am writing EVERYTHING down. I have just a few more days of solids before I have to go back to liquids for a short time so I am enjoying it while I can. Lots of chicken and vegetables in my diet but it is not so bad when you haven’t had it for a long time. I will update more after my appointment on Thursday to let you all know how it goes.