First fill

Here's another first in my banded adventure - the first fill!

I've been dreading it, being scared of needles, having a low pain treshold etc doesn't help, whatever more experienced banders say (that it doesn't hurt!) I still thought it would be painful. And that I'd bruise. And that I'd be sore all day. And being on liquids again will be a nightmare.

I was wrong. It was absolutely fine!

Let's get into details before I forget :)

* * * Long Post Alert * * *

Woke up early this miserable Saturday morning and had breakfast at 7:45am - this is very early for me. I usually just have a drink in the morning and don't have breakfast before 10ish. But I was told not to eat 4 hours before the fill and nil by mouth for the last hour. So I had a nice breakfast, tried pitta bread for the first time and it was lovely. Not the ordinary high calorie pitta of course, i had Weightwatcher's wholemeal pitta, which is half the thickness of the normal ones but it gets nice and crispy when toasted. Then I had a pint of squash and we left the house, hopped on a train and went to London, Hammersmith clinic. I'll go to the central London Weymouth Street clinic from the second appointment onwards, that one's busier though so they could only squeeze me in this one for the first fill.

The clinic was fairly easy to locate (although it did have Surgicare signs, not The Hospital Group) and after a 5 min wait, I've been called in. We had a chat with the nurse, she was very friendly and easy to talk to. She said my weight loss so far is fantastic and way above average and that I've already lost 22% of my excess weight, yay! Almost 1/4 done - what a relief! Obviously the last 1/4 will be a bitch to lose but hey, will get there when I get there :)

And then she told me a few things about how the band works and that what I should and shouldn't eat. I already had my first dietitian appointment and obviously I'm reading about it non-stop, plus sharing experiences on WLSurgery.com forums but I've never heard that I could have unlimited new potatoes with skin (recommended roasting them in flora baking liquid!), porridge (not oats so simple but normal porridge oats but as runny as you like), basmati rice (just boiled) and beans, pulses etc (not baked beans)... She also said whatever I was doing was obviously working so just carry on with that, which I'm going to do but honestly, unlimited new potatoes? Really?

She said something else which kinda make sense. As I've read before, losing 50% of excess weight is considered a success. Plus, she said by the time you lose 50% of your excess weight, you'll know if you'll lose the other 50% or not. I think what she meant was, by the time you've lost that, if you've changed your bad eating habits, you'll continue to lose weight. If not, you'll stay about the same but hopefully with the band's help you won't gain any more.

I would like to lose 100% of my excess weight and I'm not planning to settle for 50% but I understand that they need to cover themselves and also not give false hope to those who expect the band to do all the work. It doesn't work that way. Hunger is in our heads and the band will not stop the hunger. That's why it is so important to recognise the way the band talks to us and not to ignore the signs and stop eating at the first sign. It's hard work. I have continued to eat several times after the signs because I wanted to eat more and my head was still hungry. This is something I need to work on...

She then made me sign the consent form, filled a card for me with my details which I'll need to bring to each fill and we proceeded to the treatment room and I started shaking a bit. I am scared of needles, is it going to hurt, how long will it take, is my port accessible, did it flip, is what I feel the port or just scar tissue...

I lied on the bed, she prepared something, I didn't see anything because I decided that if I saw the needle I may not go ahead with it, lol... So she said here we go and suddenly I felt something but it wasn't pain. She said let's see if they put any during the op and I said yes he put 1ml in, she said yes indeed he did and now you have 4ml and she said it's all done... WHAT?! I didn't even think the needle was in properly and she already sorted it all out. Much appreciated indeed :)

So I got up, followed the nurse and my husband (who was fascinated with the whole process) to the office room from the treatment room and when I walked in, my husband gave a small shriek (lol) and pointed at my tummy, I looked down and saw my light grey tshirt covered in blood, like I was stabbed or something!!! The nurse hurried me back in the treatment room, cleaned the 'hole' in my skin and put a plaster on. She said it's better to keep it open but sometimes it does bleed... well, thanks :P It's because the needle is thick, nothing to worry about, it didn't even hurt, I felt nothing. It stopped immediately anyway. I washed the front of my tshirt and dried it with paper towels and went out to the reception area for a drink - to go back for a defill if you can't swallow hehe.

I desperately tried to make a latte but they didn't have any. Didn't fancy a black coffee or tea so I had to have a hot chocolate :P Good choice, I was really thirsty and hungry so it went down well. Slowly, of course but I really didn't feel much other than a bit of bubbling as it went down. I asked if that was normal and she said it is.

24h liquids (chunky soup is ok), 24h soft food then back to normal crunchy dry stuff :)

Overall, a pleasant experience. No pain whatsoever. It was so easy I didn't even feel anything!

She said I'll probably need another 2 fills before I have proper restriction. I have another one scheduled for 15th of December so we're good :)

xxx