I have a large Vanguard band, 11cm, and can hold up to 13cc. I live now abroad. I have 2cc already, but I still can eat 2 whopper burgers without any problem at a time. I am constanly on regime, and still can not lose weight. I feel like my stema is wide open.

Filling is easy, mostly nurses and assistants do it. Mine was done by the doctor.

He lies you on the table, he carefully senses where the port is, and enters the needle to the port under the skin, till it hits the metal plate, and draws the saline to see how much there, and change the saline rezervoir in the injector with the new saline, and carefully injects the saline in. Everything lasts less than 5 min.

I can easly sense where the port is. Zero mistake, and can locate the middle of the port, no problem. I am used to injection. So what are the risk.

I know my needle is not allegran made, I believe my doctor also used an ordinary needle.

What do you guys think.

You are welcome. There are other great articles.

http://www.ajronline.org/cgi/reprint/170/4/993?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=Gastric+Banding+&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=HWCIT

http://www.ajronline.org/cgi/content/full/184/1/109?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=Gastric+Banding+&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=HWCIT

Okay, as a Band-Newbie, but not a newbie to message boards, I'm having trouble understanding why this thread hasn't been deleted.

I have no idea why a person would post an initial thread like this, to ask for "advice", only to go along with whatever was already planned in their head anyway, then take issue with whomever disagreed with what was going on in their head. What would be the point?

This thread has no purpose. It causes nothing but the potential for confusion with new folk looking into being banded or having just been banded. I applaud those who made the futile attempt to find reason, sympathy, and understanding in a topic with neither.

At best, it was borderline offensive to women... if I cared enough to find it so. But it's hard to be offended by someone who appears to define deluded.

The first post pretty much said it all, and the conclusion I reached was that the poster was not a good candidate for the band, as the poster seems to be disregarding a person's responsibility in being banded. And the more I read, the more concerned I became that the poster was advocating dangerous and unadvisable practices to the uninformed, and I find that extremely inappropriate.

And I don't wish such irresponsibility luck; I wish sense. As in common. I hope you get some.

I'm going to suggest the removal of this thread to the Admins, and then I'm going to see if that "ignore" button actually works.

I just finished reading this thread, and I agree it's served its purpose. I'm going to lock it, but leave it up so anyone searching for information on doing one's own fills will find it.

Bottom line: DON'T do your own fills. Even the most qualified band professionals say they wouldn't do their own band adjustments, and that's excellent advice.