Hello -

I just saw my doctor and scheduled my surgery - yay! I have a question though - my doctor told me that there would be no Fluid put in the band until my 1 month post-op appointment. Is this standard? I always thought they filled it during the surgery?

Bands were installed empty historically. In the past few years, it's become more common to install a band with a bit of saline. This doesn't mean that every surgeon does this. Yours may prefer the earlier method to minimize the shock to the patient's body. This is surgery, which means some shock to the body. I'm making a guess here. You can get the exact reasoning by checking at the office.

Thank you. Should I expect any change in how much I will be able to or how much I will want to eat before the fill?

My first fill was 4 weeks after surgery, then another one 4 weeks after that, and the 3rd and last 4 weeks after that.

Took me 3 good fills, one month apart, to reach my Green Zone.
But I would say my Dr was aggressive with me, knowing I was aggressive also....and probably not so with other patients.

@@shedexjoe, you may or may not find your appetite affected before your first adjustment. The band can be unpredictable with each person reporting different results. The best I can say is "Wait and see." I knew one man who had surgery quite a few years ago. His empty band worked from the start and remained consistent; he never had an adjustment. That's just one example of why, when people who have the same size band compare saline levels, they're whistling into the wind. (I think that expression means that they're doing something pointless.) The amount of saline means far less than the result. One level can work well for a long time and one day lose effectiveness or even the opposite. To sum it up, the band was often referred to as "the fickle bitche."

@@B-52, did you have surgery at NYU? Your mentioning the aggressive approach make me think of Fielding, whom I've been told tends to that direction.