I had my fourth fill on Tuesday of this week. I now have about 8.75 ml in my 14 ml band. Up until this week I felt zero restriction (the only time I noticed a difference at all was if I ate too quickly and took too big of a bite, then I'd get a PB). So, b/c of the lack of restriction they put in a bit more fill than normal. At the doctors I drank a whole glass of the barium stuff (blah) and a glass of warm Water, it felt fine! Before I left the doctors, I tried to drink a glass of cold water, but it was really slow going down and eventually about half of it came up. I figured I'd already had about 8 oz. of fluids, so I might just be full and we went home.

After I got home, I tried to eat, and made some watery mashed potatoes, I was able to eat about half a cup of it and felt so excited that I actually got full on such a small amount of food! Then when I woke up, I realized things were a lot different, now I can have about two small sips of water, any more than that and it's coming back up. It takes about 5 - 10 minutes for that water to go down. For lunch I was able to keep down two spoonfulls of Soup (no solids). I tried to spend my day sipping on water to avoid dehydration, but even after a whole day of doing this I couldn't even get down 15 ounces of water . This morning, I'm showing some signs of dehydration, dry mouth, etc. It's not severe yet, but I'm getting worried.

My question is this, I would guess that the reason it's different is swelling, which in the past has lasted about 2 - 3 days. So, do I stick it out and see if the swelling goes down, or go for an unfill now?

I would have said wait it out but if you are showing signs of dehydration then you should probably get a slight unfill right away.

I woke up too tight the day after my last fill. I was unable to get anything down including my saliva so I know how miserable that can be. A slight unfill did the trick.

I've also had issues with swelling a few days after a good fill, but haven't had issues with liquids. Try warm liquids, warm soup, tea, coffee. This is my big helper when I've just had a fill. I can usually tough it out 3-4 days until the swelling has abated. If you are really worried about yourself, by all means, have alittle taken out. Even .3cc can make a huge difference. Just think of it this way, you have to be close to your sweet spot!!!! That is a reason to celebrate.

I'm curious as to why there would be swelling? I'm trying to reason it out, but I can't imagine why there would be if the saline is injected into the port, travels through thin tubing to the "intertube" inside of the band?? I've heard this many times, so I'm sure nobody is making it up, but why??

Angie, I think the swelling happens because of the irritation from the band gaining more Fluid. If you think about what would happen if you put on a ring that was too small, initially your finger would be ok, but if you left it on your finger would swell.

I've been trying to tough it out, and it's definitely better than it was those first few days. I can get down hot fluids, so I've been drinking a lot of tea (decaf), but I still haven't been able to keep down solid food (regardless of how little I bite or how long I chew). The good news is that I lost 5 lbs last week, so I think I'm just going to keep going on and hope that as the weight reduces I'll find a more comfortable level.