4th Fill @ 3.2 cc's and QUESTIONS!

shellyj · November 10, 2003

i have been banded since 8-18, i have had virtually no restriction since first week of banding, i have had 4 fills. i am at 3.2 cc. i have lost 13 pounds since banding.

i am closer with this 4th fill and think it will only take a little more. i can feel solids stop in my pouch but they only take about 30 minutes to an hour till they slide on down.

i have read alot of bandsters saying the tighten up after a few

weeks? my dr said the oposite that i might loosen up after 2 weeks? i have fill # 5 scheduled for 11-20 (exactly 2 weeks from 4th) and i only want like .1 cc to take me to 3.3 cc maybe 3.4 (will discuss and see how things go)

ALSO how long should i stay full on say a peice of chicken? how will i know what perfect restriction is? i know im getting closer. it is a NEW feeling to have the food actually get held up in the pouch- before it just went right through.

i have not pb'd since with new fill!

shellyj · November 10, 2003

this is what i have eaten so far... the amounts are pretty small so i wont list those...

egg quesidilla

grilled chicken breast

cole slaw

1/3 slice of pizza

more chicken

green Beans

sausage

more chicken

cheese

as you can see- pretty much anything with LOTS of chewing!

donali · November 10, 2003

Hi Shelly -

As far as what you are eating, the AMOUNTs are the important part when you're looking at fills! lol Not WHAT you can eat, but how much?

In the list you gave, if the amount all totals up to be about 1200 calories, and you are not hungry between your meals, you don't need another fill.

The goal is not to be so tight that you have problems with food - the goal is to be tight enough that you are not hungry when eating the lower amount of calories required to lose weight.

How long something actually stays in your pouch is not as important as how soon do you get hungry again? How do you FEEL?

ChubbleBubble · November 10, 2003

I'm curious about something... on all the different groups (including this one) I have signed up to everyone gets different amounts of fill and alot of them, if not most are very small fills. What I'm curious about is what sizes are these bands? I have an 11cc band and according to my Dr.'s nurse, I will need more to fill it than say a 9cc mid band or whatever. What size do you have Michelle? The 11cc band only holds 9cc's of Fluid. The first fill(according to my Dr.) I should get is around 4cc's. Then from then on see how it goes. My fill dr. on the other hand, gave me a fill of maybe 1cc the first time and then the 2nd fill on Friday was 4cc'. (Which is what I have currently). What she (my Dr.) will do is draw back all of the saline and then inject more. And from what I hear (from My band Dr.'s group) is that she should leave what she originally put in (after checking the amount (the first time) and then put more in. I still do not have any restriction. But I have to ask, if you spend all of this money on getting a lap band then why should you have to really diet too. Because if I could diet in the first place I wouldn't need a band. I don't eat the junk food I use too. And I try (ever so hard) not to drink while eating-- I didn't realize how hard that would be. I know that the band is supposed to be a tool, but after speaking with a couple of people this weekend who were banded a year ago and were right at their goal weight (or about to be) did not diet, they ate what they wanted and still were able to lose 90lb and 105lbs. That's what I'm talking about!

Alexandra · November 10, 2003

Shelly, it sounds like you're doing great! I've discovered that my fill on October 16 has only recently started to assert itself consistently. Maybe two weeks between fills might be too short a time? You don't want to get to a point where you can't keep anything down, and the variability with a fill can be surprising. My suggestion would be to wait another week or so beyond the 22nd to see if you indeed need another adjustment.

Karen, I think too much is made of the quantity in people's bands. Every person is different and two people with the exact same band may need very different levels of fill to produce the same restriction. My doctor wouldn't even discuss fill amounts with me because, he said, they're utterly meaningless.

What my doctor did was watch the fluoroscope to see how my restriction was being affected by the liquid he injected and removed. When he got to the right place, he stopped. I don't know or care how much actual Fluid is in my band. (BTW, the only size band approved for use in the United States is the 10cm band. That refers to the length of the band not the fill capacity--I don't know what that capacity is.) It doesn't make sense to compare fill amounts with other people.

The goal is not to be so tight that you have problems with food - the goal is to be tight enough that you are not hungry when eating the lower amount of calories required to lose weight.

Amen to that!!

donali · November 10, 2003

It doesn't make sense to compare fill amounts with other people.

Absolutely true. Some people are tight enough on an empty band, some people need many cc's to feel right. It's about how you FEEL.

Karen: If you mean "dieting" by going hungry, then it is absolutely true - the band is supposed to help you reduce the quantity of food it takes to alleviate hunger between meals, so that you can lose weight without "dieting" (i.e., without going hungry). If you mean "dieting" by QUALITY of food, that is something different. MOST people can get to their goal by choosing MOSTLY nutritious foods and exercising regularly without denying themselves any particular food. If your normal diet is mostly less-nutritious food (high fat, high sugar), then you will either have to make better choices, or be so restricted that the quantity you eat is very, very small. Most people are better able to moderate their food choices with the band - not an "all or nothing" attitude.

There are so many different ways to give fills I don't believe it is possible at this point to say "this is how it SHOULD be done." My doc does NOT measure what comes out of the band - he just lets it run out. We keep track of what my last fill level was, so he knows to inject more than what I had before. Plus, I always have mine done under active fluoroscope, which means that the fill level is adjusted while the barium is flowing through the stoma - they tighten me up, watch to see if any barium goes through, and then slowly back out fill until they can see that the barium is passing. Having only ever had my fills done this way, I cannot imagine any other way being half as effective, and yet MOST people have their fills done blindly and fill levels are guessed at. That approach must work, since most people are successful, but I've also read a lot of posts from people who have been too tight or too loose that I think could have been avoided using my doctor's method. But that's just my opinion.

shellyj · November 10, 2003

donali

when i eat, i wait an hour till i drink, by then the food that i had eaten has already 'passed' through and i am hungry. i think a little more fill would keep the food from passing so quick keeping me full longer

and chubblebubble

i said above i have only lost 13 pounds since banding. this is without dieting at all. if i had been dieting this whole time i am sure i would have lost more.

i have the 4cc band, my dr does the same way to make sure all the fill is/was still there. i had 1st fill of 1.6cc - 2nd fill 2.2 cc 3rd fill 2.6 cc and 4th fill 3.2 cc

Alexandra

i am wondering if i should wait a little instead of getting filled on the 20th. i wish my dr had done all my fills under fluro! i agree on the goal being to not be hungry. the issue is i get hungrier at night and am able eat more i wonder if a little more will help! i will wait till atleast next week before i decide to cancel or keep my appt.

i hope when i go back to the dr and get weighed i can report a good loss.

Alexandra · November 10, 2003

Originally posted by shellyj
i am wondering if i should wait a little instead of getting filled on the 20th. i wish my dr had done all my fills under fluro! i agree on the goal being to not be hungry. the issue is i get hungrier at night and am able eat more i wonder if a little more will help!

Lots of people, including me, find it a little easier to eat in the evenings. At this point I'm sometimes able to eat about half a plate-full, which is probably more than I "should" be eating. But that amount satisfies me through the evening, so it's fine with me.

Maybe your doctor intends for the adjustments to be microscopic and the proper fill level reached in tiny, but frequent, increments? If that's the case then everything seems to be going exactly as it's supposed to. You may not have to wait as long between fills for that reason. My doctor does it differently, attempting to reach a good level of restriction right out of the gate. Perhaps with a greater "jump" it takes a little time for it to "settle"?

Good luck with your weigh-in!!