First fill.

My first fill appointment didn't start off well -- the office staff got me mixed up with another (apparently similarly-named) patient and thought that I was an hour and a half early. Then when we figured that out, they discovered that there was no record of my appointment. I'd left my reminder card at home, of course, so I could not prove that I did in fact have an appointment that day at 2 p.m.

I got pretty upset but luckily they could squeeze me in anyway. But it was really disorganized. They did not remember me. One of the people asked, "Were you last here with a little girl?" Um, no. I was taken by the office manager's office and she was asked if she needed to see me (Why? I didn't owe any money), she didn't. I hadn't gotten stuff in the mail from them that they were supposed to send me, so they gave it to me then. I was just annoyed the whole time.

I wish the doctor's offices could weigh you nude first thing in the morning, since that's how I always weigh myself. Bleh. Enough about that, a loss is a loss and still good news before even getting a fill.

The fill itself was strange. I know there are people reading this who aren't familiar with it, so I'll describe in detail.

I laid down on an exam table and pulled up my shirt. My port is a few inches under my bra. The doctor felt around to locate it -- it's pretty easy to find. One of the doctor's students swabbed the area with Betadine. Then the doctor came over with the needle and said, "Ready?" I said yes and in it went. It felt like a bee sting and then it was over. He brought the syringe, attached it and put in some saline.

Then one of his students helped me sit up. Kind of strange to sit up with a syringe sticking out of your body, but there it is. It didn't hurt a bit. The doctor gave me a small cup of water and told me to take a big gulp. When I did, and swallowed, the water came back into my throat. That meant that he put too much saline in and the band was too tight. So he took some out. I took another couple of gulps and he told me to tell him when I could feel it "hit" the band and when it went through. It hit, then after several seconds, went through. He said that was too long. So we went back and forth a few times to get it right. I ended up with 3.6 cc. My band can hold 10 cc. The needle coming out is a weird sensation as you can feel it "pop" out of the port.

He erred on the side of caution because being too tight is a very bad thing. Sometimes people who are too tight can't even swallow their spit! I can get another fill in a month if I decide that I need more restriction -- meaning, I can eat large quantities of food and get hungry between meals, and I'm not losing weight. Healthy food, of course. Chocolate and ice cream go through the band easily most of the time.

So that's pretty much it. I do feel restriction; it's like maybe the week after I was banded. Sometimes water makes a gurgling noise in my throat if I take big sips -- that's when it's going down. That happened right after surgery too.