So Friday was the 5 week mark, post-surgery. It was also the day of my first "adjustment." I was told by my Lap-Band nurse that during my 5th week post-op, when most of the post-operative swelling is gone, I will start to feel hungry. Boy was she right. It was weird because up until then, I was NEVER hungry. I actually had to remind myself to eat because I never felt like I needed to. But that last week was hard because not only was I feeling actual hunger pains, but I felt like I could eat more than 1/2 cup at each meal, and I started to get hungrier, faster. It was a weird feeling and some of my old feelings about food started to resurface. I started to fix myself "heaping" 1/2 cup-fulls of food, and I found myself taking extra bites of things while I was preparing my meals. I didn't like it. I was calling my sister a lot more for support and I was starting to worry myself. I knew I just needed to make it to Friday when I could get my first "fill."
At my Dr.'s appointment my Lap-Band nurse asked me a lot of questions about my eating habits and feelings. I told her about the cravings and hunger pains and about how I was eating more than I should. She told me that it sounded like I needed a "good fill." She told me that was normal and that these fills are designed to help fix those cravings and hunger pains.
She had me lie on the table and she prepared my belly for the injection. Now to remind you what I am talking about, in case you don't know, I have an access port implanted on the inner wall of my abdomen, that allows access with a needle to inject or withdraw saline from the band. This allows my band to be tightened or loosened depending on the amount of food I am able to consume. Since I was eating more than I should my nurse decided to inject 1.5 ml of saline into my band making it tighter. First she cleans the skin with betadine, then she injects a local anesthetic in the area she will be accessing to numb the area. I could hardly feel the local. Then with a long access needle attached to a syringe filled with the saline, she pokes through the abdomen and into the port. Here she can draw back saline to make sure she is in the right spot and inject the saline into the band. It was painless except for a little pressure when she had to readjust. Apparently my port is slightly tipped due, probably, to one of the stitches coming out. She said that can happen and not to worry. Then she had me sit up and drink some water. They do this to make sure the amount of saline injected was not too much to not allow anything to pass. She said you can feel it immediately if there is a problem. None for me so that was it. The whole process took less than 10 minutes.
For the first 6 months, or so, I will be going in to the office every 2 weeks for adjustments. This is because there is a lot of change happening to my body at first and as I lose weight, they will need to continually assess my eating and weight loss habits. I am grateful to have this available to me. It makes me feel like I am support and options and that I am not doing this all on my own. That I can keep up on everything.
I have also decided to take monthly update photos. Mostly because I want to see my progress. Here are a few to share. The ones on the left are from before the surgery and the ones on the right are from 1 month after.
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