To fill or not to fill.....that WAS the question.....

Well, silly me....I went with THE FILL.....evidently, that was not a good answer to my very perplexing question.....

So, that explains why I've been up a good portion of the night and why I'm blogging before 4 am! Thank God for my blog....I needed something to get my mind off of what's happening here. It's not pretty....I will spare you the details. All I know is that as soon as the clock strikes 8 am, I'm calling the doctor's office.

Now, I don't want to scare anyone off who is considering Lapband or is already Lapbanded. Because I think this is just a fluke. You see...you may recall one of my blog entries about Kelly--my wonderful fill technician...yeah...well....Kelly is gone. As in...she is no longer there. Where are you Kelly? Where have you went? Why did you go? Is it something I said?
You picked a fine time to leave me Kelly!

Here's how it went down.....
There I was....still wrestling with whether to get my band adjusted or not....even as I drove to my appointment. (Thankfully, my Lapband friend Sandy had warned me last week that Kelly was gone. So, I knew I couldn't count on her sage advice to help me with my indecision.) As I sat and waited to be called....I continued to grapple with the question that's vexed me for the past few days---fill or no fill? Just as I could feel the heat from stressing over that question rise to the tips of my ears, I was called into the office. At that point...I looked up to the ceiling and thought...."well, it's in someone else's hands now". As I followed the nurse back to the procedure room, I secretly prayed that it wasn't in the hands of Rachael (the lovely but bad fill tech). 50% of my prayers were answered immediately---it was not Rachael. Whew. The other 50% of my prayers seemed to be answered quickly too. The new tech said that it seemed like getting a fill would be a "smart move" with the holidays coming up--explaining that he was not as conservative as Kelly and felt that it was important---especially at this stage of my process--that I have consistently good restriction. He went on to explain how as I lose weight, the fat that surrounds the band decreases--thus increasing the need for the band to be more filled. Made complete sense to me. And, let's face it--if a professional says "do it", I do it. It's just the way I was raised.....

The adjustment itself went fine. The technician easily found the opening to my port, removed the saline, put it back in and then added more. He put in a hefty fill...or so he said. It went from a 2.3cc to a 2.7cc. To be honest--the numbers meant nothing at all. The fact that he told me it was a big one ("it's the biggest you've ever had" he told me!) is the only way I would have known. Once that was done, he checked to see if I could swallow water. When I did that successfully, he bid me farewell and Happy Holidays....reminding me that it's mushy foods for me for the next 3-4 days. Off I went--with visions of losing 10 pounds within the next 6 weeks. Oh my! Looks like I better wait to get a new outfit for Carmen's fancy-smancy holiday party. And, of course, I'll need new black velvet pants by New Years' Eve....

Okay...now, let's see....mushy foods? Hmmm....does very soupy instant mashed potatoes with a little parmesean cheese count as mushy? Apparently, my band does not think so......... It told me so all night long

Houston....I think we have a problem....