There is a very small port in my abdomen just under my skin which has a very small tube attached to it which leads to the band's bubbles. The doctor will access the port and with a needle filled with saline, he will "fill" the bubbles which will make the band tighter around my stomach. Each time I get a fill, the band gets tighter and tighter around my stomach increasing the restriction of the amount of food I can eat. If I'm not losing weight, I can get a fill and keep getting them and increasing the restriction to help with weight loss. The bubbles can hold a lot of fluid so I have a lot of room to tighten. God, this all sounds kind of backwards.
The part that scares me is that I have to drink a ton of water while he fills the bubbles until I feel like I can't breathe, then he backs out a bit of fluid until I feel relief and that's how he knows he's got the right amount of saline in.
The needle doesn't scare me thanks to my many years as a diabetic giving myself multiple shots daily. The panic feeling of the pressure of the water and the panic of feeling like I can't breathe has me a little nervous.
I think the science behind this whole band thing is pretty cool. I mean, hell if the band, completely empty is helping me lose weight already, think of the losses I'll get when the little bubbles are filled!!
So Monday is the big day! The only drawback is that for 48 hours after the fill, I'm back on clear liquids, a mini suckfest compared to the 2 week suckfest of clear liquids I just completed.
As an aside, I'm happy to report that this morning, I got down into the next set of 10's on the scale. Only by a half a pound but still, I met that little goal and for that, I'm grateful.
I bought some herbal water pills at the medicine shop yesterday and so far, they're really helping. I think we might need a new well dug I've flushed the toilet so much in the last 30 or so hours. But I'm not waking up with fluid in my hands.
I also noticed that my toe rings are spinning around my toes, maybe it's time for me to step into 2008 and lose the toe jewelry all together.
4 comments:
will be thinking of you on monday. you'll be right!
yop're surgeon must do it a little different from mine, i only had to drink water after the fill was over to make sure i could get it down.
Thanks for clearing that up. That is pretty much what I figured but just didn't know the process. That doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun drinking all that water, but you will get through it. It could be worse. :) Hang in there, you are doing awesome!
I hope everything went well today. I've been thinking of you!
Hey, how did it go????
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