First Fill - Full of Surprises

Today was the day! I finally got me some fill. (Thank you Jeebus).

The whole experience was full of lots of (mostly pleasant) little surprises...

{1} My nurse read through my surgery report and found where it said my hiatal hernia was larger than 4 centimeters in diameter. Apparently in hiatal hernia world, that's "a biggie", as my nurse put it. I am so glad it's gone! I haven't had one acid reflux-y episode or taken a single Tums since surgery day, and that's totally saying something for the girl who would go through the big container of Tums in 2 weeks.

{2} I don't have to pay for un-fills within a week. This is so awesome, since I'm self pay. Each adjustment is $75 out-of-pocket for me, so the thought of spending the money for a fill and coming back the next day for an unfill and having to shell out ANOTHER 75 big ones? That sucks big ol' sweaty donkey balls. (Pardon the mental image.) So I asked her (Kim is her name, and she's full of awesomesauce) and she said that there's a seven day grace period on fills. If I feel too tight after an adjustment and need to come back to get some taken out, as long as I do it within seven days, it's free! Woot!

{3} I don't have to do full liquids after fills! Kim told me to do soft and mushies today and to be careful tomorrow, but that's it! I stuck to a protein shake on my way into work, just to be sure, but it's awesome to know that I can chew foods today. LOL

{4} Kim let me pick the amount of fill I wanted. She told me that for my first fill in a 14 cc band, she would give me up to 5 cc's. We talked over the pros and cons of going "all out", and I ended up deciding on 4.5 cc's for this one.

{5} 4.5 cc's looks like A LOT of fluid! I saw it in the syringe after she loaded it up and I was totally surprised at how much fluid that is! It seems impossible that there would even be room for 14 cc's around the stomach. But Kim had 12 cc's in her 14 cc band at one time, so I guess people really do get that high.

{6} The needle stick was nothing. Like, the least painful needle-to-the-stomach I've ever had, and I've had a lot of needles to the stomach. Even when I could feel her moving the needle around, it didn't hurt at all. SCORE!

{7} It is much harder than I thought it would be to lift and hold both legs a couple inches in the air. (Outta shape, much?!) I'm not sure if that's what other offices have you do to find the port, but that's what Kim does. I laid down on the table thingy and she asked me to lift and hold both feet up a couple inches. Then she found the port and did the fill, all while my legs were lifted. Man, that was the hardest part of the whole ordeal!

{8} The surgeon DID put some fill in during surgery. I was told that he hadn't, and that I had nothing in there. But when Kim checked, there was 0.9 cc's chilling out in my band. So my 4.5 cc's takes me up to 5.4 cc's total.

{9} The biggest surprise of all - feeling the saline go into the band. I don't know why this was just such a shock to me. Maybe because I've been feeling for a month like I paid $10,000 for nothing but a bunch of scars and a sore port site? As soon as she pushed the saline in, I could feel it restricting in my chest. It was like the first affirmation that, yes, there really IS something in there, and it really DOES something. Kim kept telling me beforehand that you can't really explain it, but it's just a "weird" feeling, and she was so right.

I think that was the most psychologically helpful part of the whole thing - proving to myself that there IS something in there and that it WILL do something. I am so excited about that.

Kim also said that my incisions look great and that my port felt perfect - no twisting or anything.

Super excited to be on the road to the green zone! Of course, I got to work today and my boss a Cookie Elf dropped off a little surprise...a box of Cheryl's cookies and chocolate covered pretzel clusters. I think I'm just going to take these to our first Christmas party tomorrow and pretend like they don't exist. Meh.

DEVIL.

Oh, and I can't leave you today without showing you this ridiculously cute picture from our photo shoot this weekend. If you're in the Cincinnati area - go see Tricia McClure and get your own amazing pictures!

Lady Killer, party of one. 

Have a great weekend, all!