1st Fill

I had my first fill on Monday 29th March.  My appointment was at 10:30 (or so I thought) I had to arrive 15 minutes early and not have anything to eat or drink for 3 hours before.

When I arrived at around 10:10 the carpark was pretty full, but I eventually found a space around the back of the hospital.  After arriving I was told to make my way around to the Healthier Weight reception which I thought I knew (Outpatients area)...but when I got there it was full of all sorts of people who were highly unlikely to be WLS patients!  As I was having an X-ray fill and the X-ray department was across the hall (and it looked as though I was more likely to be able to speak to one of the receptionists there who were less busy) I wandered in and started asking about Healthier Weight...at this moment a young lady in a colourful lead smock stepped forward and asked if I was Sparkler then I noticed Dr Ashton also had come forward looking for me.  I looked at my watch, only 10:15, then I pulled me appointment letter out of my bag and checked the time on it...10:00am!!! aaarrrrggghh!! I had so wanted to be on time! I was late for my first check up as my husbands Sat Nav was playing up and I didn't find out till I came to set off.  It was no-ones fault but my own.  It was even in my phone calander for 10:00am...I just don't know how I managed it. It would have actually been quite difficult to get the time wrong, but there you are.

Dr Ashton though, as a true professional was able to have me in and out of that X-ray room in 15 minutes flat ready for his real 10:30.

I was asked to lay down on the Xray table and Dr Ashton lifted my shirt and commented on how well the scaring was healing.  He then went to prep the needle and started to ask me whether there was any type of food I couldn't eat and whilst I was answering swiftly and firmly inserted the needle into my port...obviously a tried and trusted distraction technique the question.  He had to feed it in quite deep and I actually felt the slight clunk as the needle hit the bottom of the port and I think he then withdrew it very slightly.  He left the needle poking out whilst he prepped the saline and squeezed in the required amount without ceremony.  He then asked the assistant to raise the bed to almost vertical and she got the xray machine in place (at which point my top fell over my tummy with the needle sticking in it (couldn't feel anything).

Dr Ashton gave me a cup of barium to sip and hold in my mouth, it was a bit over-full so I managed to slop it out the side as I sipped it (very elegant) It tasted slightly peperminty, was thick and otherwise tasted of nothing much. When asked, I swallowed the liquid and watched its progress on the xray screen with interest. I could see it enter the pouch area and I could see it took two peristaltic motions to pass into the stomach. (I think it was two, possibly a small amount left for the third squeeze of the tummy not quite sure now).

On the Xray panel I could see my two curved underwires of my bra and I could even see the hook and eyes which keep it together on the back.  Dr Ashton pointed out the band which didn't show that well being plastic but I could see the narrowing of the stomach, the narrow area looked very small so I'm hopeful to see an improvement when i get back onto real food.

Once the table was lowered back into the horizontal position and the xray machine moved I sat up and adjusted my top only to realise just as Dr Ashton pointed it out...that I had a needle still sticking out of my stomach!!  I was trying to go home with it still in!

Before I left Dr Ashton weighed me and this time (if you remember my two week check up comments) their scale tallied with my scale thank goodness and with 2lbs worth of clothes on i weighed 14st 3.5lbs from a start of 15st 5lb.  I haven't actually lost any weight now for around 3 or 4 weeks as I really lost my motivation and had a couple of weeks of serious hormone motivated eating...I did manage to maintain my existing weightloss though which is absolutely unheard of during one of my hormone related head hunger attacks frequently lasting up to 3 weeks. So I have to take comfort in that at least.

After I was sent on my way I realised I hadn't been asked for my fill card and had no idea how much fluid I had on board -  although I guess this is really slightly irrelevant except to update my signature line on the ukgastricband forum.  The only important part is how I feel in terms of restriction and as everyone is very different my experience at a certain fill level really bears no resemblance to how someone else may feel at that level.

Yeah, first fill behind me and now on my way to restart my stalled weight loss with three days of fluids and three days of mush.

Sparkler xx