Tuesday, March 09, 2010

My Multiple Fills With No Restriction

Wow, it's been forever since I wrote in my blog. The reason is I've been kind of discouraged. I've had two fills since my surgery on Jan 7th and I STILL have NO restriction!!! I know I'm supposed to be patient and I know that it often takes 2-3-4 fills before restriction occurs, but I wasn't going to be one of those people! I was going to have restriction right away!

Here's my fill history (warning: this is going to be very boring to everyone except me!):

I had my first fill Feb 22nd, stayed on the liquid diet for 3 days as instructed, and then started eating solids. I felt no restriction whatsoever. I followed the rules about no drinking liquids 5 min before and 30 min after, tried to eat the proper foods, etc, but could eat as much as I wanted of whatever I wanted. I started to gain almost immediately.

I called my new fill doctor, who does fills without fluoroscopy, by the way, and she said you have to wait at least a week for another fill. I scheduled my 2nd fill for 8 days after my first one and had it last Tuesday (a week ago). Same story with this fill. No restriction.

My first fill was 3ccs and my 2nd was .5ccs, for a total of 3.5ccs. My bandmates both got 4ccs on their first fills. My new fill doctor says that in her experience, people who had a hiatal hernia repaired at the time of surgery are more sensitive to fills and can't take as many cc's as others, and they usually need more fills to get restriction. I had a hiatal hernia repaired at the time of surgery by the way.

SO, although I'm discouraged that I do not yet have restriction, I'm planning on getting yet another fill next Tuesday (2 weeks after my last fill) and hoping to get up to 4ccs.

I'm trying to be patient--I'm in this for the long haul.

Oh, one more thing. there are people on the forum I visit that say that one week between fills is too soon, and I think my daughter Janelle agrees with them. All I can say is, my new doc has an excellent reputation--she's really good and I trust her judgment.

Bottom line, I'm very glad I did this, meaning the surgery. I was really hoping to have lost more than 20 pounds by now (which is what I lost on my pre and post-op diet), but if I can maintain the 20 lb loss until I get restriction, then I'll be happy.

I'd be really interested in hearing about others who have experienced multiple fills with no restriction, or actually any stories about any of your fills, successful or not!