Vacation and Second Fill!

Vacation was wonderful! My sister and I have been taking trips to Disney for a long time and we just had the best group of people this time. My husband was so excited to be there and loves hitting every ride. My sister brought her hilarious friend that I just adored. We all had a really great time.

About 2 days before we left, I knew I needed a fill something fierce but I wasn't scheduled to go in until a week later (which was today) I had perfect restriction for the entire month and then BAM flood gates opened.

At first MS and I shared meals at the parks. Even half of the meals were way more than what we normally ate but we were ok with that. Well of course, sharing meals with someone gets old after a while. You don't always want the same things so towards the end we started ordering on our own.

We ate way too much. I started feeling guilty on one of our last nights when I ordered a lobster roll. I planned on eating the lobster salad with a fork and leaving the bread. But after my first bite of the super soft bread going down with no problem, it was very hard to stop.

The good news is, we ate like crap, but we walked about 50 miles over the entire week, so I came back and lost 1 lb.

It's crazy to me that you have to walk THAT much just to burn what we ate. I will say that even though I ate a lot, I still didn't eat half as much as I have on past trips!

The good news is that we were both scheduled for our 2nd fills today! We both were ready for her to shut it down! If you are a normal reader I"m sure you remember my first drama filled adjustment.

Well today, MS went first and he reported back that he didn't pass out and everything went fine. I took the atavan pill 30 minutes before I went to the doctor's office as directed. When I got there, she told me that MS had done great, and she actually had done quite a bit of research after our last visits to better understand our reaction the last time (When doctors say things like that I instantly fall in love. I have so much respect for a doctor that does continuous research and doesn't just sit on his/her heels acting like he/she is the end all be all.)

Anyways - she explained that there are nerves that go from our brains down and are on each side of our stomach. We both have an issue of sensitivity with that nerve. Some people don't have that issue, some people do. For me, when she fills my band, that nerve gets aggravated and causes me to pass out.

So today, I was standing up, she located the port with the fluoroscope and marked it on my belly. She inserted the needle and that hurt a little more than last time. But still no big deal.

As soon as she started filling the band I had the same feeling as last time, but I remained in control and didn't panic. I told her I was getting light headed but I was still ok, she acknowledged that I was starting to lose color but she kept going. Every few seconds I told her how I was feeling and then she was done.

She had me lie down and she tilted the table back. As soon as I laid down I was fine. I never actually passed out this time so I recovered much quicker.

She explained that next time she'll fill the band in even smaller increments until we can get it so the nerve doesn't react. I'm ok with the fact that this is just something I'll have to deal with on a monthly basis.

She said that she'd see me in a month and I explained what happened last week (flood gates) and she said it is perfectly ok for me to come in a week early if I'd like. Because she does this with the fluoroscope every time she will never over fill me and cause issues.

If you have not  had this surgery yet and are just in the research phase I would highly recommend choosing a doctor that uses a Fluoroscope for every fill. It gives the doctor the ability to see the fill and give you perfect restriction every month. From what I've read, it hurts a lot less because the doctor doesn't have to dig around for the port. Also, everyone has talked about finding the green zone and how hard it is to get there. I believe I was in the green zone for 3 full weeks last month and I'm positive that it was because of the fluoroscope.

Well, I should get back to work. I'm a little tired from that atavan pill, but I have lots to do today. I really missed everyone while I was on vacation and I can't wait to catch up on all of your blogs!