First Fill! The train is at last pulling out of the station...

(Between burps) I'm happy to report that the first fill went very well. I thought the session would feel like a slimming club evening, but it was so liberating to realise that it's far from being that because my success will no longer be totally reliant on my own willpower alone. I don't need to lie any more or make excuses - I'm just going to tell it how it is.

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I saw the nurse first, who weighed me, and I felt silly having told her beforehand I felt like a failure because I hadn't been able to do much dieting after the first three weeks, so I was bound to have gone up... and then found I had lost one kilo since the op. It's not much, but it's amazing, because I felt I was putting it on slowly. But there must have been a little restriction, enough to make a slight difference.

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I was seen by the surgeon as it was the first fill - thereafter it probably won't be. And having studied all the blogs so carefully, here's the surprise: my port is nowhere near the side of my ribcage, but bang in the middle by the central scar in my chest. New LapBand design? My shape is even more weird than I thought? He put saline into my lungs by mistake?!

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He inserted 5 ml of saline (I have a 10 ml band apparently) and with the needle held still asked me to sit up and drink a glass of water ("What, all of it?" "Yes, there's gin at the bottom") After half a glass I was gurgling like a water-cooler and in some discomfort, so he removed 1 ml and made me finish the glassfull ("You lied, there's no gin there" - he just grinned). They want to see me again in 3 weeks for an adjustment, or if I should need an unfill I can contact them any time and they'll fit me in. Thank goodness it's all part of the package to have 2 years of fills etc, so I won't need to worry about shelling out more money.

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Most of the people I deal with, nurses included, have lapbands, so there's advice available everywhere. I'm told that if at night I wake up because of saliva accumulating in my throat it's a sign that I need an unfill (and I'm also remembering all the comments Tracey has made).

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Of course the greatest advertisement for the procedure are the bandsters that go back more than 6 months - the squeals of "I can't believe it's you!" from the other patients, and their stories of how they're getting on make you want to hurry up and start your journey. And everybody's happy - it's amazing, like being in a parallel world.

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As instructed I've had only soup for dinner... oh well all right then, I also had two cream crackers with butter on, pinched off John who was having cheese and biscuits. I'm afraid I'm still hungry, but I'll be obedient tonight because it's the first 12 hours... so when you say in your blogs "I feel restriction", I still don't know what you mean...

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Tell you next time. Hey, guess what - I'm on my way!!

-oOo-