1st Adjustment

Today I had my first adjustment. I have lost 37 lbs so far. I am down to 324 lbs now (my original weight was 361). I haven't really been doing anything except taking daily walks for about a 1/2 hour and only eating 3 meals and not eating past being full.

The adjustment is done at the clinic, Northwest Weight Loss Surgery. I didn't meet with the doctor, the adjustment was done by a nurse, Bethany.

First she has to find the port. To do this she has you lift your legs so the stomach muscles will flex and force the port upward toward the skin. My band holds up to 14cc's and initially had 4cc's inserted into it by the surgeon.

Bethany took a small needle and poked it through my skin into the port. She extracted the existed 4cc's (to make sure how much was in there) and inserted an another 3cc's of liquid for a total of 7cc's. My band is now half way full.

She had me drink some water to make sure it went down fine. She also gave me some advice:

• Don't drink carbonated soft drinks. She's had problems with this before and
evidently the air can cause the stomach pouch to expand.
• Each small bites and chew your food well. Big chunks of food can get stuck
in the band and wreak all kinds of havoc.
• After an adjustment there might be some irritation so try eating soft foods
for a day or two.

There was no real pain except for the minor needle prick.

I'm supposed to see how I do at this level for a week and go back in a week if I need more of an adjustment. If I feel hungry, don't have a good weight loss, and can eat too much then I'll need another adjustment.

Once I got back to work after my appointment I had my lunch. I didn't really notice anything different other than feeling full after eating two/thirds of my lunch. Since I've read that some people throw up -- and I don't want to do that -- I stopped eating at that point. So far so good. :)