Last Fill and band maintenance

[Kimmy in MD]

So yesterday i had my third fill, just a tweak of .25cc. My fill doc said it should be my last fill as I am only 17 lbs from goal and this should finish up the weight loss portion of my journey.

WHAT A GREAT FEELING!! She then told me that she would see me in 12 months. That the band needs to be maintained with like .10 solution annually or something. don't remember exactly. She said if for some reason I start gaining weight (this better not happen!!) I should call her otherwise I am done.

Not quite there yet as I still have these last few pounds to lose, but thought it was a good time to start researching this. So what is maintenace like? Do you really have to do this annual maintenace she told me about? Do you do more than this?

It is a little scary thinking that soon I will no longer be dieting. Heck I have dieted for 30 plus years! I don't know any different!!!

[nothereanymore]

Kim,

I am so proud of you; you’ve done such a great job! Once I hit maintenance my fill provider removed between a quarter and a third of my fill and told me to come back in for a check up in a year as well. She didn’t mention the .10 solution annually part or I might have missed it. And it’s almost time for me to go in so thanks for the reminder!

Maintenance is interesting, some of us have had that weird tightening that you hear about and had to go in to remove much of the fill. (I haven't had any more of my fill removed yet, but I get really tight when I travel and can barely eat). I can go up and down about 10 pounds – I still think my body is trying to settle and doesn’t know where it wants to be at. After being overweight for so long it’s not sure how to handle being thin……. But the 10 pounds doesn’t seem to make a difference on my clothes size – they go from loose to tight.

I no longer diet but I am really focused on healthy eating (still eating my smaller amounts), I’ve been taking classes and I’m just about to start a really cool program called Onvo, it teaches you to eat healthy and to live a healthy life. That’s been my main focus for the last year. Really on mind body and spirit, since we aren’t focused on the silly diets we end up with extra time on our hands….. And I’m glad; it’s been a pretty great year. (I’ve also studied different religions to have a better understanding of the world, just took Buddhism 101 last week – it was pretty cool).

Its really trial and error, one thing I’m always aware of is not trying to stretch my pouch, I know many who have had a variety of WLS and gained the weight back since they went back to their old habits, I’m not going there!!

Good luck and congrats again!

Lisa