Refill Shmifill

I finally got round to having a top-up last Wednesday, nearly three months after my much-needed unfill in time for the B00BS meet-up in Chicago (which seems an age away now.) That unfill was a whopping 2mls, taking me down to 7mls in a 10ml band. I was so tight just prior to that unfil that I was suffering from heartburn almost constantly and was surviving on coffee and crackers (or at least it felt that way at the time!)

Obviously I was nervous of ending up back in that position by having too many mls put back in at this top-up, but I was also nervous of having too little put back in since I've been eating like a horse ever since the unfill and have managed to gain A LOT of weight. Should I play safe and ask for 0.5ml or go for broke and have 1ml? Well, the surgeon asked me that self same question and in the end we settled on 0.5ml to be on the safe side. I'll point out here that I actaully asked for 0.75mls but my surgeon only works in halves and wholes - a bit frustrating when I see so many other bandsters having tiny tweeks of as little as 0.1mls added/taken away. Anyway, there's not much I can do about it since I'm not really up to arguing with him. And he did say that if this 0.5mls turned out to be not enough, that he would waive his fee for my next appointment.

Anyway, it looks like my dear surgeon will be wielding his trusty syringe free and gratis next time as this top-up hasn't made much difference. I can definitely feel a little more restriction on certain things like bread, and I am getting fuller more quickly, however that feeling of fullness isn't lasting very long and I'm finding myself snacking between meals just as much as before. According to my surgeon, the buzzword in the banding world these days is: SATIETY, whereas previously it was RESTRICTION. This means that we should be concentrating not on how much/little we eat, but on how long we maintain the feeling of fullness after eating. Has anyone else been told this by their surgeon (or whoever it is who waves the syringe in your direction?) I know that the feeling of fullness can depend a lot on what you've eaten (bread, protein, etc versus crisps, chocolate, etc) but I'm just wondering what other bandsters think of this.

And, because I have to remain accountable, here are the (awful) numbers

13st 12lbs - 194lbs - BMI 32.3

(a total loss so far of 68lbs - 26lbs to go)

That's a gain of 6lbs in less than a week. How is that possible?! I know it's the run up to Christmas and there are an awful lot of chocolates, biscuits and alcohol knocking around, but REALLY?! 6lbs in 6 days?!

Although, I would like to point out that my surgeon is still incredibly pleased with how much weight I've lost and was eager to point out that some of us are just genetically designed to be larger. He even went as far as to say that the last time he'd seen me (just before Chicago and weighing in at 12st 6lbs/174lbs) he thought I was looking a little drawn - does this mean I have permission to eat another biscuit?