One of the 'perks' of participating in the Labor Day Bash weekend is the generosity of our attending surgeons to offer free fills to banded guests. Your only cost will be a $50 lab fee if you want a fluoroscopy procedure which is performed before and after the fill.

If you're new to the banding journey, a 'fill' is a fluid adjustment to the band's inner tube. Saline solution is injected through the band's port to inflate or deflate the band. The procedure takes only a few minutes, is fairly painless except for the mild sting of a typical injection, and leaves you with no discomfort afterwards. Fluoroscopy involves drinking a swallow of pleasant tasting barium which illuminates the esophagus and stomach so the doctor can view the restriction of liquids flowing through the band and determine the effective fill level for you. Fill recipients are advised to restrict meal intake to liquids and gradually add soft foods for the rest of the day to ensure the restriction level is comfortable to the stomach.

Fills are being offered on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. Guests wanting a Friday fill are expected to schedule the appointment on their own, directly with the fill doctor.

Saturday morning fills will be scheduled via your registration form.

Unless otherwise indicated, you are expected to arrange your own transportation to the lab. Registrants will be sent an email a few days before the bash with their tentative fill time. A final schedule (with any last minute changes) will be posted on the Message Board in the Hospitality Suite at the Meet and Greet kickoff on Friday afternoon. You can arrange to share a ride with others who have appointments at or around the same time. The address and directions to the labs and doctors will be in the Bash Welcome Packet you receive at registration check-in.

Fill appointments will overlap with other morning activities.

If you register early enough, our fill coordinators will make every effort to accommodate your wishes—but there still may be schedule conflicts. If your appointment conflicts with a fitness activity in which you feel you absolutely must participate, you will have to find someone with a more convenient appointment who's willing to switch with you.

Below are a list of contact people for participating fill doctors. Please do NOT call a doctor's office directly to schedule a SATURDAY bash-related fill. The online registration form asks you if you want a fill and/or fluoro. You are also asked to specify a fill doctor and a preferred fill time. This data will be sorted by fill doctor and handed over to their specified coordinators. That makes it easy for the doctors and their staff who are graciously offering their services for free. They only have to keep a block of time open between 8:30 and 12:30 Saturday morning, while we do the work of scheduling the people and times.

Contact these people ONLY if you have questions about the fill, itself, not the appointment. Generally they will not have information about the appointment schedule. If you need to make changes to the fill information you posted on your registration form, please email Bash Data Coordinator Susan LaBarre at idodesign@earthlink.net.

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