Going to get my band tubing reconnected

Hello there!! 

Wondering if anyone around this website has had this done? I had some skin removed a little over 3 years ago. Since then I slowly have been gaining. Probably gained about 60-70 pounds. I fought it tooth and nail at first. Taking phentermine and starving myself all day just eating dinner. I came to terms that I probably stretched my pouch because over time portions got bigger. Then I started wondering if my band could be the problem. I had tried getting 2 fills prior but both times were too much & ended up having some removed. My appetite & ability to eat large portions was not affected. I figured I failed the band. My surgeon moved a good distance away. I decided though to make an appointment with another surgeon. We tried fills. He looked at the flours and said my band looked ok. After 5 fills with no satiety, we were both wondering if there was a leak. He injected dye into my port and we watched under the X-ray machine. Some of the dye slowly escaped the tubing. It was coming out at the connector where the tubing from the port and band meet. He thinks that with all of the pulling and tugging the plastic surgeon did when she removed some of my skin it probably came a little loose. It makes sense now that I think about it because that was when I began to struggle with weight gain again. On 4/16 I'm scheduled to have it the connecting tubing repaired/replaced. I am hoping that this truly was the reason for my regaining some of what I worked so hard to lose. If so, maybe there is hope that things will turn back around. I will report back to let you know how it all goes. 

I had a tubing leak repaired around five years ago and have had no problem since. 

Thanks for sharing Kate. This is so encouraging!!! Hoping to get back to the way it was before the leak. We don't know fo sure how long it's been this way but it seems like it is probably the reason for the weight gain. I was thinking I just over-ate the band somehow and so I'm praying that this really was the issue all along and not something new in addition to (or because of) over eating the band. Praying that I can get this weight back off & keep it off. Thanks for taking time to reply. It means a lot to me. 

Have a great day!! 

Kim

Glad they have found the issue, and I hope you have a quick recovery! :)

Thanks so much Dejah!! Very sweet of you to comment with well wishes. A quick recovery would be great!! I'd like to get back to where I need to be or at least a lot closer :) Wishing you many blessings today!! :)

I hope this is the cause but if it doesn't solve the problem get an endoscopy done to make sure there isn't anything going on inside the stomach. Best of luck to you!

Thank you!! Ok, will do!! Thanks for taking the time to comment. Very kind. He's looked at it on flouro & with the injectable die & says the band is in the right place. It definitely has a leak but like you are saying, I'm praying that this is the only reason for the gain and that fixing it will help me get back on track. My appetite & hunger is as strong as it was pre-band so hoping all goes well. 

Thanks,

Kim

Kim, one thing you said about your "pouch" made me wonder whether your doctor has updated you! If he has, sorry to be repeating it, but understanding changed around 2008 and it might just be you haven't been told about the results of studies carried out since then.

i was taught in 2006 that we ate until the area above the band was full but not stretched, food needed to remain above the band to stimulate the vagus nerve so that our brains believed we were " full". So we didn't drink with meals as food shouid not be washed through as the stimulation process could take up to 20  minutes. So we needed to learn our own " soft stop", the point at which the pouch was full but not over-full.

a great deal of research was carried out into this and from around 2008, bariatric conferences ( the ones for the surgeons and other professionals not patients) were being told the new understanding, largely arising from Australian research. It took a couple of years for this to trickle down to become the new orthodoxy and every now and then I still hear an occasional newly banded person who has still been told the old version!

it is now taught that food, if well-chewed, passes through the band in under a minute. Not only does so but must. If food remains above the band, this can cause serious oesophageal problems and means the band is too tight. Drinking with food is therefore fine as long as food is allowed that minute to pass. The diminution of hunger comes because the narrowing of the band means that the oesophageal walls need to make more movements to move the food along. The brain is aware of the number of movements and these are what signals satiety. This is not putting undue pressure on the oesophagus because it is not straining or under pressure as long as the band is not too tight, 

So we shouid not feel in any way full; simply that after eating an appropriate amount, we should not feel hunger. 

The old teaching may be one of the factors which lead to many of the problems faced by some banded people. 

Kimmie, I had a full tummy tuck and after that , I began feeling like I had no band at all. I hope your a Reconnect helps you ! I know this is devastating ! 

Thank you. I'm sorry this happened to you!! Did you check for a leak? Seems like the little connector on the tubing can get pulled loose with the type of surgery we had. If so did you get it straightened out? Wishing you well. It's extremely disheartening to pay so much for skin removal only to have the very surgery that was supposed to help send us right back to nearly starting over :(