LabBand Port placement too high???

I am at my wits end!!!

I had LapBand surgery 01/30/2009. The port location is ON my zyphoid process and against my ribs. The scar is exactly across my middle where the band of my bra lays. It has bothered me from the beginning and I complained to the surgeon about it very early on. It would swell when I did any activity to the size of about a walnut. He agreed it was placed too high, and needed to be moved, but he wanted to wait until I lost the weight so he could plce it in a proper location. Well, fast forward 1 1/2 years, port is now swollen permanently to the size of a golf ball, seems a huge mass of scar tissue, i can not get fills, excersise, wera an underwire bra, sit comfortably in a car or even have sexual realations without it becoming severly irritated and painful nor have I lost anything in over a year. I even get random shooting pains in it throughout the night. I called and called and called the surgeon office, no response.

Then I receive a recall letter, saying that there is a problem with the port...hmmmm. I call the surgeon again. I seemed to be getting someplace, then I was told that they were required to send the letters out, but they did not know what to do with the patients calling. So, again, call after call after call I made, until I called and asked for the malpractice insurance information. And boy did I get calls back!! They scheduled me immediatly for a visit and again, the surgeon agreed, that the port needed to be moved and scheduled me 1 week later for revision.

But, alas, this was too good to be true! My surgery was cancelled and a letter sent, yes a letter, not a phone call, but a letter, signed by the surgeon, stating that he could not, in good consience, do an expensive procedure and have me get a bill that would be distressing, so until I got insurance, or financial assistance he would not be doing the surgery. You see, the insurance that paid him 10's of thousands of dollars the first time, I no longer have, in fact I have no insurance. The hospital's finance department said I could make payments over 36 months, but the surgeon said only "CASH UPFRONT".

Does anyone else out there think I should have to pay even a PENNY for a corrective surgery? I am perplexed as to how this is moral and/or ethical. I have no recourse at this point, not enough money to pay the origonal surgeon, no other surgeon will come near me, and not a lucrative enough case for an attorney. So much for the little guy...

 I'm confused about the recall issue.  If your port is a problem, and being recalled, isn't the manufacturer responsible for it's replacement?

Yes, one would think so, but there is apparently a "payment" war going on between surgeon and Ethicon who is the manufacturer. And, now, the surgeon office says I received that letter in error and I do not have the one recalled. But who knows at this point.

So you have an Allergan band?  I Googled Lap-band Recall, and found several sites that mention a Realize band recall, but just one that mentions an Allergan band recall, which specifically talks about a port issue:

www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfres/res.cfm

Yes, it seems I have the Allergan one. The surgeons office is insisting that there is no recall that effects me. I have requested copies of all my medical records and will be writing a letter to whichever company's band I have in my body.

I think it is clear that it is a port "placement" issue. Even the surgeons nurse said she told him not to keep placing them so high because of underwire bras and such.

the port site is literally the size of a golf ball if not larger, and I am always "aware" of it pulling and the pressure. You can visibly see the lump under my skin and it actually causes a rash on top of my skin from being so swollen.
 
I want the whole thing removed at this point, or at the very least revised and placed in a better location. But who would want a surgeon who wants nothing to do with you cutting into you again?

I am at a dead end, nothing else really to do about it except to learn to live with it somehow I suppose.

 I have the Allergan band as well, and originally had the old style port.  I could always feel it, but it didn't become visually obvious until I lost a lot of weight.  I got my port revised to a low-profile port.  But, besides that, yeah, yours definitely sounds like it was placed too high.  Mine is a good 4" below my bra, and a couple of inches below my lowest rib, on the left side.  I think you're on the right track to get your records and find out exactly what you have, and go from there.  Personally, I couldn't live with what you've described.  My port issue was purely aesthetic, and I was willing to pay an extra $1200 to get it swapped out.

 
If no surgeon locally will touch you because they didn't do your surgery, what about going to MX?  It would be cheaper since you are self pay now and they don't care who did your surgery, they will help anyone in need.

Of course, you couldn't go to just anyone, you'd need to do your research.

 
The problem isn't the port, it's the port placement.  That isn't the fault of the band maker.

 Oh, I agree.  My point, though, is that if her band/port has been recalled, that she might be able to take advantage of that fact, and get a replacement port in a better location.  

 
I didn't realize Allergan had a recall, I thought it was J&J (Realize).  Which band does the OP have?

If there isn't a problem with the port, they aren't going to pay for a replacement.  When Realize put out the recall it was basically saying if there is a problem with the port, then they will pay.  If there is nothing wrong with the port, how will she tell Realize she wants a new port?  Because the surgeon didn't place it properly?