Have you had problems with the band?

My sister and I were both banded on the same day.  The primer fluid was too much for her to tolerate so the day after surgery, she had to have an UNFILL.  Imagine that needle going in that fresh wound.  OUCH

My sister also had to have the port removed and replaced in the same day.  Her band slipped and she had to have another surgery to reposition it. 

I had my port removed in the doctor's office (my sister and I both had port infections).  When it was time to put my port back in (we waited 6 weeks for the infection to heal), it was a new year and my insurance company no longer covered bariatric surgery.  I fought and won.

This one you probably won't believe.  My tubing came thru one of my incisions and I had to have another surgery, obviously.  The surgeon (not the original bariatric surgeon) said he'd take the tubing out since it was exposed....6 inches of it was hanging out......and see if the port was infected and decide if it needed to come out.  When he got in there, he CLEANED the tubing, left it in and took out the port.  It took the tubing incision 9 months to heal.  It kept breaking open and bloody puss would go everywhere.  I'd clean it, pack it and start the healing process all over.  Yes, I continued to see him so this little venture cost me a fortune.

Okay, I'm done.  No more port for me.  That tubing can float around in there anywhere it wants and the band can stay on my stomach, wide open.  I've had it.  I'm happily gaining weight no matter how much I watch what I eat. 

My sister is gaining weight because the doc says her band is at the right fill but she can eat way too much.....even of the good stuff she's supposed to have.

I have a friend who was banded (past tense) and she kept telling the doc she was throwing up too much even with one bite and that something was wrong.  Changing to another doctor and having an endiscope, they found the problem.  The band had erroded and her stomach was BLACK (I saw the pictures) so all of the tubing, band and port had to come out....as did part of her stomach. 

So, I'm just wondering, has anybody else had problems with the band?  If you did, would you tell me your story, please?  Did you have to have it removed?  Did you go with a different surgery?   Did it just not work for you so you had a revision. 

I'm just curious and hope others are too.

LaWanda

Sounds like a doctor problem more than a band problem...do you and your sister have the same doctors??

My sister and I were banded by the same surgeon on the same day.  The person with the "dead stomach" had the same surgeon and was banded before us.  I've met LOTS of his patients and have seen way more success stories than problems but the three of us just got lucky.  I just happened to be focused on these 3 particular problems.

Oh, and all 3 of us have changed surgeons. 

Thanks for your post.

Hi again LaWanda...wow, you guys really went through hell.  So sorry about your mom, that is never easy.  Before responding to posts with people with whom I am not familiar, I always look at their profile...yours is private, so no one can go look and see when you were banded and what your experience was early on...I think that is why LA was confused and thought perhaps yours was a troll account...
Thanks for sharing your experience.  Many people just go to band mills and end up with problems as a result, not that your surgeon was necessarily in that category, but it does make a person sit up and take notice when they read about an experience like yours!
Hang in there!
Steph

Hi LaWanda. How are you today.  I must have clicked  and read your post 4 or 5 times.

I am at lost for words which is probably the reason I had to read so many times.  I am trying to comprehend your post.  Any time someone pops on with a story such as yours the first thing I will do is click on the latest post under their name to find out history of thier posting because normal the history of their posting tell me the story that I need to know.....yet yours didnt.

1/2/11 your replied to a post...nothing really there

next post  was a year agon 3/17/10 and this was just a repy to a post.

Like I said...I am lost for words..your out of the blue post is for???

1.  You just needed to get your story told today? Without a "hello folks how the heck yall being doing greeting?LaWanda back from the dead"

2.  I think the title of your post would be more personally since your post is really about you and your problems. Oh course there are folks who have had problem with the band, trust me and they are here and on the revison board. Really it would have been so easy to find them and add your story to their story. Now dont get me wrong..you are free to post anywhere you want and as many time as you want, but like you..I am really curious.

3.  Were you and your sister band by the same doctor? Was the friend?  I think this is some very perteint information that is left out because if the answer is yes...I certain would want to know this so that I could steer other away from him.  Now I am not laying blame on anyone, HOWEVER..if you going to drop in out the blue and tell your story without a greeting...then the full story need to be told. You said that "you are happily gaining weight", so I really dont see the issue, it is another story if you are unhappy...mad as heck because you have that worthless piece of band inside you...you cant afford to have it removed and you have no insurance"

Your post is just................I dont even know how to explain it and that is so not me, I am normal straight to the point and sometime raw.

Take care and stay happy.

I really don't think there are too many people who care how often I post.  If you go back to the beginning of my membership here, you'll see that in 2005 when I was pre op and 206 when I was post op, I posted several times a day whether with questions or comments.

And I really don't think there are too many people who care that I didn't start with a greeting.  That's just your personal preference.  I read more than I post and if anybody wanted to know if I was dead or alive, I'd like to think they'd have contacted me.

And I wasn't trying to get my story out.  I have a support group that has helped me those this journey.  I was just talking to some other bandsters locally and thought I'd post to see if anybody else out there in wls world was experiencing any problems other than the ones we had enountered.

And I think the title of my post was appropriate.  Got your attention, didn't it?

And I don't think it matters who got banded by whom though I just posted that we were all banded by the same surgeon and have all changed doctors.  I don't intend to post on their OH page, which they have.....both surgeons.....as I've seen far more success stories for this surgeon than problems.  His name is posted here with my picture and if YOU go to his OH site, you'll see he's praised.  I'm talking about 3 patients out of the 1500 bands he's done.

And my comment about happily gaining weight was tongue in cheek.  Who in the world would ever think that was a happy situation......except for the woman who's trying to be the heaviest woman in the world and she's disgusting to me.

So, just for you......HI there.  Been a while since I posted but my mother was in a medically induced coma for 3 weeks in 2010 and then remained in ICU for 3 months.  From there she was transferred to a speciality hospital to ween her off the feeding tube and the ventilator in hopes of someday taking her home though the doctors only gave her a 5% chance of survival.  With God on our side, she eventually got off the ventilator AND the feeding tube but had to learn to walk and talk all over again.  She was in rehab for some time and even after returning home for only 5 short weeks in 2010, was rushed back to the hospital with congestive heart failure and thus encountered another stay.  So during the year of 2010, my mother was hospitalized from April thru September and I was there every single day from 7 AM to 3 PM so I haven't had a lot of time to be on the computer.  When she went back in October, we were in constant prayer to get her home for the holidays as her second great grandchild was born in 2010 while she was hospitalized and she so desperately wanted to be home with her family for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  And though we thought hospital visits were behind us when the calendar rolled over to 2011, God had other plans.  My mother is currently in the hospital having her pace make, which is less than a year old, replaced for a much stronger model with a defibulator.  Again, prayers, prayer, prayers.

But a friend checked in last night to see how my family was coping and to see if there was anything they could do and we were talking about weight loss surgery and I told her I'd post here just to see what else was going on with everybody else, which is what I did.  I thought I'd keep some information unposted (like whether or not we all had the same surgeon) which wasn't the point to my concern it was the problems people have with the band and if anybody had thought about a revision.  I was on my way to the revision board when I noticed I had some posts here and now I'm now I wish I hadn't posted at all.  I was just trying to get my mind off of some things and switch gears for just a few minutes and hoped somebody would be out there to let me know we are certainly in the minority as most everybody else was doing well. 

I will take care and I will stay happy.....as long as God continues to heal my mother and keeps my daddy healthy enough to be here with us as they celebrate their 67 years of marriage next month.

As far as OH, I know LOTS of people *****fuse to post here because of negative comments they get back and I was in the boat with them for a while in the last 5 years but I stepped out of the boat.  Silly me.  So, excuse me while I swim back over to the boat and crawl back in.

It seem that I offended you with my reply and I am never too proud to say sorry 

I understand now that you were just rambling to get your mind off what you going through, I can truly understand that but as I said before your post was just ............

I will leave your post because my purpose on this board is never to start drama or keep it going, I was just trying to get a better understanding of your post but in the scheme of things..it really does not matter. You can have the last word if you so desire, I will not reply again after this but I do think it strange that you typed "I dont think it matters who was band by whom". The surgeon is ALWAYS an important part of the equation. 

peace

 I'll vouch for you, honey. I haven't seen your face on here in a long, long time, and now I know why. 

 In case you need it . . . 

 

THANK  YOU  SO  MUCH.  LOVED  IT!!