lap band broken?????

A year ago i had to go to the ER for extreme stomach pain.. I couldnt breath and I was literally screaming in pain.  They gave me enough demerol to kill a small farm and sent me home.  A few days later i saw my band doc who could not asperate my fluid from my band even under flouroscopy and was just having a hard time making it cooperate.  The past few months i have been in and out of the hospital with stomach pains that were in two random places and through a CT and an esophagram they could not figure out what was going on... (that was over a month ago)...Something clicked for the doctors day before yesterday and I get a call to come to the doc immediately to get a referral for surgery bc my lap band is completely disconnected.  Has anyone ever had this happen??? If so do you know what the procedure is, if they just fix the one you have or if they completely replace it?? Im so nervous. any help is appreciated!

 WOW Sorry you are going through this.   Not compeletly sure.  I guess it would depend on if the lapband was damaged.    That might be some questions to ask the surgeon if you are going to get that one repaired....replaced or removed.    Sometimes when they go bad they have to re vise you to another surgery and totally remove the band all together.   Sounds like they need to give you some much needed answers.   Prayers coming your way for the answers you need and a successful future journey.

Hugs and blessings ~~~ Vivian

If it came unclasped, I wouldn't re-use the same one.

I am very sorry to hear about your extreme stomach pain...that sounds awful.

I doubt they would work to repair a broken band, but may want to replace it.

How long have you had your band? How is your restriction? Are you at goal or still hoping to lose?

Depending on the answers to some of those questions, you may want to seriously consider using this surgery as a time to revise (if the band hasn't damaged the stomach and a revision is possible in the same surgery) to a different surgery type.

Unfortunately, it is not uncommon to require follow-up surgery to repair, replace, or remove the band. Been there, done that myself.

Best of luck and keep us updated!
Lindsey

I'm sorry to hear this. I had severe pain with my band, as well. Like you,the tests didn't show conclusively what the problem was. Or at least that is what my surgeon said.

I found a specialist who determined that my stomach was twisted, intestines kinked, etc. I had to have emergency surgery.

After another corrective surgery, I opted for band removal. The amount of damage it was causing was incredible.

You should hit up the Revisions forum. Lots of people have bands removed and revise to another surgery. If you have damage to your stomach, esophagus or other organs, you may have to wait to heal first.


If your band is not working properly, they would most likely replace it and not fix it.

Good luck. I hope it all works out well for you. If you continue having the pain in your stomach, please consider band removal. The pain is an indication that something is being damaged and you don't want it to get worse.

What kind of emergency surgery did you have to have for the kinked and twisted issue?  Band Removal?   

2nd (sometimes even 3rd) surgeries are very common with the band. You may be looking at yet another surgery in just a few yrs., also. You really want your band fixed or replaced???

Disconnected? From your stomach...? As in...floating free in your abdomen? Yikes, no wonder you had bad stomach pain.

I wouldn't re-use that band. I'd save it, hire me an attorney, and have a nice long chat with the band manufacturer and the surgeon. And I probably wouldn't get another band (certainly not the same brand) or even use the same surgeon to do further WLS on me. Something's got to be majorly wrong - a defective band, poor surgical technique.

Good luck, and keep us posted...

Jean

I have to address something on this thread. Twice on this forum I've seen someone refer to the band "floating" inside the abdomen. Now, I don't know if people are thinking that our guts are all nice and neatly packaged like the game Operation or what, but it's not how it is. Adhesions will attach the band to the stomach wall (and other organs and tissue as well.) The band is NOT "floating around" in some sort of anti-gravity chamber. It might have come detached, but it's still pressed up against your stomach, albeit not in the proper position.

If it's touching any nerve system, you're bound to have extreme pain. Even with the band in proper working order, parts of it can kind of "migrate" and irritate nerves, too. Any foreign body that is introduced to areas of the body that is soft tissue can cause a lot of problems, whether people want to believe it or not. It's not the same as a knee replacement or a crown on a tooth. The gut is soft and in constant motion. A foreign body introduces friction... and it's a recipe for disaster.

I was reading this forum and noticed a couple of interesting posts, so I thought I would respond.  I have been banded since the FDA approved the band in the USA (2001).  I have been through the ringer with this band!  The saline wouldnt hold, so the doc used omnipac (thicker substance) for my fills.  Then I became too restricted and could not even swallow water.  Finally I had all the fluid removed and left all alone.  Back a few years ago, I too started having bad stomach pains.  CT scans to rule out appendix, yadda yadda.  It was determined I was having female issues with endometriosis and I needed a hysterectomy.  The hysterectomy was supposed to be done laproscopically.  When I woke up, I was cut from hip to hip...because of my lap band.  The tubing had come loose from the port and had settled into my lower abdomen.  The surgeon couldnt get to my uterus using the laproscope instruments because he was a gyn/ob surgeon and not a gastric doctor.  He called two other surgeons into the Operating Room with him.  None had witness a case like this.  The tubing had already adhered to parts of my intestines, ect.  The surgeons decided to "clean it up and lay it in a good position for a gastro doc to find it easily...they didnt know what to do, and I had not given them consent to remove my band.  Three years later, I am now having pain issues again (and still have the broken lap band in my abdomen since I could not get my insurance to pay for the removal of a broken medical device).  My new Gastro doc has now ordered a CT scan to see the whereabouts of the tubing, and ordered upper and lower scopes for me.  I am sick to my stomach and have bad pains on my left plank area.  My band does not allow me to vomit, or I would be skinny from all of the nausea I have been experiencing.    

So, it is possible for a lap band to become broken, and it is possible for the tubing to get lodged in another area of your abdomen (not just around the stomach).