Fill Question

Hello Fellow Bandsters,

 I have a question for y'all. Have any of you ever been in to get a fill and you know or have been told you have one amount  in your band and the doctor is able to pull out a different amount. I am sort of freaking out right now.

Background Info:

I have always gone to the same doctor who was the one to do my surgery back in 2008 however he is over 100 miles away from  me and the drive was just getting to be too much.

I had 3 ccs in my band back in May and I went to see my favorite doctor to pull some out to help out with morning sickness and planed to come back  once I hit 2nd trimester to moderate my weight gain. He removed 1.7cc which should leave 1.3 ccs left. Right? That is what I think too.

Well in the meantime I had my insurance approve a referral to a doctor closer to home and patiently waited for my appointment.

Today I went to this doctor who firstly treated me like I was a lower grade because I didnt have surgery with him and then accused me of being a fill junkie. To say the least I was less than thrilled with the result of today's events. The new doctor injected me to check my fill level and he stated that he could pull out between 5 to 6 ccs. I do not know how much he had in his syringe prior to pulling my fluid out but this really scared me since as I stated previously I should of only had 1.3 ccs according to my regular doctor.

Has this ever happened to you and if so what did you do?


Here is what I did I was so insulted that he would even insinuate me to be a fill junkie since I can count on 1 hand how many fills I have had since my banding in April 2008, I sort of paniced and told him if that is the case please take it all out of me because that could mean something could be wrong with my band and I don't want to jeopardize anything. He backpeddled around about what could be wrong and how we could find out and then ended up telling me to schedule a flouroscopy after I deliver my baby. WTF??? Seriously.


Any thoughts or feedback is appreciated.

BroomHilda

I have had different amounts.  Never that big a difference. 

One thing that may be going on is it is common for the surgeon to put three cc or so in at banding to "prime" the band.  If this happened and you only counted what was added when they started doing fills it would make that big of a difference.  Say your surgeon primed it with 3 cc and they added 4 cc you would have a total of 7cc.  If he took out 1.7 than you'd stll have 5.3 for the new surgeon to pull.

My center pulls all the fluid out each time to  make sure it is all there befor adding the new amount.  Even them the one PA came up with and extra  .75cc when she totally unfilled me.

Also with the Realize I have been told they can't pull it all out.

How can anybody be a fill junkie?  Getting a fill isn't fun at all.

Good luck with your band and baby.

Hi,

Thank you so much for your response and my regular surgeon does the same thing as your fill center. He injects the needle and then takes all the fluid out to measure how much is in there before adding any. I still can't figure this one out and it is really bugging me because I am not a fill junkie and I totally understand the variation thing but certainly not that much.

The only conclusion I can make is that either his syringe is measured wrong or he had more fluid in the syringe before we started then he said was there.

Either way I am done with that Doctor and will like it or not go back to my Doctor who is 100 miles away.


Thank you for your support.


Broom

Maybe make it a day adventure...go to the beach too and I don't know =) 

Good seeing you back and kudos on your bundles of joy!!

Well that elminates that thought. 

At least your dumping that idiot
Let us know what the old Doc says.  Bummer on the 100mile
drive though.

I think there can be some variation because of fluid staying in the tubing but it surely shouldn't be that much difference. I thought I had 7 ccs in my band but I had 2 ccs taken out. Then I had it totaly emptied and this doc pulled out 6 ccs so it looks like I had closer to 8 in there than 7. I can't imagine there being and extra 3-5 ccs in yours tho, that's just crazy. Is this guy maybe trying to get you to revise to a different surgery, I'd keep a very close watch on this guy in the future, sounds a little hinkey to me.

I know the ride was getting to you but I would say that I would probably go back to my other doc.

Exactly my thought.

I'd also complain about him to my insurance. Something is offkilter here and I'd don't think it's the OP.

Hi there,

Thank you and I am totally going too because like I said in a previous post I am not a fill junkie and this was way too bizarre to explain.

The only conclusion I can think is that doctor had more fluid in the syringe before we began than he stated since I never looked at the needle before we started I can never say.


Take care,

Broom

 Any doctor wh berates you in any way is not a doctor any of us should be seeing...it's unprofessional, unkind and uncalled for.