Slipped band while/after pregnancy
I was banded Sept 2008 with the original Realize band. In between the preop phase & post op, I lost about 75 lbs from April 2008 to July 2009, which wasn't top notch, but I was okay with it. This was enough weight to enable us to get pregant in July 2009 after 4 years of infertility, so we were thrilled to say the least.
While I was pregnant, I had some acid reflux, which after I got my band unfilled, went away, so no major issues with being pregnant while banded. After I had my baby, I went back for a fill a couple months later, under fluro all looks good, no problems. I had some issues, so had some unfilled, was better. After a few more months I had more and more problems and the fluro identified my band had slipped. This took a few months process to finally determine that when my band was at a good restrictive tight state, it would slip, when it wasn't and wasn't giving me restriction, it was fine. It happened a few times and my surgeon has now unfilled me completely. It seems the only option at this point is to remove the band and/or replace or revision surgery.
I hardly ever vomitted with my band, never had any other complications. Apparently they are seeing more of this with/after pregnancy from what I have heard. We hope to have at least one more child, so it is a very difficult decision to know what to do. With the band unfilled still in place, I am hopeful it will be safe enough to carryout a pregnancy with the band still in, but I do have concerns with keeping it in too. I am considering a revision surgery to possibly DS or VSG b/c of the increased chance of slip reoccurence if I were to chose the band again. I don't necessarily want to have the band removed without pursing a new WLS in the same process b/c I was covered by my insurance. No guarantees they will cover a revision for sure, but I have heard it should be hopeful considering my insurance company.
Sorry for the long post. Just curious if anyone else has experienced this and I also wanted to pass the information along as well. Thanks for reading.
While I was pregnant, I had some acid reflux, which after I got my band unfilled, went away, so no major issues with being pregnant while banded. After I had my baby, I went back for a fill a couple months later, under fluro all looks good, no problems. I had some issues, so had some unfilled, was better. After a few more months I had more and more problems and the fluro identified my band had slipped. This took a few months process to finally determine that when my band was at a good restrictive tight state, it would slip, when it wasn't and wasn't giving me restriction, it was fine. It happened a few times and my surgeon has now unfilled me completely. It seems the only option at this point is to remove the band and/or replace or revision surgery.
I hardly ever vomitted with my band, never had any other complications. Apparently they are seeing more of this with/after pregnancy from what I have heard. We hope to have at least one more child, so it is a very difficult decision to know what to do. With the band unfilled still in place, I am hopeful it will be safe enough to carryout a pregnancy with the band still in, but I do have concerns with keeping it in too. I am considering a revision surgery to possibly DS or VSG b/c of the increased chance of slip reoccurence if I were to chose the band again. I don't necessarily want to have the band removed without pursing a new WLS in the same process b/c I was covered by my insurance. No guarantees they will cover a revision for sure, but I have heard it should be hopeful considering my insurance company.
Sorry for the long post. Just curious if anyone else has experienced this and I also wanted to pass the information along as well. Thanks for reading.
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