Band Erosion
Hi! Good luck with your band removal. I had my band out 6 weeks ago due to an erosion. This is NOT to scare you, but be prepared for a possible complication. First of all, it was way more painful than I was prepared for. The reason for this is because I must have had the erosion for a while and much of my tissue around the band and the port was inflamed and INFECTED! I did not know this before heading into surgery - my surgeon did not, as well. It is not that uncommon for an erosion to become infected and have the infection travel down the port and cause infection there. Looking back, the only sign I had something amiss was a little diarrhea a few days before the surgery ( I knew about the erosion in May and waited until August to have surgery - don't know how long the erosion was there before diagnosed.) Four days after the surgery, two incision sites became horribly infected. I have been on serious antibiotics and a wound vac since to heal. I am definitely on the road to recovery, and contemplating my upcoming bypass. I don't say all of this to scare you at all!! Just connect with your body, discuss the infection possibility with your surgeon and take it slow during the recovery. Best of luck to you!!
Thank you for the info!! I'm not aware of any infection. However, my port location has been a little painful to touch for some time now. It worries me that you mention the diarrhea -- I started having extremely loose bowels (water mostly) about 5 years ago. I was going through a separation and divorce, and attributed it to stress. But - it has continued since then probably 80% of the time. I was going to see about checking for Crohn's or IBS once this is issue is taken care of, but maybe its related to the erosion?
