DeLarla

Celeste, I know how hard this is and just said goodbye to my firstborn Kitty. It was hard, but you did an amazing job raising a little fur person, and for that you should be proud.

Oh, by the way, the local radiologist who discovered the erosion during my endo told me to, "Make a follow up appointment with your doctor in 4 weeks." I was lost and didn't know what to do, so I just called Billy kinda like a courtesy call. He called me back really quick and said, "Four weeks? Is he kidding?" So maybe it's not a "Get here this very minute" thing, but it certainly isn't anything to play around with.

Alex, I asked Penni to keep my surgery private because I was petrified of any jinx. I tend to have Black Cloud Syndrome and just wanted the thing out of me. Like always, I did much worse than anyone else who had their band removed. However, Michelle said the worst part was getting the drain removed, and that didn't bug me a bit. Even my doc called me a weirdo. I was heavily medicated and can't remember much, but it is so good to be home. I guess this is Mother Nature's way of keeping me in the house on the biggest TWO parties of the year. New Year's Eve in Vegas is the best party on Earth. Plus we spend every New Year's Day at our best friends' house, who purchase $1000 worth of Alaskan King Crab Legs, only my all-time favorite. And they insist on fixing up a bedroom so I can join them in a lovely cup of crab Water. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Chris is all dressed waiting for CJ to pick him up because it's tradition for the men to make a huge production over picking out perfect crab. I think it makes them feel manly. SO GOOD TO BE HOME & BANDLESS!

We got a couple Harleys in the garage

HI BETTY! It feels so good seeing friends! Being in the hospital sucks, blah! The very mean nurses took my blankies away (out of love) because I was fevered and they wanted me to shiver the fever off. I'm forcing myself to stay in my office cause it's freezing in here and I want the fever gone already. Boy, it sure is nice being home seeing my friends on line

Sorry, but I have to disagree that port complications "may" lead to erosion. I have a feeling they most definitely DO lead to eroson. I don't agree with port removals or revisions after what I've been through. If the port goes bad, take the whole band out and wait 6 months to start over. Just my opinion, but I've seen and heard about way too many erosions after port complications. Way too many. Then again, I'm a grouchy bear right now because I have a fever from my band removal surgery, so maybe I'm just being a bitch.

And NO, I will not ever consider another weight loss surgery. It wasn't meant to be (for me.)

Dr. Fischer told me he won't see me due to insurance reasons, but I've heard other people (including 2 surgeons) say that Fischer is just being a baby since Lopez is stealing all the Vegas clients. Fisher wouldn't even take my calls even though Lopez gave me a written referral for Fisher to do my aftercare. Wouldn't even take my calls!

and it was awful (still is.) This was the worst surgery yet, and for some reason I always end up with a high fever and bronchial problems. The surgery took around 2 hours late Tuesday night, and we got home from Ventura last night. Dr. Billy removed my band in the emergency room, and other than being so physically ill, I'm 100% relieved that Billy took it out. I'm glad it's out of me, I'm thankful Billy was my surgeon, and I'm really worried after all the other stories I heard while staying in the hospital. The nurses were somewhat "fascinated" with me since several are obese and have been considering weight loss surgery. However, they were telling me of so many complications they see on a regular basis with both surgeries. I did meet one very thrilled and very beautiful gastric bypass patient that was thrilled, but she had it done before laproscopy and has a scar from her ribs to past her belly button. Either way, she looked amazing. After this last surgery, there's no way I'll ever even consider another weight loss surgery. My biggest regret was going to Mexico. Another regret was not fighting my insurance. But another huge regret was that I didn't have a local, EXPERIENCE, CARING surgeon. The 7 hour trip back home yesterday kicked my fever back in, and it had only been gone a few hours. So I'm home, I'm alive, I have a GREAT doctor, and I'm looking forward to fighting the fat demons solo. Like Red says in Shawshank Redemption, "Either get busy living, or get busy dying." I gotta go lay down so I can heal up and get busy living. Please, NO SYMPATHY! I feel physically disgusting, my pain is 10 out of 10, my fever won't break, and I have severe belly cramping and can't catch my breath. I've even gained 12 solid pounds of bloat, so I feel stuffy and gross. I even scared my hubby because he never saw me not talking before. I didn't talk for 2 days other than some grunts. So physically I'm bad, but mentally I'm good. Honestly, I'm gonna be really good. Thank you all so much for the calls and messages, and I'm sorry I've been too sick to talk. I'll call every one of you as soon as I get my spunk back.

The number one Vegas attraction is ME But I'm rushing out the door & will have to write more later. Kids love Circus Circus because there's a carnival midway & free circus acts in the casino, but you gotta keep your eyes on them cause the place is packed. One very important thing is that there's no casino that's "kid safe." Parents used to drop their kids at the arcade, but a few years back a little girl was taken by a criminal who sent her to the angels. Vegas used to be an adult playground, but now it's totally kid friendly! Every casino has something for kids. However, yours is pretty young for most of the roller coasters and rides. There's the whole Star Trek Experience at the Hilton, the Nascar playground at the Sahara, Circus Circus (see above.) New York, New York has a great arcade & roller coaster. There's the awesome aquarium at Mandalay Bay, the list goes on and on. In my opinion, if your child were a little older, it might be okay to bring him. If you do bring him, there's plenty to see, but you really gotta keep an eye on him. I'll tell Penni to respond to this thread for me since I'm leaving for a few days on a road trip. Or, call my cell later today. I'll PM you.

The number one Vegas attraction is ME But I'm rushing out the door & will have to write more later. Kids love Circus Circus because there's a carnival midway & free circus acts in the casino, but you gotta keep your eyes on them cause the place is packed. One very important thing is that there's no casino that's "kid safe." Parents used to drop their kids at the arcade, but a few years back a little girl was taken by a criminal who sent her to the angels. Vegas used to be an adult playground, but now it's totally kid friendly! Every casino has something for kids. However, yours is pretty young for most of the roller coasters and rides. There's the whole Star Trek Experience at the Hilton, the Nascar playground at the Sahara, Circus Circus (see above.) New York, New York has a great arcade & roller coaster. There's the awesome aquarium at Mandalay Bay, the list goes on and on. In my opinion, if your child were a little older, it might be okay to bring him. If you do bring him, there's plenty to see, but you really gotta keep an eye on him. I'll tell Penni to respond to this thread for me since I'm leaving for a few days on a road trip. Or, call my cell later today. I'll PM you.

Call doc. Go see doc. Call doc. Go see doc! Remember, you've got stitches in you giblets. Maybe you pulled one? And port infections can lead to erosion, and even though you probably don't have an infection, your body is talking to you. It's telling you to advise doc that something isn't right.

This makes me sing the Beach Boys' song in my head... Aruba, Jamaica, ooooh I wanna take ya to Bermuda, Bahamas, come on pretty mamma.... Thanks for the cool greeting, now how about some pictures of Aruba?

It's all about taking care of ourselves. Don't ignore symtoms and hope they'll go away. We have this foreign device in our belly that needs special care

Best not to get worried too early in the game. One thing most of us have is WWS (Worry Wart Syndrome.) So far all my docs and many of my friends' have been prescribed over the counter Prilosec. I'm on it now because my stomach and esophagus are irritated. My doc told me not to miss doses.

Again, I only wrote this whole saga because I get so many PMs and e-mails asking for my story, which I've told 100 times before but never in one thread. Cheri, I'm gonna get hardcore on you, but PLEASE ask your doc to take a look since none of us are band experts. All I can say from my end is that mine looked way worse. My entire area was hot, red and inflamed in addition to leaking clearish Fluid. However, I learned a lot about leaking wounds, and they are quite common and happen in other surgeries (my pal had a boob reduction that leaked for 8 weeks.) Yours looks much better than mine, but please ask the pros. I'm not thrilled that you've been on antibiotics though, because the experienced band docs I've talked to said there's no such treatment for an infected port. Antibiotics may temporarily relieve the symptoms, but they won't cure a port infection. The problem with port infections is that they can lead to erosion, but erosion takes time to progress. So even if your port was infected, I personally don't see any reason to get an endo so early in the game. Just make sure to get your annual endo and take good care of your baby band In a perfect world, I'd get another band if my American insurance would pay for me to have a Swedish band! Actually, I don't know anything about the Swedish band, I was trying to be funny. Nobody can say if they'll get another band right away. I suspect we'd have to wait a year or two for the docs to look inside our belly to see if we healed okay from the first removal. There's going to be scar tissue involved, so God only knows what shape my belly will be in down the road. If my insurance covers it a few years down the road, HELL YES, I'd get another! THE BAND IS AWESOME... if you get lucky with a good surgeon and insurance!

Thank you Back atcha.

I'm really sorry everyone, but I used to post some really nasty things here when I got mad. I don't think it's fair for me to "slam" doctors the way I used to, which is why I'm avoiding listing the surgeons. Just do searches using the "SEARCH" button at the top. Look for erosion or complications from individual members here since most people post their surgeon. Sorry, but I'm working at being a nicer person

Lots of people have been asking for my port infections/removals that lead to my current erosion, so thanks Alex for giving me a place to put it. Now I can refer them to once place. I was banded by Dr. Lopez in Tijuana 5/5/04. My port site began leaking a week after surgery and never healed. It was red, hot, inflamed, infected. A month after surgery, I went back to Tijuana, where Dr. Kuri removed my port (I couldn't get Dr. Lopez to return my frantic calls or e-mails.) Before going to Kuri though, I consulted with five different band surgeons because I didn't want my port removed; I just wanted antibiotics to kill the infection. Every single band surgeon agrees on one thing though, which is that an infected port MUST come out. Antibiotics may relive the redness and infection symptoms, but the infection will just keep coming back. Infected ports can (usually) lead to erosion since the infection travels down the tube, so an infected port needs to be removed immediately. Even after port removal, the same wound refused to close and started leaking a few days after removal. I started going to local Vegas doctors, Urgent Care, even my vet! Nobody knew what was wrong. They put me on antibiotics, which didn't help. At one point the wound got so bad that Urgent Care said it needed to be lanced. They sliced it open and drained an awful amount of infected liquid, then packed the wound and had me come back the next day for another packing cleaning. The wound still wouldn't close, and one day the tube popped out of my body. I walked around crying, not knowing what to do since local doctors don't know the band, and the 2 local band docs in Vegas refuse to see patients banded elsewhere. I started complaining to Inamed and anyone else who would listen, then I mentioned Inamed liability and told Inamed, "Your boy's club is making a lot of money off American patients that are walking around sick while you're getting richer." That's the comment that burned Inamed enough to contact Lopez for me. 8 months from my original surgery, Lopez (my original surgeon who ignored me this whole time) finally called after being urged by Inamed. He said we could start our relationship all over, and for me to come to Mexico. So I went to Tijuana for my 3rd time, where Lopez misdiagnosed me with "Band Rejection." He said the reason the port wound wouldn't heal is because my body was rejecting the tube, which is made out of the same material as the band, so he said my band would eventually "Reject" as well. However, Lopez was impressed with my 70-pound weight loss and agreed to give me a new port, even though he said it would be temporary and most likely "reject" like the first one. It was my option, but he said a new temporary port would allow me to get filled enough to lose more weight. December 2004, Lopez cut me up, removed a bunch of inflammatory tissue, replaced the port through the same wound, then closed me up and sent me home. A few days later, my new port was infected. I was finally convinced to suck it up and find a US surgeon anywhere and just accept the fact that I might be left with enormous medical bills, so I went to Ventura and saw Dr. Billy. Billy filled in all the blanks by first saying Kuri should never have left the tube so close to the surface of my skin when he removed my first port. The tube by the open wound prevented the wound from closing, which caused bacteria to grow, ergo infection. Kuri should have (standard operating procedure) stored the tube in my abdominal cavity to allow the wound to close - that was 8 months of unnecessary hell. Billy said there's no documented literature on "band rejection." He also said Lopez should never have closed a wound where he left a gaping hole after removing a large amount of inflamed tissue. Open wounds (like a bullet wound) need to drain and need to be left open to heal from the inside out. Again, standard operating procedure. I wasn't rejecting anything, I simply had an infection. January 2005 Billy did an edoscopy, a laproscopy and removed my 2nd brand new port. He removed a bunch of infected tissue and he found SEVEN loose surgical staples just floating around the area that had no reason being there. He wasn't able to close the wound because of the hole left in me, so he packed it with gauze and trained my friend, Penni, how to change the packing daily since I nearly fainted when he made me look at the hole in me. So Penni packed it for a couple days, then sent me home to Vegas. I'm lucky to have a friend nearby who adores gross medical junk, so she was happy to pack the wound every single day after Penni explained step-by-step instructions. Mary did this a few months, and it was very exciting seeing her use a little less gauze each day. I celebrated the day the wound finally sealed shut, leaving me with an ugly indented purple scar. Billy said I had to be clean a full 6 months before he'd even consider giving me a new port. But lately my band/belly has felt "different" than it used to, so I suspected erosion. All the port infections out of Mexico that I am personally aware of have eroded, so I was quite sure. It took a long time to get the endoscopy since I don't have a local doctor, but I convinced my primary doctor to refer me. At first they'd only give me an Upper GI that I had a couple weeks ago. It came back clean, so I had to practically beg this gastro guy to get me an endoscopy. I finally had the endoscopy this week, which revealed erosion. Now I'm working out details on having the band removed. That's it in a nutshell. There's lots more details, but I'm already guilty of having 5000 posts here, so hopefully someone else gets the award for longest post!

Kathy - "stomach spasms" is one of those words I tried to get out but coudn't find the term for, but yes, I had some weird stomach spasms. Nothing painful, just weird. I said it on another thread, so I'll add it here. Only a professional piano player can hear when his instrument is out of tune. The rest of us just hear music, but he knows something is off even though his piano isn't broken. That's the same way my band/belly area felt. "Off." Weird pitter patters, spasms, gloops, blips, schmurgles. Definitely not the tight feeling that I used to have every single morning. I could NEVER take a pill in the morning, but when I was able to swallow a large pill with no Water, I knew something was wrong. I'm so glad all of you are here with me, but I'd like everyone to change tones from sympathy to my own personal cheerleading squad! I need to know I can do this bandless. I need kicking and screaming and to be convinced that band removal will only kick me into seriousness. It's going to be hard, because now I realize how complety amazing the band really is when it comes to restriction our food. We really are NOT hungry when we have good restricton. Suddenly I'm actually hungry again, and often. So I have to fight hunger AND obsession again. Uht oh. So I'm going to follow Michelle's steps. She eats only Protein every morning. Michelle says if she eats any carbs at all at Breakfast then she's hungry all day. So I gotta force protein down my throat every morning, then stick to low carb salads at lunch. I gotta do this.. I just gotta. I'm personally convinced that there's a problem with technique, like a stitch that irritates the band or something. Then again, tie string around a an animals tail, and eventually the tail falls off. A band squeezing around our belly? Sounds amazing that something can press and rub against an organ all day and not cause problems. I've heard of Kuri erosions. And if my insurance ever covers the band in the future, I'll take it! However, there's no way of knowing if I'll ever be able to have another stomach surgery till we see how my removal goes. Plus, who the heck knows about us removal patients and long term scar tissue n' junk like that. Which is why I went out on the Harley last night drinking and gambling like it was my last day on Earth! Party on, Garth! Well, I rode on back and watered down wine, so I wasn't drunk but I was ripping through hundred dollar bills because you can't take it with you!

I had a port infection for 8 months and never, ever had a fever. My port area was very fevered, red, hot, inflammed, leaking. But my body temperature never changed.

Good morning Alex! I haven't asked that, but I certainly will. I'm taking a list of questions and will post everything I get my hands on.

Did I really make 5000 posts? Wow, that's either really cool, or more insane than I thought I was!

Please study all my threads - please. Infected ports can and do lead to erosion. An infected port won't give you a fever (well, it might but I never had one.) I had 2 port removals due to infection, and I was diagnosed with erosion this week. I started a thread the other day about the importance of an endoscopy. Is your port inflamed, hot, red? If so, it's most likely infected and needs to be removed. But please don't get all worried because maybe the port just shifted after losing weight. If there's no infection and it bothers you a lot, they can do a port revision. But if it's infected, that means you should keep an extra special watch on your band. You're very smart to have paid attention to loss of restriction, which could be a sign of erosion, but again it just might be a sign of "time for a fill." PM me if you want to talk and I'll give you my number. Don't let all this worry you. I've been accused of trying to scare people with my infection and erosion stories but that's not what I want. I just want everyone to have the greatest band experience possible. Good luck and PLEASE keep in touch with me, k?

5000 posts? Who, me talk alot? Did I get a prize? If not, I should! Unfortunately, no, there's nothing that can be done to stop erosion at its early stages. Once eroded, the band needs to come out. Note - the doc who did the endoscopy and first saw my erosion simply told me to make a follow up appointment with my primary in FOUR weeks. I looked at him like he was crazy cause I was thinkin' more like four MINUTES. This guy came highly recommended, so apparently erosion really isn't an extreme emergency. However, as soon as I got my belongings back I phoned a real band surgeon, who said, "Four weeks, no way!" My band surgeon agreed that it's not an "emergency" but it IS something that should come out as soon as possible without running to the emergency room. I had to sign a standard release before the endoscopy with the understanding that it could cause preferations (even on non-banded.) So the big concern once you have erosion is to take things really easy till the band comes out - chew chew chew, soft mushies and very important not to have a PB/stuck food episode during the vulnerable time after the endo. I'm glad at least a few of your read this thread and at least ONE of you is marking your calendar for an endo. Kel, Trac, Crystal, NJ.... hello, have you marked your calendars? OH, and Tracy, back to the orginal question... I'm not sure if I'll miss this awesome gas or not, but talk about burping and farting! I wasn't able to burp before my band, but now I can let go of a real long one, which feels great and gets me lots of kudos from my friends. The farting, however, all I can say is Thank God for Watkins Lemon Room Freshener!