heberz

I had a hect of a time finding a US doctor to do a fill. Only one in 1 1/2 hours away would see me but when I had problems he couldn't service me because my band wasn't FDA approved!

I will not indicate which doctor I saw in Mexico, but I was banded 1 week before Christmas 2007. For 7 weeks my port incision drained. I referred to my surgery coordinator about this. She kept saying it needed to heal from the inside out. So I waited. I live in WI which is too far to travel to Mexico for after surgery care. I tried 10 locations that do lapbands locally. All denied seeing me, either I had the wrong band (which the facility told me was FDA approved but is not!!) or they wouldn't see me because they did not do the surgery or because I went to MExico. Regardless, I finally found a bariatric doctor who would see me he was 1 1/2 hours from my home. I scheduled a fill about 8 weeks afters surgery. I had to wait that long for the port incision to heal. The doctor took one look at the port site and said I had an infection. He gave me an antibiotic and sent me on my way. The port incision came open yet again after 1 day of the medication. It drained for several weeks again then the tubing connecting the port to the band came out of the incision. For 1 week I had to walk around with this tubing haging out of my abdomen. Pretty!! I had to pay to go back to Mexico and pay them to remove my port. They cleaned up the port site, removed my port and sutured me shut. (Which I find out now that you should never suture shut an infection site!) They gave me an antibiotic and sent me home. After I completed the prescription the infection was back with a vengence. I went to my primary care physician who said as long as I had that band I will probably have an infection. So, I sought a second opinion from a bariatric surgeon who does not do lap bands and he gave me the same advice. We scehduled the surgery to remove the band(which was covered by my insurance except for a out of pocket expense of $5,500.00) When the surgeon got inside to do a simple removal of the band he found that the tubing which was still in my abdomen had eroded through my bowel creating a 2 1/2 hr surgery. Also, I was left with an incision around 8" long down my stomach and the original port incision which needed to be packed with gauze twice a day for the next month. I have been off work for 6 weeks. So, for around $14,000.00 I have nothing to show but the 35 lbs I lost because I was too sick to eat and a stomach that looks like a road map it has so many scars. Again, I do not completely blame the doctors in Mexico, but wonder if the outcome would have been different if I had stayed in the US.

I have had nothing but grief with having a lap band....after only 3 months I had to have it removed. Don't know if it was because of where I had it put in or if it was other circumstances. But I had a hect of a tine finding a doctor here in the US who would even see me or take care of me!! Not worth the saving!!!!