elcee

@ Karewpah Yes

It also sounds as though her problems could be self inflicted.

I have no problem with someone wanting a low BMI but if you are not careful instead of being " hell bent" you might be on your way to either there or the other place. If you are so keen to keep your weight at this level ( and still be alive) then you need to find some way to pay for it.

I don't see how telling us where you live and who your Dr/s is are could be classified as highly personal details. If I had asked for your address and Medicare no then yes but........ Some of those details might make us more inclined to believe you because you have to admit that at your moment your story sounds pretty unbelievable. You seem to forget that there are a large number of us that are in Australia, myself included. If you were seeing a Dr that only operates through private hospitals why do you not go back to him? Have your circumstances changed so that you cannot afford to? I am still struggling to believe that any Dr or hospital has cut your port off and left the tubing hanging outside your body. If this is true then it smacks of medical incompetence. I would be filing a complaint against the hospital and also looking at other channels such as TT or ACA. They always seem to like these kind of cases. If you are expecting to get your band replaced by the public system then you are in for a very long wait. That is normal even for people that are morbidly obese. Now that you are at goal weight unfortunately they will probably consider your case to be less urgent. I am really surprised that you have not been treated as an urgent case to have your band removed as it sounds as though it has eroded ( I posted links and info on your other thread) but maybe the reason it hasn't been removed is because you have refused to give your consent. If this is the case be very careful, you could end up in a far worse situation than you are currently in. Regardless of whether you go private or public , if your band has in fact eroded into the stomach your body will need a period of at least a couple of months , possibly longer before any other kind of WLS can be performed. I am still surprised that you went overseas to Mexico. Most surgeons here will band someone with a BMI of above 30. It would probably have been cheaper to take out private health insurance and wait 12 months until you became eligible than it was to fly overseas to Mexico. If you weren't severely overweight then I am sure that it would have been difficult to get banded with insurance and yes you would have needed to pay the entire amount yourself.You should also have thought about what you were going to do in the event of an emergency. Obviously it's a bit late for that now. It sounds as though the surgeons are trying to treat the infection, that at least is positive. At the moment I think the best thing for you to do is to accept that you cannot be rebanded at this time. You need to follow the instructions your Dr has given you to the T and be very careful as you do not want the infection to spread. I would also be booking an urgent appointment to see a Bariatric Dr ASAP. Yes you will have to pay the out of pocket costs as Medicare won't cover the whole fee but surely your health and life are worth it. Good luck and let us know what you decide to do.

Not quite. Where do you live? Which Dr's have you spoken to that have refused to help you. Which hospital treated you but didn't remove the band? Who has been doing your fills?

Sliders are foods which go down easily, have high calories and little nutritional value. They don't fill you up. So things such as icecream. Then there are other foods which go down easily but they are more satisfying and have a high nutritional value so they are not really a slider. e.g Greek Yogurt.

You can't. Once you have posted something it can't be deleted. The reason is that if there are other replies it tends to make nonsense of the thread. You can edit a post but I think the there is a time limit on that, not sure how long but probably a day or less.

Yep dark meat chicken cooked using moist cooking methods is usually fine.

I would say it is a sign that you have eaten too much.

Have a glass of low fat or skim milk.

Lapband is reversible to an extent but is likely to leave some sort of lasting damage. I would imagine that plication is not reversible because scar tissue and adhesions will form where the stomach is folded in on itself. Sleeveing is definitely not reversible - once the stomach is cut off and thrown away it is gone. Having said that most of us are looking for a permanent weight control solution, we do not normally do it because we want it reversed. Can't understand why having a sleeve would scare someone less than a plication but then we all have different fears and different things that we are/aren't prepared to do to achieve our goals.

http://all-about-lapband.com/problems/erosion.html

The most likely explanation for an infection of this nature is erosion. If the band has eroded into the stomach it is necessary for the band to be removed and for your stomach to heal before any type of revision surgery is considered. http://arturorodriguezmd.com/lapband-erosion-clinical-radiological-and-endoscopic-correlation/comment-page-1

This might be harsh but if you carry on neglecting your health then you might get your wish. So which hospital did you go to? Which surgeons have you tried? If we have more information maybe we can suggest some Dr's that may be able to help? Who was your original Dr? Who have you been going to for fills?

Sorry, hope you feel better soon.

Is this poster for real? A lot of what he/she says in the original post doesn't ring true. I can't imagine the port just coming out through the skin like that, if it did it would probably indicate that there was a major problem and the whole thing would be extremely prone to a serious if not life threatening infection. That in itself would be considered a medical emergency. It is not true that only medical necessities are performed in Australia. In fact if you ever have an emergency and have to go to hospital they are usually very helpful. Most Australians that did not believe they would get help in Australia would not talk about going to Mexico. medical tourists from Aus tend to go to Bali or Thailand. Maybe I am completely wrong but????? So Model please give us some more information. Where do you live? Who is/was your Dr?

Sounds like you are too tight. I think a visit to the Dr and a small unfill are in order.

Wait till you get stuck from eating too fast - after that you tend to slow down. That might sound horrible but realistically until you suffer a consequence of eating too fast it is unlikely that you will slow down sufficiently. I have always been a fast eater so I know what it's like.

Everyone is different but I am sure you should start feeling a lot better soon.

Sounds yummy. It also seems like Americans have everything geared towards quick and easy. When I make pumpkin pie I generally have to use fresh pumpkin and the crust would be homemade too.

Didn't realise Jean's surgery was today. Hope it all went well. best wishes for a speedy recovery

Try sleeping with a pillow next to your stomach, it helps to support it and makes it a lot more comfortable. If you have pain in your shoulder you should have prescription pain meds to take.

I really don't think it is necessary. If they are doing emergency life saving surgery then they will be doing whatever they need to do to save your life. If they think they have time and if it is appropriate they may do xrays or other tests first - the band would show on those. If they don't have the time to do those then you are probably in such a bad situation that your band is not really important anyway. It's the Life over Limb principle. e.g If you are doing CPR and you break some ribs it doesn't matter because you are doing what you are doing to save someones life. I would rather be alive with broken ribs than dead because someone was too scared to do the CPR.

Doughnuts are bad. The pain is so not worth it.

No it's not that kind of gas. It is gas that they pump into your chest/abdominal cavity to give them more space to work. Some gets left behind and that puts pressure on nerves/organs which can cause pain. Often the pain is felt in the shoulder. Because it is not in your digestive system antiflatulence type meds won't work, you will need to take the prescribed pain killers.