My band was installed in March 2008. I have been having problems for over 6 months now. All the fluid was removed a few months back. For the past 5 days I can't hold anything down, even orange juice or slimfast drink. When I throw up, I throw up hard. I mean heaving. Sometime I can feel it coming back up through the band. Do I have a slip? The doctor who did my surgery said he won't remove it because my new insurance. Now I am in need of help, my financial situation is very bad. Do you think I could just go to a regular surgeon? I mean they do all kinds of sugery, I could find someone "in-network". Let me know what you think as I am really not feeling well and can't go on throwing up at every bite.

If you can't keep anything down then you need to go to the ER. You can become dehydrated quickly. Once there, they can at least hook you up to an IV and do an upper GI to see what is going on. You need to identify the problem.

Your surgeon should be concerned with your symptoms. I am assuming you were unfilled due to these problems. Something is obviously blocking you.

General surgeons do not do bariatric surgery unless they have been trained and do it in addition to general surgery. But to just find a general surgeon who does is not likely. Plus you wouldn't want an inexperienced surgeon to be addressing your problem.

You need to work with your new insurance and fight them to get this covered. This is not just a band problem, it could be an emergency situation that needs to be addressed.

Good luck.

P.S. Make sure you get the results of any tests they do in the ER if you go. Plus get all of your tests results from before, during and after your surgery. Call your doctor's office and ask for them. It is your right.

I agree. Not being able to keep anything down is not okay by any means. If your doc won't see you I would go to the er. I believe your situation to be an emergency.

I'd go to the ER. They could at least do a scan to determine if you have a blockage of some sort. I'd also call around to other bariatric clinics/surgeons to see if they accept your insurance since ultimately, if this is a band problem, only they'll know how to deal with it. A general surgeon is likely just going to suggest removing the band completely and that may not be necessary.

Problems for 6 months and now this? What is in your current doctor's head that he hasn't addressed this issue!?

A lady that uses my doctor was banded around the same time I was (15 months) ago. Her body rejected her band by the scar tissue growing around the band or something like that. This was only the second one that my doctor has ever had to take out. She was very ill to the point of throwing up Bial (sp?)

This is an emergency situation. She went to the ER and the general surgeon removed it...but he also does bariatric surgery as well as general.

This is Serious...get it checked out!