I went for my fill today -- the first under flouro. My band has slipped. Most of my stomach is sitting on top of the band.

This explains why I don't have restriction, why I've gained weight, and why I have reflux.

The techs who read the flouroscopy said that they think the band my doctor used was too small to begin with, and that I may need a new (VG) band, as opposed to fixing the placement of the one I have.

Surgery will be $4500 + doctor's fees. A new band will be $4000 on top of that. I can't afford this. I couldn't afford the $16,000 I paid for surgery the first time. I can't believe it's 10 months later, I've only lost 40 lbs, and I have to go through this all again, at this cost.

The really frustrating thing is that it's possible that my insurance company now will pay for "diagnostic surgery" which would cover the costs of the surgery to fix the placement. (Nobody can tell me what would happen in that circumstance if they found I need a new band.) However, this seems to be a moot point, as no doctor I can find will accept my insurance company. For some reason, everyone is swearing off BC/BS. Even doctors that take BC/BS aren't taking new BC/BS patients.

In the mean time, I have to go the next 7 days on liquids only, even though they said that the band is too small for the stomach to fix itself. 7 days of liquids, with no restriction, over Thanksgiving.

I want to crawl into a hole.

There's a link to another thread farther up - Jonathan slipped back into place when he went onto his liquid diet. YaHoo!!

Thank you very much such great news.....I didn't know