Ok I really need to hear if anyone else has painful fills. My first fill there was alot of tenderness around my port site. My nurse practicioner asked the covering DR to come in and help. It wasn't too bad. I went back 6 weeks later for another fill and once again my nurse practicioner says there is alot of scar tissue around my port and she asked my surgeon to come over between surgeries to look at it. He just went right into a fill with no questions. He moved that needle around so much I almost passed out. It was so painful. I am not talking just a pinch and it was over. I am talking about like diving for a vein when an IV is being started. Now I am afraid to go back. They do not put anything on my stomach to numb it because they say it takes too long. My surgeon is brutal and after all of that he only put in .5cc. My NP was going to put in 2cc. Does anyone else have this painful scar tissue. He says it hurts so much because he has to go in laterally. My surgery date was 1/10/11 and I have lost 20 pounds. Just makes me sick to think about the pain of another fill.

Any suggestions will be appreciated

My surgeon is always the one who fills my band... Every fill appointment I have they schedule with him. They rub some numbing medicine on mine... But when they stick the needle in it just takes a second and it doesnt hurt at all..I have NEVER had them have to move the needle around to find the port. He always gets it right in. i usually leave feeling just as i felt coming in.. I'm sorry yours are painful... might just be the people doing it...

Ask for a prescription for a topical anesthetic that you apply an hour before the fill. I think it's called EMLA, but I might be mistaken on the spelling. If your surgeon won't cooperate, your PCP might help you with the script.

You put it over the site that's going to be injected and cover it with plastic wrap (I hear the press n seal type is better than what comes with the cream). The doctor doesn' t have to do anything.. so there's no waiting time for him/her.

Sorry your doctor isn't very gentle. If this continues to be a problem, you might consider interviewing a different bariatric surgeon.

i had to have some air and saline that was there when they installed it taken out and it was SO painful! so i hear you. the gave me 2 numbing shots but they didn't really help. i was crying so hard. am really afraid to get another fill and thankfully i have pretty good restriction with nothing in my band now, so hopefully i won't have to get one!!

Gosh I'm sorry your fills are so painful.

Thats stupid that they cant give you some sort of freezing. My doc uses something called lidocaine I think and it works basically right away.

My port is under my muscles and I just had a tummy tuck revision so I am super swollen. Fills are so painful I nearly pass out and that is even after my doc freezes my stomach.

Thankfully my doc has a fluroscope machine thing that he uses now when I get a fill. Last week I got a fill using this machine and it didnt hurt at all and I didnt even need freezing.

Maybe you should ask about another method of getting fills. I hear ya with not wanting to go back. Even after my last breeze of a fill I am still afraid to ask for another!

I just went on for my third fill today. The first 2 went fine, with very little pain. But this one hurt quite a bit. My port flipped on it's side, and the doc had to dig and fish around a bit to find the injection site---felt like forever!! I am so sore right now and scared to go in for another fill.

Anyone else have their port flip sideways?

I had my first fill a few weeks ago and mine was pretty much like yours. The PA injected me with something to numb the area but honestly it didn't help at all. It took her 10 minutes to find my port. She just kept moving the needle around and when she though she had the right spot she would push down and it felt like a bee sting when she did that. For the most part I couldn't feel it, until she would push down (which she did a lot). She gave me the same reason though for the difficulty, said it was because I have a lot of scar tissue blocking where she needed to go to insert the needle in the port. I'm hoping the next one is a little smoother but I'm kind of freaked out about it now too!