So I'll give you the quick back ground on my journey so far. I was banded on 8-2-11 and since two weeks after surgery I have been battling a port site infection. About 7 weeks after surgery my tubing actually popped through my infected incision and that had to be surgery put back in. It was simple and done in the ER under local anasthetics and lots of morphine :-) then a week ago, my incision still had not cleared up(after 5 rounds of different antibiotics). My dog jumped on me and accidentally scratched my incision and it opened up once again and that was quite an ugly site. So the next day I had port revision surgery where he actually removed my port, irrigated the wound and really cleaned up my nasty scar. All things look great and the infection seems to be finally gone.
I'm confused about when my port will be placed back in. Prior to surgery he told me 6 weeks. Then after surgery he told me 3 months... But he also said it just depends on how well I heal. Before replacing the port I will need an upper GI to make sure there is no erosion... Which I guess is fairly common when you have a port infection, especially as long as I did. The infection can easily travel down to the band and begin to erode through your stomach wall. If there is no erosion I will have my port placed back. If there is erosion, they will remove my band, then 6 weeks(or so) later, I will have a new band placed as well as have gastric plication which is where they fold and reduce your stomach about 70%.
It's a new procedure but everything I have read and found on it says the risks are very low and the weight loss is even more significant.
All that to say, I think I just need some direction from others who have gone through lap band surgery and some of the same struggles as myself. Has anyone had the gastric plication with the band and how have your results been?
I'm trying to just take everything day by day. And through all of this I still love my band, believe it or not. But my first recovery when the band was placed was horrific. Part of me is scared to go through that again, ya know? But I also know I can't lose the weight on my own... I've tried so many times.
Anyway, thanks for listening to me. Any encouragement would be great!
So I'll give you the quick back ground on my journey so far. I was banded on 8-2-11 and since two weeks after surgery I have been battling a port site infection. About 7 weeks after surgery my tubing actually popped through my infected incision and that had to be surgery put back in. It was simple and done in the ER under local anasthetics and lots of morphine :-) then a week ago, my incision still had not cleared up(after 5 rounds of different antibiotics). My dog jumped on me and accidentally scratched my incision and it opened up once again and that was quite an ugly site. So the next day I had port revision surgery where he actually removed my port, irrigated the wound and really cleaned up my nasty scar. All things look great and the infection seems to be finally gone.
I'm confused about when my port will be placed back in. Prior to surgery he told me 6 weeks. Then after surgery he told me 3 months... But he also said it just depends on how well I heal. Before replacing the port I will need an upper GI to make sure there is no erosion... Which I guess is fairly common when you have a port infection, especially as long as I did. The infection can easily travel down to the band and begin to erode through your stomach wall. If there is no erosion I will have my port placed back. If there is erosion, they will remove my band, then 6 weeks(or so) later, I will have a new band placed as well as have gastric plication which is where they fold and reduce your stomach about 70%.
It's a new procedure but everything I have read and found on it says the risks are very low and the weight loss is even more significant.
All that to say, I think I just need some direction from others who have gone through lap band surgery and some of the same struggles as myself. Has anyone had the gastric plication with the band and how have your results been?
I'm trying to just take everything day by day. And through all of this I still love my band, believe it or not. But my first recovery when the band was placed was horrific. Part of me is scared to go through that again, ya know? But I also know I can't lose the weight on my own... I've tried so many times.
Anyway, thanks for listening to me. Any encouragement would be great!