I saw my sugeon yesterday about this darn band that has never been the same since I unfilled it. He gave me a monster fill and I'm going for a barium swallow.

we think there's several possibilities - it might be leaking for starters. Although all through the refill process as I've complained of not having the restriction I think I should have (although I have had restriction, just not what I previously would have had a certain fill levels) when the docs have checked the Fluid, its been there. But this time, I only had 3cc, when we thought I should have 3.4cc. Well, the records say that, verbally the doctor I'd seen said I had 3.8cc! When it was unfilled, there wasnt the fluid in there we thought there should be. So the other possibility is that the records have been stuffed up along the way, we've gotten confused and I've never had in there what I thought I had.

Other than that, of course, there's the possibility of a slip, I'd be surprised as I've had 3 CT scans and about 4 abdo xrays in the last year for cancer related reasons and my band has never looked obviously out of place. A very remote possibility is erosion - I'm horribly Iron depleted to the point that suggests a GI bleed somewhere and I know its not from my colon as that has all been checked out only in November. But my surgeon didnt think that at all likely, he said I'd have lost restriction entirely.

After my monster fill, this morning, I can feel it, its at least held overnight. Its pretty good restriction but again, I've never had this much fill in before and would expect to be actually too tight. But lets just see how it goes. I've held off any weight gain the whole 9 months I was unfilled, and managed to get through seven months of this fill process with inadequate restriction but its darn hard work and I'm ever so slowly losing the battle now, a half kilo here and there that sticks around. Hopefully at least this fill will stick long enough just to lose 4 or 5 lb again!

Not terribly worried, if the band needs to be replaced, the way it works here with my clinic, I paid $4000 up front and the rest was covered by Medicare and Private Health Insurance. All my aftercare, including any revision surgery will be free to me, the cost is billed directly to Medicare and I never have to put my hand in my pocket again. It will just be incovenient but oh well!

I wish you the best of Health, and Luck with the Band. I hope your old one is still good, then not to much hastle....

Shirley.

Fingers crossed that you get it sorted out soon. You have been such a champion through other health issues!

Heres hoping you get to the bottom of this soon.