Hello all

I was banded October 25th 2011 in Grand Forks North Dakota. Everything seemed to be going fine, I was eating much less and I had dropped 12 pounds right away. During November I started having slight pain in my port site and was told this was normal and it should go away. I was active doing Water aerobics 3x a week and walking. One night while I as at the gym the pain in my port site was stronger than normal. I bent over to pick up my gym bag and I felt excruciating pain in my port site. My friends had to dress me since I was unable to move hardly and I was rushed to the ER. After x-rays had told us that everything looked fine I was sent home with medication and followed up with my surgeon the next day. I was in so much pain I could not walk, bend, twist, or move by myself.

He admitted me to the hospital for further testing. The conclusion was that I had developed a rectus sheaf hematoma underneath my port site (bleeding into the muscle). This is apparently extremely painful while healing and takes a long time. He had never heard of this happening before and he has done over 600 surgeries. I was put on bed rest for an ENTIRE MONTH. I was in the hospital December 7-9th and finally could walk without assistance by Christmas. During that time I had 0 activity.

I am pleased to announce that since I had that complication I have not had any pain in my port site. I just want to let you guys know if you are having prolonged pain in your port site to please please contact your surgeon right away.

I am only down 18 pounds since October which makes me very very sad. I was hoping to be down much more by now. I have a total of 4cc in my band after 2 fills at the moment but I am hungry between meals and am not sure why. I am very concerned about my hunger because I cannot seem to sedate it! If you have any tips about calming hunger in between meals it would be greatly appreciated!

Hi I'm a fellow GF patient. Had my surgery with Dr. Debeltz. No complications but I have noticed at times that I have general discomfort in the left abdominal area. Seems like having this stuff inside makes you wonder if various aches and pains are related to it or not. Good thing you've been following up with it and were able to have the procedure to fix it.