Posted some information that I rec'd from my dr's office staff regarding his statistics, and somethings have been bothering me regarding the explainations.

1. Said that he has had 1 erosion in 2000. Caused by the person self-accessing their port.

2. Said that slips are caused by non-compliance with bandster rules and should not be "held-against" the doctor. She would not give me a number on slips.

So my question to you guys/gals is this: Does this sound right to you?

Sounds a little defensive. I would just assume that, if anything WERE TO go wrong with your band, Benavides already knows it will not have been his fault. LOL

That said, I've heard his name around bandster boards for a long time, and don't recall any negative comments about him.

could any of you actually access your own port, better yet, would you even want to?

Mine was at my sternum, so yeah, I could have. Wanting to is a whole different thing.

Just from my own personal experience with Erosion I can't see how accessing the port would cause Erosion. If that is the case then why don't you erode when the doctor accesses it? Yes you can access your own port and I suppose if done improperly it could cause an infection which MIGHT lead to an erosion diagnosis. But it is more likely that something was going on early on in the process to begin with.

As far as slippage goes, there are any number of causes for that as well. Anytime, a doc or their staff give absolute answers to any reason something happens it sends up red flags for me. In the medical field there are no absolutes. I was a Cancer RN for 8 years.

Maybe the person accessing their own port (YIKES!) kept it continually too tight, which led to erosion. Gads, that's a lesson learned.

As for slips being caused by non-compliance, I'm sure that's true in some cases, but certainly not true across the board. I agree with Penni, it's not the information in the comment that's worrisome but the fact that the comment was made at all. There are no absolutes.

But what does "held against" the doctor mean? Unless he is having more than the expected number of slips there wouldn't be any reason to hold it against him. If 50% of his bands are slipping, that's a huge problem even if it IS caused by non-compliance. It would mean he's not teaching his patients what they need to know!

They should be able to give you some number on the slips, even if it's just how his office compares to the national average (whatever that is). It's a fair question, and doesn't mean you're trying to blame him for them--just that you want to know what your chances are.

I was an excellent bandster...and I slipped.

I'm sure there are those who have slipped that ate too quickly, too much, whatever - but not me. I was always very careful.

I don't blame myself or my doctor - it's just something that happened.

I didn't know you could slip by eating too quickly or too much. I thought slips occured from vomiting or other trauma to the stomach.

Leener, continuous non-compliance can just put too much pressure on the band and the pouch, and lead to stretching of the pouch and eventually a possible slip. One or a few episodes just lead to PBing--normally not a problem as long as it doesn't happen all the time.

It seems to me that if a bandster's behavior were resonsible for his or her slip, that bandster would KNOW it. It wouldn't be a "maybe this one time did it" sort of thing.

Ah, I see.

So should I press for a hard number? Don't really want to make them mad pre-surgery or anything... but would like to know. He is a well-respected doctor that has done more surgeries than anyone around this area, and they are working with my horrible insurance (bc/bs tx).

I kind of want a hard number, but afraid to ask again...

Yes, I could access my own port because I have the medical training to do it and it's part of my job as a health care professional. That said, WOULD I ever even think about accessing my own port? Not in a million years!

Erosion - I have wondered about doing my own fills, seems easy enough, but I don't think I actually would. In fact, I'm going in for my first fill tomorrow and I scheduled with the nurse who's done hundreds of fills, rather than the newbie nurse who has done only dozens.

Slippage - My surgeon warned me about not eating solid food too early, said this could cause slippage. However, he also said putting in more sutures will lessen slipping, and I have seen reference to improper placement of the band as a cause of slippage.

There is also the issue of band selection. Isn't there a band used in Europe with performations that are supposed to lessen slipping?

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Now, in Dr. B's defense, it was a person in his office that I spoke with. Really thinking about going to another seminar and asking him personally. Face to face is always the best.

I saw a post by Dr. Pleatman indicating that infection in the port area can be an indicator of band erosion - sometimes the bacteria that causes band erosion travels down the line to the port. I suppose likewise an infection starting at the port could travel up the line to the band and cause erosion.