I know that the weight loss is great and means the band is doing its job. But, I would like to hear bandsters sound off their true feelings about having a foreign object in your belly for the rest of your life.

Yep, I can see it thanks!

Victoriana,

That's a very interesting photo. If one ring is the band, maybe the other two rings are part of the port. I wonder why the port cord doesn't show.

It doesn't bother me as long as there are no problems and I pray this will not be the cause of any problems.

gentlespirit,

I'm definitley glad it's an available option. I've been through years of waiting for something that would work for me. I'm hoping the band will be exactly what I've been waiting for.

Those rings are near my spine, as determined by the video that i have watched. The port is way off to the left of these scans and its never visible as the angiogram studied my heart only. You can only see the vague lines of the band as the view comes looking downward from my chin area twords my hips and thats why from this view you cannot see my vertebrae. Weird isn't it? Those dark veins are colored temporarily by die that is entered into my heart. What you are looking at are the coronary arteries so that can give you perspective on the sizes of everything. This was so amazing to me.

Kabeerah,

I'm with you on that one. I don't want to trade one problem for another. I went out and read a little of you journal. Like you, I've tried to pick the best surgeon available in my area.

Victoriana,

I think my curiosity would have gotten the best of me. And, SOMEBODY would have had give me an explanation of each cirlce on the x-ray.

Better a small silicone ring than an aritficial hip by the time I'm 50. Or ankle in my case.

Those things look like nuts and bolts or something. It's good your cardiologist wasn't alarmed, but I would ask until I get an answer.

Mslynn

Does anyone from the medical field know what those things are? I heard of someone on this forum that has found a couple of circles in their tummy in an ex ray too. I wondered if this is actually common from laproscopic surgery of any kind, not just lapbanding. I wondered if it had something to do with securing the tools while surgery is performed, or if they helped to keep the gas inside so we could get bloated enough for the surgeons to work. Id love to learn more about these things. :omg: :help:

I have no idea what they are, but I'm nosy/curious. I wonder if I have them.

About having an inorganic device installed - I am weird, but I am slightly freaked out that future archaeologists, upon finding my remains, will know I was MO. Or will spend a lot of time trying to figure out what it did. Is that too abstract? I decided to take self-conscious to a new high.

Victoriana, those rings look to me like a broken grommet or snap fastener. Were you fully gowned when this was taken? Maybe you pulled off a grommet on your jeans when you were getting on the table or something. Remember, the things you see may not necessarily be in your body, just between the radiation and the film.

I was in the position of taking spinal X-rays of people for awhile in the 80's and at that time a lot of women were getting their tubes done with metal clips which could be seen quite clearly. The interesting thing was, though, that these clips sometimes became unattached and were not where they were supposed to be. It wasn't unusual to see them quite a ways away from the fallopian tubes. Yikes.

I have had no tube tied, and the previous few years during an angiogram, I did not have these things inside. I was fully gowned, (cold) and These things are clearly inside as they are in front of my vertebrae. I can see them in a video. The other funny thing is can you see the lapband? its in the lower right corner, its very vague but there it is sort of a large 6 curled into the lower 1/4 of the picture, its mostly visible in one of the photos. The other one shows the tube to my port best. These grommets are about 1/2 inch or a little smaller.!

Morsaille,

I'm freaked as well. I keep imaging myself lying in the casket with nothing left of me but bones and the lap-band lying against by backbone attached to nothing. Kinda morbid, huh?

I have had multiple disk fusions and went last year for a check up x-ray. I could see my band, tubing, and port very clearly. It was so cool!

These days, implants of various kinds are so common - saline filled baggies to plump up the breasts, artificial knees and hips, etc. When my back surgery was being discussed, my surgeon gave me the option of donor bone (from a dead body), pig bone, or my own bone for the fusions. I chose to harvest my own bone, but only because there is less chance of rejection.

My daughter lost an infant to SIDS several years ago and they donated his corneas and heart valves for transplant. I am a huge supporter of organ transplant and feel that any technology that improves and/or extends life is a God send.