I was banded in January 2012, have lost 50 pounds, BMI is down to 29.3. However, I have had two serious pain episodes with the band that have sent me to the ER writhing in pain (and I'm NOT a pain weenie). First time doctor removed 4 cc's and pain went away. We slowly refilled and I got a little too tight and went in for a small unfill and later that day I was hit with that writhing pain again. This last time the doctor removed a good bit of Fluid and pain subsided a lot, but didn't completely go away. The pain started to build again, but never got to the writhing level, and I had the remaining fluid removed. Tests were run after the first episode and everything looked completely normal. Doctor had to answer as to what would cause such severe pain.

I've gotten kind of leery of my band now, so I'm going to look into revision surgery. My question is, my insurance Carefirst BCBS covered my band surgery 100%. For people whose insurance covered the band 100% and then they go in for revision, what did your insurance cover for the revision, and what was your BMI at the time of revision, any co-morbidities? In other words, did you have to jump through all the hoops that were required for the first surgery all over again? Did you have to qualify with BMI and co-morbidities again?

I had was banded on 07/07 and I just started to have problems with it back in 07/12, almost 5 yrs to the day. I have a bmi of 31 and was dignosed with esphogeal dysmobilty, the only was to correct is to have band removed. My doct suggested that I get the revision and I agreed with him. I had premiun insurance with UHC when I had the band done and it was covered at 100%. Now I have standard insurance with UHC and I have 75/25% with a max out of pocket of $5000.