This will be a long one, I'm afraid. I was banded 04/20/2006 by Dr. Ariel Ortiz in TJ. Surgery went great. My second - and last - fill was on 07/11/2006 for a total fill of 2.4 cc in a 10 cm band. Starting losing weight and was doing just fine. In November I began having stiffness and swelling in my back due to diagnosed spinal arthritis and bone spurs. This made my band a little tighter. Near the end of December I experienced bloating and swelling due to perimenopausal bleeding that I had not seen in four years. You guessed it, my band felt even tighter. By the end of January I knew it was time for an unfill until I could get these issues resolved. I made an appointment locally for a fluoro and unfill. The night before I was scheduled to go in, I ate a piece of chicken. It immediately obstructed my band. I have never known such pain as this, and I've had natural childbirth and three kidney stones. The vomiting and retching were over the top.

I was taken immediately to the ER. Of course, they had never heard of the band. All I could say was "Get a 2-inch needle, aspirate all fluid from the port!" I even told them to go look it up online. One of the sweet ER nurses did come in and ask me to not scream so loud as I was scaring a child down the hall! As if I could stop.

The local lap band doc (who was not on call) came to my rescue and removed all the fluid from my band. There was a great sense of relief, but I still had a lot of pain. It had been mitigated somewhat by the 5 mg of morphine they gave me. They sent me home. Within an hour, I knew I was in bad trouble. The pain had just increased more, so back we went to the ER. At least I got a different nurse this time!

Bloodwork was done, followed by CT scan. Just an elevated white count. They decided to admit me for an endoscopy the following morning. It was about 2 a.m. by this time. They kept me drugged with the 5 mg morphine every 45 minutes to an hour, and it barely kept me going.

The next morning at 11 a.m. I went down for an endoscopy to be followed by a gastric graphing. After waking up from the endo, they said no more tests for you. You have to go to immediate surgery. I saw the pictures from the endo - pink, pink, black. I knew it was bad when I saw black!

The scheduled my surgery for 5 p.m. but moved it up to 2 p.m. As I was being rushed in, I was told that my band had slipped catastrophically down the front of my stomach and my stomach was being deprived of oxygen from being strangled by the band. They were hoping to do a lap incision and remove the band and things would go back to normal.

The surgeon took one look in the lap incision, took a picture of my stomach looking the same color as my liver (bad news!) and then removed the lap tool and opened me up all they way, from sternum to belly button.

They removed the band, along with two/thirds of my stomach that had died over the last few hours. I woke up with a six-inch stapled incision, a two-inch stapled incision, two drains, a central line to my heart, an NG tube that went into what was left of my stomach, a Foley catheter and those lovely leg squeezers. I was unable to get out of bed for four days and didn't have solid food for over a week. IVs only. The NG tube was my "friend" for five days. I was given alternating doses of two different antibiotics every six hours to prevent peritonitis. I was on a morphine pump to administer 5 mg of morphine every hour on the hour. I used that pump for over seven days. Thank God the antibiotics worked! I was in the hospital 11 days and am very lucky to be here today.

Now to answer a few questions I know some of you might have. My band had not slipped before this night, and I had no symptoms of a slip. I had no symptoms of anything. No pain, No acid reflux, no PB'g. I was able to eat and drink as I had before it started getting tighter, just much smaller amounts. The doctor said the initial surgery looked like a good surgery, so no problem there. I did all the things I was supposed to be doing, eating slow, chewing well, etc.

The doctor who fixed me up said I should have no long-term effects from losing so much stomach, except for some weight loss. I will only be able to eat small amounts, about 4 oz., five to seven times a day. I've lost over 17 pounds since the surgery and am struggling not to lose more as I need to get in more calories to help my body heal faster. I'm dealing with low-grade queasiness all day, and the BMs will be faster until they get settled down. The doc was able to save my pyloris, so I won't have the "dumping" issues we've all heard about.

Before you get too scared over my story, just remember that my surgeon said that this is a very rare occurence. This was the first time he's seen it happen this way. But you know what they say, "The statistics may be only 1%, but if you are that 1%, then your statistic just jumped to 100%.

We all know when we decide to get the lap-band that complications can happen, so I felt it was necessary to share with this community my personal experience. I do not regret getting my lap-band last year. It just turned out that I was to be one of the "statistics" we all read about. Considering the seriousness of my situation, I'm so very grateful to be here to be able to share this with you.

I've often wondered over these last few weeks as I recover if there was anything I could have done to prevent this from happening. The doc says probably not as I had no symptoms and was in the process of doing the right thing by getting a fluoro and an unfill.

I know this post may contain TMI, and I apolopgize in advance for that. But I also know there are many, many of you on this board that want and need to hear my story. So here it is. Feel free to post any questions for me. I'll be more than happy to answer any questions I can.

Thanks for the advice Janet, I am on my way in right now to get a slight un-fill. I hope it helps because this has honestly been miserable and I just need to be patient with the weight loss. I'll let you all know how today goes.

Thanks for the support ~

Lynn

Thank you for thinking of us and sharing your story. I do think it's important for us to hear this stories, in the research process, and after.

I hope you'll stick around and keep us posted on how you are doing. You're still a 'bandster', even without your band.

Thank You!!!! Thank You!! This is not to much information. I have a slipped band and i have been waiting over a month for surgery. My surgeon's staff does not seen to understand that my repair is not elective surgery. I tell them I AM SICK. I need help. My surgeon would not let them schedule my surgery until I paid 5500.00 upfront even though I have full coverage from Blue Cross. I am not giving my surgeon's name because I am going to let him have the opportunity to make it right. I believe he is a good surgeon. My repair surgery is costing me 9000.00 with insurance coverage. I have had aspiration pnemonia twice. I am a very sick puppy waiting for surgery.....one more month to go...Jennifer

Baby that band until you get your surgery! If you have any pain at all, call the doc at once. You can lose parts of your body in only a few hours if the band slips the wrong way. Money doesn't mean a hell of a lot when you get into a desperate situation. I wish I could "buy" back my old insides!

Hi,

I just read this article today. You said you had a 10cm band and it talks about that. Thought I would let you read it for yourself. Not sure it has anything to do with the problem you had but wanted to share it with you.

I am so sorry you had to go through this. Praying for your complete recovery. Hugs, Deb

<DT class=head id=head17303945><INPUT type=checkbox value=17303945 name=uid>1: Med Princ Pract. 2007;16(2):110-3. <SCRIPT language=JavaScript1.2><!--var PopUpMenu2_LocalConfig_jsmenu3Config = [ ["ShowCloseIcon","yes"], ["Help","window.open('/entrez/query/static/popup.html','Links_Help','resizable=no,scrollbars=yes,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no,alwaysRaised=no,depend=no,width=400,height=500');"], ["FrameTarget","_top"], ["TitleText"," Links "]]var jsmenu3Config = [ ["UseLocalConfig","jsmenu3Config","",""]]//--></SCRIPT><SCRIPT language=JavaScript1.2><!--var Menu17303945 = [ ["UseLocalConfig","jsmenu3Config","",""], ["LinkOut","http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?itool=pubmed_AbstractPlus&cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&list_uids=17303945&dopt=ExternalLink","",""]]//--></SCRIPT> Links

</DT><DD class=abstract id=abstract17303945>Slippage after Adjustable Gastric Banding according to the Pars Flaccida and the Perigastric Approach.

• Khoursheed M,
  
• Al-Bader I,
  
• Mohammad AI,
  
• Soliman MO,
  
• Dashti H.

Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University, Safat, Kuwait.

Objective: To evaluate laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding and the 'pars flaccida' techniques for treating morbidly obese patients. Subjects and Methods: Between May 1999 and July 2002, 64 patients underwent laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding. The 'perigastric' technique was performed in the first 31 patients. From September 2000 the band was positioned according to the 'pars flaccida' technique in the remaining 33 patients. The patients were divided into three groups: group 1 - 'perigastric' technique using Lap-Band size 9.75 and 10 cm (31 patients); group 2 - 'pars flaccida' technique using Lap-Band size 10 cm (12 patients), and group 3 - 'pars flaccida' technique using the Swedish band (21 patients). There were 58 females and 6 males with a mean age of 36.6 years (range 17-56). The preoperative mean body mass index was 46.2 kg/m(2). Results: Band slippage occurred in 10/31 patients (32.2%) of group 1, 3/12 patients (25%) of group 2 and none in group 3 patients (p < 0.01). Conclusion: The 'pars flaccida' technique significantly reduces the incidence of postoperative slippage after gastric banding. This complication is further reduced in the Swedish band group. Furthermore, we do not recommend using the 10-cm Lap-Band in the 'pars flaccida' technique. Copyright © 2007 S. Karger AG, Basel.

PMID: 17303945 [PubMed - in process]

</DD>

I went in yesterday and had a slight adjustment to reduce the amount of 'fill' in my band. I had gotten a 2.1 fill on Thursday of last week, and yesterday they removed .3, so now I have 1.8. We'll see I guess . . . I am most hopeful that this adjustment will help and am now just waiting to see. I will keep you all posted.

Lynn

Thank you for sharing this. I didn't even know this could happen. Wishing you a speedy recovery.

Omamoon - speaking as someone who is an ER nurse - my apologies for the rudeness of the first one. Appearances must have been really deceiving - I have to admit I get annoyed at people that "act out" out of proportion to what we think they should be feeling (like the folks that are laughing and chatting with their friends, then, when the nurse or doc shows up, they start moaning and yelling). So sorry you had to go through the whole thing - you must have been in excruciating pain with your stomach being strangled - and so happy you survived!