Be honest....

Have you ever done your own fill/unfill? Even in a pinch?

Scenario; it's late at night, your fill is too much, you are barfing your guts out, you can't even keep saliva down. You can't reach your doc (maybe he's not returning phone calls, perhaps he's in Mexico, etc.) and you are getting dehydrated. Many ER's don't have docs working that have a clue about a band.

What do you do? Or, what have you done?

BTW, this is a private poll, nobody will be able to see your response.

My band surgeon (who also teaches general surgery) is banded. I asked him once if he does his own fills/unfills. He said, "No." I asked him if he would ever consider letting his wife fill/unfill him. He said, "Hell no."

I think that if my doctor won't do his own fills/unfills, I probably shouldn't either. And I'm a hard stick. My port is easy to feel, but for some reason, it isn't easy to fill/unfill. My doctor has had to stick me as many as 4 or 5 times, even under fluoro. That was not fun. I can't imagine doing that to myself.

Is his wife an RN or MD?

I am in the medical field too, but I don't think I would feel safe doing my own fills. There is no situation where a fill is an *emergency*. It would be easy to fall into bad habits, like giving in to the temptation to empty your band to binge on certain days and then tighten yourself up the next day (rather than consistently adjusting your eating to the band's tightness, as we all should be doing now!). I would be concerned that you could irritate your stomach if you were adjusting its so frequently, and possibly increase the risk of erosion.

However, I would definitely unfill myself if I had the proper equipment and it was a serious situation (like if I was starting to vomit violently, or over-filled and totally blocked off) because in that case I think the risk of slippage from the vomiting would be more dire than the risk of port damage from doing the unfill improperly.

I can understand that someone who lives in a very isolated area with no band-informed doctor around might benefit from being trained in how to do unfills on himself just in case he has a problem that needs an immediate unfill.

However, that isn't an ideal situation, more of a situation of making do with what you have, and I definitely think that band adjustments should be left in the hands of our surgeons or another person who has a lot of experience with the band if possible.

On one hand, I think it would be good if our surgeons gave us a card we could give to ER docs with very explicit instructions on how to unfill the band if a dire situation occurs, but I know if I were a surgeon I'd be afraid to give my patients the idea of doing their own fills/unfills. :rolleyes

WOW! First of all fill parties?? What the hell??? I am shocked as hell.

I would NEVER EVER EVER do my own unfill. I have been in this situation EXACTLY. I was in California on a business trip, miserable and in desperate pain. I took a cab to a hospital that told me they could help me. When I got there they said "Oh we have a Thurasic Surgeon who thinks he can do it" Hell no......I flew home on a red eye to my Dr.

I ONLY SEE DANGER in letting someone unqualified do it....

I am just sitting her with my mouth hanging open shaking my head. I cannot believe what I am reading! I think it is RECKLESS to even suggest someone should unfill themselves. That's why we all have doctors for crying out loud! I know my doctor has someone available in my area 24/7 if I was ever to need an emergency unfill..... I would NEVER EVER attempt it myself and I have medical training! What's next? We all start prescribing ourselves our own drugs?

Holy crap. :faint:

I am just sitting her with my mouth hanging open shaking my head. I cannot believe what I am reading! I think it is RECKLESS to even suggest someone should unfill themselves.

Whoaaaa... wait a minute! Who suggested anyone unfill themselves? Can you point to a specific post?

Sorry. I'm not gonna play the pick apart the posts game.

Good luck to you. :eek:

Sorry. I'm not gonna play the pick apart the posts game.

Good luck to you. :eek:

Nobody here has suggested as you claimed in a previous post. Actually, every post from every nurse here has been NOT to do fills/unfills. The dangers have been explained. I was the first one to point out the dangers of this practice and suggested someone has to be out of their mind to do such a practice.

I was merely asking you to defend your claim, nothing more. And you did make a specific claim. You said you could not believe what you were reading. I am merely asking which post you read that led you to this claim.

Good Lord above, I have now heard it all! I would never consider such a thing. I'm a newbie, not even banded yet, but DIY medical procedures sounds like a bad idea to me. I'm going to let the professionals handle that. Would you consider doing your own plumbing in a house you were building, or would you get a real plumber?!? Same idea, only this is your one and only body!

I'm still shocked that people actually have their own fill parties. Instead of a tupperware party, people have fill parties. Spooky.

There is as much chance that an untrained person is going to go near my band as there is that I would run bare butt naked around my house.

I don't believe in fill parties. Don't you think that's an Urban Legend?

I don't believe in fill parties. Don't you think that's an Urban Legend?

Not an urban legend. It was the Sr. VP of Inamed that told me about it. I had never heard of the concept before.

I'm waiting for the remote control version of the band....

Be honest....

Have you ever done your own fill/unfill? Even in a pinch?

Scenario; it's late at night, your fill is too much, you are barfing your guts out, you can't even keep saliva down. You can't reach your doc (maybe he's not returning phone calls, perhaps he's in Mexico, etc.) and you are getting dehydrated. Many ER's don't have docs working that have a clue about a band.

What do you do? Or, what have you done?

BTW, this is a private poll, nobody will be able to see your response.

Hmmmmm... my fill has never been too much because my surgeon does my fills and makes sure I can eat. He is in Mexico and has given me his private cell number I can call in case of an emergency.

Once I did have some swelling because my body (for some reason) decided it didn't like Wheat Thins all of a sudden. I called my doctor on a Sunday evening and he answered and had me come down to the clinic where I got an unfill. Wheat Thins are now on my "no-no" list. LOL!

The upshot is I would never fill or unfill myself.

I couldn't eat or drink for 4 days before I could get back to TJ for an unfill. Would I have attempted to do it myself? NO! I have zero medical training. Do I wish I'd had a "kit" I could take to an ER or my regular doctor? Yes. That would have been great. I didn't mind going back to TJ, but the time involved getting there was just plain misery.

As a registered ER nurse, this task would be simple on another body. To do it on myself would be particulary difficult but in a pinch, I would definetely do it!