My question to you is whether or not anyone here has had this happen to them in between fills. Ever have the saline dissipate, dissolve, leak, disappear....etc...etc....??? Makes me curious now. I know the saline is safe and can't harm you; but I was just wondering.

Here's what happened: I went to the surgeon today for my 2nd fill, which was supposed to be 1/2cc. I scheduled one because since the day after Christmas I have been hungry between meals and was not satisfied with the amount of food i was used to eating. The doctor said I was losing steadily, and have not gained, but had not lost as much as he would like since 12/1/04; but was still losing.

Anyway, when he inserted the needle, he withdrew the last fill that I had on 11/8/04 and almost all of it was gone. He showed me in the needle how much was left and said it happens occasionally; dissipates or leaks out of the port, etc. so he filled the full cc again and said to watch my weight loss and the usual thing (if you lose 1-2 pounds a week, then call me in 3 months; but if you haven't, call to schedule another 1/2cc fill).

Anyone have this happen??? TIA!!

Nancy*

Hi Nancy...YES, I have.

My first fill was 1.6. When I went for my second fill he pulled out 1.2..... where did .4cc's go??? He said the same as your doc, it happens occasionally.

Could be error (that he actually put in 1.2 - and wrote 1.6 on my chart), or it could be air in the tube..... who knows?

But like you, I left disturbed!

My Dr. supposedly put in .75 Monday, but then said a couple of days later he thinks he missed the port. I told his nurse who scheduled the appt today, there is no third time's a charm without flouro. If he didn't get it this time, I'd be meeting him at the hospital.

Pat, I have to agree with you on that one!!

My first few fills leaked out somehow and then my doctor started putting in a slightly more viscous substance into the tube. I don't remember the name of it, but I could find out. I had to sign a consent for him to do it. Anyway, I haven't had another problem since then.

nancy

Nancy, how did you know the fills were leaking out? Does this other substance have any side affects/problems?

Nancy, it is in Dr. Ortiz's book that if your Dr. does not get ALL of the air out of your tubing during your FIRST fill, you could get a different ammount showing in your next fill. When I had my first fill..I remember vividly the Dr. removing all of the air from my tubing with the syringe before he added the saline. It was a feeling and sensation I have never experienced before, when I asked what it was I was feeling he told me he was extracting all of the air from my tubing first or I would get air bubbles where it would look like I had more saline then I actually did if he did not remove the air first.

This could be why you have less then you thought. According to Dr. Ortiz the saline does not evaporate but air does. It is possible and some have had a leak in their tubing though Here is a quote from his book. "If the original fill volume is not the same in the next visit, the patient should not panic. Usually it means that there was air in the system. Rarely will it be a true leak in the system that needs a reapir."

" Experienced Lap band specialists have found that if there is air in the system, it will leak and part of the fill will be lost. liquid does not leak from the band normally but air does.

My first fill was 1.1 cc's and when I went for my 2nd fill I saw the syringe with 1.1 cc's that he pulled out. I now have 2 cc's and am going in on Monday for my 3rd fill so I will be eager to see if he pulls out 2 'ccs then.

I'm not quite two weeks post-op yet, but has anyone heard that there are some people who do not have to be filled? Supposingly the placement of the band is enough for the proper food restriction for some.

Shaz

I know yall refer to stickies sometimes, but I downloaded post it stickies that stay on the bottom of my tool bar and when I find something I want to keep to repeat to my doctor, such as the post from Michelle, I just copy it then past it to the sticky. Then when I close LBT, all the post it stickys are on my desktop. It's really neat and great to refer back to....just FYI The site is www.zhornsoftware.co.uk

Shaz..Yes there have been people who have gotten to goal with no fills...and had enough restriction from the original band placement. Not many of them but there are some that I have read about on other boards.

Our own Hagertheresa lost something like 62 pounds before she got a fill!

Hi Nancy

I'm totaly with Michelle here and also want to add...after the first fill, when doing 2nd,.. 3rd..fills the doc should try and extract the previous fills, not air hopefully by this time. Thats my problem! After my 3rd fill my doc can Not get any fill back out, he even put alittle in then trys to get in back out. This is fustrating and unexplainable.

Furthermore he didn't place my band so were working in awww. where did my fill go. So in Nov I had a flouro fill was with contast solution instead of saline. We also saw a possible kink in the hose.? So yesteday I go for a blind fill, again no solution comes out. The odd thing is I felt restristion yesterday but not today. i want to make this work and will give it time...Even without restriction I'm still not eating as much as I use to.

Thanks everyone! So I did hear correctly ? I was trying to remember what the doc said and hope it made sense. So, from what I am reading, I should have had the air removed first.

I'm just glad it's not unusual and that it does happen now and then.

Will have to do more reading. Thanks Michelle for the quotes...and everyone else too!

N*

My doctor flushes the tube with saline during surgery, so there's no air in there. He put in 1 cc and then removed 1.5. He said some must have been in the tube from surgery. The air in the tubes thing is very interesting to hear.

I'm one of those lucky people who has restriction without a fill. I had one for a little while, but it had to be removed because I had problems with it. It makes me feel a little weird to be 80 pounds down with no fill in sight. It's a mixed blessing; sometimes I wish I was more normal.

Vera, I hope that your kink works out and you get your restriction back right away.

Gee Becky, I'm kind of feeling the same way. I'm loosing, slooooowly, but it's so much better than it was, and my appetite has changed for sure. I'm thinking about forgoing the entire fill thing myself.

Ok 80 lbs in 31 weeks, how much are you loosing on average per week at this point without a fill?

It wasn't just the first time. I went back for three or four fills and every time there was almost nothing in the band. That's when he started using this other substance and my band has worked fine since then. The other thing is that my port was slightly tilted so he had a hard time hitting it the first time. I don't know if that has anything to do with it. Now my port is so close to the skin and in perfect position, so it's not problem. The other substance he used is an FDA approved drug (not that I trust that so much anymore) so supposedly even if it leaked it would not be a problem. I don't remember him withdrawing air the first time, so maybe that was part of the problem. But I would think that by the third or fourth time the air should have been gone anyway.

About the band working without a fill: I had to have an unfill once for a few weeks and although I could eat much more than I should have been eating, I could not eat like I did before the band. There was still a small amount of restricton there.

Nancy