I haven't been on here in a while. My life got busy after the weight loss. Now I'm having problems & I find myself back here. I have lost 90lbs. January 26, 2008 will be my 3 year bandiversary. I have been aspirating at night & when I went to the doc he said it sounds like I have a slip. I go in for a barium swallow Wednesday. He says my band will have to be replaced. I just had to get this off my chest.

Honestly, I didn't even ask. I was not mentally ready for that. I was gonna be a chicken & take the "Let's wait & see approach".

I am confused on a couple of fronts - if my symptoms are acid reflux and thowing up everything, liquid and solid does that only signal slippage or anything else....... and if there are no objections to a compound question, why would insurance not cover a secondary procedure? I have Kaiser and I am assuming they will cover a band slip if that indeed is what this is

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Lizzy h

I would think that a life threatening problem, insurance MIGHT cover, but I know my insurance didn't cover the band, it has an obesity exclusion. I would like to think if something LIFE threatening would happen insurance would cover it, but really I'm not counting on it.

Shall I join the club and say that i have the same symptoms? The only difference is that i had an upper GI and it showed that my band did not slip. That was it, the test showed no problem so my doctor said i had no problem. I lost faith in my doctor. I had an endoscopy and it showed food and liquid still in my stomach even after NPO for 12 hours. My gastroenterologist recommends lossening my band, i am gonna ask for a total unfill. Lets see what happens. The good thing is that i have lost 7 more pounds with all of this.

Will insurence pay for a new band if you are down to a "normal" weight?

Well, that is fantastic you have lost weight! I hope your band didn't slip. I would think if insur. approved you to begin with it would approve a replacement if there is a problem with this one.

ON another note, while we are on slips, etc... My Endoscopy showed that my band is twisted /torqued. No wonder I've had such horrible symptoms with no fill.

This band is high MAINTENANCE!!!

After my slip, I went to Mexico to have the band removed because I was self pay and the cost to remove the band was $10,500 by my band placement doctor. In Mexico, Dr. Ortiz removed the band for $3,500.

I have learned that since my band removal, if a slip occurs now many of the surgeons do not automatically can the band. My placement doctor said they are now unhooking the band from around the stomach and letting it stay inside until the stomach heals then later they go back in and hook the band up. He said this technique has worked for several of his patients and they are happy because they did not completely lose their bands. I wish this technique was in effect when I lost my band.

My slipped band was diagnosed in April 2007 after 3+ years of banding. I had the reflux, nighttime aspiration, etc., and while those symptoms would resolve with an unfill I couldn't tolerate even the tiniest fill no matter how much time had gone by. I had several barium swallow tests (since my docs do fills that way) and they kept saying the band was in good position. I even had an endoscopy at one point, during which esophagitis was diagnosed, but the band was supposedly fine. But clearly something was wrong. Ultimately a slip was diagnosed and my band was removed. (BTW, I had the 4cc version, and now I think it was too small from the start.)

Insurance carriers handle this situation differently--there are no norms. In my case I had lost so much weight that my BMI was now about 30, so my carrier would not cover a new band. I simply didn't qualify. They paid for the removal and probably would have covered a repair/reposition, but not a replacement. But not all carriers take that approach, so I switched to a different carrier that would treat my band as an ongoing treatment for a chronic medical condition, and they paid for a new one. Now I have the AP-L band, implanted last August.

Obviously not everyone can manipulate their insurance coverage the way I have been able to, so it's really important that we understand our own policies and the laws where we live. It's entirely possible that your state has laws that will require maintenance of ongoing treatment, regardless of whether the treatment was covered in the first place. Check it out with your state's department of insurance, and DON'T take what your carrier says as the final word.

It was discovered that I had a slip in the middle of Jan 08. I lost 53 lbs so my BMI was down to around 32. I received my band in July 07 and I had the "bigger band". My 2nd surgery was Feb 15 08 and the surgeon told me right before the surgery if I didn't have the newest band he was going to replace the old one which he did. I work for an insurance company and it is my understanding ( I also read this in another post on this forum by a nurse) that when your band slips, it becomes a medical necessity to have it fixed and insurance has to pay for it and if they don't you should appeal it. My surgeon's office said the same thing - medical necessity. My situation almost became an emergency because I couldn't keep anything down.

They believe that is too much vomiting...for me, they believed that I slipped after a slight adjustment that proved to be too much for me. I began refluxing at night and several times woke up in the morning with vomit all over my clothes without even realizing it had happened (gross, I know!).

Hi -- just wanted to say I had the same symptoms (vomiting at night without realizing it), but it wasn't like vomit, it was food that hadn't cleared the band. I had a barium swallow and Dr. Bagnato removed everything from the band (2 ccs), and said I had to come back for a egd (where they put the camera down your throat), and he said that if what he suspected was the problem (slippage), he would remove the band at the same time. I am so freaked out at the thought of losing my band. I had lost 40 pounds (20 prior, so 60 total), but since the band was unfilled, I have been eating stuff that I have missed -- salads, fruit, bread, and fibrous meats like chicken breast and steak... oh steak! I've gained back almost 20 pounds in 6 weeks!!! I'm afraid if I get the band taken out, I'm going to be back to where I was (282) shortly. I am already suffering from the weight gain (joints killing me, clothes getting tight).

I know I have to get my mind back around this, and get focused on not eating things I shouldn't be eating, but I've always been an emotional eater, and between the open band and working 80 hours a week, I'm stuffing it down, and of course, it is almost all junk (whatever I can eat and work at the same time).

Please keep me in your prayers!

Sherri Wow, that sucks! i don't want to have my band removed! Darn it! All this stuff sounds like me! Maybe replacing the band would be ok? I am kind of a stand still for the time being with my band. Unfilled, and the reflux is bad. As long as I don't gain, I am ok. I have to think on what I'm going to do. I'm a self pay.

Chrissi, I'm sure you've tried all the remedies (not eating after 7, taking prevacid or prilosec, taking a slug of Mylanta Ultra, etc., etc.), but if you haven't, definitely try them. Mylanta, I think, is the only OTC you can take while taking antiacids like Prilosec. It definitely helped -- it was the last thing I did before getting in bed.

My appointment for my egd is Monday, March 10th. Everybody keep me in your prayers!

I talked with United Healthcare (I have UH Choice), and they said that they would pay for the replacement if it was medically necessary. Dr. Bagnato will write a letter of medical necessity after looking at the egd results and the barium swallow results again. I know you were self-pay, but if you have insurance, you might want to check. It's a pre-existing condition, and I don't think they can block treatment now. You might want to check if you do have insurance.

I hope you can keep on without gaining weight. I went crazy when the band was unfilled. Everything I hadn't been able to eat (sandwiches, bread, steak), I ate and ate. I've gained over 10 pounds (I'm refusing to get on the scale now) in 6 weeks. It sucks.

Sherri

I started aspirating on Saturday night, and I'm getting a full unfill tomorrow. I recently moved to Oregon and I'm trying to find a surgeon to help me diagnose whether it's a slip or something else, but I was fortunately to find a fill doctor for the unfill at least.

If it's a slip, hopefully it'll self correct, but if it wont and I need surgery, I wont be too disappointed to get a new model.

OMG... I have a 4 cc band! I remember my surgeon telling my husband that the 4 cc was a tight fit, but it fit. At my post op, I asked him about it (I was worried that it might eat into my stomach), and he said it was tight, but I should be fine. I bet that is why I have been so sensitive to fills. I have had to go back on liquid for almost a week every time I had a fill, even a .25 cc! If they did more than .25 cc, I would totally close off and have to have an emergency unfill.

I wonder how many others had a "tight fit" with the Inamed 4cc and it slipped? That might be a good poll. I understand that now they don't use that band any longer... is anybody else hearing that?

Well, I joined the Slip Club just this afternoon.....after 2 years of successful life with the band.

I went for a routine fill 6 wks ago because I had quit losing - doc did a flouro, said my pouch was dilated. So he unfilled it and said eat light and come back in a week. After doing some board research, I went on liquids, waited 6 wks and could tell things were still not well - I still had restriction and even had one PB (first in a year!).

So I went to a different clinic today and they told me after 2 xrays just what I had already 'diagnosed' myself......my band has slipped - badly. I don't know why or when. I've been extremely compliant, have not overfilled my pouch, haven't vomited in over a year and that was not bad. So....I'm on liquids for 7 days, mushies for 7 days and I go back (Unless I have a problem of some sort and then it's 'get back ASAP' they said). Apparently a slipped band can be serious business.

I'm trying not to panic - but this band has changed my life, it has saved my life, in fact. I don't want to lose it! I'm so very afraid of going back to having diabetes and high blood pressure and not being able to walk and living on medication (I don't take anything at all now and I run all over the place!). So....I'll just go by the rules and hope for the best.

I have said all along we are just willing rats in an experimental lab but I didn't care - it was working for me! So maybe the doctors will learn things from us and our slippages that will make ife better for someone on down the line.

Best wishes to all of you.....we'll make it through this!!

Hugs,

Gayle