Hello,

Before I had surgery 2 weeks ago I had asked many questions and researched extensively. (I thought) Anyway, I had asked my Dr if I was getting the 10cc band and his response was, "exactly, Right, I see you have been doing your homework. Good for you." anyway, I went for my post-op today and was given a package from Inamed explaining how my band works. There is a tiny card in there titled Patient Identification Card. It states in small writing "Max fill volume 4cc". Nowhere else in the entire package does it identify the band type or say what the capacity is. Anyone know what size band I have???

You'll have to ask the dr which one you have. I know pre-op I got a packet which had the 10cc card in it. At my first fill I asked how many ccs the dr was putting in. He said 1cc, which I thought was conservative for a 10cc band. Well apparently I have the 4cc band, just got the wrong card in the packet, clerical mix-up. So the dr looked in my file to confirm I had the 4cc band. Call your drs office and ask them to look it up in your file.

Do you know what the difference between the 2 are?

The difference is the volume of fill fluid each band can hold. Generally the larger band is for larger patients, but that isn't a hard and fast rule. I would check with the surgeon again to be sure which band you have.

Suzanne:

I was confused about this too, so last appointment I asked my Dr. He said that I have a 10 cc band, which means it's 10 centimeters in length. The 10 cc band only holds 4 cc's maximum for fill. He told me that he hasn't filled anyone yet over 3 cc's and he's been banding since 2005.

At my support group they brought this up too. The other Dr. said that they're using only the bigger bands now because they've found that on some people the smaller band is too tight and you can't go backward. If it's too loose you can fill it, however if it's too tight it's a problem for the patient until they lose some weight, or have the band removed if it's way too tight.

I think that one of the benefits of the smaller band is that you don't have to go so many times for fills to find your sweet spot because there's less area to fill. The Dr. said it's more difficult to find the sweet spot in a larger band.

Good luck with your band. I have only 1.5 cc's now and I think it's good for me for now.

Take care.

Sue

I have the APS Band, which is 10cc's. There are two 10cc bands - the other is the Vanguard.

The 4cc is an older band.

I got the same package you did, with the 4cc card. Just a mix up I guess.

Ask your doctor again.

I too have a size 10 band and it holds 4ccs. Maybe there are 2 types of size 10 bands. I know one other one goes to 10ccs.

My doctor also told me my band was a size 10, so I went around thinking 10cc. It wasn't until I was informed that it was a 4cc, 10 CM band that I understood the difference.

Doctors sometimes talk about them differently than we do, that's all.