I just found out that there is a kink in my tubing. The doctor could not get the fill to work. He did an x-ray and there is a kink in the tubing keeping the fluid from going in. He is going to have to go back in and straighten it out. The bad part is my insurance has changed since surgery and I am hoping it will cover it. My surgery was in August and I have lost 50 pounds since then and an additional 35 before surgery. I hope to get the surgery over with and get back on track. I am just waiting for approval again. Has this happened to anyone else. The doctor said that I am the first that he has had it happen to.

I have heard of it- for this reason I asked my Doc if he would trim the tubing... he said he would and then I read the op report and he didn't. What a shame that that happened- it is supposed to be kink resistant!! Kudos to you for losing 50#!!!

Hi Carolyn,

I was banded at the beginning of October and when I went in for my first fill 6 weeks later, my doctor couldn't get the fill in... he figured it was probably a kink in the tube, sent me to x-ray, confirmed it to be true and told me to come back in for a "repair" surgery.

I went in the day before thanksgiving and was out that same day. It was very reminiscent of being banded at first, had pain in my port area because my doc moved my port a bit in order to straighten the kink out and my stomach in general seemed sore. After a few days though, I had recovered MUCH faster than when I was banded and I was back to my normal self.

I, too, was my doctors first "kink". Lucky me! haha

All in all, it wasn't a bad experience, my doc even did my fill when I was in the OR to make sure everything was fixed properly. Out of all the complications that can happen with the band, this seemed pretty easy and trivial.

Hope this makes you feel better and let me know if you have any questions!!! :regular_smile:

-Kim

I am still waiting for insurance approval. But it does make me feel better that it was easier the second time around. I just hope I don't have trouble getting it approved.

Good luck with the insurance approval. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!!!

How much did it cost to unkink the tube? I have no insurance.

Oh no! You poor thing. Keep us posted. I'll be thinking of you.

I had a kink in my tubing, it was not pretty. You can read about what happened on my blog if you like. I was told that the reason it kinked is because when you lose weight all the excess tubing has no where to go and will kink up at that point. I only have about 27 more pounds to go to get to my goal so I am electing not to have the port revision surgery that will move my port and trim the excess tubing. I am hoping that I will be able to make it through finishing this up on my own! My doctor is able to get Fluid in my band but not out of the band. I begged him last week to give me a tennsy fill and he did but he will not do anything else until i schedule surgery and have it done so I am on my own for now. My insurance will not cover it or I would just have the surgery. Good Luck and congrats on your weight loss. I have lost 93 pounds so far. My goal is to lose 120 so I am very very close! You can do it!

I just found out that there is a kink in my tubing. The doctor could not get the fill to work. He did an x-ray and there is a kink in the tubing keeping the fluid from going in. He is going to have to go back in and straighten it out. The bad part is my insurance has changed since surgery and I am hoping it will cover it. My surgery was in August and I have lost 50 pounds since then and an additional 35 before surgery. I hope to get the surgery over with and get back on track. I am just waiting for approval again. Has this happened to anyone else. The doctor said that I am the first that he has had it happen to.

I to was my Dr.'s first patient with a bent/kinked tubing. It all started when they noticed they couldn't asperate the fill out of the band. They thought it was a leak, and I got more fills, that led to me being overfilled with 10cc's and unable to get fluids down. I began to puke up blood for two days and was told to get myself to the hospital immediately. The GI swallow test showed no leaks and it showed that I was completely filled and nothing was getting through. My surgeon took me in for surgery immediately and trimmed the bent tube and relocated the new low profile port to the other side of my abdomen. The surgery hurt way worse than the original. I was hospitalized for four days. She believes that my rapid weight loss and exercise regimen may have caused the kink.