Port FLIPPED :(

NewCreation413 · April 24, 2008

It's been just about a month since my first-fill-fiasco...and I didn't finally find out what the holdup was until TODAY. I know I should have called the surgeon's office sooner to ask them what was going on with the follow up surgery date, and I meant to, but weekdays kinda fly right by me lol. Every morning I would remind myself on my way to work that I needed to call the office at some point, and then things would get busy at work or there was always a ton of people in my office and I couldn't find a place to make a private call, or whatever else, and by the time I knew it the day was over and the surgeon's office hours were already over. And I would kick myself for not having called. Again. :angry:

So yesterday as I was looking at my calendar I realized that today was supposed to be my post-fill follow up appointment and I don't know whether I'm supposed to show up or not. So I finally managed to call the office yesterday afternoon to speak with my surgeon's office assistant...and she had already left for the day. Freakin' perfect. LOL figures, right? So I try explaining my situation to the receptionist, who didn't have a clue whether or not I should show up either. So I asked her to leave a message for the assistant to please call me ASAP in the morning.

So this morning, thankfully right at 9am, she called me back. This is where things got amusing. She says "You don't really need to come to the appointment today unless you feel like you're ready for a second fill." HA. I tell her that I never had one to begin with, expecting that will jog her memory a bit about what the current situation is. She says "You didn't? Well then if you feel like you're ready for one, then you can keep the appointment today and he can do the fill then." I then realize she has no clue what happened last month when I went in for my first fill, so I explain that I met with the Dr. on March 27th for a fill under flouro, but her couldn't do it because the port had flipped, and that he was supposed to have told her about it so she could call me and schedule the follow up surgery to correct it. She says "Hmmm...yeah...apparently he forgot to pass along that bit of information." I love my surgeon and his assistant, but COME ON! Seriously. So she said we could go ahead and schedule the surgery, she suggested next week but I'm leaving for vacation next weekend so I told her it would have to wait until after I return as I'm not going to risk being uncomfortable the whole time or not being able to go on rides at Disney! So, I'm having it done the week after that, on May 14th.

I guess it's a good thing I finally called!!!:crying:

Girlmoose · April 25, 2008

NC413 I'm so sorry to hear about your port and the incompetence of the Dr. office and staff! UGH! I'm glad your getting to take your vacation and able to wait until it is now convenient for you. You just have to stay positive and work through it. I'll share my story with you that is still on going too..

Earlier in the month I started having pains in my upper left rib cage. It hurt to breath deeply, a cough or sneeze was impossible. Nothing is on the left side and the Dr. didn't know why it was hurting. It hurt just like this about 4 days after my lapband surgery 12-17-07 and lasted for about 10 days. They did a CT scan and everything came back normal. A few days after the CT scan the pain went away. We just assumed some air &/or gases got caught up there... Then this month the exact pain came back... :lol: I didn't want to do another expensive CT scan that might not show the problem now so we started with blood work which was amazingly improved since my surgery. Then all the sudden my left side felt better and my right side port area started hurting and protruding out... :tt2: They sent me in for an xray and sure enough the port has flipped. :sad:

I see the Dr. Tues. and will decide what to do. Sounds like a little surgery to correct it and secure it better. (I have the Alergan band too. He said it was the best...??? He attaches the port to the muscle too during the surgery. I don't know how this flipped but I was going to the gym and working out on the bikes and treadmills and feeling good about pushing myself before all this hit... But who knows why these things happen... :thumbup: I kept calling my Dr. office almost everyday to keep the ball rolling on this. I didn't want to schedule a test every other day or two because the pain was so bad I was afraid I would end up in the emergency room or something.

I'll let you know Tues. what happens but I think I'm looking at surgery in my near future... Good luck to everyone and hang in there NC413! :unsure:

babedoe4 · May 1, 2008

Good Luck to you both. I have a friend who had the same problem and she waited a year to do anything about it. It is a good thing you are correcting this right away. She told me when she finally did it, she wished she did it sooner, because she was unable to exercise and lose weight because of the lack of fills and pains

Girlmoose · May 3, 2008

Hi everyone! Just thought I'd update what is going on. I saw the Dr. Tues. We've agreed to flip the port this Thurs. morning at a in/out surgery center place. We did a pre-surgery filling with the insurance. Doesn't look like they will pay the $1,400. for this surgery. They will pay the $1,400. for the exploratory type procedure for them to look around for the pain on my left side, which has nothing to do with the flip port. The pain on my left side and the pain I was having taking a deep breath on that side is only like 5% or less of what it was a few weeks ago. He doesn't think they are going to find anything but it might be worth looking around so they don't have to put me under again if it flares back up. :thumbup: But it does mean I'll have two incisions to heal back up instead of one. :w00t:

My Dr. said that since they are a "Center of Excellence" the insurance company tracks everything they do. He said the flip ports have only been happening in about 5% of the patients. Very low and he has never seen one flip twice. He said he thought I ripped the stitches somehow because he sews it through the four corners that are made on the port to attach to the muscle and through the the wall liner.... No wonder I was so sore in that area for over a month! :thumbup: He is going to resecure it strongly and I'm going to be as careful as possible not to go through this again! :sad: I was working at the gym pushing myself pretty hard and I think I'm going to do a more moderate approach healing this time.

The Dr. also said that they are finding a slipped band more common then a flipped port. I think he said it was running around 15% for that. I'm really glad I only have the flipped port!!! I'm hoping life can feel normal again. My weight loss has been about zero since all this... :smile2: No exercising and laying around a lot more because of the pain and not eating that much is not very rewarding! For as little as I'm eating, it would be nice to benefit from some pounds lost! :frown: Oh well, I just want to get this part behind me and move forward!!! Good luck to all and take care of your ports and bodies! You don't want to go through this inconvenience and expense! :tongue:

NewCreation413 · May 23, 2008

It feels like forever since I've been on here to give an update! Last time I posted, I had just gotten my date for the port revision surgery and was about to be heading off for vacation. First of all let me just say vacation was AWESOME. Leaving Massachusetts and heading to Florida for a week was a much needed break! Little things throughout that week helped me to realize that my body is changing for the better, and at 70lbs lost so far the difference is noticeable, even though I don't always perceive it to be. For instance, the last time I was on an airplane was in Feb. 2006, and I remember it being so cramped and uncomfortable and barely being able to get the seatbelt buckled if I managed to buckle it at all. This time, I didn't feel like I was invading the seat next to me, and not only does the seatbelt buckle, but there's a good five or six inches of extra belt leftover after I tighten it. Such a good feeling!:blushing:

Later that week came the amusement park rides...I haven't been to an amusement park in probably at least 4 years for fear of not being able to fit on the rides and having to be asked to get off. I've never actually been asked to get off a ride, but the anxiety of thinking that it was a possibility was more than enough to keep me away for all those years! I guess I figured stop going before that happens, because I cannot even fathom how humiliated I would feel if that happened to me in front of everyone waiting in line. So, even though I knew that this time I shouldn't worry I still kind of did...but happily discovered that my fear no longer seemed to be warranted! Needless to say I had a fantastic time and went on just about every ride in the park.:biggrin2:

Came home from vacation on May 11th, and then had my follow up surgery to correct my flipped port a few days later, on the 14th. I met with my surgeon the day before and discussed the procedure and I asked the questions I had. I finally remembered to ask what size band I have, and it's a 10cc band. I asked about what the chances were that my port would flip again later down the road, and he said not likely but not impossible. He did say that of the patients he has had to do the revision surgery on, none have had any further complications...hope I continue that tradition!

The day of surgery went very well, and was definitely much easier than the initial surgery. I got to the hospital around 1:30pm, and the procedure was scheduled for 3:30pm, although I think they actually got started a little closer to 3:00. I was out of the hospital around 5pm, stopped at the pharmacy to get my Rx filled on the way home, and asleep on the couch due to the Percocet by 6pm.

The procedure itself was much easier, and I only had to have local anesthesia with sedation instead of general. Which I was thrilled about because I hated the horrendous sore throat I had before with general. I was sore afterwards, but not nearly as bad as last time since there was just the one incision and it was just below the surface. I'm barely a week postop now, and feel 99% back to normal...just a little soreness if I try to do too much with my ab muscles, and my incision is nearly healed.

My surgeon did my first fill while doing the surgery, and I think he put in about 1cc. I notice a little bit of difference as far as restriction, but not much, definitely not as much as I was hoping for. Perhaps next week at my follow up appointment he will do a second fill. We'll see!

How is everyone else doing?

tommaney · May 29, 2008

NC413...SO GLAD to hear that your flipped revision went so well. I went in yesterday for my 3rd fill and found that yes, my port had done a 180 like yours. Now I'm waiting for a speedy surgery revision date. Good luck to you and here's to no more complications!

Ezma · May 29, 2008

So glad to hear things are looking up for you and sounds like the revision wasn't too bad. Not sure how I missed this post the first time but it's good to know you're doing well.

ReadySteadyGo · May 29, 2008

I am so glad to hear that. It's been such a headache for you. I am so happy you finally got fixed. Now take care of yourself and heal up.

Girlmoose · June 8, 2008

Hi everyone! Just thought I'd update... I kind of hate to because it just seems like bad news and I think this is a rare thing (hopefully) and no one else goes through this... :tt2:

When I went into the Dr. with xrays that said my port had flipped again the Dr. disagreed with it and had another radiologist he uses read my xrays and agreed it had not flipped! They even took xrays of a sample port and cord to show us it hadn't flipped. It can be tricky reading them if a radiologist doesn't do it a lot. :incazzato:

The bad news is I was in the worse pain EVER and of course it is a Thurs. 4:00 appt. We went through all the possibilities of what it could be and we decided to do an ultra sound and see if there was Fluid by the port or if they could find a hernia or something. We just didn't really want to cut me open a 3rd time and not know what's wrong and if I even needed surgery.

Sure enough... FLUID! The Dr. wrote on the ultra sound order that if there was Fluid found to extract it so I wouldn't have to go back in and maybe get relief right away. :huggie: The radiology Dr. numbed it up right away and using the ultra sound machine extracted the fluid. They removed 30 c.c. of a bloody infection!!! :eek: I did get instant relief. :sad: They ran test on the infection and it came back as a typical staph infection and put me on strong antibiotics for a severe infection for 10 days. About 5 days into the antibiotics the port/incision area was still red and warm so I decided to lay on my right side one night to see if it would open up and drain... sure enough! 2 hours later I woke up to a wet shirt! It drained really heavy for about 24 hours of a watery/yellow discharge, sometimes thick and then toward the end it went more watery again... It has been draining for a week now! slowly... seeping out now. Almost stopped now.

When I went to the Dr. last week to check the incision area and discharge he gave me less then a 50/50 chance to heal this on my own. :eek: He explained the antibiotics are absorbed through the blood stream and it is hard to clean up an infection in a foreign object, like the port. It can absorb the antibiotics from the blood stream... He put me on the antibiotics a little longer to give me the best chance possible to heal it before surgery again on the port. I don't think it is going to heal by itself. He said usually around the 5th day off of antibiotics the infection blooms! If I can go 1 to 2 weeks off of antibiotics with no infection, I should be fine... But being that I'm still draining a little yellow watery stuff and I only have 5 more days of antibiotics, I don't think it is going to clear up. :frown:

My choices will be... 1. remove the port for a couple of weeks. Stay on antibiotics and then have a second surgery to add a brand new clean port on the opposite left side. OR 2. remove the port and clean the area and flush with antibiotics ( like the first option) but add a brand new port to the left side and muscle and only have one surgery but a little more risk about an infection coming back.

I'm really considering option 2 because I don't want a 4th procedure and it seems like the infection is probably existing because of the contaminated port on the right side... A week from now will tell. Sorry this is so long but just in case anyone else has an "infection" problem maybe this will help them... I'm a fighter and I've done so well losing 40 pounds already and bringing my cholesterol and trigs. to a normal, healthy level in 4 months that I couldn't do in 10 years on my own, I'm going to work through this because if I just give up, I know I'll be right back to where I was or worse. :frown: I've never had problems like this before and I usually am a quick healer... I just think all this trouble now is just because of an infection on or in the port now. Good luck to all and hang in there. :driving:

Edited June 8, 2008 by Girlmoose

Ezma · June 8, 2008

Wow! Sounds like you've really been through the ringer with the band. I'm sending you all kinds of good healing thoughts and hope things work out for you soon. I do agree it was a good thing to post in case anyone else runs into this kind of problem.