Can anyone tell me if there are symptoms of your port being flipped? A few days after surgery I something in my lower left side abdomen felt like a muscle relaxing, but haven't had any pain since. Could it have been my port??

Thanks

Ann

Biggest symptom I know of is that the surgeon cannot access it for fills.

Exactly. The doctor has a hard time accessing the port. See my post... my night in HELL. That's what a flipped port will do for you.

Exactly. I had my port replaced in December 06 after the doctor tried to give me an unfill due to severe reflux. He poked around for an eternity and I was in tears. They put me under ultrasound with the needle in me still and showed the port was inaccessible. Lucky me.

Thanks so much for your help. I'm so sorry to read about the complications you all are having. I hope it all gets better soon. As far as my port being flipped I guess I will just wait and see, I sure hope it's not going through recovery again is not an appealing thought. This is my last week off work as well and can't really afford to miss anymore.. I guess what happens happens. Thanks again for the advice.

Ann

Ruby and Ann, sorry to hear abort your ports, especially you Ruby. I can relate to the poke, poke, poke thing. Mine is accessible but it seems that only my doc knows how to get to it. Really stinks. I'm going to ask him on the 23rd about my options. Maybe to have it repositioned? We'll see what he says. Take care and good luck to you, Dianne

Yeah, the biggest indicator is that they can't access it for fills. They couldn't access mine, put me under x-ray and found that it flipped over.

I hope you don't have to have surgery to fix it...it was a definite demotivator for me and stopped my weight loss until I got it fixed.

TulipStar, how did the surgery to fix it go? I'm thinking about it and would really like to know what they did, how they did it and how it was for you? Were you admitted in the hospital, how long did you have to stay? Thanks for your help TulipStar, Dianne

:huh2:Ok all...what causes a port to flip??? I mean does it just flip on its own? OR is it something we do??

Hi Ann...I had the first surg on 12/27...i went in for my 6 wk checkup and possible fill. They could not fill me because my port had flipped...i thought something was up because I had pain (constant) pain in the port site. I had the surg to flip the port 2/12 and I am still healing from that. Going thru the same muscle twice is not such a good thing. I hope you do well on your first fill !

I had surgery to totally replace mine. When they went in there, they realized it wasn't flipped per se, but it had come unstitched and had nothing behind it. Kind of like if you can imagine trying to poke an apple with a straw but the apple is floating in Water............... get it? So yeah it had to be replaced. In answering the question about what causes it, my doctor said he had no idea. That they do know it's nothing the patient does though............ it's just one of those things where the placement may be a bit off in a lot of cases.

Ann, being so soon after surgery it's all just probably healing. I wouldn't worry about it too much unless it doesn't go away or the pain increases.

Good luck with it :tongue_smilie:

I had no pain or symptoms when they found my port was flipped at my first fill. Looking back I did notice that the port was somewhat free floating but I didnt know how it was suposed to feel bc I thought it was normal.

had it repositioned while awake and was back to work within a couple of hours.

TulipStar, how did the surgery to fix it go? I'm thinking about it and would really like to know what they did, how they did it and how it was for you? Were you admitted in the hospital, how long did you have to stay? Thanks for your help TulipStar, Dianne

It was a pretty easy surgery. I didn't stay at the hospital for my original surgery nor did I stay for the revision surgery. I was admitted at 7:30am and then released around 11am. It went well. It was a much easier recovery than the original surgery and I could have gone back to work within 2 days, but I took 1 week of for a full recovery.

Does anyone know the stats (or know where I could find them?) for flipped ports? I'd never read or heard anything about them until I came here three weeks ago.

I'd like to get some idea of how often they occur.

Thank you in advance...

I cant give you stats but I do know I was the first one in a large teaching hospital where they have 3 other surgeons and have been doing bands for years.

Good to know. Thank you for replying, Tiny.