Hi!

I was banded on March 2nd by Dr. Ortiz in TJ. So far I have had an excellent and smooth time with the whole thing!! I am now anxious to plan for my first fill at my 6 week mark. I have found Dr. Spiegel will do fills on Mexican banded patients, but he doesn't use fluoro (if he can access your port easily). Does anyone have experience with fills without fluoro? Do they have a harder time getting the sweet spot if they're not looking at it?

It sure would be easier to travel to Houston instead of TJ!! But I also want the best result, and many have said that Dr. Ortiz/Martinez are great with fills....

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks,

M.

185/Now 171.5

"The first signs of erosion can be deteced under fluorscopy."

I didn't word that very well. What I was trying to say is that a doctor can actually see something in the fluoroscopy that might make him believe you have erosion. The erosion process would have started earlier, but unless you have other signs or sypmtoms, you could walk around with erosion and not even know it. So on the pro-fluoro side, it's a good way to make sure the barium flows correctly, and it's also a good way to see how tight the fill makes it.

But on the other side, even if the fill looks good under fluoro, there's no way to tell how the body will act in a couple days after the fill. Most people don't feel a fill right away as the body adjusts, which is why some doctors don't feel fluoro is 100% accurate. Do chemo patients get injected under fluoro? I don't think I'd want anyone poking at me that wasn't able to find my port easily. Fills seem so "text book" to me that a port shouldn't be a mystery.

I had my first fill without Flouro on April 1st. It went very well. I got really sick about 20 minutes after the fill but after about an hour I was on the road to feeling "normal" again.

My next fill will be done without flouro also. It's so much easier to have it done in the doc's office instead of the hospital, and in my case since I seem to becoming the "Fill Queen" I don't think flouro is all that beneficial in my case. Obviously my optimal restriction level was not obtained using flouro. I'm at a good restriction level right now, but might go back for a little more in a month or so.

I think everyone's situation is different, and I feel good knowing that I've had some previous adjustments using flouro so that the docs could see that everything looked good, but now that I've had one fill without using Flouro, my next one will be without as well.

OK.. now why would we get sick from flouro?

I never had it before and want to be prepared, I am such a baby!

Nykee,

I guess I should clarify

You can't get sick from Flouro. Flouroscopy is an x-ray method used to see barium flow through the band. It's just an x-ray, it's not a drug or anything that could make you sick.

I had my first fill without using Flouro and got very sick about 20 minutes after my adjustment. At first I thought I was too tight and the doctor was going to take out 1/2 of what he just put in. After about an hour, I started feeling better so we decided to leave the fill in and see how I did over the weekend. I'm glad I did. I was a tad concerned at how sick I was and how it hit me really hard and fast. My doctor mentioned something about the Vegas Nerve. I haven't heard anything about that and haven't done any research on the issue, but my sudden illness subsided and I was fine after some time.

Ohhhhh OK

Thanks..

But whats the barium? You swallow this? Is it gross?

Nykee,

Barium isn't that bad. It's kind of a milky liquid that you swallow so that the doctor can see it on the x-ray passing through the band. When you swallow barium, it's almost like it shows up illuminated on the screen, it makes it much easier for the doctor to see it.

I believe that is the "vagus" nerve...

I believe that is the "vagus" nerve...

aahh, thanks!

Do you know anything about it? I did a search for "vegas nerve" and it brought up some rock band in Las Vegas. haha!

Sounds pretty important, and scary to mess with according to these sites?!?! lol

http://www.answers.com/topic/vagus-nerve

http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/gastroparesis/

http://www.bartleby.com/107/205.html

** sorry for hijacking this thread **

Donali,

Thanks for the links. The Vagus nerve does sound serious. Geesh, when I read about the brain stem part I wondered if I had done some damage