I have a friend of mine, i admit she is nuts, she has the craziest ideas, one of them was that she wants to do her OWN FILLS by HERSELF!!!!

She was reading through websites and how fills are done and now she is totally convinced that she should do it alone, because she is unhappy with her fills and her doctor wont give her more than 0.5 each visit and the doctor will stop giving her the fills because she is loosing 4lbs /month.

So now she wants her fills ALONE!...

I have tried convincing her that its a bad idea, if anyone of you here knows the risks, please place your message and i will let her read them!

Thank you.

this is my thing... if her dr has NEVER done an Xray and the dr has never done the fill only the nurse who went to a 2 hour class... then what is the difference to do it yourself? YOu know your body better and you know your port better... If you have all the things that your doctor has and everything is sterile then I just dont see the risk... All I ever see is ppl sooooo against it with no proof.

bumbdity bump

The risk of infection is WAY high if you do it at home.

I am not a nurse, I want that clearly stated first.

I had an epidural catheter with a port similar. I spent MONTHS learning to care for the doggone thing. I ended up loosing it due to infection. And my technique according to my dr's and nurses were perfect. So we never knew why I lost it. But I still blame myself for loosing it.

MY son has hemophilia, and was scheduled to get a port a cath (again similar to our port, but for a different use), and I was scared crapless to give him the needle. I know how hard it is to hit those ports. I know how easy it is to get infected.

That explained... would I ever, and with my experiences I could, access my port? HELL NO! I went thru a lot of pain, and money to get to this point. I won't risk my band being lost to infection!

Teri

Ok, I AM a nurse, and I assure you, it is more than 2 hours of training. Perhaps the class is 2 hours long, but it is built on what we are trained on as medical professionals.

With that said, this is something I considered before I had my surgery. I access portacaths all of the time, and thought "hey, I can do this!". One of the girls I work with had her band in Mexico over a year ago and does her own fills. She does them under fluoroscopy at work (she has access to this). Well, she has lost 15 lbs (the 15 lbs that she had to gain to qualify for the surgery), and has had problems.

I had immediate post op problems (a reaction to something used during surgery?) and almost lost my band. I will not put my band at risk. By the way, I have lost nearly 45 lbs in 6 weeks ( I weighed about the same as my coworker).

So, I do not recommend this. Follow up visits are very important. I think aftercare is the key to long term success with the band. I go to the support group meetings (even though I think they are hokey) and I follow everything by the book (I am probably have OCD).

So, NO, don't do it!

If you hit the tubing line, gain a leak . . . then what? It is a whole lot of money down the tube. Insurance wont pay for a replacement if you are doing it yourself. It is too much of a risk.

If the fill doctor is going slow, they are only trying to be cautious. People who are filled too quickly have other more serious issues with banding. She should talk more to the fill doctor or find a different one . . . that is a more positive option then taking her health into her own hands.

Leaks. Sepsis. No doctor wanting to touch you after you do this due to the liability issues of a noncompliant patient.

Darwin award waiting to happen. Its a very stupid idea.

You also have to realize that you can't just take a normal syringe and do this....there is a special one that doctors use to access the port. A normal syringe will cause leaks in the port and then you're screwed.

Although fills seem like a simple process when I go in, I imagine that there's a reason not just ANYONE can do them. I'm thinking that there have been MANY good reasons posted on here as to why we should NOT be doing our own fills...infection, insurance, leaks, etc. I'm thinking that if something is wrong, my doctor stands a better chance to realize it than I do. I mean, for example, my surgeon (I've since had to change doctors) noticed that I had a leak in my port because he could withdraw as much as he had put in...I don't think I could've known that...they are trained professionals and there's a reason they don't "allow" us to do them. We are dealing with sensitive equipment here folks...not to mention the only bodies we have (like 'em or not)!

Its like thinking you can do your own acrylic nails at home - and if you've every tried that you'll know what I'm talking about, lol. The risk of missing, of putting a hole in your tubing, who wants the hassle?

The thing I think is dangerous about it is that you're talking about obese people here who are desperate to lose weight. We've ALL done completely stupid and ridiculous things in the name of getting skinny. How many people would overfill themselves stay tight, then unfill for a special meal, fill up again etc. That's placing the band at risk. No doctor to evaluate their motivations and behaviours, just ultra tightness when you want it. I dont think that's sensible. I'm a sensible person and I think for me, the temptation now to go super duper tight and live on liquids to lose those last 15lb that I dont even need to lose would be great. I am finding it hard to stop trying to lose! That sort of thing can really mess with your head if you had the freedom to fill and unfill at will.

well I'm going to try it.

Without the proper needles, and technique you are setting yourself up for infection, loosing you port/band and damaging irreveribly the port. IS it really worth that?

teri

I am a nurse...I access port a caths weekly...UNDER STERILE CONDITIONS. I have the ability and the supplies to do them myself but wouldn't consider it. NO WAY. NO HOW.

To do it outside your doctors surgery you need the special non-cutting needles, the sterile syringes, three-way tap, saline and gloves, the sterile dressing set etc.

More important than that you have to be experienced in handling the equipment and using the no-touch technique to prevent infection.

Your friend may get access to the equipment but will not have the experience to do it well, neatly, safely and in a manner than means she is not likely to risk infection in the port.

Furthermore, although I am actually qualified to do all these things myself, I have NEVER contemplated doing it myself. It would be too tricky to do it on yourself because of the positioning.

I have, with my surgeon's consent and advice, had a colleague give me a fill.

But I reiterate, although I am probably one of the most qualified on here to do this, there is NO WAY I would do it myself.

Don't do it!

Well i decided im going to start performing LAP-BAND® surgery!!!! YAY!!!!!

this is STUPID!!!! Really??? Why don't you just piss your surgery away and risk your health all because "i want it all, and i want it now!!!" . PLEASE!!!! :mad2::smile::smile2::mad::ohmy::wub: