Hi There, I am trying really hard to get some information on problems with realize bands. I was banded 3-26-09 with no problems. Had the first two fills with no problems and also not much restriction which is normal. I went for the third fill at two months out and found that I had a to have my port revised. No problem, went and had that surgery done 6-19-09, I waited a few weeks then went for my fill and low and behold the Doctor was not able to get the saline to draw out meaning I must have a faulty band because it is not giving me any kind of restriction. Okay, now I will be having my entire band replaced this next Friday. This now will make three surgeries in not quite four months and the bills are getting up there. I would like to take action with the Johnson and Johnson company that make the Realize band in that I would like them to pick up my out of pocket extra costs. Has anyone ever had this happen to them and what course of action did you take. Thanks for any comments or help that you can give! I feel like I should have a zipper put in my tummy! :-) I am loosing weight! Yeah!

Nothing is worth your life :tongue2:. I hope you didn't think I was trying to down play what happened to you because I wasn't. I can't even imagine how scared and confused you must have been. I wish you the best...

I was realize banded 9/18/09. No problems so far.Just a little tugging where my port is when I twist my waist for any length of time. I've had one fill 3ccs. no restriction yet but have lost 38#. another 3 cc to be put in a week. Trying to be optimistic that I won't encounter any problems down the road.

Jilly,

I understood what you were saying and appreciate the warm thoughts and concerns. I just explained in more detail what happened. I want to be rebanded because the medical benefits were great. I got off my hypertension medication in 1 week, I didn't have to sleep with the CPAP in 2 weeks and my body did not hurt as bad with the reduced weight. Those were my goals and reasons for having the surgery. Now all of those thing are back (my blood pressure became elevated immediately after surgery) and I don't know what to do. If it was easy to lose weight I would have never gotten this big and I have tried so many diets and weight loss programs. I would like to speak with someone who has been rebanded before. Thank you for being so kind.:tongue2:

I am getting the Realize band in 5 days... my wife and I are getting banded on the same day.

I've read horror stories about ALL of the different weight-loss surgeries (not just banding), but I seem to hear many more positive ones than negative. That's really all I have to go on. My doctor chose the newest Realize for me, and he had gastric bypass himself, so I feel that he knows what he's doing.

My wife and I are both excited... I'm a little more nervous than she is, since I've never had any kind of surgery before. :thumbup:

Wish us luck!

Doodle

Wonderful contribution... keep them coming!

Good luck!

I had my port disconnected very painful. I did contact johnson @ johnson they filed a complaint. I'm schedule for surgery tomorrow. Missed lots of work I would like compensation for days I missed work. I was never told this could happen:cursing:

I had a revision of a "kinked tube" @5 months out. This happened after gall Bladder surgery @4 months out. I have a simple way of reasoning I theorized that the gall bladder surgery caused the kink in my tube. All is well now !

I also had the same problem. They could put saline in but not pull saline out. I had surgery they replaced my port. Realize paid for the port but I had to pay the doctors. Since the port was replaced I have not lost a pound. Not please about the bills.

I posted her under this topic awhile back as not having had any problems. Since then had a little bump in the road, but not sure if it's the band or the surgeon...

I think I may have been overfilled and not sure if this is the surgeon not being as accurate as possible on how much he takes out before adding more. I ended up in ER after throwing up for five days. Initially had all fill removed (or so we thought). Was scheduled for revision becuase they thought the band had slipped. Surgeon had a scheduling conflict so surgery was postponed but I've been dealing with PA lately. We decided to go ahead and refill partially. As it turns out I still had over a cc still left in the band, which if you include the 8 ccs they took out in the emergency room and then 1 cc I had taken out the month before, would bring me up to at least 10. so I'm really wondering if the throwing up was just because I was overfilled. So I've had 4ccs in for about 3 weeks with no problems (no restriction either thank you very much...agghh...I've gained 10 lbs ...but it's been a great summer...lots of pina coladas...so I've had my summer sojourn...lol) I go Monday for another fill. I'm sure they won't do more than maybe 2. But the PA seems to be better at getting more out of the band than my surgeon was.

So we'll see how it goes. I personally think it will all be okay but if it's not, it probably won't rear its ugly head until there's some real restriction on the band.

But I'm am so not discouraged. What being unfilled has done has made me get up off my lazy butt and join the gym and also to get out more often to the pool in my housing development and swim as much as I can. So even with my weight gain, I'm not discouraged. I know that as soon as I start getting restriction the bread will be back out of my diet.

sorry to ramble...but I don't fault the band. My surgeon is very very inexperienced when it comes to the band, like under 20 total. My daughter had the Lap-Band, no problems, but her surgeon had done over 4k and had told her that the biggest issue with the bands is port placement and stitch placement for the flap that holds it in place.

So worse case scenario, I've been approved in case I need it for the revision.

Good luck all.

Trisha

pennreporter

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