In April/2008, I had surgery for the lapband. I had nothing but pain and trouble with the location of the port. My doctor, at that time, and his staff refused to listen to me. They kept telling me that the pain would subside and the band and port would settle into my body and be fine. The pain was so intense that I was on an rx for pain. In August/2008, I ended up having a second surgery to correct the position of the port because it had flipped. After that surgery, I continued to have pain, at the port site and where the band was placed. My dr, again, denied that anything was wrong and just gave me pain meds. I went to another doctor, for a second opinion. His diagnosis, the port had flipped again and the band was possibly positioned incorrectly or something totally unrelated was going on. So from August/2008 until the end of April/2009, I ended up seeing not only seeing my original surgeon, the 2nd opinion doctor and yet a 3rd bariatric doctor. I ended up going to the emergency room several times. Then was hospitalized for almost a week to be monitored and tested , having 2 cat scans, an MRI, endoscopy,heart cath, barium series, ultrasound and of course labs. Nothing was found to be wrong except the port had flipped. So the 3rd surgeon was the one that made a decision to do an exploratory surgery to correct the port and see if anything else was going on. The surgery went well and I was without some of the pain but on a scale from 1-10 my pain level was always at least a 4 or 5. The port was very difficult to locate, possibly flipped again. Also, the weight loss was slow. Finally, in January/2010, I asked my doctor( the 3rd one) to remove the lapband and port. That surgery was February/2010. The port had definitely flipped again, plus the lapband had eroded into my stomach. No wonder I had pain. My doctor suggested having surgery for the sleeve. I was torn between the bypass and the sleeve. I ended up having the sleeve in April/2010. I have had weight loss and weight gains. My starting weight in April/2008 was 268. My lowest weight was 215. Then because of all the problems with food,pain, etc my weight flexuated between 215 and 240. My last visit with my dr was, Nov/2010. She explained the opening of my sleeve is larger than most because of the erosion caused by the band, so therefore more food can get into my stomach. I always have had hunger since the sleeve, too. On top of everything else, my dr left the practice, that I am in. I am currently waiting for my insurance company to approve a visit to the other, doctor in the practice. I feel like such a failure. I do want to lose weight. My goal weight is 125, my height is 5'4". My current weight is 238. I have 113 unwanted pounds. I have been so down and depressed about my journey. I DON'T WANT TO GIVE UP but I am not sure what is next.
