pixelkitten

I was banded a little over a year ago, and have had 16 fills/unfills between then and now. I've never really felt the restriction my doctor and other patients have described; it seems to be one extreme or the other. Either I'm unable to eat more than blended Soup or crackers without coughing up my food/vomiting, or I'm able to eat everything with no feeling of fullness. I am a self-pay patient, and was only able to pay for the surgery with a loan from my bank (which I'm still paying for now). Adjustments cost over $200 each, and I can't afford doing them twice a month like I have been typically. My current insurance does not cover any sort of bariatric surgery. Do insurance companies allow a switch in policy AFTER an operation like this? I have not had them check to see if I've had a band slip (although I've heard that is terribly painful and I am not experiencing much pain), but I am terrified to have them check -- if they find anything wrong I can't afford to pay for any further treatment! My doctor's main office is over an hour's drive from my house, so my options for seeing him are either 1) drive over 1 hour M-F to see him, if I can get an appointment, or 2) wait until there's an opening on a Tuesday when he's at a satellite clinic closer to my home. What should I do if I have an emergency on the weekend? At the moment, I'm feeling too tight again: I have been living on soup and ice cream for 2 days now, and this morning I tried a couple small spoons full of tabouleh and now I'm at a point where I can't even keep my own saliva down. My question is, has anyone else had this much difficulty with their band? What should I do? I'm out of money to keep paying for this!

Generally I'd agree with you that 2 ccs is a lot to take out at once, but my stomach was so swollen and sore at this point that nothing was getting through at all. I need to heal before I can deal with any more Fluid in my band. My confusion is that in my last couple of adjustments we've really been taking baby steps (.25 ccs at a time), so I don't know why I suddenly had problems!

Follow up: I went in for an adjustment this afternoon, and they removed all but 2 cc's of fluid from my band. I'm able to drink fruit juice now! Hooray!

Rachel, Thanks for your advice! Actually I was still unable to keep anything down today -- I managed a sugar-free smoothie earlier, but have "lost" it since . The worst part about an ongoing episode like this is I can't lie down -- the instant I do it causes me to vomit. Talk about a looooong night. I'm going to call my doctor first thing in the morning to make an emergency adjustment -- I'm going to probably take out all or most of the Fluid in my band. I like your idea of keeping it on the looser side in general -- at this point I'd much prefer having to restrict my own eating more often than going through this the rest of the time!

Hi candieee, I do feel that when I'm ABLE to eat, I'm eating the right foods. I was raised on healthy things like veggies and whole grains, but in the past year i've had such a huge battle of extremes: either my band is too tight or too loose. I've had a few blocks when I don't chew enough or if I take too big a bite, but I really do feel like I've figured that part out. My problem is, the correct-sized bite and chewing that works one day won't work the next day for me. It's almost like my stomach randomly decides to swell or loosen every day, on its own. I don't have insurance, so I really don't want to ask for an x-ray unless there's a good chance my band has slipped. My doctor does NOT use fluoroscopy when doing fills/unfills -- he'd charge even more for that if I requested it, because it would mean admittance into the hospital and not just a regular visit. The reason I've had so many is because my stomach will tighten, I'll vomit and it will swell more, then I'll have to go in for either a slight or complete unfill (depending on the severity of it), then start over again or re-fill slightly once I can eat large quantities again. When my stomach is so tight that I can't eat much of anything, I'm generally so hungry and dehydrated and desperate that I stop thinking about what's the healthiest option -- I just want calories! I still seem to lose weight during these times, but it's probably all Water weight from the dehydration. At this point I'd be sooo relieved if I could find a doctor willing to take a look at my problem (and possibly willing to do fills/unfills) in my local area, under my insurance (Kaiser ***). Sigh!