greeneyezgottiii

Banded 9/21/10 total weight loss 123lbs I wanted to start this thread because there may be someone out there looking for answers or comparison. January of this year I was given the unfortunate news my port had become infected. My surgeon tried to salvage it by route of oral antibiotics, after cultures were obtain an the nasty bug pseudomonas grew out. Three weeks in an no improvement, I scheduled for an in office port removal 2/15/12. Much to my dismay, complications landed me in an ambulance from my surgeons official to the ER! Went home and was told I'd be sore for about a week, after a week of fevers an unrelenting pain I landed myself in the ER again on 2/27/12, suspicious the infection had created an abscess or invaded a near by cavity! After two CT scans negative for infection spread but positive for pleurisy and pleural effusion. ? Correlation from port removal? No one knows. Sent home yet again on the same antibiotics and now antiinflammatories. After another week of terrible pain, fevers, and my newly acquired breathing difficulties I was admitted for iv antibiotic therapy, thoracentesis and emergent removal of my lapband on 3/8/12. After four days in the hospital I was advised that my band tubing had also cultured for infection I was discharged with two weeks more of iv antibiotics which means dripping them in myself every 8 hours and home health care! Moral of my story? Don't play with a port infection. Remove it immediately! The band is a tool, its foreign to our bodies, and a perfect housing device for infections to colonize on and keep on infecting us. I'm only 30, a single mom, full time student and full time employed. If I could just go back and take out the port to begin with I would, the nightmare has triggered every emotion including fear of death. I'll never have the band replaced, never even if someone paid me a monthly salary this has opened my eyes to the bigger picture