Penni60

Knowing my luck I will channel the lady next door that is doing laundry. SIGH!!

MUST be nice to have restriction. I came out of surgery with ZERO. I can eat a horse and if one meanders by me all bets are off.

I was banded at SANOVIV Medical Center in Rosarito, MX -- I believe I was the only one banded of the four of us at this facility. I have talked to Inamed till I am blue in the face. I have emailed them and spoken with them on several occasions. Craig Arthur, Don Mills, Larry Fuller all from Inamed will talk and talk and like Lisa said never say ANYTHING. SIGH!! So frustrating. Even if the Mexico docs aren't proctoring US Docs anymore so what?!! They did in the trials and some docs are still using the techniques taught to them by the MX surgeons. What difference does it make now? I think the stats are just too coinky dink personally. The two surgeons mentioned were partners at one time. They supposedly used the same technique, same facilities. Wouldn't it be an accurate assumption to conclude that the technique used could be a factor here? We can speculate all we want and do the dance and guessing game, the bottom line is we lost our bands. THis sucks!!

I DID I DID I DID I DID!!!!

Aww, guys you make me tear up. It has been a struggle and battle of late to come here and post. I will come as often as possible and offer my opinions and comments. As Michele said, I need you guys as much as you need me. I need the support since I am flying blind now. HUGS to you ALL!!

I believe my Erosion was a end result of my port complications that started 2 months post band placement. I had my band placed in April, by June my port area was reddened, hot, inflammed, itching, tender to touch. The Mexico surgeon that placed my band finally took a phone call from me after 3 weeks of trying to get in touch with him. He claimed that I was rejecting the band. WRONG!! I didn't know it at the time but a raging infection was brewing. We set up a time for me to go see him. About a week before I am to go see him I get this protruding thingy in the port area. IT was not through my skin but almost. I knew it was the tubing. You could feel the tubing through my skin. So I go visit my MX surgeon in TJ at his nifty swifty new offices. He tells me that I do not have an infection and that I do not need surgery. He also says to me that once I lose more weight the tubing will go back into place. Whatever that meant. SIGH!! I don't agree with his assessment so I ask for a list of doctors that will take his patients in an emergency. Dr. Helmuth Billy was on that list. I called up his office and made an appt. He took one look at my protruding thingy and said you need to have the port repositioned and the tubing trimmed. The MX surgeon had not trimmed the excess tubing when the band was initially placed. If Dr. Billy had not repositioned and trimmed the tubing and fixed that then I would have had the same situation that Lisa experienced. THank goodness I didn't listen to the MX surgeon. So fast forward to the 6th of Dec when I had my endosocopy and found Erosion. Dr. Billy seems to think the problems all started with my initial redness around the port site. So now that I no longer have the band I am advocating that anyone that has any port complications PUHLEASE seek out your BAND SURGEON and discuss your options. Pictures to follow of all mentioned above.

Penni Here. LOL!! I am recuperating just fine. Thanks! It has been a struggle so far to eat healthier after the band was removed. I fight it every day.

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SIGNED and committed. THANKS dawlin

Dr. Billing it is my understanding that Dr. Fischer wouldn't touch her because she was a Mexico patient.

Dr. Pleatman and Dr. Billing: I am thankful that you are here to offer your opinions and I do respect them. I have to disagree with losing restriction as a symptom of erosion, although I do understand some people may experience this symptom. I NEVER lost restriction at all. In fact I was at a high restriction up to the day I had my band removed. And yes I had it removed laparoscopically with NO problems whatsoever. I am recuperating just fine. Dr. Billing I am assuming it is difficult for the surgeon to remove laparoscopically and not difficult in terms of recovery. Generally speaking. I also have to disagree with the theory port infections are a sign of erosion instead of port infections may be a reason the band erodes. I do know that once the band erodes it can cause an infection and the band and port need to be removed. My case was a suspected infection about 2 months after banding which presented itself with redness, swelling, heat, and tenderness around the port site the size of a large grapefruit. So if your theories are accurate then I had eroded at 2 months post op. Is that possible? Strange? YES!! Infection? Maybe!! Could it have been a cause of my Erosion?? Who knows? Could I have been eroded at 2 months post op? SCARY to think of!! If I was eroded at 2 months then how did I manage to lose 65 lbs in all that time? I had surgery to repostion my port at 3 months post op and the surgeon did a swab of my area and nothing was growing. So what caused my erosion if not the initial port issues? I never lost restriction EVER! Erosion has just not been thoroughly explored yet. I am not sure it can be either. I do know the information being deciminated to the bandster population is from one extreme to the other not only by our band surgeons but also by Inamed. My understanding about the make-up of the band, tubing and port is that they are porous and can harbor micro-organisms, therefore making it hard to fight any form of infection. The only recourse is to remove the port with a suspected infection and to treat with antibiotics and to leave the wound open to heal from the inside out. Then in 6 months you can begin to discuss the possibility of a new port. Same thing with the band if there is a suspected infection then the band should come out and antibiotic treatment should follow. Also, waiting 6 months for a re-banding. I don't mean to be disrespectful but sometimes the ones actually experiencing the signs and symptoms can become more knowledgeable than the one providing the treatments. I learned this while I was a nurse. And so did lots of the doctors that I worked under.

Since being unbanded, I am struggling again with the head demons. I am trying really hard to not give in and most times I beat them back. However, the times I don't will eventually catch up with me and I will start gaining. DON'T want that to happen. So, I am soliciting all info on the several diets that are out there now. I would ask for websites of the diets and any and all info you can share. I am almost to the point of doing a liquid diet for a week. SO SAVE ME FROM MYSELF!! HELP!!! Oh yeah and HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!

Just wanted to share my pics this year. So share yours as well.

If you have an infected port, the infection can travel up the tubing and eventually land on the band. It can cause an inflammation of the stomach tissue and this might eventually lead to an erosion from the outside into your stomach. Stitches placed in a way where the stomach can become irritated and this can also eventually lead to erosion. The band can rub against the stitches causing the irritation. An ulcer is an inflammed area that if not treated can develop into an open sore inside your stomach, even without the band. So this can cause erosion from the inside out. Hope this helped.

DDflin I sent you a PM last night. I am not a diabetic either.

I will only post one here. They are pretty gross pics. If you wanna see any more just PM me. The wound is packed with gauze in this pic.

I can recommend an excellent surgeon in Ventrua, CA. His name is Helmuth Billy, MD He is wonderful and very caring.

It sounds like you are going through the same thing Lisa (DeLarla) had to do with her port removal. She had a gaping wound and had to pack it as well. I have some pics of her wound around here somewhere. I will let you post yours first.

OH my GAWD I just saw that Teresa posted. Thanks Donali for pointing that out. Hey how was the Cruise? OK SPILL the details.

Anwyn if Inamed really wanted to help and provide some information then they could certainly follow all the infections and see just how many lead to Erosion. But they claim they can't and don't have the resources for that kind of study. I offered my services for FREE to help collect the data and 'cipher' it for them. THey still refused. SIGH!!!

Someone asked where I was in the scheme of things with the band. I had lost approx 60 lbs and still needed to lose at least 50 more. I can get rebanded in 6 months. But I will do that only if I can get the Insurance to pay for it. I can't afford another surgery. I am looking at all my options as far as what to do about the diet. Thank you for your kind offer to send me Dr. Phil's book but if I chose to do that I can just order one. But the offer is very sweet and full of compassion. It has been a struggle. I gained about 5 lbs over the holidays. So I think that was pretty good that it wasn't more. It is still a battle every day with food. I try to get in my veggies and protein and steer clear of the starches. Bread is my weakness. LOL!! Thank you for all your continued support and encouragment. You guys ROCK!!

The sad thing about the studies is that the data is not always accurate. Even the stats we have spouted at us of 1 - 3% get erosion are not accurate. That does not tell us if that is US numbers or MX numbers. And we all know the MX surgeons are not obligated to report their numbers at all. SIGH! The more I found out the more I got mad.

Bumping for more input

Well not sure if that is accurate or not. First of all there is not a definitive 'cause' of erosion. Secondly,over eating might help aggravate erosion but I don't see it causing erosion. The band being too tight could possible cause an erosion but it would be hard to prove. There are other issues that might cause erosions as well, such as technique and use of NSAIDS over a long period of time, just to name a few. It is just too hard to pinpoint one particular cause therefore it is important to have an ENDOSCOPY at least at the one year mark for a baseline. Of course most band surgeons will say this is not necessary but I think a baseline is always a good idea. Then just go with your instincts and your financial situation about how often after that. Again these are just my opinion and what I have experienced.

I agree Donali, there is lots INAMED 'could' be doing but just elect NOT to do it. I have had this same conversation with Craig Arthur, Don Mills, and Larry Fuller from INAMED every time I had a complication. THey just placate you till you are wore down and just throw up your hands. It is all a bunch of good ole boys fighting to get every last dollar from the consumer. Damn the torpedoes and shoot the messenger. That is the attitude I get each time I reported a complication and suggest a resolve to prevent this in the future. They just ignore you and send you on your merry way all the while showing false compassion. SIGH!! Sorry this just bites.

Hey Donali: I am with you on this. Why is it the MX docs don't have the same info. But when I talked to Craig Arthur after my erosion he explained that they "encourage" the MX docs to use the newer technique which doesn't tend to increase the chances of erosion. They can't enforce them to use the newer technique just "encourage" them. I wish I had the presense of mind to remember Lopez was a proctor. Craig told me they have told every doc to use the newer technique to cut down on the erosion chances. The newer technique is to NOT use the perigastric but "encouraged" to use the pars flacida when securing the band to the stomach. I too agree it is surgeon technique that plays a HUGE factor in the erosion chances. What are we to do? Inamed does not have anything in place that would review the techniques used by ANY of their doctors that are qualified to place the bands. They don't do any checks and balances to make sure the doctors have any follow up care in place. They do "recommend" to the doctors to have follow up care but can't really enforce that issue. SIGH!! It all just pisses me off and I just want to scream at times.