Had my Realize band placed in Aug 2008 w/o complications. Earlier this year, food began to get stuck very regularly, no matter what size, even yogurt/applesauce etc. I thought perhaps there was some slippage so the Dr. ordered a UGI which unfortunately showed that the band had eroded. That was probably back in April/May. I was referred to another Bariatric surgeon who took a look and suggested that since I had no other symptoms or pain, we wait and let the band erode more into my stomach. The thought behind this was that it would enable him to remove it endoscopically. So, after a few more UGIs, surgery was scheduled for 23 Aug 2013. It was explained that he would start with the hopes of cutting it and removing it with the endoscope but would possibly have to to an endoscopic/laproscopic combination and worse case scenario, open surgery. Long story short, it ended up being removed endoscopic/laproscopically (due to the amount of scar tissue around the band) and a small incision was made to remove the port. Other than being quite groggy...felt pretty good after surgery w/ hopes of having a one night hospital stay. The next morning, I developed a fever which shot up and could not be controlled. After a series of blood tests, a chest x-ray, urinalysis and a UGI, it was determined that I had the beginnings sepsis. I was given several bags of IV antibiotics (I'm quite sure there was enough to completely wipe out all of the bacteria in a 3rd world country). I was released after a few days and my temp had stabalized. Now on my last week of heavy duty oral antibiotics and finally starting to feel a bit more alive.
