ezbeinggreen

i would absolutely join a class action law suit, and I loved my band... until it nearly killed me! I had a 4cc Lap Band (Allergan) placed in 2007 at the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, MA. At that time, they were still "selling" it as a permanent solution. I had a lot of success with it, I started at 220 and lost 80 pounds in 2.5 years. I only had problems if I ate too fast, didn't chew well or over ate. I started running and ran my first 5K at 38 years old. Then I stalled and slowly started to regain, eventhough I felt restricted after fills. Around that same time I started getting mystery pain in my side/back, under my rib cage. I could no longer run. It was debilitating and I could barely get out of bed for days at a time. I had every test imaginable and no one could figure out why. My surgeon saw a small air pocket during a swallow study but didn't seem concerned and told me it wasn't causing the pain, said we'd just monitor it. Fast forward a year and one weekend I felt like I was coming down with the flu - high fever, achy all over. By Monday my fever was 103 and so I saw my PCP who performed a strep test and took some blood/urine. The office nurse called me at 5 PM, panicked and insisted I go to the ER immediately - I was in acute kidney failure! I ended up in the hospital for 10 days withpneumonia and some mysterious infection that made me septic! I had a bowel obstruction from dehydration and had to be transferred 1/2 way through my stay from South Shore Hospital to the Lahey Clinic almost an hour away where I had my band surgery because the doctors at SSH were too afraid to try to place an NG tube in a band patient (after letting me vomit for two days straight). Long story short, tests finally revealed my band had completely eroded into my stomach and my stomach had bifurcated into two sections, one still banded and the other section had completely regrown around the band so food was sometimes going down the banded side, sometimes down the other. The only symptoms I ever had were stalled results/regain (eventhough i felt restricted after fills) and that phantom pain no one could find the source of. Oh and I also forgot after all this I ended up with Fluid in my pelvis that had to also be drained before I left the hospital. I am convinced my body was rejecting the eroding band and my compromised immune system couldn't fight whatever infection was shutting my body down (until this day, no one knows what it was, they claim the high doses of antibiotics they gave me made it too difficult to determine). Luckily I completely recovered and had my band removed a few months later in 2011. By the time I healed enough to convert to VSG or RNY, my employer had changed insurance plans and eliminated WLS coverage. I changed jobs in 2014, but again their plan does not cover it so now I am exploring self-pay options for the sleeve as I have regained all my weight. In CT, my surgeon wants $25K to do a sleeve (mostly hospital fees). I found a surgeon near my parents in FL who performs the surgery all-inclusive for $11K. Isn't it crazy how much the cost varies from state to state??? So yes, I would join a class action suit in the hopes no one else suffers like we did, and hopefully I could recoup some of the $ I am going to spend self-financing my sleeve surgery. And folks, don't blame the insurance companies if WLS is not covered. Your employer picks the coverage and most are now electing to specifically exclude ALL bariatric procedures from coverage. You need to petition your employer. I petitioned my employer's Board of Directors 3 times, and all my appeals were denied.

Hi All, I was just banded on 10/15 at the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, MA. They have a great program (Center for Surgical Weight Loss) that was just certified a Center of Excellence by the Bariatric Surgery Center Network (BSCN) Accreditation Program of the American College of Surgeons (ACS). They have been wonderful to deal with and the hospital was unbelievable... all private rooms, around the clock care. My insurance (BCBS) covered the procedure, but during the initial seminar they stated self-pay for lapband surgery was about $18,000 (including all the pre- and post-surgery office visits, labs, fill appointments, etc.). It is a pretty intensive program, but it works and I love my surgeon (Dr. Nepomnayshy).