Girlmoose

Losing it, I had to have my entire band and everything removed because of erosion of the band too. I guess that is really common among infected ports because the infection goes up the cord to the band and everything gets infected then... I would have only had my port removed too if they hadn't done the camera prob test inside the stomach and found the erosion. :w00t: When they removed everything they left a deep open wound where the port came out. The reasoning is so that the area heals from the inside out. You have to use gauze or this 1/4" gauze tape (which I like better) to fill the hole and you use this whole process to keep it moist and bandaged up. You have to redo the dressing and process twice a day. This also keeps you from having this big dent area left behind too... :thumbup: I was surprised by having the port incision area left this way but everyone I have talked to, their port is taken out this way too. I guess it is to help with liquid and infection building up in that area again... When I was on strong antibiotics with this infection, my port area was draining until about 2 weeks after I started antibiotics. This new Doctor could tell immediately that it was a staff infection because of the dry layers of how it was closing up and that it was caused by some other type of infections. It sounds like all staff infections heal this way... I wish you all the best and hope the IV antibiotics work wonders for you and you'll heal up great!! GOOD LUCK! :w00t:

Firebolt, The Doctor that did my lapband surgery in Dec. was an "Internist" all he does now is bariatric surgery but he is well trained for any surgery from his past experience. He's probably 55 - 58 yrs old. After my second surgery he did to flip the port and see why I was having pain in my upper left rib cage, which was from tons of scar tissue and the cord being caught up in it, I felt great. No pain in the left side. I was concerned if we were making the right decisions before the 3rd surgery to just put in another port on the left side and clean up everything inside again. The surgeries are so expensive and they take so much out of you. The new Doctor I am going to (there are two of them together) are "surgeons". I wasn't sure how they would be compared to an "Internist" and fixing the problem. I have to say they were more thorough then the Internist. It's probably has a lot to do with their attitudes and interest in cases like mine that has helped me. They have a great bedside manner and spending all the time I want from them... I just started looking up other Bariatric Doctors in my area. I live in Denver CO and had a reasonable amount of Doctors around that to this surgery to pick from. I searched the internet to find them. They were like 25 miles from me and the hospital they work out of it but it was so worth it for a 2nd opinion. I didn't think they would be able to tell me much more then my "Internist" but I was so WRONG! If your Mom is in a small town, I know she probably wouldn't have enough to pick from. If things don't feel right with her Doctor, it is just to drawn out and painful sometimes to not get that second opinion. My Internist wasn't threatened at all by it and encouraged me to go... Good luck with whatever you and your Mom decides to do. Sorry that is so long... After this current surgery Monday. I have pain in my upper left rib cage again, where they pulled out the drain tubes when I left the hospital on Wed. It feels like someone took a hammer and beat around up there... I'm pretty sure it's from them cleaning out the scar tissue in that area where the cord was bound up. Sometimes that area bothers me more then the huge hole area... :w00t: Is your Mom still packing the hole? I don't know how my husband does it. I'm not sure I could do it to him! :w00t: We are wondering how long this last and closes up. My Doctor said 1 - 2 weeks... I hate to thing about doing this for 2 weeks! Is her drainage from that area too? Is your Mom on antibiotics??? They kept me on Cipro 500 mg twice a day, for 10 days and Levitan (which is almost 6.00 a pill) once a day for 5 days. Does your Mom have a low or high grade fever? That can be a clue too if she has an infection. You usually run a temp. when you are fighting something off... I don't know what test they will run on her... My expensive CT scans never showed infection or problems... I think because I had so much scar tissue (which doesn't come up on CT scans either). The only test that were good for me was the ultra sounds, regular xrays & they did run a good series of xrays the day after surgery to make sure nothing was leaking out of the stomach and he got everything closed off... Has your Mom had the type of xray since surgery??? Sorry this is so long... I'm probably repeating myself and being too long... I've been on the pain medicine a lot today and I take this pill for nausea that really relaxes me and makes me sleep a lot... I love that pill even more then the pain pills! Keep me posted about your Mom. I hope everything goes well today! :thumbup:

Hi Firebolt! I thought they may have stitched your Mom up without the equator that is left in your stomach and that was why she was seeping. :smile2: It had no where else to go... :confused: I guess I should watch out for this too. I have no idea about the scar size either... Right now I don't even care as long as the darn thing closes up quickly and heals. I just want to feel normal again and healthy... Is your Mom on a liquid/soft diet still for 2 weeks after surgery? They have me on one. The Doctor did said the xrays they took the day after surgery in the hospital to make sure everything was sealed and nothing leaking out from the stomach, that you can tell exactly where the band was and my stomach is still holding that shape. He said it can stretch back out but try and keep it small and not overeat I can't really eat more then about 5 bites and things don't taste good to me except for grape juice. I only drink a very small amount of that but I figure the antioxidants will be good for me and hopefully heal as quick as possible. I can tell each day is getting a little easier. I'll just be happy to get the first 10 days behind me. I'm suppose to see the Doctor again 2 weeks out of surgery so I'm hoping by then things look really good and healed... How is your Mom's recovery going and how was her visit with her Doctor? Is she in pain or fairly comfortable now? She's lucky to have you! GOOD LUCK to both of you! :ohmy:

I'm sorry to hear about your Mom's infection being so bad. They did the right thing by removing it all, even if it isn't what we really want to happen. I just got home today from the hospital today. My new Doctor ended up putting a drain on my left side and just took it out before I came home. The right port area they left a big hole! YUCK! :frown: I HATE that the most because morning and night we have to change it. My husband has to pull out the wet/dry gauze packing in this area, and then redo it all over again. They liked how well it is healing, but I have to do this one to two weeks until there is no more space to stick the gauze in. The Dr. did this so that it would heal from the inside out. I would have preferred stitches myself! I totally dread when it starts getting time to change it. I hope your Mom's recovery is fast and she heals well. With my other infections I had, my old Doctor said that drainage was good because the infection had build up has somewhere to go. This procedure wasn't near what I thought it would be. I just didn't imagine drains and this hole to deal with.... I hope this makes sense because I'm still on pain killers! Good luck to all!!!

It's been really quiet around here. I hope everyone is doing okay. I thought I would update in case my story helps someone else. I got a second opinion in a Doctor's office that has two Doctors together doing this. They were very thorough and really insisted that I have a scope, where you are in la-la land and they have you swallow a camera and take pictures inside your stomach. They went down and then angled the camera back up toward the band and sure enough I have lots of band erosion! I'm so glad I got a second opinion because I could have chosen to have a new port installed on my left side. I've had such good results with weight loss that I was almost ready to do this. In fact, I had surgery scheduled to do this but we ended up deciding for second opinion before we spent the money for a 3rd expensive surgery... My new Doctors are going to do surgery Monday afternoon to remove everything and repair the damage. They told me right off that with staph infections it is very common to have erosion of the band and it is very common to have lots of scar tissue as an issue also, which I have had. They think it is likely to that my liver has attached itself to my scar tissue around the stomach as well... :drool: They are going to repair and clean everything up. It sounds like I should expect lots of pain from this surgery... I'll probably be in the hospital anywhere from 1 - 3 nights, depending on how I do... I sure never thought this would be my story... I never thought it would be this bad... It sounded like the lap band is so easy and such low percentages of things going wrong... The new Doctors also said they have had a lot of cases they have fixed from people that have gone to Mexico and they end up somehow with these type of infections too... Not good news... Sorry... I really hope everyone else is doing better than me and recovering well... Good luck to all! :thumbup:

Hi Firebolt and Mom! My port has always been on my right side. The pain that I had in my upper rib cage area (that felt like a broken rib bone, because it hurt to breath deeply too) was from scar tissue from when they put the lap band in on Dec. 17th. I thought maybe there was a twist in the cord that started up by the band and then worked itself down eventually to flip the port. (Just my own rationing at the time, trying to explain pain in the left upper rib cage, when NOTHING is there...) However, after my second surgery May 5th to flip the port, he actually took those camera pics and printed them for me while they were doing the surgery. He said he had only one other case that had more scar tissue then mine. When they first go in they can usually see the cord right away. On me, all they could see was scar tissue! :smile2: They cleaned it all out and flipped my port, washed the port area out good with antibiotics and then started me immediately on antibiotics after surgery. When they tested the tissue they removed after surgery it did show an infection growing there. Looking back, I think I would have had better luck if they would have replaced the port when they flipped the port. I have a feeling your chances of a port infection is greatly increased when they go messing around with it... I felt great after that May 8th surgery though... Until 5 days after antibiotics and the infection blossoms again... I'm scheduled to have my THIRD surgery tomorrow morning. He said they have really good luck when they replace a port and put it on the opposite side (now my left side) where there are no signs of infection. They are going to clean up the port area again on the right side and remove the old port and look for scar tissue and organs to make sure everything is healthy and not causing these infections. If he gets inside and thinks its too risky to put the port in right now, I told him to just take everything out. I can't keep affording all these surgeries, xrays, and tests because of problems. :thumbup: I love my band and the results I have gotten with it. I've been through so much and expense, i hate to remove it all and now have nothing for it... Everyone says, you will just gain on the weight back too, unless you make some major changes in your lifestyle and eating... :wink2: Text book port infections, does say to remove the port, let the patient heal for a few weeks and then go back in and place the new port. Your Mom should be fine doing it that way... I just don't really want a 4th surgery. I also looked at the latest procedure (which my Doctor hasn't done on any of his patients but he is trained for it and the way he thinks things in this field will go strongly towards) is the Gastric sleeve... It's interesting because you don't have any fills or Doctor visits, not flipped ports, infections and etc. but it does cut out 2/3 of your stomach that you can't ever get back though... I've lost half of my weight already, but if there was a way they could do this procedure and maybe leave me with more of my stomach intact, I would really consider this procedure... I just don't have that much time right now to delay having surgery a couple of weeks to go to a Doctor that does this procedure around me. It's hard to find a lot of people who have done this either because you don't have a forum like this to talk to people who have had the sleeve done. The complication rates are very low, no mal-absorbation issues and the upkeep is so low that people aren't talking as much as they are about their bands... I'm a really healthy person and I'm always the one who has the flu just a couple of days while everyone else has it for a week... Same with colds or I just don't get them... This has really shocked me because I never thought I would have infection problems and this long drawn out lap band saga... My Dr. who is has been an internist for over 20 years and his wife is an infectious disease Doctor, which I'm sure he has been sharing my case with but saving me a visit to her. He also thought that my appendix might be the culprit of the infections. He said an appendix can infect the port, but a port cannot infect an appendix. I had a CT scan ran last week and said all my organs were fine, but it couldn't really read my appendix too well, the colon is in front of it. He is going to look and make sure while he is in there that it is healthy. If I take my electronic thermometer over my head, I have had a 99 - 100 degree temp for over a week now. I had this temp, after my first surgery (and he didn't put me on antibiotics after that surgery) and it eventually went away. I'm thinking the infection was just brewing in the scar tissue that your body does trying to protect the organs from infection and something foreign when it is in fighting mode... Here's an science experiment for you guys... I just started testing my left side area with this thermometer and it reads 98.6, very normal. When I put it around the incision area (which is redish now and obviously infected just from looking at it) it reads 101 - 102. It started this temp. before it turned red when the Dr. could see it was infected and red. The Dr. thinks my infection this time is close to the skin surface because the CT scan picked up no Fluid or infection around the port. Which is a good sign that my inside cavity, isn't a pool of infection like before when they drained over 30 c.c. of infection in the Radiology dept. (The Doctors couldn't see or feel the liquid or infection either. They were surprised there was infection in there when they ran the ultra sound) You can't always "see" that infection is there... This is another reason I think he can clean up that area, keep me on strong antibiotics and still put in a new clean port on the left side.... I Hope this helps. I know I've given a lot of info but there can be so much to this and you just want to make the best choices for a speedy recover with as little procedures as possible. I really need to get my life back on track. It's hard to put your life on hold this long when these things just drag out... I wish you and your Mom the best. :wink: I'll let you know what they find tomorrow in surgery, as soon as I'm up to it. Let me know how your Mom comes through this and what they find inside... This really is the only way they really know what's going on inside there.... I hope the infection hasn't gotten to painful for her... It's AMAZING how fast these infections blossoms and grows! :seeya: GOOD LUCK! :tongue2:

I live close to Denver Colorado. I just love moose and the wildlife here. :thumbup: I'm assuming you are in NY... You may have mentioned it and I forgot. I just took all my medicine for the night and feeling a little out of it now. I have been looking on line today researching the sleeve before I go to the Dr. tomorrow. I didn't even consider the sleeve before lap band surgery because I didn't want to change my body in any way and it was reversible... Now I'm looking at it in a totally different way that it would be better to cut out some of the stomach and have nothing rerouted or foreign inside of me. I'm thinking the sleeve is probably the way for me to go or I'll have nothing at all... Which I really don't like the idea of. :frown: I'm back on the strong antibiotics for severe infection but nothing is helping much, as of tonight. I'm taking pain medicine that is 8 times stronger than morphine and I still have a lot of pain when I move around... :eek: The pill of nausea does the best because it really puts me to sleep for a long time. I really appreciate you responding and sharing info. I'm hoping your right that the Dr. will help me out with the bill of going through all this... He hasn't even billed me yet for the first surgery in Dec. I hear it is not uncommon out here for the Doctor's billing cycles to be ever 6 months... Isn't that crazy??? I hate to see the bill when I finally get it! :eek: I'll let you know how tomorrow's appt. goes. The ER doctor last night was so nice and he said he told my Dr. how frustrated we were and how he needs to get me fixed up right away. My lap band surgeon is a really nice guy and personable so I'm hoping everything goes well. His wife is an infectious disease Dr. which has probably helped me get on the best antibiotics. He hasn't suggested I see her though but I'm sure he is probably talking to her about me... Sorry I'm rattling on... I'm just not feeling well and headed back to bed for the night, feeling drugged up... Thanks so much for your help!!! I'm anxious for you to have your surgery in Sept. It seems like a SLOW process but when i look back and see how I've lost so much weight in the first 4 months of surgery and my blood work was excellent within that short period of time... I'm sure you will be amazed too!!! Hang in there and good luck with the process! :biggrin:

I had my lapband surgery Dec. 17, 2007. I had an rough couple of weeks after that surgery. Then in April I started having pain on my left upper rib cage and two weeks later it started at my port. The port had flipped! :eek: On my May 8th, I had surgery to see what was causing the pain on the left side, which had a ton of scar tissue (2nd worse case my Dr. had seen) and flipped the port. The scar tissue they removed was tested and it was infected. :frown: He left me on antibiotics for 10 days. 5 days after that I started having horrible pain in my right side by the port again! :eek: He had an ultra sound done and the Radiology Dr. removed 30 c.c. of infection! :eek: It came back as a staph A. infection and they put me on antibiotics for sever infections for 3 weeks. About 4 days after this procedure, I started leaking and seeping infection from my scar where the port was. That lasted about a week and a few days and then finally closed up. I did great for two weeks off of antibiotics... Then last Sun. the pain in the port area came back! :eek: I had a CT scan done Tues. Everything showed fine. Dr. thought it might be my appendix infecting things because I was tender when he pushed around my appendix. CT didn't show any pockets of liquid or any organ problems. :thumbup: The Dr. said he would see me in 30 days! :eek: Well needless to say I didn't make it 30 days... I ended up in the emergency room with a definite red hot infection showing up around my port and skin. They called my Dr. and got him back on board. I'm suppose to see him Monday. They are going to have to remove the port and let it heal 6 weeks and then go back in and put a new port... OR, take it out completely... OR, take out the port on the right and put a new clean port on the left side. OR, do the gastric sleeve... I'm halfway to my goal. 40 - 50 pounds to go. I don't know that much about the gastric sleeve... I can't keep going on with this pain and infection but I don't want to give up all the good things I have accomplished with my band. For the first time in 10 years my cholesterol, trigs, blood pressure are all in the normal range... There doesn't seem to be too many web sites where people go to talk about gastric sleeve and their experience like I have found for the lapband forum. I appreciate your discussions about the sleeve here. I'm pretty sure my insurance won't pay for this sleeve surgery since I've already had the lapband too... I'm usually a really healthy person. A fast healer... I'm just so surprised my journey with the lapband wasn't successful... I'm curious too, what made you pick the sleeve over the lapband??? I sure wish I had... I don't think my body likes foreign objects... Good luck to everyone! Thanks for sharing! :biggrin::biggrin:

Hi everyone! It's been pretty quiet around here. I hope everyone is doing okay and keeping the infections at bay... :thumbs_up: I have been off of the strong antibiotics 2 weeks tomorrow and doing fine until this afternoon. I've started having pain in my right side. :eek: The incision has been closed for over a week and not seeping infection. It doesn't look bad at all. The pain is on the innder side (away from my skin) and spread wide. That is where the infection built up before that they drained during an ultra sound. I'm hoping that this pain is just a sore muscle or something from working on the computer and sitting too long last night... Wishful thinking, I know.... I hope everyone can update with some positive results on the infection front! Good luck to all! :biggrin:

Leticia, I hope you are still recovering well and feeling better. I was wondering if you had pain in the stomach area where the band was and where they removed it... Just curious. I think you will do really well since you haven't needed that many fills. It is motivating also to know that your liver was really enlarged and you DON'T want to go back to that! Your mind seems to be in the right place and just stay there. It seems like a few extra bites each day led us to being overweight. Just listen to your body and when your satisfied. I think if I had not drank with meals 15 minutes before and an hour after a meal, I wouldn't have eaten as much and gotten overweight. I realize now how even without the band, how much more food a person can eat when we wash it down. Also, by chewing and chewing and chewing before you swallow, you can tell which foods is going to leave you hungry. The foods that can just dissolve in your mouth from chewing, isn't going to fill you up like meat, fruit and veggies. GOOD LUCK with your journey to being healthier!!! I hope Bill is still infection free. He has given me hope that I can do this too! :success1: The Dr. took me off of my strong antibiotics Monday to see what happens before we just do expensive surgery to replace the port. I've been 3 1/2 days without pain or infection around the port area. The small area that was barely seeping is trying to keep a scab. The showers kind of make it soft again though. The Dr. says the 5th day is when this type of infection blooms... :biggrin: He will be really encouraged if I can make it 7 days without signs and after 2 weeks I should be out of the woods! YIPEE!!! I'm still holding my breath though because I know how fast and intense the infection can come back if the port is still infected... :hurray: I'm going to keep positive thoughts for everyone and their healing process! Hang in there!!! :thumbup:

I looked up the staph infections on the net... I don't think I really wanted to know before now... UGH! :thumbup: I'm hoping, I'm not being dumb considering leaving my band in with such a serious type of infection. :thumbup: When the Radiology Dr. removed the infection, using the ultra sound to see where the infection is and exactly where to put the needle and when the infection was drained. The infection shows up as a dark area on the ultra sound and he kept showing it to me as he was doing the procedure... The port also shows up as a dark area on the ultra sound so it was a little hard for me to know, what is the port and is there any more liquid left but the Dr. felt pretty confident that he had gotten most of it. The reason I'm explaining this is the Radiology Dr. gave me a good visual of the importance of this procedure and draining it.... He told me that before draining the infection it is like a big round ball of infection. When you drain the infection, it is like deflating the ball. You are now left with something much smaller and flat (like his hands together). It helps the antibiotics work better because they now don't have to penetrate and work on so much infection. It's a much smaller area it has to attack and kill... I know how much draining I had, especially the first 24 hours! :thumbup: I can only imagine how much drainage others have had that didn't get some of the infection removed first... I'm wondering if this is some of the difference between Bill and I. I guess I'm hoping this will help me from having some of the damage from a staph infection and help me heal faster from it and why I wasn't put in the hospital for IV's... :sad: I wish I had my port as long as Leticia and had lost most of my weight and been maintaining. I'm not as comfortable with the thought of having it removed... I'm afraid to go back without the band... I don't want to fight my weight my entire life. :laugh: I'm thinking I'm going to tell the Dr. that if he goes in and the infection inside is big or has spread or a risk of damaging my health, that he needs to remove the band and port entirely... I can't keep going through these surgeries. I wish insurance was better for these procedures. It gets expensive for flipping the port surgery and I already know this one is going to be more expensive then that surgery. If the Dr. thinks things really look good and I have a good chance of putting the port on the left side and staying infection free, then he should go ahead and do that. I'm thinking that this is really my only option at this point... :thumbup: Leticia, you sound really good for just having surgery on Tues. I'm sure you have a peace of mind now and know that you can heal fully and put this behind you. I wish you all the best and I know you have learned a lot and you are going to do GREAT at keeping your weight off and getting the next 25 off... I talked with someone on this site that had lost over 100 pounds and was having trouble getting the lasts 25 off with the band. She was really considering weight watchers to teach her how to eat healthier and smarter to give her that little boost at the end... You may not need something like that. You may already have a good eating plan and DETERMINATION can go a long way! :smile2: Good luck and get plenty of rest this next week and keep that incision area CLEAN!!! (I'm turning into a germ phobiaist!) One thing I have learned from all this is, no matter what... Surgery is surgery and even if it is a little procedure, it still takes 6 weeks to fully heal! I'm sure you'll feel GREAT way before that though!!! :crying:

CONGRATS Bill!!! 1.5 weeks with no antibiotics & no infection!!! That's really encouraging news! :eek: I'm sending positive thoughts your way for the next few weeks that you'll beat this infection from ever coming back! GOOD LUCK! :woot: You do have me curious though and maybe I don't really want to know... :thumbup: What ugly things can a staph a. infection do inside??? It was EXTREMELY painful for a couple of days before we figured it out and drained it... I'm hoping that since we got it out within 5 of the pain starting that hopefully it was limited in its destructive ways. Over night a light scab has come over the seeping area. (About a 1/4 to 1/2" long). It's worrisome because that means it has no where to drain and get out of my body as long as it is still brewing... :woot: On the other hand, it has to stop seeping some time, if it is ever going to heal on it's own also... :smile2: Just not sure I'm going to be as lucky as you... Your weight loss is GREAT Bill!!! :woot: I wish I had 60 pounds off! My weight loss is either really slow or all at once after surgeries or fills. They did tell me, when your body is fighting hard on these infections or illnesses, it goes into that fight or flight mode and the weight loss slows way down or STOPS! :woot: I was eating so little at times and NO weight loss at all! UGH! No rewards there for being sick... :woot: One thing that might help fighting the infection, if your up to it, is just plain walking! It increases oxygen into your cells, which will help you fight off infections and illnesses. :woot: Besides, being great for our muscles and toning, without over doing it. FYI for all. I did talk to the Allergen company (manufacturer) twice since I've had all these problems. They were very nice and helpful. They followed up and called me back to see how I was. You talk to an RN, who does document your case. They have talked to my DR. also. They try and come up with ideas and other cases they are following to help you get through these times. Probably tries to protect themselves too from problems... GOOD LUCK TO ALL!