SinnaminVixen

AHCCCS used to cover it. I got mine covered via AHCCCS APIPA. But I was told by a friend who recently tried that they no longer do, but I'm not sure. But of they do I would recommend APIPA over Mercy Care, not familiar with any others.

I am wondering if anyone else regrets having the surgery. i am having a very hard time adjusting to this, and am constantly worrying about band slippage. I have a hard time putting meals together and adjusting to what portions are correct. I am having needle like pains around where the port is, and my left side is almost continually worrisome. On the plus side I don't have the vomiting or heartburn so i guess I have not had a slippage. I guess i just thought that the diet would be more laid out and exact.

Tomorrow I am calling my surgeon to find out how to get the band removed. I have tried staying positive, but I give up! At first all was wonderful, didn't even need the pain meds after the first couple days. But I cannot get the hang of eating, I cannot find idiot proof recipes anywhere. I have no support, and I regret ever doing this. Yes I have been losing wait, but it feels the same as if I was just dieting and starving myself. I never feel full. My doctor and his staff are no help, and neither is the so called support group that helped me get the surgery. Thanks to all who have answered my questions before, but I truly am defeated.

I had my surgery April 15, 2010, so almost seven months now. It is hurting me to keep it in. I don't know the exact dates but I have been complaining on here and to my doctors office about pain for a while. I have even had a fill since complaining and they just told me that it can take up to a year to fully recover from the surgery. Well now for about a week I have been having heartburn. It was a little at first, but yesterday I worked the voting polls and I had heartburn virtually all day, had to pop tums like breath mints just to make it through the 15 hours. All I had to eat yesterday was rice cakes, because I was scared if I ate anything else I wasn't going to be able to stay and do the job I promised to do. Not trying to be graphic, but for the past couple of days I have been sick to my stomach, and yesterday that also kicked into overdrive. I have been having diarrhea (also why I was scared to eat anything yesterday). Even as I am typing this, I just woke up not 15 minutes ago, I feel the heart burn coming back. I haven't eating anything. The worst part is this. My daughter has been told that she had pneumonia, we had it treated and since she plays sports her doctor is being very cautious. Well after checking and seeing that it was going away she has it again. So I talked to her doctor and they have now sent me out for xrays to see if I have pneumonia from the surgery. I am still waiting on results should get them today or tomorrow, but if I do have it I probably have had it for almost seven months and my surgeon was not concerned enough to find this out my child had to be affected for anything to get done about it. How is this making my life better? Yes I have lost weight, but not due to the band making me feel full, because I have literally been starving myself. I am really hungry most of the time, I do acknowledge that sometimes it is head hunger but mostly not. But I have just went back to what I used to do that worked when I was taking fen phen, I weigh everyday and if I gain a pound or I stay the same I eat less and before all the pneumonia talk I would hit the gym harder or an extra day. I know I risk gaining the weight back by having it removed, but I am miserable, and depressed and the more I read, because there are more people putting info on slippage up since I had the surgery, it seems like now the band has slipped. And I almost hope it has so he has to remove it. I just don't know if I can do this for the rest of my life.

I don't know if this will help, but I feel your pain. I am contacting my surgeon tomorrow to see how to get my band removed, if that is even possible at this point. I feel almost exactly as you do. I feel defeated. I don't know if it helps to hear that you are not alone, but you are truly not alone on this.

Okay, I am just back from the doctor and what I was told was that for some people it can take up to a year for the body to fully accept the band because it is a foreign object, and also that the muscles which were not in the best shape to start with take a bit longer to heal also after the surgery. So, I am not sure but maybe because you just had another surgery in the same general area it irritated your port again? She told me unless I was having the vomiting, indigestion, heartburn, or the feeling of food being stuck that I should not worry. Your pain sounds way more severe than what I am going through, although i have a very high pain tolerance. I don't know if that helps, but I have been going nuts wondering if I had prolapsed my band because of the pain in the port area that I have been feeling. Hope it all works itself out.

I am having the same pain feeling as you currently. I had my surgery on April 15th. I go for my first fill tomorrow, and will let them know what I am feeling. I will post tomorrow and let you know what they say.