RollTideRoll

When I was about twelve years old, I was in a depression stage. I started eating alot more and not being as active. When I was fourteen years old, I noticed that something was wrong with my body that I wasn't aware of. Momma took me to the doctor and she thought I had PCOS. I went to another doctor to check my blood sugar (glucose tolerance test), and it was normal. We tried dieting and excercising.. eventually, we gave up. When I turned sixteen, I was around 182 pounds standing about 5'2. Momma has been worried about my weight since I was younger. I would eat Breakfast and be asking about what was for lunch while I was still eating! Anyways, when my 11th grade school year started out, mom heard about Realize lapband surgery. She started researching doctors on the computer, we didn't know about any of these websites with people who posted the negative, as well as the positive. She asked me over and over again... "Amanda... are you SUREE you want to get this life-changing surgery. It will be in Mexico. I want you to make sure you want this before I get it set up. It will change our lives forever!" And of course, I would say back, "Momma... DON'T worry so much. Let's Get-Er-Done!" So we found a coordinator, and BAM, it was time to go to Mexico. The day we went to San Diego, we had to go all the way to the border line, where they booked our hotel. It was 5 minutes from the border line. We woke up the next morning and had to go all the way back to the airport and come all the way back when the bus driver picked us up. I'm not sure was the driver's names were, except "Ricky". (I found that out when I was going through Andres Betancourt's youtube videos) Mom and I met up with two girls that already had the surgery and were coming back for their fills. When we got to Mexico, the drivers stopped by McDonald's and got coffee for Betancourt and them, which I thought was weird, because we weren't allowed to drink or eat anything and I was hungry! Not fair, haha. When we arrived, the house was filled with a wonderful, yummy smell. FOOD!!!!!! haha. We talked with the people and my mom's head was hurting, so "Dr." Betancourt had someone go out and get some medicine. He took my mom to the bathroom and gave her a shot in her rear. We left the house and they took us to radiology, where the two women got their fills. They took us to the hospital afterwards. It was pretty small.. I couldn't believe it was a hospital. The man that did our heart rate thing was REALLY nice. I just loved how gentle he was with everything! After that, we went to our room and got prepared for the surgery. I can't remember if they used gloves or not.. it was my first surgery... I didn't know what to expect. Dr. Almanza came in and took a picture with us, holding our lapbands in it's box. Then, it was my momma's turn to go into surgery. While mom was in surgery, I talked to my aunt on the phone. Betancourt told me he was going to bring me a phone, but I guess he forgot. When mom came back, I got off the phone and looked at the time. It took like 1 hour and 48 minutes, plus the time I called my dad before I called my aunt. So, I went in and the last thing I remember is the lady giving me something from a needle. I woke up in the OR and got up to go to my mom.. the nurse helped me walk. I layed down for about 5 minutes and got up to get my clothes on.. I looked down at my bed and their was a humongous blood stain on the sheet where I was laying. I looked all around my stomach and on the dress I was wearing for surgery... NO BLOOD anywhere on me or my clothes or anything. We got back to the Recovery House and the driver handed us two pills from his hand and said that it would help us sleep. Mom was hurting so bad that she couldn't go to sleep. When I woke up, it was hard to get out of bed. Mom had to help me. I will never forget sitting outside and it was silent outside and all of a sudden, mom farted so loud!!! We laughed sooo hard, I started crying because it was so painful to laugh haha. We took a shower the next day and the housekeep cleaned our wounds with some fingertip spray stuff. (which I found last month, in Walmart for 97 cents). We left the next day, without seeing Dr. Betancourt OR Dr. Almanza. The plane trip back was normal. I was nauseous when I got home, which was probably normal. Things were normal at home for awhile. We noticed that the bands weren't really working for us. So, we contacted our coordinator and she told us that there is a fill center in AL. We went to get our fill and mom was in and out. When it was my turn, they took like 20 minutes trying to find mine. It hurt so bad! They had to take me to get and X-ray, which they found that it was slanted in my stomach. So they tried again.. it took about 30 minutes, but they finally found it. I have never cried in front of a doctor until that day. A month later, mom started forming a hole on her stomach. She went to numerous doctors, whom just said that it was an infection and gave her antibiotics. Nothing worked! She thought her body was rejecting it. So her sister, an RN just like she, told her to start "packing it" and contact a coordinator. My mom started packing the hole in her stomach for about a month or two and finally contacted our coordinator. The coordinator set up for her to get her lapband out and a sleeve done. Momma went to Mexico during our Spring Break. There was quite a few people going in for surgery that day. She didn't think nothing of it, because she wanted to get it over with and come back home. When it was her turn, a woman was deathly ill and had to go into emergency surgery. Four hours went by, and it was finally her turn. When mom was out of surgery, she was doing alright... until the plane ride back home. They had to lay her on the floor! When momma got home, she was hurting to the point of tears (which, I knew something wasn't right, because momma doesn't cry that much). She couldn't get comfortable.. She tried moving her legs around to excercise what she thought was gas. She threw up some blackish-purpleish stuff on the carpet. It wasn't four hours later until we checked her temperature and noticed she was running a 103 fever!! It was 4 in the morning when I took her to the emergency room. She was in so much pain, that she was walking down the hall telling the nurses that she felt like she was going to DIE! I was soo scared. She's always been the type of person to just say "It will be alright.. this sickness will pass.. it's normal.. it's nothing". The nurse gave her some Morphine.. it didn't do ANYTHING. So she gave her something else, and it was starting to calm her down. They took her to emergency surgery and were shocked at what they found. 5 abscess due to a perforated stomach (hole punctured in stomach), deadly infections, pnemonia in her right lung. Wait a second.... Do abscess happen overnight? NO. So, how come Dr. Almanza didn't say or do anything about this? I DON'T KNOW. Anyways, she was in the hospital hooked to a drain for about 2 months. She got to come home.. YAY WE BEAT THIS MOMMA!!! Of course, she was still on TPN, oxygen, a breathing treatment, medications, etc. She had to go to the hospital twice for temperatures and the second time, had to stay in the hospital for 3 days because of high temps. The third time she went to the hospital, she was in the same room she started in! Mom had trouble breathing the night they took her to the ICU. She couldn't breath. They put her on the ventilator.. The doctors said that it would give her a break while she healed. Two weeks later, they took her off. They planned to put a trache in, because the doctor don't like keeping patients on the vent. too long. But she was, surprisingly, starting to breath on her own. They took her for a CAT SCAN and noticed that her hole was closing up. It took 2 days for her to wake up from her induced coma. 2 days later, she's in a room and they are taking her in for a CAT SCAN tomorrow to see if the hole in her stomach closed. If so, she will be able to eat for the first time in 4, going on 5 months. I will keep updated and posted on this story and if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask. Love always, Amanda

It's okay, I understand where you are coming from. I'm not giving out any dates or anything, but I do have pictures that I am trying to post on this website. I will try to upload them now. Check them out when you can :confused1:

It sounds like an infection on the port site. I recommend going to a doctor and seeing what they think it is. My mom got the redness and swelling and her's turned into a hole.. Just watch out for it.. if a hole starts to form on your tissue where the port is, go to the hospital asap.

I don't get the burps.. I get kinda like a hiccupy burp hah. I did experience gas in my chest that wouldn't come up.. it eventually went away.. TREMENDOUS pain when laughing.. I thought I was going to bust a stitch and felt like my stomach was going to rip on the inside. But it went away as well. The only thing hard about getting the shakes down, in my opinion, is that they taste HORRIBLE.. If you are having a hard time swallowing it for any other reason, maybe the band is too tight for you.

I've never been stuck for more than a few minutes. It sure does hurt though! You should go to a fill doctor and get some taken out. It might be too tight for your stomach.

My mom and me got the lap band done in August of 2009. If you were to get any kind of gastric weight loss surgery, I would recommend either the gastric sleeve or gastric bypass. Gastric Lap Band surgery is alright, but you have to keep getting fills when it stops working, it could leak and you have to get another operation, you have to take it out every 5 years to get a new one in.. it's just too much complications with the lapband. My aunt and cousin got gastric bypass and they lost a tremendous amount of weight. My mom had to go back to Mexico to get the lapband out because it formed a hole on her stomach where the scar from it was, and got the sleeve. We're not too sure whether or not it works yet, due to her being in the hospital because of complications such as nausea, horrible pain, pnemonia in her right lung, and 5 abscess in her stomach. So I would also recommend getting this done in the United States.