Bawilliams1

I also have a 9.75 cm band which is supposed to hold 4.0 cc's. I have had 4.0 cc's in my band at one time. The doctor said he can go to almost 5.0 cc's if he has to. There is no reason that your doctor can't fill you past 3.0 cc's which is what you would have if he added .5 cc's to your current fill of 2.5 cc's. I see some of these posts and read about some of the most absurd things that some of these fill doctors come up with! I am so glad that I have a great fill doctor!

I know that Dallas is probably a long way for some of you to go, but I live in Huntsville, TX an I have been driving to Dallas for eight months and getting my fills with Dr. Fred Maese. It costs $200 and he does it under flouro. If you are too tight you can go back within one week and he will give you a slight unfill at no charge. He is great, but he does move patients through quickly. That's the only thing I don't like. I am on my second band. The first one slipped. So, I have been seeing him for about two years now. I will be happy to answer any questions that you may have or give you his phone number if you are interested.

The same thing happened to me after my last fill. I got the fill on a Friday and I was fine. On Sunday I couldn't get anything down, not even water, until around 4:00 pm. I tend to be a little looser in the evening. I was very tight for about a week and since then I do still have some restriction, but it's not nearly as tight as I was the first week. I am assuming that I had developed some swelling and it took about a week to go subside.

I just got a fill on Friday and I am having to wait until atleast 11:00 or 12:00 every day before I can get down liquids. In the evening it's much easier. I have been staying on mostly liquids and softer foods because I thought I might have some swelling and I don't want to aggravate anything down there. I am starting to add more solid foods today. When I start trying to drink and when the food/liquid is going through the band, it feels like my throat muscles are soooo tight. When everything has passed through the band my throat feels more relaxed. Has anyone else experienced this and do you think I am too tigh or is this normal?

Hey guys! The thicker fluid that you guys are talking about is called Omnipague. It is a fluid that is an IV contrast that can be seen on the flouro and it is thicker than the regular saline. They use it to see leaks on the flouro and my doctor says it's like "fix a flat" if you have a very slow leak. It will usually stop the leak. I have determined that I have some sort of leak. I think it's my port, but I don't know for sure because we never see a leak on the flouro! If my fill doctor fills me with the omnipague my fill stays in the band (so far). If he starts mixing regular saline with the omnipague it will start leaking after a few fills. Right now I have 3.6 cc's of straight Omnipague and it feels way tighter than when I had 3.5 cc's which was a mixture of 3.2 cc's of omnipague and .3 cc's of saline. That mixed fill held in my band, but he added another .5 cc's of saline and when it diluted the omnipague that was already in my band I guess it thinned it out too much and the fill leaked. Because the omnipague is thicker, it gives you more restriction. I am sure I will need a new port eventually, but the ladies at my fill doctor's office said it can keep working indefinately. Thank goodness for omnipague! I am on my second band and I am self pay!

Dr. C, I would really appreciate your opinion here. I am on my second band. I had a prolapse with the first one and I had a new band put in last June. I waited until Septmeber to start getting fills just to make sure my stomach was well healed. Since September it has been a slow progression with my fills. I have a 9.75 cm band that holds 4.0 cc's and as of yesterday I now have 4.0 cc's in my band. I stayed on liquids yesterday and today I have had some oatmeal so far, but I feel like I have less restriction than I did at 3.5 cc's! I had a leak scare a few months back. I went in for a fill and I was supposed to have 3.4 cc's and all I had was 1.2 cc's. My doctor filled me with omnipague and did a flouro immediately and another one hour later with no leak detected. Yesterday was my second fill since then and I was not missing and fluid. Right now I should have a mixture of 3.2 cc's of Omnipague and .8 cc's of the regular saline. I am assuming that the omnipague is still in there. As far as I know he draws out what is in my band and puts it back in along with the additional saline that he is adding for the fill. I had to drink a little water along with the white stuff they give you for the flouro in order to get it to go through my band on the flouro. It went through slowly and I was on my way. I am just beside myself right now because I feel like I have less restriction right now than I did with 3.5 cc's before my fill yesterday. I am going to wait atleast a few weeks before I go back to my fill doctor because it's a three hour drive and on my last fill I didn't feel much difference until about 10 days after the fill. With my first band I was too tight with 3.0 cc's. Now I am at 4.0 cc's and I still don't have good restriction. My fill doctor said you can actually get a little more than 4.0 cc's in a 9.75 cm band, but that doesn't give me much hope at this point. Is it possible that my stomach is just too small to ever get good restriction from the band? I feel like I have wasted $15,000!

Well, I just got my 7th fill on Friday and I can't tell any difference! I am on my second band. The first one slipped. I got a new band in June and last Friday I had my 7th fill in an attempt to get back to having some good restriction. Each time I go to get a fill it just ends in disappointment two days later when I get back on solid foods and realize that I don't have the restriction that I was hoping for. I have a 9.75 cm band with 4.0 cc capacity. I am up to 3.5 cc's! With my first band 3.0 cc's was too tight! I am thinking that what could be making a difference this time is that the surgeon who rebanded me seems to have left a bit more tubing inside of me than the first surgeon did. The tubing holds saline. I am thinking that the fill has to completely fill up the tubing before the saline goes into the band, so if I have more tubing it will take more saline to fill the band because of the extra tubing. Does this make sense? I had a leak scare a month ago when I went in for a fill. I was supposed to have 3.4 cc's and the doctor only drew out 1.2 cc's! So, he filled me with an IV contrast fluid called omnipague that he can see on the flouro if it is leaking out. He did a flouro and then did another flouro an hour later and no leak was detected. I went through a month until my next fill and I didn't have good restriction, but I didn't feel like what little restriction I did have had lessened which would indicate a loss of fluid. That was my main concern. So, when I went in Friday I was confident that this would be the day that I finally got good restriction. He did not pull out what fluid was already in the band before he added to it. I was confused by that, because he always draws the previous fill out before he adds to it. He was doing the fill with regular saline instead of omnipague this time, so I don't know if that had anything to do with it. I did not question him because he is a great doctor and very experienced and knowlegeable. He added .3 cc's to bring my fill level up to 3.5 cc's. Everything seemed great on the flouro. It took a few minutes for the liquid to start passing through the band, but it was slowly going down. Now, I am back on solid foods and I can't tell any difference from before my fill! I think that if he had added more omnipague instead of regular saline, then I would have a little more restriction. It makes sense to me because that omnipague is a thicker liquid. I am trying to be patient. I know that a lot of people don't feel the fill for up to 10 days afterwards. I don't understand that at all, but I would love for that to be the case right now! I start eating and I can feel the food and sometimes hear the food just gurgling down through my band. Does anyone have any opinions about my situation? It makes me feel better to talk with others who know what I am experiencing!

My weight bounces around from about 137 to 143. I would be happy if I could just get back to 132 and stay there. I just have little faith that I can get back down without long term restriction. I have been working out Monday - Friday, 30 minutes on the treadmill and 15 minutes on the bike and lifting weights for months with absolutely no results. I am about 10 pounds heavier than when I got rebanded and I am worried that I will be another 10 pounds heavier in another 9 months! I am trying to be positive, but it's hard right now.

I have double checked and I do have the smallest band. I am going back to my fill doctor on Friday to get checked out. I think my port is leaking!

It sounds like you are too tight and you need to have a little unfill.

Do you mean PB? That stands for "productive burp". Like when you burp and food comes up. Well, I just went for my 7th fill on Monday. I was not missing any of my saline. I was so happy! He filled me from 3.5 cc's up to 4.0 cc's! I had a feeling on my drive home that something was wrong because I was getting hungry and I never feel hungry. Now I have no restriction at all and I am burping up air like crazy which is what happened the last time I went in and I was missing fluid! I think what happened is my band will hold the omnipague because it is thicker, but since he has added saline to it twice now, it thinned out the omnipague and the fill did not hold! I am going back on Friday. I am sure he will do another leak test. I am so upset! I am going to ask him to fill me up to 4.0 cc's with straight omnipague and see if it holds.

Thanks so much for your reply. Unfortunately, I think I have a leak. I can tell that my fill level of 4.0 cc's did not "hold". My fill doctor can fill me with a thicker fluid and that could work, but we will have to see what happens. I am going back in on Friday to see what's going on. I have had my fill doctor test me for a leak under x-ray before and he did not find a leak. I am really upset. I think maybe my port is not sealing off well and I am leaking afterwards on the way home. For some reason it's not leaking out right away which would show on the x-ray right after he fills me. I checked with my doctor to see how much it would cost if I happen to need a port replacement. I know that port replacements are not that uncommon. He wants $14,500! He said he would have to replace the entire band. That just doesn't seem right! I can't afford that anyway, so if that is what I need, I am going to have to do this on my own! I am scared!

I am at 4.0 cc's in a 4.0 cc band with little restriction so far. I just got filled yesterday so I am hoping that something changes and the fill "kicks in" soon. I have been banded since 6/21/06.

I certainly feel for all of you guys. I am having big restriction problems. As of yesterday I now have 4.0 cc's in a band that only holds 4.0 cc's (9.75 cm) and I don't have restriction so far. I feel like I have less restriction than I did before the fill with 3.5 cc's. Last time it took about 10 days for me to notice a difference, which was a "first", so maybe that will happen with this fill too. I am justnot very optimistic. The doctor said the band will actaully hold a little more than 4.0 cc's, but I have little faith at this point that that would help! Anyone else had the same experience?

Don't feel bad people! I am going for my 7th fill on February 16th and I still don't have good restriction!

What I meant regarding the tubing is that the length of the tubing that is on my band is longer than with the first band, therefore, the longer the tubing, the more saline it will hold. As far as I know, the tubing can be as long or as short as the surgeon needs depending on the patient. Maybe I am wrong. I will ask at my next fill. I guess maybe I should quit trying to rationalize everything, get over it, and just do the best I can until my next fill. It will be 7th fill! I never thought it would take so long.

Don't worry about what type or size band you should get. The surgeon doesn't know for sure which size he will put in until he gets in there. I think most surgeons usually go with a specific manufacturer and the size just varies depending on your stomach. Of course, you should ask questions when you have a consultation with the surgeon, but from what I know, they usually have to wait until they actually get inside of you before they know which size would be best for you.

I supposedly had 3.4 cc's in a 4.0 cc band and I had no restriction. I was really frustrated. When he pulled out the saline, all he could get was 1.2 cc's! He filled me with Omnipague which is sort of like fix-a-flat and they can also see it on the flouro to see if it is leaking out of the band, port or tubing. They couldn't find a leak and they checked again an hour later and still didn't see a leak. I have 3.2 cc's right now. I still don't have proper restriction, but every now and then I will have an incident. I had to pull over and go into a restroom on my lunch break yesterday because I was sliming! Anyway, the omnipague seems to be working. I am going to get a small fill on Friday to hopefully get proper restriction. We will see how much he pulls out this time. I sure hope it is 3.2 cc's! I am self pay and I don't have the money for surgery to fix a leak!

I was wondering if there is anyone out there who had a leak that was repaired by getting a fill with Omnipague? I don't know for sure that I had a leak, but I was supposed to have 3.4 cc's in my band and the doctor was only able to pull out 1.2 cc's! That has never happened to me before! So, he gave me a fill with the omnipague stuff that has dye in it so they can look on the flouro to see if and where it is leaking. He also calls it "Fix-A-Flat" because it is a thicker liquid than the saline and he said it seals off tiny leaks sometimes. Anyway, the filled me with that and could not find a leak anywhere on the flouro. I sat around and drank water and coffee for an hour then they checked again and still no leak. I don't have enough restriction to be what I consider "tight", but I don't feel like I have lost what restriction I did have following that fill which makes me feel like the fill isn't leaking out. That is my main concern because I am self pay and I don't have the money to have surgery to fix it! I was just wondering if anyone else out there has been through a similar situation where they had a leak that was fixed with the omnipague stuff. Also, if that is the case, do you have to keep getting filled with the omnipague from now on? I would think you would have to keep getting the thicker liquid instead of the saline. Maybe I didn't really have a leak and it was just a freak thing, but how do you just lose 2.2 cc's?

I think Dr. Kuri is a great doctor and having my band implanted by him, I am sure, had nothing to do with my band slipping. My band slipped because I was very careless and I PB'd almost every time I ate! The only thing that disappointed me about Dr. Kuri is that he first said that he would try to fix the band for me, but when he found out that I was at the goal weight that I wrote on my pre-surgery paperwork he told me that I should have learned better eating habits by now and that he didn't want to mess with the band unless it started making me throw up and have problems. The band was not causing any problems for me other than I could eat as if I had no band because my pouch was huge! He said if the band started causing problems for me that I should give him a call and he would just remove it. I ended up getting rebanded in Dallas, TX. I was just so disappointed in him because he knows that the band is meant to be in for life and that people who get the band get it because they are unable to stick with the eating habits that naturally thin people have. I know there are fat people who eat like a bird and eat like most "normal" people. I guess by normal I mean thin. I think you understand what I mean though. If I could do it on my own, I wouldn't have gotten banded to begin with. I guess what I am trying to say is my disappointment with Dr. Kuri is the attitude he took about the need to fix my band. If he didn't want to do it that was one thing, but he should have known better ( and I think he does) than to tell me that I should have learned how to eat properly and I should just be able to maintain my weight on my own. You might not agree with my opinion about that whole situation, but don't doubt Dr. Kuri's abilities as far as actually doing the surgery. I hope you have found or plan on finding a good fill doctor in your state. I saw one of Dr. Kuri's surgeons on his "team" to get a fill after my band had slipped just slightly and he told me that it was fine! I was in TJ to get an arm lift and I was having trouble drinking so I scheduled an unfill with Dr. Kuri while I was there. He just unfilled me a little bit and told me it was fine. It wasn't fine. I know the doctor's name, but I just can't think. It wasn't the lady. It was the other man. However, despite my negative comments, I do think that Dr. Kuri is competent and as long as you follow the band rules you should do just fine! Do not PB or throw up! If that is a problem, get a slight unfill! I will be happy to tell you anything you want to know if you have more questions.

I am not going to go into any detail here, but I don't recommend Dr. Dobson. I have used him in the past. If anyone wants to PM me, I will talk to you. I am a patient of Dr. Maese's and I think he's great!

Barbara - Thanks for your post! That makes me feel a little better!

SMATYAS - My doctor filled my 4.0 cc band up to 3.2 cc's and checked the flouro then he checked the flouro again an hour later. He couldn't see a leak. I guess we will see how much he is able to draw out when I go in for my next fill. I am praying that he gets out 3.2 cc's!

I used to eat and drink standing up. That is a sure sign that you're too tight!

I am currently on my second band. I got a new one on 6/21/06. I have the same exact size band as I did the first time. I was pretty much at my goal weight when I got rebanded. It has been a big challenge to maintain my weight during this 7 month period of no restriction. I kept it off until October. For some reason it just seemed to hit me all at once. I am up about 10 pounds. I could live with that knowing that I will have restriction again and I will get it off, but I am really worried right now. I have 3.4 cc's in a band that holds 4.0 cc's. I still have no restriction. It feels tight when I first get the fill, but by the time I get half way home from the doctor's office it is already loose again. I drive three hours to get fills. I have the same exact size band as my first one and with the first one I was too tight at 3.0 cc's. I can't imagine what the difference would be this time. I am going for another fill on 12/22. I will let you know what happens. All I want for Christmas is restriction! I have literally been praying for it!