Confession: Afraid of my Band

[zuchinno 4]

I've had my band over a year, and had 3 fills. I have moderate restriction, but I'm always scared that it might malfunction or slip, or something might happen to the port.

Sometimes I read the stuff in the Complications Forum, and the doctors say it's so rare for that stuff to happen, but hearing so many stories about it makes me nervous.

I'm afraid to go forward with any real restriction or put pressure on the band by letting the food sit in the upper pouch because it might come back up or something. Usually when I eat, I'll eat so slowly and wash it down with Water or milk 'cause of this fear. (Please don't tell me I'm not supposed to, it's judgmental and I obviously know it's not right).

I'm really afraid of getting food poisoning or the stomach flu and dislodging the band or flipping the port or kinking the tube while retching.

Is anybody else scared of things like that? Has anybody seen real numbers on how often bands malfunction one way or another?

I'm not sure what kinds of responses I'd need, maybe it was just to get it off of my chest....

[Noturningback15 45]

I don't have any statistics to report but I do understand what you are going though. I am terrified of my band slipping, PB, sliming, getting stuck ect. I have been banded for a little over 8 months and I have never experience any of the above due to this fear. I chew my food and use sauces or ketchup to help liquify whatever I am eatting to make sure does not have a single chunk in it! LOL! It takes me forever to eat doing this but I am proud to say I have never been stuck or vomit!

[Mimilou2004 13]

I don't know statistics but if your way works for you, I think you are doing well. I am one of those that can't find her sweet spot and is always worrying about slipping and erosion etc, so I can empathize with your fears and concerns. I can't imagine life without my band....I would be 250 pounds again. I am not one who thinks the band is for re-educating the eating habits...mine is for appetite control primarily and I make apologies to no one.

Best wishes,

Mimi

[isaviolinist 11]

I have the same fears as you do. I am completely determined to get to goal with my band and make it work for me, however I may eventually revise (to sleeve probably). I'm deathly deathly deathly afraid of erosion. The stories I hear about complications due to erosion scare the crap out of me. Additionally, today I found out that my insurance won't cover adjustments. The reason why it was covered before is because my old doc did them under fluoro so the adjustments were billed as xrays. The new doc doesn't do fills under fluoro and gastric band adjustments are not covered (which is so crazy...I have the best insurance you can buy...I can see any physician I want, including physicians in other countries, but I can't get a band adjustment...unfortunate since I have a gastric band ). If I want an adjustment, I'll need to pay 250 dollars everytime. If I just want to have an appointment with no adjustment, I'll have to pay 150.00. I'm beyond irritated about it.

[zuchinno 4]

@isaviolinist

I completely agree that it's totally annoying not having the fills covered. A lot of places will only put .25 in at a time, which is also irritating 'cause I get fluoro every time 'cause I wanna be safe and that means $400/visit out of pocket.

I think I get scared a lot because the first few weeks adjusting back to solid foods, I wasn't very practiced at eating slowly and reintegrating solids so I was PB and sliming a lot at first. My solution was drinking a glass of milk with dinner, but that defeated the purpose and I lost very little weight.

Now I'm taking another shot at eating without a beverage after several months of slow-eating practice and it's finally working like it should.

I'll definitely need a new fill doc now though since I moved to SF from WA state.... :crying:;;; When they hear I got my band in Mexico when I call the clinic, most places act like I've got the plague.

Thanks for the empathy guys! It means a whole lot!