Band Removal Due To Erosion

[JaxBandster 11]

I got my band on February 7th 2008 and was extremely successful with it. I started at 277 and my lowest weight was 183. Man I looked great!!! Slowly but surely, I began to be able to eat more so I would go in for fills but they didn't really seem to have much effect. Last October my doctor recommended an upper GI to make sure everything looked okay and sure enough they discovered that my band had eroded into my stomach. I then had an upper endoscopy to confirm it and the pictures are lovely. Not!

The recommendation was to have it removed and revise to another type of procedure. Fortunately, our company was doing our annual benefits re-enrollment at the time, so I upgraded my insurance and also did a flex spending card for the co-pays. After the beginning of the year we submitted the documentation to the insurance company for the predetermination and after an initial denial they approved the appeal. Also, according to their policy, they will also cover repeat surgery if the removal was due to erosion or slippage so I am also having to make up my mind about which procedure to revise to. I was initially completely sold on the sleeve but there is also a new procedure called banded plication which I am taking a close look at.

Anyway, I finally have my date for the removal of my band. It will be gone on March 29th. Then I will have to wait at least six weeks before revising to whatever surgery I decide to revise to. I have gained back a bunch of my weight (currently at 240) so I am eager to get back on plan. My problem is that I eat because I can. Without that tool inside of me, I don't feel like a need to comply with anything so I don't. I have learned to depend on it. Once I have it, I am am exemplary patient!

I will check back in after my surgery and let everyone know how it went. I am specifically posting my experience here since my removal is due specifically to erosion and I want others who may eventually have the same situation to have something to refer to.

As far as pre-op goes, a week before my surgery I will have my consult with my surgeon and he will give me diet instructions at that time in order to shrink my liver. I will also be doing the surgery at Shands Hospital in Jacksonville and will be staying overnight as he wants to be able to observe me for any leaks due to the perforation and repair of my stomach. The surgery will be on Thursday, I will go home on Friday and I will probably wait until Tuesday to go back to work just because I don't want to push it. I was up and around fairly quickly after getting my band placed so this should be pretty comparable as long as there are no complications.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask and I will try to answer them to the best of my ability. I want to be able to help others who may be going through the same situation.

Karen

[jen_1381 446]

Hi Karen,

Thanks for sharing. Scary stuff!

I just wanted to share about the Plication. I hadn't really heard of it until I went to the WLS seminar last week. The surgeon that spoke was completely against it. She said that there is not enough long-term data to support it's benefits and that the risks are higher because comparable type surgeries have a high fail rate. I know there's only a handful of surgeons that will do Plication in the United States, it's mainly done in Mexico.

I'm sure you will, but please, research the heck out of Plication and the doctors doing it. It may work short term, but after going through everything with your band you are probably wanting the assurance of long-term results.

Also, again, my info came from the surgeon speaking and some very brief internet research on my part, so I could be off base

Whatever you chose - good luck!

[kittyforet 50]

Karen,

Thanks for sharing your story. I'm sorry that it happened to you but glad that you have new options. Please continue to add updates.

Best of luck to you.

Sent from my iPhone using LapBandTalk

[Cocoabean 430]

Karen, Shands is a great hospital. May I ask what band you had? We were banded a week apart. I am so sorry you went through all this.

The sleeve scares me because they remove a large part of your stomach and toss it out. It's still such a new procedure. There's very little long-term data on it. But, they can convert it to bypass if you don't have sufficient weight loss with it.

With banded plication, you'll have another band, yes? Is that something you really want to do?

I don't envy you having to make this decision.

[JaxBandster 11]

Denise, I believe I had the large Allergan band.

In answer to your other question, yes, the banded plication combines two procedures. The plication of the stomach which is basically folding it in on itself to form a sleeve and then stitching the seam without actually cutting the stomach. You get the benefit of the sleeve without removing 80% of the stomach. Then they place a lap band on top of that. The theory is that due to the reduced capacity of the stomach, you have immediate restriction. They do not have to fill the band as frequently nor as quickly as a result. I have read some patients that have had no fills and are quite satisfied with the restriction that the plication and unfilled band offers. Since they do not have to fill the band as quickly and as frequently to achieve restriction, this reduces the instances of slippage and erosion.

My only concern is what happens if my body just doesn't like the band and it erodes again? If this were my first surgery, I would probably due to the banded plication in a heartbeat. But this is probably my last surgery so it needs to be the right one!

[Cocoabean 430]

Karen, I understand your hesitation. There are folks here who've had the banded plication and done very well. There might even be a banded plication forum.

I have the AP Standard band. There is a Vertical Sleeve Talk forum like LBT, you might wander over there. There are lots of band to sleeve revisions there. And many happy sleevers.

Does your surgeon have any idea why your band eroded? My surgeon says erosions are pretty rare with these "newer" bands that we have.

[JaxBandster 11]

Karen, I understand your hesitation. There are folks here who've had the banded plication and done very well. There might even be a banded plication forum.

I have the AP Standard band. There is a Vertical Sleeve Talk forum like LBT, you might wander over there. There are lots of band to sleeve revisions there. And many happy sleevers.

Does your surgeon have any idea why your band eroded? My surgeon says erosions are pretty rare with these "newer" bands that we have.

Hi Denise,

My understanding is that erosions are rare and that no one really knows why one person erodes and another one doesn't. Some say it is because the band was filled too quickly and/or too tightly. Some say that it is due to some sort of non-compliance by the patient. No one really seems to know for sure. My own personal theory is that some people (like myself) may not like to have foreign objects in their bodies. I have had several piercings over the years besides my ears. All of them either tried to migrate (erode) out of my body or would never heal. Is my body one of those who doesn't accept foreign objects well? (Like someone who receives a transplant rejecting?) I don't really know. It's just a hypothesis.

Nevertheless, it does give me some hesitation when considering another lapband. I figure the best course of action is to see what the surgeon sees when he removes my current band and decide from there.

[JaxBandster 11]

Time for an update. I went last week for my pre-op appointment with my surgeon and the first thing I was told was that Shands had cancelled the operating block for my surgeon and that I would have to wait weeks and maybe months for another date unless I wanted to speak with my surgeon's partner and have the surgery at another hospital (which happens to be a local Bariatric Center of Excellence). I figured what the hell and opted to speak with him to see if I liked him. Well, I didn't like him. I LOVED him! I have spoken with four surgeons in the past six months and he is the first one to ever take the time to go into explilcit detail about how my band eroded and then exactly what he will need to do when he removes it. When I asked him which revision surgery he would recommend, he said he wouldn't recommend anything until he got inside to see what kind of damage the band has done. The one thing he was completely adament against was me having any procedure that involved getting another band. He said that in all likeihood, I would erode again.

I just love this guy. He is very thorough, a perfectionist (he spent 30 minutes fixing the information in my chart) and he and I are very much on the same page. So I am still scheduled for this Thursday the 29th at Memorial Hospital and I'm ready to get this thing done. I'm sure I will write about my experience once I get home and in bed so others can have something to guage their upcoming surgeries with. I know that reading about everyone else's experiences sure helps me.

See you after surgery!

[Cocoabean 430]

Thanks for the update, I guess your surgery was today. Sorry I did not get a chance to read. I was out of town for training. All the best for a speedy recovery!!

[JaxBandster 11]

Hi you! I'm home!!!! Sorry I couldn't write before but it's hard to send messages on Facebook via the phone when you are on pain meds. It probably wouldn't have made a whole lot of sense.

I am really glad to hear that you are doing better. My understanding is that the first three days are the worst and then things begin to slowly get better. Has the nausea gone away? Are you hungry? Will you be going back to work next week?

My procedure seems to have gone pretty smoothly. I wasn't nervous at all. Didn't have any nausea. Dr. Pinnar said that everything looked the way he anticipated it would look. The drain was a bit of a surprise. I wasn't expecting that. He said it was a last minute decision on his part. Now I have to figure out how to deal with that while at work.

I went yesterday morning for my leak tests. They said everything looked fine but it took until 7:00 for Dr. Pinnar to let me know it was okay for me to drink. Then I had to drink a certain amount within a couple of hours before he would let me go home. I drank what I was supposed to, was discharged around 11:00, them we had to run around getting perscriptions filled. I was really tired by the time I got home. My only real complaint is the dry mouth I get while I'm sleeping. I don't have a lot of pain, just soreness.

Oh, I gained 10 lbs in the hospital!!!!!! It's beginning to go down slowly but they really kept me hydrated! LOL

[JaxBandster 11]

Sorry about the above post, I copied and pasted a reply to a friend of mine who just got the sleeve. I meant to copy a revised version of the post. Blame it on the pain meds!

[Cocoabean 430]

Ah, pain meds are wonnerful things! Happy to hear you are doing well. Did you do a revision at the same time, or just the removal?