What Might Be Going On?

[bunkie68 6]

I've posted my other thread about how I'm ready to be done with the band. I don't want to go back to the surgeon who put my band in, and I'm trying to find a place to do an unfill if there's any Fluid left in my band - I want to have it done with fluoro (which my surgeon never did), so that may give me some idea of what's going on with the band. In the meantime, I want to write all this down for future reference and to see if anyone has any thoughts to share.

For about a week I've been having intermittent pain in my port area. At first I wondered if i'd pulled a muscle. It started out just feeling like a stitch in my side. Then it got gradually worse, and for a while it hurt rather a lot, but now there are times where it feels just fine, and other times when it hurts (although not so bad as it had done at first). I can't sleep on my side, because that hurts - I can only get comfortable on my back, and that's not my preferred sleeping position.

Also, I've noticed a burning feeling in my abdomen at times, lower down than where I'd think heartburn would be (in other words, it doesn't feel like it's up in my esophagus). I don't know what that might be, but it makes me nervous. I worry that the band has eroded and stomach acid is leaking out, although if that were the case, I'd think I'd feel considerably worse than I do.

I don't have any problem keeping food down, although I find if I eat more rather than less, I sometimes get that painful feeling in my left side where the port is. i'm not throwing up, not running fever. I just have an intermittent pain in my left side in the general area of my port and that burning sensation in my upper abdomen.

I have contacted one surgeon regarding band removal, because this whole process is freaking me out enough that I've realized I'm ready to be done with the band. His office checked my insurance, told me it didn't cover weight loss surgery, and said that the surgeon didn't do just removals, he only did removals in conjunction with revising to a different weight loss procedure.

I plan to get in to see my regular doctor this week, explain to him what I think might be going on, and see if he thinks there are any other possibilities such as some type of hernia. If I can rule some things out, then that will help. I'm also going to find someplace in the area for the unfill (or at least the check to see if there's anything to be taken out, it's been so long since I had a fill). And I'm going to continue to try to find a surgeon who will do just a removal without switching to some other procedure.

In the meantime, has anyone else experienced anything like this? If so, what did it turn out to be?

[cheryl2586 3,053]

I dont believe anyone here should be answering this question for you. This is a medical problem and a doctor is the only one who should really be making any assumptions on whats causing these problems.

[bunkie68 6]

I'm going to see my regular doctor today, to see if I can rule out some non-band-related things, I'm still trying to get in to see a bariatric surgeon, and I would never expect a diagnosis from a forum. However, I think it's human nature to ask of others who may have had similar issues if their situation compares to ours, and that's what I was doing.

[Miss Meow 12]

I have been experiencing some tightening in the stomach area and have been abnormally aware of my port the past few days. I have been contribiting it to gas since I am three months post op and have been adding a little more stuff to my diet. But it is in my nature to be paranoid and I have been thinking that something has to be wrong. My issue is that I got banded in Mexico so after care is hard to set up.

Hopefully someone will pipe in wgho has been through the same experience as you or I just to compare notes. I wouldn't take what people say for gospel here but someones advice might make me calm down.

[CAROLYNFC 24]

If I am constipated I experience pain in my left side. It feels like it is near my port. Maybe that could be a problem. But please get checked out.

[bunkie68 6]

Hopefully someone will pipe in wgho has been through the same experience as you or I just to compare notes. I wouldn't take what people say for gospel here but someones advice might make me calm down.

Exactly! I wouldn't assume that anyone's experience is the same as mine, but if someone says, hey, I had something similar happen, and it turned out to be X, and I was able to get it fixed and heal up OK, then that will tend to ease my mind until I can get in to see the doctor.

[bunkie68 6]

My doc called yesterday morning with the results of the CT scan. The cause of all this pain and angst? Ovarian cysts. That wasn't even on the radar as a possibility, and I was so relieved when I heard that that I was positively giddy. They should resolve themselves, and if they don't, I can follow up with my OB/GYN.

This whole experience has confirmed for me, though, that I'm ready to be done with the band. I was so worried about the possibilities, and I don't want to worry like that anymore.

[elcee 3,341]

This whole experience has confirmed for me, though, that I'm ready to be done with the band. I was so worried about the possibilities, and I don't want to worry like that anymore.

Even without a band don't you think you will worry? You don't need a foreign body inside of you to worry about what may or may not go wrong.

[bunkie68 6]

Elcee, you're right - any type of pain or something that seems to be a health issue would be cause for concern. But removing that foreign object from my body would be one less thing to worry about, and I wouldn't be worrying that every time I exercised with my kettlebell I might twist something wrong, or that the foreign body inside me might be wearing a hole in my stomach. I won't fear that any little twinge might be something that would put me in the ER, or worry every time I run a little fever that the band is slipping or eroding and something is getting horribly infected.

[elcee 3,341]

True.

Sounds like you might be a natural born worrier so the less you have to worry about the better.

There are other things that you don't need that could be taken out too as something might go wrong with them......... tonsills, adenoids, appendix, ovaries..............! (Joking)

[bunkie68 6]

Ha! If worrying were an Olympic event, I'd bring home the gold. :-) And if I'm not using the band as it was intended and don't plan to, then it makes sense in my mind to remove that worry.

As for the pain that started this whole train of thought, it comes and goes. Sometimes it's definitely in the ovary area, sometimes higher. My doc said he couldn't really say why it moves around like it does, but nothing showed up in either the CT scan or my bloodwork that was out of the ordinary other than the cyst. Go figure.

[bunkie68 6]

Ha! If worrying were an Olympic event, I'd bring home the gold. :-) And if I'm not using the band as it was intended and don't plan to, then it makes sense in my mind to remove that worry.

As for the pain that started this whole train of thought, it comes and goes. Sometimes it's definitely in the ovary area, sometimes higher. My doc said he couldn't really say why it moves around like it does, but nothing showed up in either the CT scan or my bloodwork that was out of the ordinary other than the cyst. Go figure.

[123crod 170]

I had cyst on my ovaries and it is the worst pain I have ever felt. Even childbirth was better than that pain!

Cheri

[jms462001 9]

Ha! If worrying were an Olympic event, I'd bring home the gold. :-) And if I'm not using the band as it was intended and don't plan to, then it makes sense in my mind to remove that worry.

As for the pain that started this whole train of thought, it comes and goes. Sometimes it's definitely in the ovary area, sometimes higher. My doc said he couldn't really say why it moves around like it does, but nothing showed up in either the CT scan or my bloodwork that was out of the ordinary other than the cyst. Go figure.

My ovaries are tacked up due to a mod radical hysterectomy for CC. I had lymphnodes removed and now have a lymphocyst where the left ovary used to be. I have been having discomfort in the port area (a bit lower but close) and it seems muscle related as it hurts most during twisting, turning, etc. I never thought it could be related to this cyst? It seems like the port and the area of discomfort would be high to be related to the pelvic area but who knows? It's now something to consider!