Second breakage in 2 years

[monkey1 0]

I have had my band for 7 years, and two years ago was doing really well until I started to get severe pain for a couple of months, it was missed in an ultrasound that my port had disconnected with the band, and was floating around, causing me great pain when I moved. I had surgery immediately after the discovery and found it really hard getting used to it again. After a few months, weight continued to increase, and I still had some discomfort. Now 18 months on from surgery, it is not working, and have a specialist appointment next week, and possibly have to have a second repair.

I feel a lot of emotional torment, being back at square one, I have put 20 kilos on in 2 years (half the first time it broke, and continually until now), but physically I struggled the second time around, especially going back to work, which is a physical job, the doctor thinks I had an abdominal adhesion following, which was why I continued to have pain.

I guess I have to wait until next week to have a definite opinion on what has happened this time, but there's definitely no saline in it, and my appetite is HUGE.

Just wondering whether it's happened to anyone else, and if they are struggling like I am...

[lellow 1,713]

I didn't have the same problem but I have had similar frustrations.

In Jan last year they found I had a leak. I was checked for erosion and slip as well and had neither. In March I got the port and tube replaced but three months later, after complaining of not getting any restriction, they agreed that I was still losing Fluid and I had another operation in August. They checked the band while I was under and couldn't find a leak so they put everything back in and sewed me up.

I still couldn't get restriction (got 10cc in my 10cc band at one point) and this past Friday, after not seeing my dr for 4 months, they've discovered I've lost almost 4cc from my band.

I've had two operations and the leak is still there. And from Jan to August I gained 12kgs despite not going crazy with food. In Sept I started calorie counting and exercising formally again to stop my weight gain and I managed to stabilise, but it takes work. I have some fill in my band but I've always needed a high level of fill to feel restriction so I might as well not have any in.

It's so disheartening, having something be relatively easy then lose it. To gain that weight back so easily, and to lose it be SO hard. So I feel you

[monkey1 0]

Sorry to hear that, next week I'm having the dye injected under an xray, so they can see if it's a leak or another breakage, have you had that xray?

[lellow 1,713]

Yep have had 1 upper GI and 2 x-rays - no erosion, no slip. I haven't done the dye test because they've already determined I have a leak just from the amount of Fluid I've lost so it doesn't make sense to do a test when they already know what it is.

They did talk about the dye test to see if they could locate the leak but I need to be leaking at far more than 0.25cc a week for it to show up in the dye test, and I'm not.

[coley1221 0]

I didn't have the same problem but I have had similar frustrations.

In Jan last year they found I had a leak. I was checked for erosion and slip as well and had neither. In March I got the port and tube replaced but three months later' date=' after complaining of not getting any restriction, they agreed that I was still losing Fluid and I had another operation in August. They checked the band while I was under and couldn't find a leak so they put everything back in and sewed me up.

I still couldn't get restriction (got 10cc in my 10cc band at one point) and this past Friday, after not seeing my dr for 4 months, they've discovered I've lost almost 4cc from my band.

I've had two operations and the leak is still there. And from Jan to August I gained 12kgs despite not going crazy with food. In Sept I started calorie counting and exercising formally again to stop my weight gain and I managed to stabilise, but it takes work. I have some fill in my band but I've always needed a high level of fill to feel restriction so I might as well not have any in.

It's so disheartening, having something be relatively easy then lose it. To gain that weight back so easily, and to lose it be SO hard. So I feel you[/quote']

How did they find the leak? Every time my doctor filled my band I felt no different. I have 8ccs in my band but I can still eat pretty well before feeling full. This makes me nervous :/

[lellow 1,713]

They pretty much just withdrew all the Fluid in the band and where there was supposed to be say, 10cc, there would only be 6cc there. So the fluid is leaking out somewhere along the way.

[monkey1 0]

I finally had my band tested a couple of times, filled to high pressure under an xray, and there was no sign of the leak, despite losing a 5th of the Fluid after 10 minutes.

I had surgery, and they still could not find a leak, but they did decide to replace everything.

It's been a few months, and I'm only just starting to feel the effects of having a working band, my appetite is reduced and I can go to the gym again without any severe pain.