My Story: Life before, during and after the band.

[CapeGirl 2]

No worries, this won't be a full recap of my life. I just feel that my story is one that should be shared because of how the band changed my life and then unfortunately had to be removed 4 years later.

Before I jump into the story I will say that if you are feeling ANY unusual pain - not necessarily in your port area or stomach - see your surgeon. We have a foreign object in our bodies and it's not unusual for our bodies to try and reject it...

Before the band:

I've been overweight my entire life. Like many others I couldn't latch onto the right tools to lose that unwanted weight. My level of discipline is something that I continuously struggle to build up - especially when it comes to food. I was an anxious kid who turned to food in times when I needed comfort or was under stress. Although I was always active - playing multiple sports throughout life - I couldn't seem to maintain a healthy weight.

My junior year of college was spent abroad in Italy. It was there that I gained a new confidence in myself and my abilities. I've always been an outgoing and confident person but it took experiencing another culture to make me feel like I had the control to make a change in myself. When I got home I went to the initial lap band seminar to get an overview.

From there on it was a whirlwind of appointments and all that pre-op stuff we all had to go through. Four months after that seminar I was in for surgery - November 2009. At the time I was one of the youngest to get the band - only 21 years old.

Life with the band:

It felt like the weight was melting off of my body. I barely worked out the first year with the band and had lost the first 40 pounds with almost no physical effort. I changed the way I was eating, that's for sure. The band did its job - it restricted how much I could eat, how quickly I was eating and just made me more conscious of the choices I made. I noticed that every time I was getting a fill, I could barely eat for the following days. Looking back, I don't think that's the right way to do it but in my mind I was thinking, "great, here's an easy 3-4 pounds gone."

I became a better me. As the weight fell off, I became even more confident in all areas of my life. I had my first serious relationship, I was fiercely going after my career goals and just felt happier and healthier of course.

It became harder to lose weight as I got closer to my goal weight (which by the way, I'm still not quite there). I added in exercise and it helped me shed more pounds. As of summer 2010 (year and a half post-surgery), I wasn't able to get anymore fills. I had a fill where almost immediately after the solution was injected I started to feel back pain. They sent me home anyway and told me to come back if it worsened. Oh boy did it ever... it turned into radiating pain throughout my entire body. My jaw, neck, legs, everything. I couldn't even drink Water. So, they took the last fill out and I returned to normal state. They couldn't really explain why the pain was occurring other than maybe my band was at its max capacity at 10cc's.

So needless to say after that experience, I stayed away for a year. I didn't want to go through that pain and felt that my band was telling me that it has done its job and now its my turn. After a year of unsuccessful weight loss, I went back for another fill but had the same experience. The doctor took even more solution out this time just to see how my body would react.

It was around summer of 2012 when this back pain really began. It was the same pain I was feeling when I had the fills that needed to be removed. It's pain that starts in the mid to upper back and then radiates throughout my lower back and through my sides...almost always coinciding with nausea and after I ate something. In the back of my mind, I knew it had to be from my band. I was only 24 years old and shouldn't be feeling that kind of pain. But of course, like many of us do, I dealt with the pain for months hoping it would go away. I altered my desk and computer at work thinking it was my posture. I tried changing how I was sleeping. And by this point, I was on a serious workout regiment - a lot of weight lifting and hard cardio so I thought it could be from that.

The turning point:

During Fall and winter of 2012 I had back pain every single day. Some days it was so debilitating that I'd have to leave work. The only remedies were laying down on my back and wait for the pain to subside or occasionally ib profeun. The pain and frustration brought me to tears. It was affecting my life at work and my social life (not fun having an episode while you're out to dinner with friends).

So in April 2013 I decided it was time to just make a call to my primary care doctor. I needed to start somewhere. I was in the middle of an "attack" at work and walked outside to call my doctor because I was so fed up. They couldn't see me that day so they sent me to the night clinic the next day. I explained my situation and also happened to mention that many of the women in my family have had their gallbladders removed. While he didn't seem to think it was my gallbladder (because of my young age) he decided to "rule it out" by scheduling an ultrasound for me the following day.

I had the ultrasound. The tech was awfully quiet and wouldn't share my results with me. They had me wait as the results were sent to the referring physician. Then, they told me the doctor was on the phone and needed to speak with me. "You have huge stones!" he said. "And we need to remove your gallbladder immediately." I couldn't believe it. At that moment, I was relieved that I knew something was wrong and that I followed through to find the solution but I was scared too. So I thought that the gallstones were the cause of all my pain. But then, I scheduled a pre-op consult with my bariatric surgeon so he could perform the gallbladder surgery.

He wanted to remove my gallbladder the next day. "No problem, see ya then" type of conversation. But before he walked out of the room he happened to ask how my band was doing and I said, "eh." I told him my suspicions for the cause of back pain were initially due to the band. Because of that he insisted that while I was there they should just see how much Fluid is in the band. Thank goodness he did!

What went wrong:

The doctor pulled out brown fluid from my band. "Hmmm..." he said. He tried again just to be sure he made it into the port and didn't collect fluid from stomach cavity instead. I've never seen him lost for words or for explanation. He sat down and stared at the brown fluid and said he had never seen anything like it. The brown fluid suggested that there may be an infection somewhere but that would mean that somehow there was a puncture in the band itself and therefore stomach fluid was leaking inside the band creating a bacteria.

He sent the fluid for culture testing immediately and shipped me down to radiology for a CT scan so he could see a full picture of the band. Hours later, he came in the room and said that the band looked unharmed. Therefore, he had no idea what was causing the bad fluid. We discussed taking the band out. And since I felt like it wasn't working for me anymore anyway, he was most comfortable with taking the whole thing out.

Back in the OR:

So 10 days from my first call to my primary care, I was back in the OR. And not only was my gallbladder being removed, we were also taking out my band in the same surgery. I was scared of course but also praying for pain relief. And it was unnerving that the doctor wasn't even sure what he was going to find when he got in there.

When I came to, I was in the exact same recovery room that I was in just 4 years ago! Itching like crazy again because apparently I'm allergic to morphine and a little more uncomfortable than when I got my band in.

The doctor came to explain what he found and how he removed the band. Gallbladder was no issue, he removed it and moved onto the band. He found that the band part that is wrapped around the stomach (the part that restricts your intake), had eroded into my stomach lining. The CT scan didn't show him this part of my body so he was surprised to find this. In his thousands of patients, I was the first he had seen this happen to. There was no research to back up his findings. We're still not sure how this happened or why.

Even better, the way he took the band out... he cut it into pieces and then removed it through my mouth. Yuck! Needless to say, the recovery process was more difficult because of the two surgeries and complications with removing the band. They had me there for almost 2 full days because of all the follow-up tests they needed to provide to be sure my esophagus and stomach weren't leaking. Another CT scan, a barium swallow a JP drain and 2 days of itching from pain meds later...they let me go home.

Life after the band:

I can't believe it's no longer part of me. For so long I felt like it was my safety blanket. I'm disappointed that it didn't get me further and that it caused me so much pain. The gallstones were just a coincidental find that led to finding the real issue with my band. I'm almost 4 months out from surgery and have adjusted fine to life without a band. It's what I learned while I had the band that is making me maintain weight. My discipline is stronger than it's ever been but needs to be even stronger when it comes to nutrition. The back pain has subsided and I no longer anticipate feeling like that on a daily basis. I'm still working toward my goal weight and almost there!

Moral of the story:

LISTEN TO YOUR BODY! I waited too long to see my doctor about the pain. I suffered for months and months because part of me didn't want to know the truth. I was scared that it was the band's fault because the band had given me so much and I didn't want to believe it. So if you're feeling any unusual pain, anywhere, just talk to your doctor. And tell them everything. If I hadn't mentioned family history of gallstones then I might never have had the ultrasound and therefore never have gone back to bariatric surgeon when I did.

[skb123 308]

Just says to me there is always the exception to the rule the one who has a extreme problem and I am sorry it was you. But glad all has worked out for you. I too had gall bladder problems but many years ago, and mine was extremely complicated I ended up going through 2 years of in and out of the hospital and 3 surgeries not to mention months at Stanford University Hospital in CA. So you never know when you will be the one with the extreme problems. So I could go on and on about gall bladder problems, just glad they are in the rear view for sure. Best wishes to you to complete your weight loss journey!

[dawalsh 919]

Good post to learn from! I had my gallbladder out way back in 1980 but back then they didn't do all the sophisticated tests they do now. I had to have exploratory surgery and my surgeon said my gallbladder was almost like a solid rock. I had the old fashioned surgery where they didn't do laparoscopic or laser for gallbladder. The post op pain was severe and I was given Demerol shots for pain.

Anyway, here it is 2013 and back in April, I felt my port protruding way out of my stomach, it was a simple fix with my port being flipped but I'm glad I listened to my body right away and had it corrected.

I'm so sorry you had to go through all the problems but thank God you're doing better and maintaining your weight. I hope that you have no more problems and that you'll continually keep losing or maintaining your weight. Thanks for the valuable lesson that we can all learn from to listen to our bodies.

[cynj 5]

I two having pain in my port side not feeling like eating , have had a hard time with getting fills senise day 1 hard time finding port have a lot of hartburn, well be two years April 2 have lost 40 pounds instill have a lot to lose!

[cccs427 0]

Great information. I had my band for almost 3 years. I got my band at 24yrs old. I lost more than my goal weight. From 230lbs I got to 137lbs happy as can be and with no exercise. I got pregnant and needed to get my band unfilled due to hard pregnancy. I gained 60lbs I had my baby 9 months ago today and I only lost 25lbs. I been going back and forth to get fills and unfills for the past 6 months. Last unfill was in April because I had extreme acid reflux and would wake up from my sleep chocking with vomit in my mouth. I finally got tired of sleepness nights and went to dr today! My band has slipped pretty bad. They unfilled completely and hoping my stomach goes back into place. I also have gallstones and I thought that was the reason why I was so sick. Im so devastated that my band slipped. Im scared of gaining weight I dont know what to do.

[cccs427 0]

Great information. I had my band for almost 3 years. I got my band at 24yrs old. I lost more than my goal weight. From 230lbs I got to 137lbs happy as can be and with no exercise. I got pregnant and needed to get my band unfilled due to hard pregnancy. I gained 60lbs I had my baby 9 months ago today and I only lost 25lbs. I been going back and forth to get fills and unfills for the past 6 months. Last unfill was in April because I had extreme acid reflux and would wake up from my sleep chocking with vomit in my mouth. I finally got tired of sleepness nights and went to dr today! My band has slipped pretty bad. They unfilled completely and hoping my stomach goes back into place. I also have gallstones and I thought that was the reason why I was so sick. Im so devastated that my band slipped. Im scared of gaining weight I dont know what to do.

[MandyJ 21]

Thanks for your story!!! Sorry that you suffered all that pain! I too had my gal bladder removed at the age of 20! Mine too was hereditary as my uncle had his removed at 19...it's rare but it happens as we know!!! Glad to here you are doing well , keep up the good work and thanks again for you story!!!