Just Plain Angry (Long Rant)

[KayleighsMommy 16]

I am 3 months post op and have only lost 20 pounds since my surgery. I have been so upset about this. Now I realize I am angry. Not particularly about the lack of loss... more about the circumstances leading up to it.

Here's my story:

I decided in 2008 to have a lapband. I found a surgeon who seemed nice, caring and competent. I talked to a couple people on lapbandtalk who really liked him. My insurance would not cover it without a 6 month diet and I had a very painful hernia that needed a repair, so we paid the band portion of the surgery. It still ended costing close to 10K.

The surgeon called me the night before my surgery to tell me he had accepted a job in another state and he wanted to give me the option of cancelling my surgery and finding a different surgeon. I elected to stay with him and have my surgery the next day.

The surgery went well. It was quite a bit longer than anticipated because I had some mesh from a previous hernia repair that had balled up and grown into my flesh. he had to cut it away a piece at a time. I spent the night in the hospital and got out the next day. I had a significant amount of pain. It did not feel like gas, but still I took lots of GasX. It did not help at all.

When I went in for my one week post op he was obviously high. Very high.

At 3 weeks I developed a seroma (a Fluid filled pocket under the skin). I called him and he said to come in. He looked at it, poked it with his finger and said "Yep, it's a seroma. You can go home now" I asked him if he was going to have me get it drained, he told me he didn;t believe in it, as that can cause an infection. This was on Tuesday.

On Thursday I called and told him it was getting infected. It was draining a dark color (should not drain, and the color should be clear/pale yellow) He said "You'll be OK. I'll see you on Monday".

On Friday I called and told hm my temp was 101.6. he said "You'll be OK, I'll see you Monday".

On Saturday my temp was 102.8. I had my husband take me to the local hospital. They did a CT scan and lots of blood tests. They admitted me and I needed surgery the next morning. I had 750 cc's (about a litre) of pus in my belly. I was an hour or so from sepsis. They left the wounds open and I was on 4 different IV antibiotics for 6 days. I left the hospital with a massive yeast infection, open wounds and a wound vacuum.

When I went in to see him the next week he had the gall to say "I wish you had come to my hopital so I could take care of you"

I did well with my weight loss, but I always had pain. A kind of pulling, burning pain in my chest and constant pain in my port area. I assumed this was not abnormal, just the price I had to pay for my weight loss.

In 2 1/2 years I lost 113 pounds. It was quite slow towards the end, but I was still quite pleased. I was even planning plastic surgery even though I still had about 60 pounds to lose.

Then one day I woke up with terrible pain. Called the surgeon who had taken over my care and his nurse had me come in for a unfill. It was Thanksgiving week and I was not happy about this, since I was going out of town in a couple of days. That night I was at a support group for a different surgeon. The pain got so bad I went to the ER there. It turned out my stomach was huge and emptying very slowly. I was told I had gastroparesis.

I was in constant pain.

We started a new insurance 2 months later. It took me a month to get into a gastro doctor. She did a EGD and found out I had a major erosion. My band was sitting in my stomach. The baratric department at Kaiser (our new insurance) scheduled me to see a surgeon and get the band removed. I was really sad about losing it. I was told I could apply for another surgery, but that it takes 10 months to a year to get it done.

The band removal did not help my pain. i had chest pain and severe debilitating left arm pain. The only thing that can cure gastroparesis is a gastric byass. Didn't matter, I had to wait my turn.

I found out a friend of mine (another one of his patients) who got her band 4 months before me had hers erode 4 months before mine. One is bad luck, 2 is a bad doctor.

After 10 months (and 50 pounds gain) I was finally at the top of the list. BUT...... I was informed this surgery is elective and it was going to cost me $10,000. Even though it was the only thing that may cure my medical condition, it was still elective.

So....now here I am. 3 months post op and down 10K and a whole whopping 20 pounds.

I am so angry. Angry at what happened to me, angry after finding out he had been censured by the medical board for alcoholism, angry at the thought that the reason he put me off when I had my infection and I almost died was because he was high, and angry this idiot is still out there maiming people.

Sorry for the long rant and thanks for reading it.

[Panda 354]

Wow! That is awful. But i must ask are you exercising and are you getting enough Proteins? From my understanding Protein is essential to weigh loss....and when i say exercise im referring to somfthing as simple as walking 25 mins 5 days a week. Also maybe lapband ppl should consider a class action law suit to get it removed from the market because i hear so many similiar awful stories about the lapband. So many that my surgeon wont even do them...my heart bleeds for you...hope maybe these two tips help

[Tor 11]

Nothing we can say could possibly help with the pain you have suffered. All I can say is that I am sure all our thoughts and best wishes are with you and I hope it all works for you in the end.

[LosingItForMe2011 320]

Kay are you doing better now after all that? I mean are you able to follow the plan your dietician/nutritionist gave you etc. I hope you're doing better.