Question for Dr. C!!!

Bawilliams1 · February 27, 2007

Dr. C, I would really appreciate your opinion here. I am on my second band. I had a prolapse with the first one and I had a new band put in last June. I waited until Septmeber to start getting fills just to make sure my stomach was well healed. Since September it has been a slow progression with my fills. I have a 9.75 cm band that holds 4.0 cc's and as of yesterday I now have 4.0 cc's in my band. I stayed on liquids yesterday and today I have had some oatmeal so far, but I feel like I have less restriction than I did at 3.5 cc's! I had a leak scare a few months back. I went in for a fill and I was supposed to have 3.4 cc's and all I had was 1.2 cc's. My doctor filled me with omnipague and did a flouro immediately and another one hour later with no leak detected. Yesterday was my second fill since then and I was not missing and Fluid. Right now I should have a mixture of 3.2 cc's of Omnipague and .8 cc's of the regular saline. I am assuming that the omnipague is still in there. As far as I know he draws out what is in my band and puts it back in along with the additional saline that he is adding for the fill. I had to drink a little Water along with the white stuff they give you for the flouro in order to get it to go through my band on the flouro. It went through slowly and I was on my way. I am just beside myself right now because I feel like I have less restriction right now than I did with 3.5 cc's before my fill yesterday. I am going to wait atleast a few weeks before I go back to my fill doctor because it's a three hour drive and on my last fill I didn't feel much difference until about 10 days after the fill. With my first band I was too tight with 3.0 cc's. Now I am at 4.0 cc's and I still don't have good restriction. My fill doctor said you can actually get a little more than 4.0 cc's in a 9.75 cm band, but that doesn't give me much hope at this point. Is it possible that my stomach is just too small to ever get good restriction from the band? I feel like I have wasted $15,000!

Trace Curry · March 1, 2007

Brandy,

Sometimes it can be hard to tell if a patient has a leak. If you are consistently losing 1cc or more then I would be worried. Sometimes I think the leaks can be so slow that they don't show on Xray at all. It doesn't surprise me though that you are less restricted with a higher fill amount because your band is in a different position now.

Dr. C

Cincinnati, Ohio

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DISCLAIMER: I am not your surgeon, any comments made by me are not meant to be taken as medical advice, just general guidelines. Contact your surgeon about your specific problem!

Dr. C, I would really appreciate your opinion here. I am on my second band. I had a prolapse with the first one and I had a new band put in last June. I waited until Septmeber to start getting fills just to make sure my stomach was well healed. Since September it has been a slow progression with my fills. I have a 9.75 cm band that holds 4.0 cc's and as of yesterday I now have 4.0 cc's in my band. I stayed on liquids yesterday and today I have had some oatmeal so far, but I feel like I have less restriction than I did at 3.5 cc's! I had a leak scare a few months back. I went in for a fill and I was supposed to have 3.4 cc's and all I had was 1.2 cc's. My doctor filled me with omnipague and did a flouro immediately and another one hour later with no leak detected. Yesterday was my second fill since then and I was not missing and Fluid. Right now I should have a mixture of 3.2 cc's of Omnipague and .8 cc's of the regular saline. I am assuming that the omnipague is still in there. As far as I know he draws out what is in my band and puts it back in along with the additional saline that he is adding for the fill. I had to drink a little Water along with the white stuff they give you for the flouro in order to get it to go through my band on the flouro. It went through slowly and I was on my way. I am just beside myself right now because I feel like I have less restriction right now than I did with 3.5 cc's before my fill yesterday. I am going to wait atleast a few weeks before I go back to my fill doctor because it's a three hour drive and on my last fill I didn't feel much difference until about 10 days after the fill. With my first band I was too tight with 3.0 cc's. Now I am at 4.0 cc's and I still don't have good restriction. My fill doctor said you can actually get a little more than 4.0 cc's in a 9.75 cm band, but that doesn't give me much hope at this point. Is it possible that my stomach is just too small to ever get good restriction from the band? I feel like I have wasted $15,000!

kbattal · March 1, 2007

Dr C,

I was also worried of a possible leak a month ago. The doc injected 1cc contrast agent omnipaque (blue color) and 1cc saline, to make it total of 7.0cc in the band. Then I went to another fill doctor two weeks ago, he draw the saline 6cc but no omnipaque, the Fluid was clear, 1cc less, and there was no blue color mixed up. I assume the omnipaque was still in the band, he got misreading. Since it is thicker, omnipaque does not mix with saline, and can not be drawn. This is my conclusion. Is that right. I really had 7cc in the band not 6cc.

Under fluoro, I was able to monitor how the blue stuff (contrast agent) went through the tube up to the band. The other doctor could not draw it up. Is this normal?

Thanks

Dorin

Trace Curry · March 1, 2007

I'm confused, Omnipaque is clear, not blue.