Erosion or NOT??

[christy668 1]

Ok all Im new to your site but need all the help i can get! I went for my first fill on friday and watched as the barium passed right by my band!! they filled me completly up and we redid the baruim...again it ran right passed it as if my band was opened.

The doc says he thinks its eroded but ive only had it one month..doc who did the surgery says its not eroded but has no clue why it did that...we are talking of doing a Endo scope this week....

Has anyone ever heard of the band being OPEN? I have pics of my xray attatched to this.

Please any input you guys have will be apreciated!!

Thanks!

christy;)

[New Hope 37]

Christy, I'm not familiar with erosions. But I did want to encourage you to get "to the bottom of this". I hope that you will receive good news. Best of luck to you!

[Banded14yr 2]

I've never heard of this, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't happen.

Good thing you're going for a scope. Hopefully that will get you the answers that you need.

I hope all turns out well!!

Please keep in touch on how everything goes, and hang in there!

Tricia

[leatha_g 4]

Originally posted by CB864

Ok all Im new to your site but need all the help i can get! I went for my first fill on friday and watched as the barium passed right by my band!! they filled me completly up and we redid the baruim...again it ran right passed it as if my band was opened.

The doc says he thinks its eroded but ive only had it one month..doc who did the surgery says its not eroded but has no clue why it did that...we are talking of doing a Endo scope this week....

Has anyone ever heard of the band being OPEN? I have pics of my xray attatched to this.

Please any input you guys have will be apreciated!!

Thanks!

christy;)

Christy,

Hello and welcome. This appears to be from Dr. Dobson. in Arlington, right?

Personally - after my experience with him. I would not allow myself to be too alarmed and I would get myself a second opinion. The barium will go through the band, that's not a problem. But, if he had done a fill, maybe he missed? His technique for fills definitely leaves something to be desired.

In my case (and I also posted my film here) he way overfilled me, but when there was plainly pouch dilation/possible slippage he didn't seem to know enough to leave the band un-filled. It's absolutely a no-no to fill a band that has pouch dilitation or slippage. I found him to be way over confident in himself and lacking the knowledge to even know what he was seeing on film. Scary, scary, scary. I would not even worry about it until you can find someone who knows what they are looking at .. The Band appears to be in place, to me, but I'm not a qualified medical person. If there is no fill or little fill, of course the barium will flow through. Even after a fill, you want to be sure the barium will go through, you just want the volume restricted so it would become a trickle or something slightly larger.

I have heard of one case on Smartbandsters where someone else seemed to have an 'open' band. I'll see if I can relocate that info for you.

Just my opinion. But I say if the man can't read the films, he should not be doing these fills.

[Penni60 45]

I am not qualified to read these films at all but just looking at the films it appears the band is doing what it is supposed to do. I can see restriction, I can see the barium flow through into the pouch, I can see it clearly. I don't know what you mean by an OPEN band??? IF you mean the band is not around the stomach like it is supposed to be then you would not see the slight restriction on the films. If you mean the band has no fill and no restriction then to me that is not evident on these films. Again I stress I am not trained in reading these films but I do see some restricted flow of barium. To me that implies there is a band in place and doing it's job.

I would highly encourage you to take the films to another radiologist and get a second opinion that knows what they are looking at. Also get the endo done pronto. If it is erosion then that needs to be dealt with soon. How much of a fill did the doc put in? Did you feel any restriction with that fill while drinking the barium?

It is so important to have a qualified person that deals with our lap bands regularly to know how to treat us properly. We all have to be proactive and not just take their word as gospel when it comes to our health and the health of our bands. Always always get copies of your results like this.

Hope this helps

[Banded14yr 2]

I'm very glad to read all of this. First of all, it's very informative, secondly, I was seriously considering flying to Dallas to have Dr. Dobson perform my fills. This is the second negative thing that I've heard about him.

He won't be hearing from me now.

[leatha_g 4]

Penni,

This guy has you lay on a table while he arbitrarily injects saline into your port. THEN - he has you get up and walk over to a free standing flouro and takes the film and has you drink. He does not watch his fill as he injects it on the flouro. I found him to be very over-confident and he stood there and said to me that it appeared I had pouch dilation, but never once said a thing about taking the fill out and having it checked or coming back later. He absolutely had no idea what he was seeing. Dr. Maese nearly had a coronary and said it was plainly slippage.

This is what is happening to people who get their bands elsewhere and are not able to get local care. This guy is plainly an opportunist. If he is going to be doing fills, he should be knowledgeable enough to read the film and provide some sort of resolution, ie - take the fill out, refer someone for an EGD, adjust the fill onscreen, so he can see what it's doing before he takes the darn needle out. That's why it's called 'adjustment'. You don't just decide because it's a day that ends in Y that Ms SoAndSo needs 2.0 fill. It just don't work that way..

I'll get off my box now..

[Banded14yr 2]

I agree

This is one disadvantage (and a pretty big one) of having the surgery in Mexico. There is always the after care issue and fill issues.

I'm totally satisfied with my surgeon, but if I could have had the surgery locally I would have just for ease of aftercare and fills.

I have found a couple doctors in my area that will do my fills for me, even with the Swedish band. They both use fluroscopy, which I would require.

At this point, for me anyway, flying back to Mexico was no big deal. So I'll probably go there for my future fills.

I didn't realize that there were different ways of doing an adjustment using fluroscopy. I layed on a table while Dr. Rodriguez was able to fill me while seeing it all on the screen, then the whole bloomid table moved and put me in an almost vertical position. He then viewed the monitor as he had me swallow barium. After taking about 4 swallows, he then had me sip some Water. The first sip did not go down, and he could see that. He told me to wait, then removed some of the fill. I was then able to drink without any problems.

The whole procedure was so interesting.

[New Hope 37]

Wow, that Dr. needs to be run out of town! I bet he charges for a Fluro fill too!

CB864, best of luck to you in finding out what the problem is AND in finding a competent Dr.

[leatha_g 4]

That is the best way, to me, Tricia. If you can see what you are doing onscreen - real time, then you can back it off as the person swallows.

I had the greatest guy in San Fran. He would take everything out to begin with - to see what was in there. Then, he would basically close me completely off, then back it off until he could see that I could swallow. Thereby, hopefully getting good restriction but not too much.

[leatha_g 4]

Originally posted by New Hope

Wow, that Dr. needs to be run out of town! I bet he charges for a Fluro fill too!

CB864, best of luck to you in finding out what the problem is AND in finding a competent Dr.

Dr. Dobson charges you $250 for flouro. He then asks that you write two separate checks - one for him, one for the imaging place. Which I can understand, but I just didn't get a good feeling about him.

I saw Dr. Maese 4 weeks later and he completely unfilled me, telling me he had no choice - that I clearly had slippage and this person should have never put ANY Fluid in my band. To be real honest, I still don't really know the whole truth. All I really know is I was doing fine when I went to see him and wound up having to be re-banded after. I am not saying it is anything he did or did not do, but something went very wrong there.

[New Hope 37]

The problem of having to get another fill dr. after our surgery can happen to any of us. If we move, our dr. moves or retires, etc. Hopefully, stringent guide lines can be enforced to prevent and hopefully eliminate "quacks" before someone's health has to be endangered!

Leatha, I'm afraid that is just too much of a coincidence resulting in you having to be rebanded. Let's keep our fingers, eyes, and toes crossed that your current dr. got it right this time!

[leatha_g 4]

Amen to that. lol

[Banded14yr 2]

Originally posted by leatha_g

That is the best way, to me, Tricia. If you can see what you are doing onscreen - real time, then you can back it off as the person swallows.

I had the greatest guy in San Fran. He would take everything out to begin with - to see what was in there. Then, he would basically close me completely off, then back it off until he could see that I could swallow. Thereby, hopefully getting good restriction but not too much.

leatha,

After everything that you've been through, you can't help but wonder if some or all of the complications came from that bad fill.

Again, I was so relieved when I read your post. I'm glad that you're a strong advocate for receiving good aftercare, you're a living example of how important it is.

[DeLarla 22]

You did the right thing by coming here. I had a lot of complications and had to be my own doctor, but I couldn't have done it without all the info shared here. The most important thing (in my opinion) is to get more than one medical opinion. I've been through several doctors, and I'm still in the dark. But keep posting questions here because everyone here has bands and we've all had different band experiences. You're bound to find clues and direction that will eventually lead you to the answer.

I don't feel very mentally sharp today after a long 3-day weekend, so I hope my posts make some sense and aren't offending anyone.... it's just goofy old me in slow-mo.