doctor said my port is too deep to reach to have a fill

[Maya314 0]

Puddin, I'm so proud of your decision to wait a few months, so many things can change between now and then, and if you drop a little weight it might be easier for your Dr to find the port, I think what you're doing is smart.. On the otherhand tho.. didn't you just wanna bonk your Dr on the head and say.. "well you're the one that put it there!" Good Luck Sweetie, we're rooting for you!

[Fanny Adams 7]

My doctor had a bit of trouble finding my port for my first fill. He eventually put a pillow in the middle of my back and had me lay back down and was able to do it. He has asked me to practise abdominal exercises to strengthen my tummy muscles and that this may help when I get my next fill.

Hehe - I see Dr Watson too, and this is exactly what he had me do on my first and second fills :biggrin: On the third one, he managed it without the pillow - yay!

[Jessie Ward 0]

Be careful with the crunches my Dr. just told me that there are 2 atitches holding the port in place and lifting heavy objects or a hard cough and situps can pop the stitches and move the port. Jessie Ward Banded Nov. 14th 2007

[rosforme 0]

called that doctor to come down. I waited for him and he deadened me a third time, but he also had a very difficult time finding the top of the port as I, again, stood in front of a fluoroscope drinking barium. Finally, instead of having me swallow more barium, he told me to swallow my saliva and acted as though he was filling me, but I felt no more restriction than I had when I came in. I followed a liquid diet for the rest of the day, but still felt no restriction. The next day, I felt like I had less restriction than I had the day before the "fill" so to to test it out, I ate minestrone Soup with a small loaf of french bread and had no problem at all. In addition, my port was very swollen for a few days, much more than usual. Since that time, I've been gaining weight because I have very little restriction. I think that the second doctor may have put the saline in my tissues instead of in my port. I'm very upset because Thursday, 4/10/08, was my 1 year anniversary of banding and I weigh 187---I weighed 196 on the day of my surgery last year! I thought I'd be closer to my goal of 100 pounds by now...:-(

I'm new to this journey and this never occurred to me but I would think if you are obese and have large layers of abdominal fat the surgeon would take that into consideration with the placement of the port.......experience would tell him how deep he would need to go ...maybe I'm either new or to apt to suspect but this looks like a way to get more expensive redos, or flouroscopes to charge for. Which is cheaper an office fill or a fluoroscopy fill?

I would contact the insurer of this doctor - if they paid for this fill and report he faked a fill just to get you out the door. Unfortunately, as overweight women and men we are to apt to not fight for ourselves and blame ourselves...as you seemed to be saying because YOU haven't reached your goal - you didn't fake the fill and you didn't implant the port in a place of fatty layers without considering depth - the SURGEON did this .....maybe you should try another surgeon ...i have no experience yet hopefully someone with more experience will be able to suggest a nother doctor who has more integrity.

[skyeblu79 0]

I had a hard time when I tried to initially get my first fill. I went about 7 weeks out of surgery and he could never assess my port.

It took me a while to find someone else and they got it on the first time under fluro.

I had such a bad experience initially that I don't ever want to try a fill again without fluro.

[Fanny Adams 7]

I'm new to this journey and this never occurred to me but I would think if you are obese and have large layers of abdominal fat the surgeon would take that into consideration with the placement of the port.......experience would tell him how deep he would need to go ...maybe I'm either new or to apt to suspect but this looks like a way to get more expensive redos, or flouroscopes to charge for. Which is cheaper an office fill or a fluoroscopy fill?

I would contact the insurer of this doctor - if they paid for this fill and report he faked a fill just to get you out the door. Unfortunately, as overweight women and men we are to apt to not fight for ourselves and blame ourselves...as you seemed to be saying because YOU haven't reached your goal - you didn't fake the fill and you didn't implant the port in a place of fatty layers without considering depth - the SURGEON did this .....maybe you should try another surgeon ...i have no experience yet hopefully someone with more experience will be able to suggest a nother doctor who has more integrity.

I think you'll find that the surgeon has to anchor the port to the abdominal muscles. That means that if you have a certain thickness of fat above the muscles, there's not much he can do to change the "depth" at which the port must sit.

[ssdown 0]

Hi everyone! I just got my first fill last week. I can feel my port quite easily, so I thought that it would be an easy find for my fill nurse. There was some scar tissue that she had to work around. She did finally find it, but I was amazed how long it took! She bumped around the tubing of the port for quite a while (maybe five minutes is all) before finding the center. I thought she was going to damage it, but was told that all of the bumping around was not going into the actual port, just on the plastic tubing. I have seen some posts where some people want to access their port on their own for self-fills. NO WAY!!!!! I also have a bit more restriction, which makes me very happy! SS

[Puddin499 0]

Puddin, I'm so proud of your decision to wait a few months, so many things can change between now and then, and if you drop a little weight it might be easier for your Dr to find the port, I think what you're doing is smart.. On the otherhand tho.. didn't you just wanna bonk your Dr on the head and say.. "well you're the one that put it there!" Good Luck Sweetie, we're rooting for you!

Thanks, Maya! I really appreciate your support on this.

I made an appointment for tomorrow to see my surgeon. I will be discussing with him about my decision. If he feels it's absolutely necessary for me to have the surgery, I will go ahead and just do it. He is an excellent doctor, and it's not his fault he is unable to reach the port. I really need to have the band work for me and start losing this weight! I'm stuck for the moment! :confused:

[lachica39 0]

don't get discouraged ladies, my doc. had me extend my stomach and hold, he also said my port was capsulized (?) which I think is scar tissue. He had to use a longgggg needle.

the second fill went without a hitch, I lost enough sub-cutaneous fat (yahoo!) and he was able to use a regular needle

like Fannymae mentioned. we do have excess fat on our tummy's which will and can interfere with fills

[Daisalana 33]

Vdander: sorry to hear of your difficulties. Hope you can find a resolution to it.

re: "I've been gaining weight because I have very little restriction."

Personally I disagree with the focus of that idea. The means to our goal is restriction; the method is to not over eat; the most common way we gain weight is to eat too much. No disrespect intended.

The reason I comment on this nuance, is that such gives me constant attention to those actions and activities which I can modify to reach my own goal. I don't want to blame the instrument when it is up to me to learn how to play the music.

But keep in mind, we had the band for a reason! :biggrin: