My night in Hell...

DLW · April 11, 2008

I must tell you all that I went to the emergency room the other night, Wed the 9th after a 1 cc fill on the 8th. My fill took me from 6.5cc to 7.5cc's in a 10cc band. I had had this much in my band before and it seemed to be fine.

I went in for a fill because I felt like I was eating too much and hadn't lost any weight in 3 weeks. When he withdrew the Fluid there was only 6.5 cc's in it. He said that sometimes the body absorbs the fluid and they are not sure as to why that happens but it does. He said that there is no leaks and not to be concerned about that.

Anyway... the next day I could barely get down 3/4 of a can of slim fast and about 2 ounces of Water. I got home that night from work and wanted some Tomato Soup (made with water). I had about 2 tablespoons and couldn't do anymore. I then started sliming. I couldn't keep anything down including my saliva. It would foam up when I burped and when I swallowed it would have air bubbles in the saliva and build up in my pouch, I'd get a terrible baseball sized air pocket feeling in my chest, then burp with the saliva coming up like foam. Yuck. It really, really hurt.

I ended up having to go to the emergency room which was 45 minutes away. So with bucket in hand my husband drove me to the hospital. All I needed mind you was some fluid taken out.

I got there and had to sit in the waiting room with several other people - looking at me with my bucket in hand, foaming and spitting into it.

My name was called and off to see a doc I went. Waiting....waiting...waiting... in that cubicle of a room, curtain half drawn. Finally the doc comes in and I'm thinking... there's no way in hell I'm going to let this man try to attempt to take any fluid from my port....which by the way was tilted sideways.

The staff and doctor really didn't have a clue as to how or even what the lapband was. I had them call my doctors office. Around 2 in the morning my surgeon's associate came in. He tried and tried and tried and tried to draw some fluid from my port but couldn't. Thank God for novocaine!! He had a nurse bring in an ultra sound machine to see if he could find where to insert the needle. Guess what? No one knew how to run the machine. They just pushed button after button after button until it worked. He rolled it over my port and tried again. I've had about 6 novocain injections by now.

My husband had a fit. He said, "If you don't know what you're doing then don't you think you should stop"? It must have been a terrible sight for him to see. Laying down and having him pushing and poking on my port wasn't so wonderful either. I had to sit up many times to spew the phlem. He couldn't do anything for me and said,l "in the morning we'll have to get an ultrasound done to find exactly where to insert the needle". (He's new to this lapband world). Good surgeon but not very helpful for my issue.

All I wanted was my "own" doctor. The one I go to for fills and the doctor who did my surgery and knew that the port was twisted. Soooo.. there I was all night long in distress, retching and spitting and vomiting, no sleep, no rest, no blanket, no pillow. Very sad and depressed. And to know that it would only take my doctor 2 minutes to help me. Stunk.

In the morning, at change of nurses shift a really nice older nurse came in to see me. I told her, I need to have my own doctor come and help me. Can you pleeease help me. She said that she would try to track him down. And you know what??? SHE DID!!! Oh, happy day!! When is he coming, when is he coming I say. She said that he said to tell me that he would be there soon. SOON?? When will that be? It's 8:00am.

Well bless his heart he came in within 45 minutes. He had had the nurse have the needles, novocaine and syringes ready. He took out about 1 cc and had me sit up to try to drink. I was petrified to even swallow any water since after all, I was spitting all night long to avoid anything going in my pouch. I took a sip.... then another tiny, tiny sip. I could still feel it in my throat. You know like you have to burp kinda feeling? He had me lay down to take out some more. I told him to just suck it all out. I don't mind starting over from the get go. So he did. He left in 2cc's.

It was an immediate relief!! Oh, thank God, thank God!! I love this man! I said, "you can never leave me". He is a wonderful doctor and he knows his stuff. He said that he'll have to teach his nurse practioner how to fill and unfill my port. It's tricky. Not to mention that maybe his associate should maybe come in 1 or 2 times for my next fills to see exactly what he would have to do in order to get into my port correctly.

My husband came to pick me up.. (he went home at 2:00 to get like 3 hours of sleep before having to go to work).

He drove me home and I crashed out for about 4 hours. I was totally exhausted from this experience. Mentally as well as physically. I'm still feeling the effects of the retching this morning in my shoulders, chest and throat but feel almost 100% better lapband wise.

Soo... I'm so sorry about being so graphic and long but just wanted to vent and voice my most resent episode. I want this lapband to work for me but I surely cannot go through Hell in order to accomplish it. I won't really. I've decided that. I have lost 27 pounds since Nov. 5th and feel wonderful. I would like to lose another 50 and really hope that I do.

My doc and I decided to take this very slowly going forward. I go back to see him on the 23rd for my "first" new fill. I'm really hoping to not gain any weight before then. I'm going to try to follow how I have been eating for the past couple of months. Just try to stay conscious about it. Thanks Alex for allowing us to post even our not so good experiences.

Dianne

snuffy65 · April 11, 2008

Just curious. Is your Doctor planning on fixing the port? what will happen if you aren't in town when this happens?

juliegeraci · April 11, 2008

Dianne, what a whirlwind! I am so glad you finally were able to get your doctor to resolve for you. You would think by now there would be more experts around the band, especially in the ER. I am so glad you are okay!

DLW · April 14, 2008

Snuffy65, you know I don't know what would happen if I'm out of town. I imagine though that it would be a problem for all of us. What if all the ER's are not up to snuff with the band and how to fill and unfill it. I don't think that the ER I went to is an exception. I think that we should really be concerned about these things. The "what if's" so to speak.

As for fixing the port?? I'm going to ask him when I see him again on the 23rd. I'm not sure what he'll say about that. Maybe it would be a quick fix? We'll see.

Thank you Julie for the well wish. I'm okay now but only have the 2cc's in the band. I really want to go slow with the fills though. It's really a scary thing now to me. :-( Good luck to everyone, Dianne