Off the wall questions

[Guest USMC23]

I was curious if anyone would know if blood in the saline solutions inside the band would hurt the band with time? Thanks!

[sharona 2]

there is no blood in the saline solutions...you need to find a good video on the lapband procedure...its only saline

[Guest USMC23]

Thanks for your respons actually I should have asked differently, I do my own fills and this last one I got a little blood in the syringe mixed with the saline and I wasnt sure if it would make a difference.

[tarrn13 1]

what made you decide to do your own fills? I don't think a little blood would hurt the band but I might just take all the saline out, discard it and start fresh by reinjecting the volume you discard.

[Guest USMC23]

well it was a combination of things, but mainly I wanted to be able to control how tight i wanted to be. I had surgery feb 23rd 07 and it took me eight fills to get to 8.5 and I liked where I was then. After time passed i decided i wanted to get prego and got a complete unfill but when I asked the doc if he would put me back where I was at 8.5 after it was over he said it would take the same number of times to get back to the 8.5. I just thought that was silly. I understand maybe doing a few cc's at a time but not just one. So I got what I needed and did my own. Everything went just fine and I can control it as I need. I just had gotten a little blood in the saline when I missed the port and tried to draw back, then I hit the port and flushed it and filled but I noticed it was pink from the blood so i was just curious if I did need to refill with new saline.

[Turler 6]

Oh my. Does your doctor approve of you doing your own fills? Have you been trained? Did your doctor teach you? This is unusual. Have you been following up with him/her? Do you get x-rays from time to time to check the band?

Sorry for all the questions. It's very unusual for someone to do their own. There is a lot of liabilty involved. If anything were to go wrong, would your doctor assume responsibility for that? Have you called your doctor to ask him/her about the blood in the band or saline? (Another good reason to have proper training).

There have been a few threads about this you many want to read.

~C

[Guest USMC23]

Nope my doctor has no idea and I understand that with insurance and everything that I am taking a huge risk. I just felt I had no choice. My partner is a nurse and she helped coach me when it came to the needles and everything. I also did a lot of research before I made my decision. Did you know there are even you tube videos on fills lol I didn't mean to start a huge up roar i just didn't know if anyone had any idea about the question. I am assuming if there is any problems I can just unfill and refill with pure saline. I don't recommend this to anyone it was definitely a personal choice. Thanks for everyone’s input though :biggrin2:

[tarrn13 1]

hey usmc23, I was only curious about why you decided to do your own, I am an N-ICU nurse and had planned to do my own too, figuring that since I was a self pay in mexico, insurance and liability blah blah blah... but then I went for my first fill and the way my port is postioned is slightly angled and my doc ( who has been in bariatrics for 38 or so years) had a bit of a hard time finding where to stick so I have opted to just keep going to him although I would really like to be able to do my own too. Like I said before, just discard the saline and do a complete refill, and it should be fine.

[Guest USMC23]

First off I just want to say thank you for taking care of those sick little ones, my partner starts in June St louis childrens NICU and and as proud of her as I am I know it is not the easiest work to do. Anyway, I decided to do my own because my port is easy to hit and I have a high tolerance for pain. It really wasn't bad at all and I just feel better knowing that I don't have to go through such a process just to use this tool for weight loss. It took a year for me to get up to the fill amount I needed because of the process the docs have to go through. Now if I need a fill or an unfill it takes me two seconds and I am done. So after a year of shame from not losing any weight I am finally losing and I am happy. I know it is a big risk because of insurance and I know I could have damaged my port by not using the special huber needle, but I am sure everyone will understand how desperate you can get when you face a life of being over weight. There is a point where you take a chance, I mean we all took a chance by getting surgery in the first place. I am not recommending this for others, I did a lot of research and had medically trained people around me to help.

Thanks!

[Brian 2]

Greetings, interesting topic. My doctor told our group that he didn't want anyone messing with the port, (especiallly the nurses! ha) Of the 500+ LB he has installed, he mentioned that one had to come out later because a nurse was putting in her own fills and got an infection. (I don't know details). Soooo, like others said, withdraw the tainted fill and put in new NS; I think that would be about all you could do. As to the specific question, platelets will clot and whole blood is a medium for bacterial growth, but to clinical relevance, don't know. When I get my LB, I plan on letting them do everything, because I fear that I don't trust myself. That may be the bigger issue. good luck.