Please help! Infection at port area

[bandlover2009 0]

Dear TJ,

Thank you for the update. Many of us have followed your journey closely. I myself have been worried for you and prayed for you a lot. I am so happy you posted to let us know how well you are now doing. I wish you all the best health and happiness from here on out. Good luck with your weight loss efforts, I know you can do it without the band!

Take care and God Bless you and your family,

Marcy :drool:

[peaches9 3]

Dear TJ... I am so happy to hear you are recovering well now.. You have been thru HELL and then some. Best wishes for a healthy and happy future...

[TJWOOD 0]

I'm not sure if anyone follows this thread any longer, but here is an update.

It is August '09 and I am almost 3 months post-op from my second surgery. In 2 weeks, it will be a year since my Lap Band surgery. In May, fevers returned, more abscesses formed and Ct scans showed that the mycobacterium infection had returned with a vengeance. Apparently, the first hospital and former doctor (my Lap Band surgeon) did not treat this infection thoroughly. I should have been on antibiotics (mainly IV) for many months. Instead, they had be on AB's for 2 weeks. In May, my new surgeon at the mayo Clinic had to perform another exploratory laparotomy. They had to open me up again to "debride" or cut away all the infected tissues. Another hole developed on my stomach and fortunately that was closed with staples. No feeding tube this time. I did have more drains put in though. I was in the hospital for a week and then sent home with a PICC line for IV antibiotics. After a month, the PICC line was removed and I switched over to oral AB's. I will need to be on these for 6 months. Unfortunately these AB's cost $200/month (after my copay). The infectious disease department at the Mayo Clinic concluded that the particular species of the mycobacterium infection I had was extremely rare. So rare that there has only been one other case recorded in medical literature. It is suspected that this infection came from unsterile surgical equipment. Regardless, I wish my lap band doctor would have taken me seriously early on. His lack of cultures and tests allowed the infection to spread. The blood tests early on (from last September's ER visit) showed an alarming white blood count. The doctor missed this, as well. The total hospital bills/medical costs to-date are almost $400,000! Luckily the insurance company picked up most of it. I have paid about $45,000 out of pocket including the initial Lap Band surgery.

I do believe I am finally on the road to recovery. I feel great and all my wounds have closed up. No more bandages for the first time in many months. Scars are numerous and will take years to heal, but I can handle that. From the multiple surgeries, I lost all nerve sensation in the majority of my abdomen. Some of that may return, but not likely. I gained a few lbs back, but for the most part I am staying on track. In conclusion, the lesson I learned is that risks of weight loss surgeries really need to be considered and weighed (no pun intended) against the risk of not doing the surgery. I truly believe weight loss surgeries should be the last resort. In my particular case, I was very overweight at 290#, but otherwise healthy. I should have been more vigilant in diet and exercise before resorting to the Lap Band. I hope my story helps.

Edited August 5, 2009 by TJWOOD

[peaches9 3]

Yes T.J., I have been following your posts... You certainly are a brave one!

Will you be able to sue the Lapband doctor who messed up your case so badly? $400,000 is a ton of money... thank goodness for your insurance. But I'd be wanting to get my $45,000 back from the Lapband Dr.!!!

All bitterness aside, I am very glad you are on the road to recovery...

HUGS, Peaches

[katers 0]

I am so glad you have updated us. I was wondering whatever happened. I am glad you are healing.... although slowly. Please keep us posted on how you are doing.

[Opticblue 0]

After reading some of the posts here I thought I would post what has just happened with my whole LB experience.

I was banded on 10/16/2009; had a non eventful recovery and although the band was empty still had enough restriction from the swelling that I continued to loose weight and all was going well with one exception, the gas. It was horrible, didn't matter what I ate, how slow or how much I chewed I would have such painful gas that I began to truly think something was wrong. GasX helped a little as did walking around stretching but it never really went away.

My first fill occurred 11/13/2009; it too was uneventful, seemed to have gone right until a few days later I noticed I wasn't really hungry at all in the mornings and that I had this dull ache that ran from just below my left rib cage diagonally downward across my abdomen to just under my right rib cage. First thought was that the cold meds I took had irritated my stomach. Then on Saturday 11/21 I woke up, wasn't hungry again but felt "sick." Then at 10:30 A.M. the most agonizing pain hit my abdomen and nearly took me to the floor, it knocked the wind out of me and within minutes I was on my way to emergency.

In emergency they contacted my surgeon and he ordered that the band be deflated, upon doing that I had almost complete reliefe of the pain minus the cramping and spasms I was having with position changes. They started me on IV Antibiotics as they were concerned there was possibly infection at the band site. I was kept in the hospital until the following Tuesday 11/24 when they released me on oral antibiotics -I had been able to drink fluids and eat very soft foods without problems. Despite feeling better I had this sensation that there was something between my breast bones that felt like it had a "hold" of me, Im sure it was the band but it wasnt too bad and seemed to fade with movement.

By Wednesday morning I was back in Emergency with the exact same pain that had started it all and elevated temps of 101-103. This time they wasted no time and took me to surgury and found several different things:

1. Contaminated stitching used in original surgery -recovered and sent off for testing.

2. Large abcess that had filled abdomen with pus and then somehow found its way into the bloodstream, blood cultures later revealed I was septic from the infection.

The band was removed and also sent off for testing and examination.

I am home now, still on pretty powerful antibiotics to deal with the sepsis, I have two jackson-pratt drains from my abdomen which are still draining pus and other tissue from my abdomen.

With the band out I feel 100% better despite the other complications I am dealing with, I'm just glad it is out and I am on my way to recovery.