Port Worked its Way OUT of my Body

[Deannaintx 0]

This happen to anyone else? :confused:

The full story is in my bio, but yes, one morning I woke up and I could see my port sticking halfway out of my abdomen. (shades of Alien, lol)!

Long Story Short: I no longer have a port, nor half the tube, but since it decided to give back, after it finally closed up & let me have 1 month of normal living, I came down with a major infection and no way to fix it. This short story has been going on for over 6 months now.

My original dr is 1300 miles from here and not practicing. I do know another doc in Mexico who might be able to remove it for 3-4 k, but I no longer have any place to stay there and don't have 3-4 k either, lol.

I'm not working, but my roommate does and we'd have to count her income as mine, so I can't qualify for any medical help.

Anyone have creative ideas?

[HappyHomeCC 2]

All I can say is WoW ... I have no suggestions as I have no clue. I can say however you look "fabulous darling"

and you are one tough chick!

I hope you find a solution and someone who can help you.

[jms462001 9]

This happen to anyone else? :Yawn:

The full story is in my bio, but yes, one morning I woke up and I could see my port sticking halfway out of my abdomen. (shades of Alien, lol)!

Long Story Short: I no longer have a port, nor half the tube, but since it decided to give back, after it finally closed up & let me have 1 month of normal living, I came down with a major infection and no way to fix it. This short story has been going on for over 6 months now.

My original dr is 1300 miles from here and not practicing. I do know another doc in Mexico who might be able to remove it for 3-4 k, but I no longer have any place to stay there and don't have 3-4 k either, lol.

I'm not working, but my roommate does and we'd have to count her income as mine, so I can't qualify for any medical help.

Anyone have creative ideas? :laugh:

Where do you live? You may need to have the roommate move out for awhile until you can get on your state's health plan. That sounds horrible and very serious. I can't believe they didn't just get it out of you while you were at the hospital.

[vickie6866 4]

I am so sorry to hear about your problems. I too have had a lot of problems with my mexico placed band. I have insurance but it will not cover lap band placement and only $5000 lifetime max for complications, but all docs here at home want a $1000 cash program starting fee then the money I have with insurance would cover at best one procedure. So I have spent a lot of money running back & forth to mexico for these complications. I now as we speech am waiting to hear from Dr. Gonzalez to see if he will help with this new problem. I have had one hell of a year because I have spent most of it recovering from these complications. See my newest post for details. Hang in there it will workout some way.

[Deannaintx 0]

Sorry that I've been MIA for so long, but I had a rough road there for a few months.

Turns out that the reason the port worked its way out is because I had bumped up against a piece of furniture and the port scratched my intestine and eventually caused a fistula which made the skin open up and the port came through that opening. The fistula then stayed open for months. During that time, the infection worked its way up the saline tube to the band itself and caused the band to migrate into my stomach.

When I finally got down to Mexico after exhausting every attempt at medical care here, they took an xray and saw the perforated intestine and the band inside my stomach.

They did an endoscopy and found that half of the band was now inside my stomach. I was rushed into surgery and the fistula track was repaired, the band was removed from my stomach and a gastrostomy was inserted to allow the stomach to heal. That will remain in place for six weeks. It's quite painful.

The doc in Mexico told me that if the ER docs here had done a simple xray it would have been quite obvious what was wrong, which is exactly why they didn't do one. They were sending me home to die. It will be a long, long time before I ever trust another American doctor. They play the defensive medicine game and give substandard care to the indigent and uninsured.

The ER doc covered his butt from a malpractice claim by referring me to a surgeon, even though I told him that that surgeon had refused to see me previously and that I had no insurance and no money to pay him. He deliberately avoided doing even the most basic tests so that the county wouldn't have to treat me. They didn't care if I died or not, treating my condition would have cost them money and that's all they care about.

I strongly suspect that the doctor in that ER knew that I was in very bad shape and he wanted nothing to do with it.

I'm so sorry that I didn't go down to Mexico when the port first started giving me trouble. It would have been a much simpler surgery and I wouldn't have had a perforated stomach. I would have been in and out in about 3 days. I spent a total of 10 days in the hospital and I really should have stayed longer, but the bill was getting too high and I had to get home.

10 days in the hospital, two surgies, an endoscopy, xrays, labs, two visits a day from my surgeon and a goodly amount of pain medications cost a total of almost 5k dollars. Here it would have been around 30K.

That lap band is the biggest regret of my life. It robbed me of my health for almost a year and it's not over yet. I had finally lost weight, I was in a size 8 and exercising when this all happened. In the 7 months I sat on my butt deaing with this problem, I gained back 50 pounds.

As soon as the gastrostomy is out of me in January, I'm going right back to my no simple carbs way of eating and I'll lose it again.

Having the band gone is good, at least now I don't have the pain of food getting 'stuck' or waiting for it to pass the band. The band did nothing for me, nothing good at least.

I wish I could tell my story to anyone considering this surgery.

I hope you get your band complications worked out. I would suggest that you have it removed, but it doesn't seem that you want that option.

I'm so glad mine's gone and maybe by mid-January I'll be pretty much back to normal, just with a new 4 inch long scar on my belly, along with the scar from the penrose drain and the gastrosmy tube. Scars are no big deal. The pain from the surgery was, but at least I was in Mexico, so I got strong enough pain meds to make it bearable. Here they would have given me Ibuprofen and watched me cry from the pain.

Can you tell that I resent American doctors? The one who removed a hernia last year gave me tylenol after surgery. I gritted my teeth and cried silently until the nurse anestetist took pity on me and gave me a shot of dilaudid. My surgeon would have left me suffering. And back then, I did have insurance. Doctors here just let people suffer for no reason at all. As IF I would have become an addict from one pain shot. What creeps.

[vickie6866 4]

I am glad to hear that you have final gotten your problem taken care of and are now on the way to a complete recovery. I have had a lot of complications with my lap band but you are right I am not ready to given up on it, at least not just yet. I am now seeing a doctor about and hour drive away cause running back and forth to mexico wasn't working for me. With some extra help and working the system I am finally getting this care covered through my workplace insurance.

[Nycfw 1]

I notice that everyone who had a problem said they got they lapbad put in: in mexico that to me seems to solve the whole problem I know this surgery didnt develop in the USA but I would never go to mexico for any thing u can bearly drink the Water out there..I hear stories all the time about surgeries going wrong and at then end of the story its always a mexican doctor holding the scaple,, I think maybe if you got the surgery out here you wouldn't have had the problems you had.. not being judgmental.. just putting in my 2cents

[vickie6866 4]

I had a Mexico placed band that I have had numerous problems with. I am now seeing a USA doctor and guess what he gives the same type of care, if not less. I can't say if he placed it if the outcome would have been any different. If anything the US doc drags his feet more on care than the Mexico doc, and for the record I would much prefer Mexico doc for follow up care, but at this point not cost effective due to travel and all that comes with it. I think there is good and bad with doctors anywhere and not everyone is lucky to not have problems with their lap band. If you have the band long enough I think everyone will have some form of problems whether they be small or large scale.< /p>

[Nycfw 1]

I had a Mexico placed band that I have had numerous problems with. I am now seeing a USA doctor and guess what he gives the same type of care, if not less. I can't say if he placed it if the outcome would have been any different. If anything the US doc drags his feet more on care than the Mexico doc, and for the record I would much prefer Mexico doc for follow up care, but at this point not cost effective due to travel and all that comes with it. I think there is good and bad with doctors anywhere and not everyone is lucky to not have problems with their LAP-BAND®. If you have the band long enough I think everyone will have some form of problems whether they be small or large scale.

But I read people paid 6000 7000 plus more to travle back and fourth to mexico for upkeep in mexico but why not sign up for health insurance and pay like 200$ a month to have health insurance that will pay for the surgery I really don't understand the logic if someone can get 8000 9000 plus more when needed to go back and fourth to mexico why can't that be use towards health insurance that would cover the procedure and be more safer.

[comedygirl24 0]

But I read people paid 6000 7000 plus more to travle back and fourth to Mexico for upkeep in mexico but why not sign up for health insurance and pay like 200$ a month to have health insurance that will pay for the surgery I really don't understand the logic if someone can get 8000 9000 plus more when needed to go back and fourth to mexico why can't that be use towards health insurance that would cover the procedure and be more safer.

Couldn't agree more...

[Nycfw 1]

Couldn't agree more... :biggrin:

Ok cause I was begining to think maybe i was thinking to far out the box lol

[vickie6866 4]

I had regular follow up of my band here at home but went back to Mexico in the past for major problems cause I prefered the doc there, and it was free so cost was about the same. I do have private insurance but it will not pay for the lap band at all so that was the reason I was a self pay.

[ParrotheadCathy 0]

The plain and simple side of this, which nobody has commented on is that your doctor was at fault. With the Lap Band AP, the port is to be stitched to muscle. With the Realize Band, the port has metal crimps which are attached to muscle.

If your port actually became dislodged and migrated out through the incision, you appear to have grounds for a lawsuit against the doctor. Whatever you recover should MORE than cover the cost of new surgery/revision, port replacement.......

Even is he is no longer in active practice, he was when he did your surgery and he had medical malpractice insurance at the time. I urge you to consult a lawyer.

[nkara 0]

I'm so sorry people are having trouble with their band.

There are risk's and complications with any surgery especially with putting a foreign object in your body.

I went into this surgery after researching it and all of the complications I might possibly face but found in the long run it was worth it.

My one question is - is this possible to happen if you just fall? I mean I'm a klutz and I don't want to worry about falling and having my port be damaged or my band for that matter. :biggrin: