As you probably know if you are looking at my page, I had my surgery in June 2006 in Houston, TX. I am 15 lbs from goal, feeling great, have not had a single problem besides one unfill when I was too tight awhile back. I have had this same fill (I was at abt 1.8 ccs) for a whole month and have been totally fine.

Well, Friday morning I woke up for work and tried to drink my morning hot tea as I do every day. I drank three sips and was massively uncomfortable, and suddenly it came RIGHT BACK UP. So, I thought, Maybe I am swollen, and decided to try some liquid tylenol. Same thing. I went to work nervous, but tried not to think about it. Throughout the day, I tried to drink water, to no avail - I had horrible burning and pain whenever I tried to drink! So, I called my brother (a bariatric surgeon), and he said to call the surgeon here in Columbus that i had been seeing for fills (Dr. Bradley Needleman). I called Dr. Needleman's office, and the nurse said he was out but that I should head to the ER.

At the ER, I spent 4 hours in the waiting room. Finally they take me back and seem clueless, don't even know what a band is. So, I tell them, I need an Upper GI and a bag of fluids, and ibuprofin or tylenol for the swelling, and a surgeon that can remove my fill with a 20 gauge Huber needle. They look at me like I'm crazy. Eventually i go to get the upper GI, and the radiologist is like, Hmmm, i haven't used this machine in awhile. Then he tells me to "take a big gulp" of the contrast. Helloooo, I cant even take a big gulp NORMALLY, how am I going to do it now? So, I did, he sees the band is correctly in place but very narrow and lots of reflux. Ten minutes later (longest I could hold it down), all that nasty contrast came right back up. YECHHHHH. Another 4 hours waiting (my bed was in the hallway, btw, not a room), and no one has talked to me or helped me. No surgeon, no ER attending, nothing. I ask to disconnect my IV, leave AMA, and cry myself to sleep at home. My wonderful father (also a bariatric surgeon, though he specializes in RNY) called the director of the bariatric surgery program at Ohio State, who said that the on call surgeon who knows how to do fills would see me on Saturday when I come back to the ER, and that he would be able to help me.

Saturday morning I am still unable to take a sip of hot tea without major discomfort. I call the on-call surgeon, and I then arrive at the ER AGAIN. This time I wait only 1.5 hours before I go back, and I actually get a room. The surgeon comes an hour later - meanwhile, I have asked 3 times to be given fluids since i have not had anything to eat or drink in more than 30 hours, but they won't do it until the surgeon sees me. The surgeon says he has worked with Dr. Needleman and "helped' with fills - meaning he likely has never done it. This guy stuck me over 6 times trying to get at my port to take my fill out. It hurt like hell, and he clearly didn't know what he was doing. The guy tells me he thinks maybe the port is twisted or broken, but REFUSES to do it under fluoro - I have no idea why. It is now 4pm, another 4 hours at the ER. He tells me he will admit me until Monday so I can get fluids, and then the other surgeon will come and see me and I may need surgery. I call my dad, who says, GET ON A PLANE TO HOUSTON RIGHT NOW. I call the airlines and use all my miles to fly home. At 4pm I have them disconnect my IV and leave AMA yet again, and by 5:30pm I am on a plane. No food or drink for 48 hours, but I did manage to get half a bag of fluids at the hospital, and my dad made them give me Toradol to see if it would help the swelling.

I get off the plane at 7:45 pm, and my dad drives me straight to his hospital. My brother is waiting for me. He takes me right to the fluoro machine, marvels at the million pokes and brusie on my port, and uses the fluoro to access my port in, yes, ONE try. He takes all the fluid out, gives me a glass of water, and I drank it down with ease, and then another. It took my brother less than 5 minutes to accomplish what took the Ohio State Idiots more than 12 hours to NOT accomplish.

I am BEYOND pissed off. I cannot believe that Ohio State, which has a specialty center in bariatric surgery, did not have a single person that was trained in doing a fill/unfill on call. It amazes me, and is compeltely irresponsible. I am shocked at the incompetence in that hospital, the poor way that I was treated (i haven't even gotten into that here), and the poor training of the medical professionals. I am shocked that my surgeon here was unavailable and had NO ONE to manage an emergency with one of his patients. I am SO THANKFUL to have such an amazing father and brother that were here to be of help to me, as they are to all of their patients. My brother told me he had a patient on Friday afternoon who had the same problem - she came in to the office, he unfilled her, and she was gone in less than 30 minutes.

One interesting side note... TLC is filming a 13 episode reality show about my amazing dad and brother surgeons and their bariatric surgery practice. It will start airng in June (and I will keep you all updated of course!!!). They were around taping for all of this drama, so they were there, and it will likely be on TV this summer! Pretty crazy.

I am feeling great now. I have been eating and drinking fine all day, no pain, no soreness (except around the port where I was poked 100 times!). We have no idea what caused all of this, but I will probably keep the band empty and let myself heal for a few weeks. I also need to find a new surgeon here in Columbus to do my fills -not a chance in hell I'll go back to Needlman.

FOR THE RECORD: This may have been the weekend from hell, but I would absolutely never regret getting this band - it has changed my life and I cherish it greatly. It was a mess of a weekend, but more because of the lack of proper care than because of my precious band!